Dancing Queens

When I first made a sincere push to get my work out to the public, I was taking belly dance lessons with a group of marvelous ladies.  I highly recommend this form of dance for all women!  I never felt so sexy and feminine before!!  It improved my posture AND my state of mind!  I miss it.  When I started focusing on my business, I gave up the lessons until I get myself established.  When my schedule loosens up a bit, I'll start dancing again. 

Some of the first pieces I released were these two pictured below.  I made them for my dance teacher, Lois, to put in her studio with my business cards.  I received lots of complements on them as well as requests for them.  But I decided not to mass produce either, keeping these as one-of-a-kinds for my teacher who I so adore!




Belly Dancer



Sword Dancer

I should point out that my teacher dances with a sword on occasion.  I remember the first time I saw her do it.  I was in complete awe at how she was able to keep her whole body in motion while balancing the sword on her head.  I should mention that I am a mere student and my dance abilities are nowhere close to that undertaking!  :)

The teaching assistant in the class, a brilliant dancer named Becky, recently contacted me to make a piece for her to use as a gift for her step-mother.  I wasn't able to post a picture of the piece on any of my sites until the piece was given because her step-mother views my Facebook page.  However the gift has since been given and I can now post!

 

The image idea came from a tiny picture that Becky sent me of a decal (I believe that's what it originally was) and asked if I could do something similar.  

For these three pieces, the main image is cut out and them mounted on a backing.  Here you see the cat cut out of black and mounted on parchment, with the paper types being reversed for the dancers -- parchment mounted on black. 

But some pieces I do differently -- cutting the image out of what is the top sheet and then mounting it so that the backing paper shows through the cuts, essentially filling in the image.  You'll see that when I post a picture of the commissioned piece I'm currently working on.  It is a tree with leaves that turn to butterflies and take flight.  This piece is for a wedding gift and will have some gold-leafing and calligraphy added to it before completion.  

I'm not aware that either way of making the picture defines it as scherenschnitte.  I was told that scherenschnitte means "scissors cuts."  Therefore, for a piece to be termed Scherenschnitte, it must be cut with scissors.  If a piece is cut with blades, then its just a papercutting.  If anyone out there knows otherwise, please correct me.  I definitely don't want to be spreading incorrect information!  Oh my!