The Space Where a Pirouette Meets a Silhouette

When I was a kid, my parents had a few cut-paper shadow portraits hanging on the walls of me and my brother. Little did I know then that we were following the lineage started by Louis XV! His finance minister was famous for frugality, someone who didn't think money should be wasted on fancy portrait paintings. As history would have it, the minister also had a hobby of making such cut-out portraits as my parents had of me and my brother. The finance minister's name? Why, Étienne de Silhouette, of course. These days parents have many more options than Louis XV did when it comes to capturing their children's portraits. Check out what Tom Beshara is doing over at TurnYourHead.com. Tom calls this a Pirolette -- a cross between a silhouette and a pirouette.

From the Web site: At Turn Your Head, we fill the space between two opposing profiles of your face. By spinning that space into a three dimensional "visage" that follows the outlined silhouettes of your two profiles, we create the "Pirolette". Place the "Pirolette" to your face and it will match your profile. Locate it near a wall and the shadow of the "Pirolette" will be your silhouette. Your profile captured forever in an object of art. An optical illusion of shadow and light, each one unique because it's you!