Lay the smoked paper on a table and then press the palm of your hand flat down on it; you must be careful not to press your fingers down too hard or the sharpness of the fine lines will be destroyed. To get a clear impression of the lines in the hollow of your hand press down on the back of it with the fingers of your other hand.
After you have made the print, as the impression is called, pour on some flint varnish, which is the kind that photographers use to cover the films of glass negatives. You can buy it at any photo supply house.
Pour a teaspoonful on one corner of the paper and let it flow down and across until the whole surface is evenly covered. As this is a genuine carbon process the prints cannot fade and they will last as long as the paper lasts. A print of this kind made by the author 18 years ago is shown in [Fig. 53].
The Ancient and Honored Art of Cutting Silhouettes.
—Since you are of the younger generation let me tell you just what a silhouette is, and why.
It is a profile, or side view, of the head of a person cut out of black paper and mounted on a white card, or else cut out of white paper with a piece of black silk back of it so that it looks like a shadow in miniature of the sitter.
It was so called after M. de Silhouette, a French Minister of Finance in 1759; his rigid economy in the conduct of his office caused his name to be tacked on to everything cheap and as photography had not yet been discovered and painted portraits were costly, the paper outlines filled in with black were the cheapest substitute known and hence the name.
But as the years rolled by silhouettes became a dignified and honored art and so when our great grandfather and grandmother wanted to have their pictures made—not taken—they went to a shears and paste artist who cut out their silhouettes.
Fig. 54. silhouettes of your great-grand-pa and great-grand-ma (when they were young)