Silhouette glass

[Paul Williams]

I have posted pictures of silhouette turnings in the past. I am posting this one because I have found a new way to do it without measuring. In the past I arranged two photos of the face such that the foreheads were 3 inches apart and the nose and other features were the distance apart that I wanted for the stem. I drew lines at all of the critical points. Measured with calipers and cut to the dimensions with a parting tool.

Recently I saw a video of a guy using the shadow of his blank against a circle drawing to cut out spheres. I thought that would work for the silhouettes. You need to have a point source of light directly above the lathe. You also need to support your pattern close to the blank or allow for a scale factor. So, I built a little platform over the bed. Cut out the face from my photo and taped the "non-face" part of the photo to the platform. Then you just cut until the shadow of your tool touches the pattern.

If you are having trouble with the silhouette part of this turning the face shows up very nicely on the platform in this photo. These make great gifts for moms and grandmothers.

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[Ted Calver]

Very cool, Paul.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I must try this! Tks much, Paul.

[Paul Williams]

If you do try this I suggest you turn from the forehead to just before the bridge of the nose with tailstock support. Then hollow out the vase or glass and put the tailstock back in place using a filler of some kind to support the open end. Then proceed with the stem.