Small Memories of Paris

Yesterday the framer called to let me know that the silhouettes we had cut the last time we were in Paris were matted and framed. Though we have been in Montmartre many times, we have never had any of the sidewalk artists sketch or paint (or, in this case, cut) our portraits. But we were having a particularly nice day, and there weren't too many tourists that day, and the time was right. So we decided to have silhouettes cut, since no matter how old we got and how creased and wrinkled, chances were our silhouettes would remain fairly much the same. I'm not a big fan of having a lot of pictures of myself around - though I would certainly go along with having a Dorian Grey style portrait somewhere in the attic! I don't know why the artists didn't make the two heads more the same scale - but they are what they are! And, as Jon said, when you commission a piece of art for fifty dollars, you get what you pay for. Actually, the images are quite accurate. My hair was longer (I'm on the left), but there was only so much black paper. Jon's hair is also curlier and a bit wilder that it shows here. But, nonetheless, the profiles are quite good. We had it framed in a beautiful crosshatch gilded frame with a sable velvet mat. It looks quite properly Parisienne! I would have prefered the matting the artist put the pieces in were not baby blue - but there was no choice!

When we got it home, I took these two very very small pieces of jewelry that I had purchased at a small flea market in Giverny several years ago, and put them behind the framing paper on the back of the frame. The first one is a fantastically small - not even a full inch from beak to tail - gold peacock pin (brooch seems too large a word for it!) with several blue and green glass 'gems' set into it. I was just enchanted with it. Speaking of enchanting, the other small piece is also not even a full inch from top to bottom. It's another pin; a golden crescent, with twining foliage and a cloisonne-style enameled leaf and bloom on it.

I don't really have any use for these treasures ... but I would never sell them nor give them away (at last not thus far!). I do, however, like the idea of somebody getting this frame many years from now, and deciding to take out the silhouettes and putting their own art in the frame - and discovering the two precious beauties hidden inside. I know they're there - and if I ever really want them, it will be easy to retrieve them. But I like that they're in there - creating a bit of an 'enchanted' mystery for the next owner!