A UNIQUE portrait project returns to the Museum in the Park this weekend.

Paper cut artist Yasemin Wigglesworth, and photographer Kate Beer, have collaborated to create silhouette portraits using a life-size screen with paper cut border.

Yasemin cut the border – which is based on the book The Secret Garden – by hand, using a scalpel, from black paper.

Participants stand behind the screen, whilst Kate captures the image from the other side.

The screen will be at the museum on Saturday and Sunday. Visitors can drop in and view it in the morning, from 11am to noon, or come along in the afternoon, between 1pm and 4pm, to have their portrait taken.

Portraits cost £30 and a high resolution jpeg image will be emailed out a week or so after the event to print, frame and share. The portraits make lovely gifts, especially for grandparents and for mums on Mother’s Day.

The screen was first unveiled last November at the Secret Artist weekend in aid of Stroud’s very own secret garden, the walled garden behind the museum. A share of proceeds will support the project to open up the garden.

A mini showcase display of Yasemin’s work is also is currently showing in the museum foyer. Each of her pieces is unique and entire, cut by hand from a single sheet of paper.

She is inspired by nature, the Arts & Crafts movement, East Asian woodblock prints and tapestries, and having grown up in Istanbul, by Iznic ceramic designs.

This is running alongside the museum’s main exhibition, Wycinanki, a colourful and uplifting collection of Polish paper cuts.

On tour from The Horniman Museum and Gardens, London, it features examples of the popular Polish folk art.

Wycinanki originated as an inexpensive means of decorating the homes of Polish peasants and were popular from the mid 19th century. They were generally made by women using sheep-shearing scissors and any readily-available paper and replaced each spring when homes were whitewashed.