Turning the evil eye, or, Multicultural beads! Yay!

My favorite big-box wholesaler recently (and by "recently" I of course mean "four or five months ago") put up an interesting article which is a brief discussion of the history of "eye" beads in multiple cultures, including African and Arabian ones. Great resource for those doing multicultural steampunk, as I find that steampunk designs are often at their best when their cultural affiliation and their salvaged nature, if any, are subtle and harmonious parts of the design. After reading it, I'm thinking of working some agate eyes into one of my "steamsonae."

I've gotten some excellent evil-eye pendants in the recent past from Lorienna on Etsy. The items come from Ankara, but I've found her remarkably speedy, and the evil-eye glass items are handmade in Turkey:


And a weird pair of earrings for your pleasure:

Available here.

Tribal Done Right

I highly recommend that readers with an interest in ethnic-style jewelry check out the Flickr photostream of Anita Quansah London, a "designer to the stars" whose work actually completely thrills me.



Her designs are exquisite; unconventional and deconstructed in their unexpected shapes, with interesting different manners of draping to adorn more than the expected parts of the body, with a beautiful use of shells and other natural/traditional materials that is both very true to the "roots" of bodily adornment and beautifully joined with more modern materials.  Her pieces combine couture and warrior looks and are just generally stunning.

Additionally, the description on the second piece, here, is a splendid example of describing this style of jewelry without being over-the-top.  She identifies what people inspired her work -- the Masai in Kenya and Nigeria -- and makes strong but not offensive connections between ethnic traditions and modern needs -- the relationship between the use of body ornament to establish identity in various folkways and the fierce, feminine draping design of the jewelry pieces themselves.  In this way she establishes "story" and makes the jewelry feel more "ethnic" or "tribal" without ever having to resort to overusing the cliche, sometimes-offensive style names.

Treasury Wednesday: Royal Albert China

I made this treasury while M and I were planning the tea-and-jewelry party for our coworkers. M's wedding china was in the Old Country Roses pattern, which I initially disliked rather a lot, but then I actually took a close look at it -- it was hiding behind wavy panes in her grandmother's china hutch until we moved -- and realized it was red and orange, not the pink and peach I initially assumed. I still like to set it with our green and white china to mellow it a bit, but I like it now.

'Teatime: Old Country Roses' by tangopig

Inspired by the Royal Albert "Old Country Roses" china, which is growing on me.

Scrabble Tile Magne... lalucita $9.00	Small Needle Felted... kmwatkins $10.00	6 Small Fabric Cove... PatchworkMill $8.00	StayGoldMaryRose - ... StayGoldMaryRo... $49.00
Spring Flowers - Ne... VayZONE $23.00	Roses Gift Box Neut... ShannaMicheleD... $5.50	large herbal tea ki... purposedesign $40.00	Little Leaf Houses ... thelittlereddo... $28.00
Rose Water OOAK Lin... goshthatsposh $15.00	Roses Flower Hair P... apocketofposie... $18.00	Vintage Old Country... dishfunctionld... $45.00	SEPTEMBER SUNRISE H... BitsandPurses $45.00
Bouquet For Every D... sewhomegrown $35.00	Variegated kit Swee... BrotherWorks $10.99	Dollhouse Miniature... fairchildart $23.00	English Garden - 11... LaurenFaythe $75.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Most inspiring drinky things

So, do you think the folks at the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen would mind if I turned everything they've ever photographed into a pair of earrings or a pendant?


Admire these fruity beauties!  The depth of field in this photo is just stunningly handled.  The gorgeously casual, utterly perfect tumbled look could probably be replicated with various sizes of Swarovski Cosmic Freeform Diamonds, dice beads and Simplicity cut beads:






The fruity shades and the very organic look of the skewers in these Watermelon Basil Martini Jelly Shots could be replicated with a stack of varying shapes of frosted resin and polymer clay, plus a messy, twisted spiral headpin in plastic-coated or nylon-coated wire.


These are their mimosa shots, glossy and tempting in this well-styled photo, and the minute I saw them, I thought that I could mimic that exactly with ball-end headpins worked into spirals (or, heck, just wire) supporting a stack of three lentil-shaped beads, maybe a lemon quartz or a nice glass, spaced with squares of thin yellow fabric.

Wonderful, weird couture

From the Department of Cool Victorian Clothing, in conjunction with the Department of "Stuff You See a Lot Of in Steampunk Jewelry that Is Surprisingly Historically Accurate":

The internet was abuzz a couple of months back over the restoration of the dress from John Singer Sargent's Lady Macbeth:


Courtesy JSSGallery.org.

If you missed it, it's well worth a look: here are Virtual Victorian's and the Daily Mail's articles on the dress.

The interesting elements? A.) The dress was famously worn by the gorgeous redhead actress Ellen Terry, who I have always found M to rather resemble, in 1888, and B.) it's adorned with hundreds and hundreds of actual beetle wings. You know, like these and these.

The description of the repair process in the first article linked is also quite technically interesting for those who do such delicate work.

Treasury Wednesday: A combo of Japanese and medieval designs

I'm beginning to have this funny feeling there are certain theme/color combinations I like a lot.

'The Tower Kitchen' by tangopig

A seamless blend of Japanese-inspired and medieval designs in earthy brown, inky black and vivid red, with natural materials preferred and the newest shops (under 50 feedback) emphasized.

Red Cherry Wish Bow... holzfurhaus $54.00	Black and Red Journ... boxturtlebooks $44.50	Porcelain Teapot wi... kristenkswanso... $125.00	OOAK Unique Ostrich... jackoalltrades $50.00
Japan Relief Karma ... honeygirldesig... $25.00	Japanese Turnips Ha... drenculture $45.00	Viking Replica Neck... MMSSN $35.00	Hand Painted Silk S... silkshop $40.00
Brocade Terracotta ... TerracottaToys $5.00	Mortar & Pestle JournalandTea $140.00	ARANWE - RedBrown W... CarvedNature $25.00	Mandala Series - Iv... herbleedesigns $6.50
Spiced Mahogany Soa... asliceofdeligh... $6.00	Wheel-thrown decora... Ningswonderwor... $65.00	6 inch gold, red an... HeatherOstrow $7.00	WEEKEND SALE - 50% ... BestArtStudios... $12.50

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Some recent photos with nice lighting

A couple of recent photos I've been very proud of, but which are of things in the Ballet Llama shop:


Magnetic hematite 8mm beads, available here.



Hand-sculpted polymer clay rose pendant, available here.


Retro plastic alphabet beads, available here.

Getting good photos is definitely harder on a saturated-color background, but I'm pleased with the lighting and cropping in these!

A glut of history lately? Now, necklaces!

I expect the two weeks of Oh Hai Super Intellectual are probably wearing on everyone by now, so a light post of pretty stuff today!

Observe the evolution of the steampunk button necklaces.  From this:


Available here, and okay, it's not actually steampunk.

To this:


Sold!

To this:


Available here.

I need to work on getting back to the relatively simple, found-object assemblage style in the middle of the process -- while I like the multi-buttons, especially with the very unified rope-and-flower motifs, I think the cleaner lines and simpler contrasts were a different look and got better reactions.

Treasury Wednesday: Sugar and spice? Also, my "rules" for making these

When I make a treasury, I select items with this sort of "decision tree." This isn't anything I've codified, mind you, these are just the priorities that have evolved naturally as I became dedicated to the idea of letting these be my community presence.

First of all, I won't feature anything that I strongly suspect to be a reseller item. I'm certain that some slip through my grasp, but I'm pretty careful. Also, blatantly incorrect tagging and glaring spelling errors drop things very low down the list of things I want to feature.

After those basics, my first priority is photo quality. I try to emphasize both good photography and well-made items -- decoupaged clothespins go in way after hand-drawn sketches. Good crisp lighting, however, trumps it; if the clothespins were photographed well and the sketch poorly, in they go and out goes the sketch.

I select to match both a color family and a theme, but color comes first.

If I have the option of a well-known, oft-featured shop and a newer one, all other factors being equal, I go with the newer one. I try to overemphasize shops with fewer than 100 instances of feedback.

Last and least important is avoiding competing with myself or M. I won't feature fairy doors or plush squid, and I do attempt to limit jewelry, though mostly that's because I try to have a wide range of item types.

This treasury is a great example because I managed to get a good number of newer shops, to emphasize some really excellent photography, and to make every single item fit a theme/story. It's a little naughty, which I always expect people to remark on more than they do -- you'll notice some bondage-themed items, never mind the corsetry -- but has an appealingly innocent look covering the wickedness, with a light blue and dark blood red combination that's unconventional enough to intrigue but could easily be a standard slightly-vintage Fourth of July scheme.

'One Way or the Other' by balletllama

Light blue and bright red in a variety of beautiful vintage-inspired designs. And once you see the story, just a bit scandalous.

Giclee illustration... choumie7 $15.00	SALE SALE 1970s lig... Threefeathersv... $20.00	Royal Blood - Chain... rabbitdance $70.00	pretty blue ribbon ... labellefairy $299.00
SALE. Group of thre... HouseOfCeramic... $54.00	dog waltz - fine ar... olivedear $30.00	Personalized Pet Bo... patspottery $26.00	Red Leather Rose Fl... Wycked $199.00
Hilarious, Mean Any... goatcards $3.50	Caught in a Net of... FruttiTuttiBea... $33.00	Red satin cupped lo... MorganaFemmeCo... $995.00	Classic Cameo Heart... lovesoapapilla $8.00
Untitled 12x8 Fine ... alicelily $35.00	Burlesque Gloves wi... DelilahBurlesq... $25.00	Baby blue linen cus... copperpod $30.00	Hand painted Doggie... jakeybb $399.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.