Hieroglyphs

Not a proper post. Third year is actually a bit full on (/I am a bit lazy) but I just saw this and wanted to post it.

I saw it in a post from VogueUK on Facebook about how to recreate hieroglyphic nails which were designed by Sophy Robson for Topshop Unique's SS/12 catwalk business.

"This has to be my most ambitious fashion week design yet," said Sophy Robson of the Topshop Unique nails. "We hand-painted 450 fingernails with graphic symbols like the pyramid, tribal stripe and the 'all-seeing eye', which really captured the essence of the collection."

VogueUK

I have to say, after listening to BBC Radio4's piece about the Nailympics (listen here) it does not seem like the most complicated designs in the world, but then I have horrible nails.

Anyways there's always the pretty girls to look at:

And I like the gold hair:

TTFN to the Paleontology Conservation Unit

I really shouldn't be on the computer when I have a lecture in about 7 hours but I am feeling really nostalgic about museums. Yes I do Classics and I like museums. Stereotype fulfilled. (Btw if you are ever in Manchester check out the John Ryland's Library in Deansgate, it is actually quite beautiful - I should do a post on it sometime...). Anyway I miss my volunteering at the Natural History Museum which I did over the summer. So here are some pictures from my time there:

I think this was the Geology library, there's lots of exciting libraries not open to the public!

One of the specimens from the Butterfly Tent in the front lawn of the museum.

"Mnleeh!" (that's meant to be a sticking-out-tongue noise)

Totally want to make jewellery of these...

Ok this is really immature but it made me laugh...

Making pH neutral boxes for specimens.

Part of the Age of the Dinosaur exhibit, scared the hell out of me when it moved.

Part of the 'Sexual nature' exhibition, they died for love... not really but they died for sex...

pH tape! pretty... pH is really important in conservation for obvious reasons.

The Conservationists' (probably not the right name) kit! Cute!

Big beaker, regular beaker, baby beaker! You can tell I paid attention in science GCSE.

Powder paints, used to camouflage repairs done to specimens.

Hundreds of teeny jars!

I wish I could buy these to use as my packaging... maybe I can?!

Fossilized fern.

I wasn't really supposed to take too many pictures in the lab, especially of what I was working on so sorry if this seems like a really odd selection but it was so fun and makes me wish I had mixed a bit of archaeology and conservation in with my literature modules... oh well maybe they will let me work there anyway!

xxx

Babydoll

So last night I watched Sucker Punch. 

'Babydoll' from IMDB

I was largely watching it as a semi-relevant bit of background before I go and see Sleeping Beauty later today since I was so surprised to find out that the gorgeous but 'cute' looking girl from A Series of Unfortunate Events had grown up to become so breathtakingly beautiful.

Ignoring the rather poor script, incredibly rubbish last 10 minutes and the general misogyny throughout, I would seriously recommend seeing this film. But only if you can watch it on a large screen/projector and have some kind of surround sound going on (I put my computer speakers either side of my bed which was good enough!) I 100% agree with all the reviews that I've read saying that it was written by and for someone with the mind of a 13 year old boy but maybe that is what I am.

I agree with this comment by Andrew O'Hehir that I found on the Wiki page:
"If you want to understand Snyder's central narrative gambit, it's right there in the title. He gives us what we want (or what we think we want, or what he thinks we think we want): Absurdly fetishized women in teeny little skirts, gloriously repetitious fight sequences loaded with plot coupons, pseudo-feminist fantasies of escape and revenge. Then he yanks it all back and stabs us through the eyeball"

 One of the things that I liked most was totally ignored in basically every review: the set design. Even though Snyder clearly relied heavily on stereotypes, other films (without really 'owning it' as Tyra Banks would say) and video games. I didn't really mind because they were the sort of films that I find visually stunning and the kind of video game that actually makes an effort with detail (I imagine Bioshock would have a similar look if it was set in a time about 20 years later than it is.) Someone clearly spent a hell of a lot of time tracking down every little prop for the every set and each room was appealingly cluttered and natural.

Of course there are no good pictures of the set. Everyone just wants to see the sexy girls.

However, I am not going to completely going to ignore the sexism because I am actually just sick to death of the number of rapes you get in films at the moment. Its not even 'edgy' it's just disgusting. And its not 'empowering' even if the rapist gets what he deserves. From the films that have been coming out recently (and even things on the BBC like Luther) you would think that every female can just expect someone to attempt to rape them at some point and unless you have a kick-ass friend with a knife you might as well give up hope. Even if it is integral to the psychological background of a character that they have been raped or assaulted it is not necessary to show if for some pervert to get a buzz. At least these scenes weren't as back as Snyder's other film Watchmen which I walked out of.

Another Wiki-quote:
James MacDowell questions the alleged misogyny of the film, arguing that it does not in fact aim to offer female empowerment, but is instead "a deeply pessimistic analysis of female oppression", because it makes clear that, "just as men organize the dances, so do they control the terms of the fight scenes; in neither do the women have true agency, only an illusion of it."

Yeah... that sounds about right. A pretty depressing film if you look at it from a feminist perspective. But I still liked the pretty colours so I am going to revert showing you some pictures now....

The grey sailor suit. IMDB

There was a bit of Nurse Ratched in Dr Vera Gorski and Rocket is a Billy character.

And a bit of Gogo Yubari (Kill Bill) in Babydoll

Tim Burton's Alice

The battle sailor suit.

Tim Burton's Alice in 'beggar' costume.

Possibly inspired by Dodgson's photograph of Alice Liddel as a beggar-girl?

The glitter sailor suit! IMDB

Mary Hilton Badcock, the model for Tenniel's illustrations.

Natalia Vodianova as Alice, Vogue December 2003

The glitter sailor suit again because I love it.

Natalia Vodianova again for the multiple 'Alice' costumes.

End of stream of consciousness.
I hope that series makes as much sense to you as it does to me.


Footnote type thing:
I liked the steampunk Nazis. I was GOING to relate the plot to the Joseph Campbell's journey of the hero concept (check out Hero with 1000 Faces, its a classic, though a wiki search will probably do) but I seem to be devoting a weird amount of time to one, not particularly remarkable, film. I feel that the film may have had a more coherent structure had Snyder followed Campbell more closely (see Star Wars - actually don't, I don't like that series at all but note its success). Though this would have made the film Even More predictable, it doesn't feel as though groundbreaking originality was the aim.

The one interesting break from the normal hero's journey is that there is an advance upon the usual three act sequence of 'ordinary world', 'special world' and return to 'ordinary world'. There is only the weakest sense of the real world where you are presented with so few facts that it is harder to understand than the fantasy, the 'club' fantasy conforms to normal film plots and so hardly even comes across as surreal and then Babydoll's dance-trance reality adds a third layer. It is simply a shame that these are three very shallow layers so you just end up with a mille-feuille of a film.


I cannot wait to see this:

I <3 Emily Browning


Oh! and one last thing, I just realised that it also reminds me of this video. If Sucker Punch was a British Film, I think it would be a bit more like this:

My Precious

I haven't been online in a disturbingly long time. Summer exams followed by moving into new uni house where there was no internet etc. Also I have just been super busy with my birthday (I am so old now) and stuff that I should probably blog about but I will probably not get round to.

So here is a little post about a very special birthday present I received on my 18th.


This is probably my most precious possession.
(As in material possessions and not including my kitten because I wouldn't describe her like that)

The engraving inside says 'Yasmin 25.09.2007

My mum designed this ring for a surprise birthday present for me using a sapphire that had been saved since I was born and recycling two diamonds from older rings.

Basically it is a large sapphire (I don't know the exact carat) accompanied by two diamonds. The stones are all set in 18ct white gold in a rubover setting and the shank is 18ct yellow gold. The diamonds are 'old cuts' therefore cut by hand and slightly mismatched because they were removed from older designs to recycle for my ring.

My parents purchased the sapphire from a dealer in Bangkok 1984 where my parents were buying stock (before they even had a company but in anticipation of having a business in the future!) but when I was born in September a few years later it was held back as my birthstone.

My mum says she chose to put diamonds either side to set off the deep blue of the sapphire to create something simple, practical and timeless for me to keep and be able to wear forever. This stone is particularly gorgeous because it has that really deep, velvety colour that is an intense blue without absorbing the light and becoming dull. Sapphires can actually come in loads of different colours from very dark inky blue to cornflower blue and also they are found in 'fancy' colours, yellow and pink and rubies are actually technically the same stone but it became the fashion to call the pinky-red stones 'rubies' and the blue variety 'sapphires'. Personally I quite like sapphires because they are a hard, durable stone (only surpassed by diamonds and 9 on the Mohs scale)

(I also love tourmaline.)

Hopefully I've given someone a new interest in this awesome stone but I am not a big expert on gemology - yet.

xxx

STAMP!

I now have a custom-made stamp.

Now I can brand ANYTHING! (made of paper or card)

Ta-dah!

xxx

Business Cards

Today my business cards arrived! Which is very exciting for me.

I just tried to look up 'business card' in my hefty Oxford dictionary. It isn't in there. But I found this funny:
Business. ORIGIN: Old English 'anxiety'

TRUE.

My first set of business cards.

It is so difficult to try to decide on the design! I chose to try to keep it simple for the first batch. I will probably do a different design every time I order...

The 'front' I guess (I don't quite understand business cards having a front or back really, it's just a picture side and an information side, right?)

The 'back' or 'picture' side. This is the gilded fly pendant, sterling silver with 18ct gold plated wings little black diamond eyes.

 But of course, within hours of the cards arriving, I flicked through some blogs and saw these:

 I can't seem to make the images into a hyperlink but I found them on the blog of Garance Doré here .

So now I feel like my cards are really boring! For a while I did consider calling the Beetle Collection 'Bug-ary' (like 'Aviary' but an enclosure for bugs... get it!?) But you never know who you are going to offend and I can't decide if I was being a chicken or sensible? Also it is a bit of a silly play on words.

So because I am a massive geek, when I started to design my business card (and logo generally as you will see) I did not just think "Hmm, what image represents me?" I started to look into the history of business cards.

I started with Victorian calling cards but really I should have started with 17th century France and 'visite biletes' where they apparently started out as playing cards! So I imagine the scene somewhat like this:

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Then there were trade cards:

1881

1885

There are loads of gorgeous trade cards on www.waddesdon.org.uk but they seem to have quite strict copyright rules so you can look for yourself. They are so detailed and have so much more writing on them I assume they must have been bigger than today's cards. I wonder whether people took more time to read trade cards or if it was all a waste of money? People would definitely not bother reading that much information these days!

Now 19th Century business cards:

"As an adoption from French court etiquette, visiting cards came to America and Europe. They included refined engraved ornaments and fantastic coat of arms. Visiting cards, or calling cards, were an essential accessory to any 19th century middle class lady or gentleman."
From this site.

I want to be able to put a coat of arms on my business cards! I think there is an Everley coat of arms so I will have to look into it.

I based my card largely on Victorian calling cards like this:

1840 Calligraphy Card

I spent hours scrolling through www.daysofelegance.com (where the above image is from). I LOVE all of this sort of thing. The amount of time and effort that went into making these cards is incredible. And in those days calling cards were appreciated, there was a complicated series of rules and rituals that surrounded them. I know that, realistically, a lot of the cards I hand out will be thrown away, dropped, screwed up and lost... but I still wanted to pay the extra for 100% recycled card.

Anyway, here are some more Victorian calling cards (all from www.daysofelegance.com)

So cheesey. So cute.

Shaped according to the hobby of the person (origami business cards are doing a modern twist on this)

Too Cool! It looks like a plain dull card... but if you hold it to the light...WOW!

This is hilarious. "May I see you home my dear?" For young gentlemen to give to potential young lady friends.

The etiquette is fantastic, here is a comparatively brief version from this site again:

• On making a first call you must have a card for each lady of the household.
• On making a call leave your card to the servant. You will be allowed to see the hostess only after she examines your card.
• On the hall table in every house, there should be a small silver, or other card tray, a pad and a pencil.
• When the door-bell rings, the servant on duty should have the card tray ready to present, on the palm of the left hand.
• A gentleman should carry them loose in a convenient pocket; but a lady may use a card case.
• If your card receives no acknowledgment, you must conclude that for some reasons they do not wish to extend their acquaintance.
• Do not examine the cards in the card-basket. You have no right to investigate as to who calls on a lady.
• A young lady can have a card of her own after having been in society a year.
• American gentleman should never fold the corner of his card, despite of the temporary fashion. Some European gentlemen, on the contrary, fold the upper right corner to indicate that they've delivered it themselves (the servant should never hand his master's card folded).
• Fold the card in the middle if you wish to indicate that the call is on several, or all of the members of the family.

I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson!

xxx