Resin Art: Pokémon! Gotta Wear Them All! Also: Paging Hekuni Cat

Hekuni Cat, I don’t have your address. Please sent it to the Affinity address linked in the sidebar.

 

Some fun with Pokémon. the kids in school always love my Pokémon themed attire, be it the mask, the pencil case or the T-shirts.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Umbreon and Espeon. I made matching earrings, just simple studs, but they do have a tendency to get lost in bed…

The next set will go out to a friend as a belated birthday present. We’ll meet in a park today to go for a walk. Distance and sunshine and fresh air…

©Giliell, all rights reserved

These are two brass rings separated by rhinestones. The top one has flowers in it, the bottom one gold leaf.

The next ones are fairly simple, but I do love them. All unicorny and shiny.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

And last but not least:

People, miracles do happen! As you may remember, my relationship with my mother is best described as “difficult”. To not put too fine a point to it, she was abusive. One of her tactics was to be never satisfied with what I did. I got an A-, best grade in class? Why isn’t it an A+? We were recently talking about the kids and she mentioned that while #1 was smart as me and also chaos incarnate like me, she wasn’t ambitious like me. I later thought “well, maybe that’s because you only loved me when I was the best”. This tactic extended to my hobbies. She’d never have a kind word or even praise, just a lot of non-constructive criticism.

Well, last week I gave my sister a set of Strawberry earrings and necklace and she asked me for a pair of earrings in brown with a bit of gold and when I gave them to her yesterday she actually liked them and thanked me and I was like “Lady, I don’t know who you are and what you did to my mum, but I really like you and you can stay.” Apparently an old dog can learn new tricks…

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Degupdate: Dandelion

It’s been a while since we had a degupdate, and to be honest, for a long time I couldn’t bear to look through my phone for pics, because I would keep coming upon pics of sweet Gracie. Even though I know logically that I didn’t do anything wrong, and a veteran degu keeper assured me that so far they always lost animals when socialising new animals, it still broke my heart.

But Candy and Estelle are very happy together. Candy is a very dominant character (and Gracie was as well, which I think doomed the whole thing from the start), while Estelle is a very gentle character and they fit together well without hardly ever even having a mild fight. Now that spring is here it’s time to start feeding them fresh greens, which has to be done carefully, because after a winter of hay and dry feed, switching them to large amounts of fresh green would make them sick. So for the last two weeks or so they have gotten a few leaves of dandelion each day and they agree that its the Best. Thing. Ever.

The pics are all of Candy, because Estelle still is camera shy.

 

 

Candy doesn’t know what shy means. She also doesn’t know what holding still means. Now that they’re fully grown, the differences between the two of them become more visible, at least to their human family. Candy is lighter in her colouration, the ears and feet are sand colour, while Estelle’s are darker.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

 

And here’s a video of Candy. You can hear the little one in the background doing her “degu voice”.

 

The Art of…

Japanese Woodblock prints, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Kuniyoshi is considered a master of ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), and his favourite subject was cats. He was obsessed with cats, and his studio was often overrun by them. He often portrayed them as well-loved characters from stories or as part of kabuki theatre. His art is inventive and often playful, and it quickly became popular and well respected, lifting him out of the poverty of his early life.

Amusements of the First Snowfall, 1852, Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Mystical Cats

I love cats and these wonderful creations by Anne, Cranky Cat Lady are glorious.

Photos of my Mystical Cats from Lyn Belisle’s Mystical Cat Shamans class.  The faces are her work (she does lovely ceramics) but the rest is mine.  Leafy girl is Thera, Protector of Wild Things, the turquoise cat is Bast, my Mewse. Because you know how much cats love to help with your work.  Lots of vintage bits and pieces, handmade paper, and beads. They’re pretty big, about 14″ tall, and I’m going to have to move stuff around so I can hang them.

Thera, ©Anne, Cranky Cat Lady

Bast, ©Anne, Cranky Cat Lady

The Art of …

…portraiture, by Alice Neel

Alice Neel suffered many tragedies in her life, including the loss of several of her children. She suffered a nervous breakdown, attempted suicide and was hospitalized for over a year. Her work is infused with emotional intensity and a fearless realism. There was some criticism of her work contemporarily because it did not hold with the ideals of how the feminine should be portrayed in art, but Neel is now considered one of America’s best portrait artists. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will be hosting an exhibition of Ms. Neel’s art from March 22 until August 1, 2021. Virtual Tours are available by request.

Mother and Child (Nancy and Olivia), 1967, Alice Need. Image from The New York Review

 

 

 

TNET 44: Manscaped

I am not going to embed any of those or link to their site, but I have got an awful lot of ads on YouTube lately for the products in the title and I totally do not get it. Like, at all, on so, so many levels. It is a male-centered effort similar to the one that convinced women they should shave their legs.

At some time in our evolution, our species has decided for selecting for hair that grows almost indefinitely on our heads and to a very limited degree on other parts. It is a sad fact that cutting/trimming or excessively grooming head and facial hair is a necessity, otherwise it would get too big and entangled and would impede normal function. Those are our species’ equivalent of peacock’s tails or irish elk’s antlers. And I do get why someone would opt for regular shaving instead of regular trimming for whatever reasons – convenience, aesthetic preference etc. We have to chose there one of several options.

But I completely do not get why I should shave my chest or my groin. And I won’t. Regular hygiene is sufficient to keep me comfy and non-smelly and there is absolutely no health benefit to shaving body hair. In my case, there is even a downside which also the reason why I have a beard – I have sensitive skin and I react badly to shaving. However, that is not the point. We are the only species that is capable to alter or even downright mutilate perfectly healthy bodies for mere fashion. I will never understand why some people feel the need to inject pigment into healthy skin, or pierce and cut healthy functional organs in order to put pieces of metal in them. Oftentimes in a manner that impedes normal functioning and sometimes even endangers health.

I am not saying people should not be allowed to shave their balls, tatoo their faces, or pierce their tongues. Your body, your choice, just do not expect a compliment from me and we will get along just fine. But I find it ridiculous if it is a personal choice, doubly ridiculous if it is a fashion trend and several orders of magnitudes ridiculous if it is a concentrated effort of a company to sell me products that I neither need nor want. Unfortunately, they will probably succeed in convincing some, even though not me personally.

Open thread, you can talk whatever you want, under the condition of not being an asshole.

Previous thread.

Can You Identify This Pretty Little Bird?

Avalus took some good photos of this little guy, but he hasn’t been able to identify what type of bird this is. My bird guides are North American, so not really useful to identify a European species, but I bet that one of you can help us figure this out. Leave us a comment with your ideas.

©Avalus, all rights reserved

©Avalus, all rights reserved

©Avalus, all rights reserved

©Avalus, all rights reserved