Wool Pekoe, © 2017, 7’H x 9’W x 5’D.
Michelle Stitzlein does amazing and wonderful large scale sculptures out of recycled and found goods. Wondrous and beautiful work, go have a wander at her galleries, which are full of stunning pieces!
Posting about incense yesterday reminded me of two old Vantine Incense tins I have. They both had a bit of incense still in them, and it still smelled fine. There’s still a bit of the Wisteria left, but it’s all crumbled.
© C. Ford.
The back of the temple incense reads:
To scent the house with the fragrance of Vantine’s Temple Incense, place a burner in the reception hall. The fumes will quickly pervade the upper rooms with a delightfully soothing Oriental fragrance. Temple Incense may also be used to scent the contents of the wardrobe. To do this, place the burner in the center of the floor of the wardrobe. Do not allow the clothes in the wardrobe to come in contact with the burner.
Vantine’s Temple Incense adds greatly to the fascination and coziness of the open fire place when a handful is scattered over the glowing embers. The fragrance of the incense blends delightfully with the pungency of burning wood.
In using Temple Incense on the veranda, on the lawn, or outdoors otherwise, use several burners in order to secure the desired degree of fragrance.
Cones come in six fragrances: Pine, Wisteria, Sandalwood, Rose, Violet, and Jasmin and the three superior odors, Orange Blossom, Lilac, and Narcissus.
Very much a different time. A. A. Vantine & Co. is mostly forgotten today, except by collectors, but it was a highly successful business, and when it came to incense tins and burners, they had the best. I’d love to have a huge collection of the incense tins, but they are not easy to come by. I was lucky in finding these, the store owner didn’t seem to know or care about their value.
Blacksmithing is by no means a dead trade, but if you watch or have watched shows like Forged in Fire, you’ll notice the modern forge has quite a few degrees of separation from the bellows and hammering of forges past. When I first got into blacksmithing, I wanted things to be modern. “This trade won’t die if we just keep moving forward!” I’d think; but all the automatic power hammers in the world won’t make you a better craftsman, and if all your fires are perfectly electronically heated, what will you really know about the giants whose shoulders you’re standing on? This is a guide on what you’ll need to set up your very own forge – the right way.
Barett Poley has a good article up at Make, all about setting up your own forge. I’d love to do this someday, and it’s definitely a doable project.
Absolutely delighted by this. Watch! Via Great Big Story.
Steve Warburton is an artist in Australia, with a very interesting perspective. The work is evocative, and I find many of the pieces to be of an expansive nature – for me, they are pieces to ponder, not just savour, and allow all the different layers of associations to come up. There’s a distinct sense of dystopia in many of the pieces, but they are all the more beautiful in their poignancy, and the hope that we do not follow such paths to their inescapable conclusions. Definitely worth spending some time, going through the galleries!
I didn’t include much here, because the galleries are set up for viewing, not borrowing, so have a wander, expand your mind, and let your imagination take you on a trip. Steve Warburton.
Signe Baumane wants to make a new film, and the bits I’ve seen are captivating, to say the least. Watch the video, and if you have a bit of pocket change to send Signe’s way, that would be fantastic! Or just spread the word. Or both!
Charly sent photos of more of his mom’s (and his) work in knipling. Absolutely gorgeous doves! Charly says: These two doves were made in 2011. The first one is my mothers design. After she made it, I asked her if she could do another one with my design, and she did. My input included not only new outline, but I also suggested the use of different colours and different lace /knotting. The difference in style is quite apparent. The first dove is what would be called “traditional” style, because in this style are made laces, collars, doilies etc.
Pictures are behind glass, so I had to adjust colour saturation and levels to bring the colours out so the pictures look like the real fabric and not too grey. They are actually larger than life on screen, in reality they are only approximately 35 cm (14 inches) diagonally. For completeness’s sake I am also including the templates, I think you might find them interesting.
I definitely find them interesting! Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved.
Open-mouthed awe here. Watch!
Etsuko Ichikawa is a Tokyo-born, Seattle-based artist who creates mesmerizing abstract “paintings” through the art of pyrography. Specifically, Ichikawa removes fiery, molten glass from a kiln as it glows at 2100° F, and then manipulates it over thick paper, leaving scorch marks and burns. The process is something akin to photography, in which light is recorded on film, capturing and eternalizing the immediacy of a moment.
Full story at Spoon & Tamago. WOW. I want to do that, unfortunately I don’t have the equipment, but who doesn’t like playing with fire?
Think Progress has a terrific interview with artist Mari Andrew, and how it’s perfectly okay to talk about fun stuff, or what’s interesting to read or watch, and so on, and still be very concerned about what’s happening on the larger scale. There’s room for it all. There has to be, or none of us will successfully hang onto our sanity, or the hope of continued activism. Have a fun read.
Think twice before you swat that mosquito. It just might be a delicate glass sculpture, at least if you’re in the presence of Yuki Tsunoda, a young sculptor who shapes glass into insects and plants that are almost exactly to scale.
The 26-year old artist first began working with glass in 2012 when she attempted to visualize the disgust and aversion most people have to insects, especially when they swarm together. But as she studied them more and more she began to take note of the beauty of each individual body part. Tsunoda eventually shifted her focus to emphasizing the beauty of insects by recreating them in realistic forms, and to scale, using glass.
Beautiful work! There’s much more to see and read at Spoon & Tamago.
Final Fantasy snow sculpture.
Spoon & Tamago has the story, and more photos. If you click over to Sapporo Snow Festival, you can see the winners and runner up. Macao took the big prize, with Latvia second. You can also see the entries from Australia, Finland, Hawaii, Singapore, Poland, Korea, Indonesia, U.S., and Thailand.
Dewi B., 11, Netherlands.
Riley H., 12, U.S.
Maj K. 13, Slovenia.
First up, the most wonderful photographs from kids – the winners of the 2016 Nat Geo International Photography Contest. Stunning imagery, all the way around, and a whole lot of very talented kids. Go See!
Next up:
It’s MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab. Go explore!
