Luna's Baublebilities

I popped over to Kingdom of the Blind today to see an intriguing photograph of a Rat's hippocampus that was the 2nd place winner in the Olympus Bioscapes International Digital Imaging Competition.  (Amazingly artful life science photography using digital devices.) 

Melody and her co-contributers live in Australia and work for the Queensland Brain Institute.  Kingdom of the Blind is part of the Culture at Work project.  Melody has done many embroideries exploring the structure of the brain in various stages of health and disease.  It's really a fascinating project within Australia's wonderful endeavor to tie the worlds of science and art closer together.

I was very grateful for the link to the Photo contest.  I remember being impressed with 2009's winners but that was a whole year ago and I forgot to go back to the site for more inspiration what with all of the packing and moving and construction and general chaos running rampant around here.

I see lots of textile possibilities in these winners and runners-up.  How about an embroidered Dragonfly eye?

Or maybe DaddyLonglegs eyes?  (Both eye photos by Dr. Igor Siwanowicz from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, Munich, Germany.)

Molly thought some screen printed pattern designs would be awesome - Silk Diatom Dress, anyone?  Yes, please!  (Photo by Dr. Michael Shribak over at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.  Dr. Shribak obtained this image of Diatom arachnoidiscus using incredibly cool techniques he and his team invented and are exploring with the video enhanced polychromatic polarized light microscope.  Click on his name above to find out a little more.)

I want to see Brendan and the Secret of Kells.








We've been holding our breath for the last many months, waiting for the release of Tim Burton's  Alice in Wonderland.  Our little Jacqueline Sparrow has been particularly excited about this movie as she is deeply in teen celeb crush with Johnny Depp.  (She does admit there's a small creepy factor in this big crush, as Johnny is older than her dad - but oh well.  Harrison Ford is the same age as my dad and he was pretty cute 'till he started looking like Grandpa.) 

Our family doesn't attend movies very often for lots of reasons;- we have to pre-view just about everything for violence before we can show it to Maxx, (this is a serious issue with him - we had to put Beauty and the Beast away for several months because of film inspired violence!) the theater is expensive and taking all 4 of us pretty much eats up an entire year's entertainment budget and we're so darn busy that actually scheduling a theater date and getting there on time is a challenge.  We generally just wait for stuff to come out on DVD.  But we've been planning on seeing Alice in the theater so that we can fully enjoy Burton's neo-gothic spin on the story and the juicy 3-D CGI animation.  And Johnny. 

Today, I discovered a film that I might just want to see MORE than Alice. (Thank you, Velma for calling this film to my atention!)

Brendan and the Secret of Kells has been available in Europe sine February '09 but it recently won several awards, including being a surprise pick for the Oscars and will now open March 12 in selected US cities and will .  It uses a combination of old style animation and CGI elements with the artwork being inspired by the Book Of Kells itself.  The story is about a young novice who must confront fear during a dangerous time to help complete the Book of Kells, the fairy girl who befriends him and the conflict between new and old, light and dark, enlightenment and fear.

I love the images and trailers I've seen from the film so far.  The ones here are borrowed from the film's website -  go have a look for yourself.  As much as I enjoy Pixar and other animated films relying on CGI to make a 'realistic' looking world, I miss the old style animation.  I have always loved Disney's Sleeping Beauty precisely because it did not look "real" but was beautiful in a way I often wish the real world could be. 

In his writing about his conversion to Christianity, C.S. Lewis spoke of "joy" as being the experience of desiring something beautiful and otherworldly.  Having the thing we desire may not necessarily make us any happier than the experience of desiring that thing does.  In fact, Lewis claimed that actually having the thing you desire presented to you often kills the joy of desiring it.  It is the dream or the wish or the longing that brings joy, partly because the anticipation of the desired thing induces us to try to be worthy of that thing which we desire.  Stark reality can be rather flat and uninspiring.  

Sometimes I feel that modern animators, in their excitement to play with making pictures that look real, have traded the joy of artistry for the titillation of tricks.   Instead of creating in a wonderful Dreamtime, they are trying to visually duplicate what we already have.  Instead of allowing dragons and monsters and gods to exist in another, more magical, reality, they have tried to make them more mundane and believable.  I'll admit that CGI is fancy.  It's got some wow factor.  Some of it is utterly sublime and too beautiful to be real.  But much of it feels trendy and uninspired.  Less than Joyful.  The Secret of Kells returns to the beauty and life force of old hand drawn animation plus it claims to be a film about enlightenment overcoming hatred.  That feels timely to me.  I'm looking forward to it.


(P.S.  The images here are all copyrighted.  I'm using them under "fair use" laws that allow bloggers and writers to use images in articles that discuss the work pictured but be aware that it is illegal to take images like these from films or from any other artists' work and use them to create other works of art or to print or otherwise reproduce them for sale.)



. . . . .

This weekend, I had a customer ask me some questions about Brass stampings. In composing an answer for her, I realized that this would probably be a good blog topic as there seems to be a lack of honest, concise information out there about these pretty things that so many people are buying and using these days.






The first place to start would be what Brass is made of. Wikipedia has a good explanation
that needs no extra babbling from me. Copper and Zinc. No lead. Yay!






Part of the confusion around all of those pretty filigree pieces out there today is the question of whether they are truly "antique" or "vintage" or not. Based on my experience with these items, I believe that most of them for sale today on Etsy and elsewhere are actually newly manufactured items. There are some out there that are obviously old - left over from old boxes stored in warehouses for decades but those show significant oxidation beyond the simple patinas that modern jewelry artists are applying. The truly old stuff is often dirty and pitted and have come from some auction house clearing out old, unclaimed stuff.




All of my brass pieces are newly made from vintage and antique dies by manufacturers in the U.S. (Yay for American manufacturing jobs!) For basic information on the manufacturing process, we turn to Wikipedia again. In many cases, these dies were put away for decades until the recent fashion trends in vintage style, Steampunk, and retro Victorian jewelry came into vogue. Then the old dies were pulled out and put to work again to create new findings in vintage designs. Thus, you can buy a brand new filigree piece of the exact same design used in a brooch your great-gramma wore. Molly Byn was excited to learn this as she was recently allowed to claim some goodies from her Great Gramma's jewelry box - some items needed repair or repurposing and she discovered a treasure trove of possibilities in my studio. (I'll post some of those creations later on.)

Raw brass items are just that - brass charms, filigree and findings that are unaltered from their original state. These pieces will age and darken, sometimes in a very unlovely fashion and will probably leave a green mark on your skin unless they are sealed in some way. Floor wax, jewelers sealant, clear nail polish and furniture wax (like Renaissane micro-crystaline wax) all work well for this purpose. Brass reacts with all sorts of chemicals unless sealed - amonia will quickly darken brass and will actually eat away at it if exposed for too long. I have started using a jewelrs grade sealant for my patina items so that my customers' creations remain stable and clean.

Because brass reacts with many chemicals, there are many solutions that can be applied to create a patina on the brass. The most usual patina color is a brown-gold color that makes the piece look aged. I recently learned how to apply a green-blue verdegris patina that will start appearing in my shop soon and I have seen a few other colors that I'm intrigued by - chartreuse, deep purple - but I'm intimidated by the chemisty right now and will have to wait until I have a studio with beter ventilation and running water for safety's sake before experimenting with those.




















. . . .

Over 35,000 years, to be exact.


(Click the photo to read the article)

After a grueling weekend in the hospital with Maxx's first terrifying asthma attack (thank you, birth dad, for providing That piece of genetic code) and several crazed days of nebulizer treatments, scarf completion and house cleaning (we have a walk through today!), I find it ironic that archaeologists need to ascribe some sort of ritual significance to music making.

Having been an Anthro major, I know that it is almost impossible to look at an artifact like this one and not imagine its use in ritual & celebration but I'm sure that it was most often used on nights like the one I had yesterday to soothe anxieties and prepare the family for restful sleep.

I'll be back with some new projects in a few days, but first, I really need to de-compress.

is found in my blog list.

I have no problem admitting that. If you have been stopping by here occasionally and have not been checking out my blog list found about half way down in the side bar, you've really been missing out.

Today, you should check out bioephemera. Jessica is a brilliant blogger, scientist and artist. She makes my world more interesting every day. Today's post focuses on anamorphosis and includes enough links and information to put an undergrad well on their way to a top notch research paper on the use of lenses in Renaissance art.

I've often been frustrated by my inability to draw like the masters. When I have the time & space in my life for drawing, I've got a pretty good eye and a steady, obedient hand and I've often wondered why I just can't make my drawings look that amazing. Turns out - I don't have the right tools.

Someday, when I'm old and my kids are out my hair and my eyesight is so bad that just about anything will impress me, I'll go build myself a Camera Obscura and play with these techniques. In the meantime, it is really fun to know how some of these tricks are pulled off.

This is a book that I will have to read. Molly and I are listening to On Point this morning and chuckling about the possibility that perhaps some distant ancestress chose her mate on the basis of his ability to make a pretty hand axe.

I can just hear the conversation . .


"Who are you going to dance with around the fire when the hunters return, Nula?"

"I think I'll dance with Lud. He has a very sexy axe."

Homeschool is great. I'm so glad we tuned in.

So - I don't usually do this sort of thing, but today I was over at Magdeline Jewels because she is the lucky proprietress of the Etsy Mini-Monday shop for this week and her blog has this nifty link to a Tarot widget.

I know next to nothing about the Tarot besides finding the cards beautiful and fascinating. On this website there's a quick set of questions and answers for you to select before it hands you your card. It's quick and nifty. Here's mine:

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

If you want to see other amazingly cool stuff online today - check out some of Bioephemera's recent posts. She finds the most amazing stuff and I love seeing the many ways that art and science collide.

Now, I really have to go wash some dishes. Enough procrastination.

My camera arrived back from repair yesterday evening and seems to be in good working order again. This is good news because now I can post some update photos on my progress for the January Take it Further challenge and get some more items up in my pitifully small Etsy shop. The only bad news is that the repair cost almost $200.

I have a Konicka Minolta Dimage Z6 which cost me $300 two years ago. When I learned how high the repair cost would be, I considered buying a new one but the price has doubled on that model in two years and I didn't want to shop around again. It is a wonderful camera in most respects. I can take wonderful macro shots with it - if you look at my Etsy store, you will see that the camera alows me to show more detail in my beads online than anyone could see in person without a magnifying glass. Having trained on a manual 35mm in highschool, I also appreciate the fact that I can have almost as much control as I want over the "exposure" and that the camera itself will allow me to set up black and white or sepia compositions as I shoot. I'm still learning how to use most of the fancy functions, but my appreciation for this camera just keeps growing. I have some issues with how quickly it sucks the power out of the 4 AA batteries it requires, but since it thrives on rechargables, it is not really expensive, just time consuming changing batteries and charging them back up so frequently. It is also not perfect for point and shoot family photos but my daughter has taken on the role of family photographer and she has a small Hp camera that is perfect for that.

Since my camera has been out of commission and I have been pressed for time, I have updated my blog a bit by adding some links to inspiring places online in the sidebar. Yesterday, I added the SEED magazine website. Why is a science mag link on an arts blog? Go take a look for yourself! SEED in my new favorite magazine, I discovered it while sitting in a hairdressers salon in NC, waiting to get a new 'city' cut with my Sister-in-law. I stole a subscription tag and have been very pleased with the outcome. I find great articles for homeschool and information about our universe that causes me to marvel in every issue. On top of that, in each issue there is at least one article about the intersection of science and the arts and the mag. is full of beautiful illustrations.

Well, time to run off to work. Photos tonight or tomorrow!