Random notes of randomness, and lots of links.
First, I just want to say that dreaming about having raunchy sex with the king of the dark fairies is pretty awesome, especially when he looks like Jason Isaacs. It's even more awesome when he brings his two gorgeous friends. So, that was a really good dream. And then he brought out the hellhound, and I am chagrined to admit that was pretty awesome, too. Then I woke up and felt acutely embarrassed about the whole thing. I mean, really?! Dear lord, WTF?!
Second, I sort of embarrassed myself in front of the UPS guy. I was out front trying to open the garage door with the keypad, and it was giving me a hard time. When it finally started working, I raised my hands, fingers curled like claws, and in my best mad scientist voice said "Riiiise! RIIIISE!!!" Then I turned around, and the UPS guy was standing right there with a package in his hand and an inscrutable look on his face. I thanked him and didn't bother trying to explain. Tiny bit of dignity salvaged.
Third, I have felt like crap off and on all weekend, and was identifiably unwell on Friday, though no cause has thus far presented itself. My sleep schedule is fucked beyond fucked. So, if I'm slow to get shit done or answer stuff, forgive me. And go ahead and nudge me if you have to.
And, because I have roughly ten thousand tabs open, including some that have been open for, like, months, here are some links!
The wonderful Shadow Manor linked to my dead fairy gaff! Always appreciated.
The Victorian bottled sand art of Andrew Clemens. Amazing, amazing, amazing. More pictures are here. With most stuff I see, I can at least sort of understand how it was done. This borders on the incomprehensible.
The art of Kate MacDowell is deeply disturbing, but also incredibly beautiful. She renders incredibly detailed, accurate, and delicate animal, vegetable, and human forms in fine porcelain clay, blending them together in lovely and frightful ways, commenting on our broken relationship to the world around us. There's a subtle horror at work here. It's beautiful stuff, but it gives me the shudders.
This is much less creepy. Laurel Roth's animal skulls rendered in transparent acrylic. Most are highly polished like clear crystal, but some are orange-tinted like amber. I really, really like these. They aren't just straightforward casts of skulls, although that would be awesome, too. She sculpted them and made them perfectly smooth, which gives them a really neat look. Her detail is perfect.
Wine bar treasure trunk. This thing is really cool.
So is this beautiful table made of a single draped sheet of clear acrylic. Looks like a clear, freestanding tablecloth.
Creating fruit juice 'caviar' using a syringe to drop the juice into a calcium chloride bath. I would LOVE to try this. Go and look at the photos, which are absolutely gorgeous.
Quick and dirty instructions on making a prop mandrake root. There's a lot of room for elaboration here. I really like the idea. What I would love to figure out how to do is give the finished root all those tiny little rootlets and hairs. Scrolling down to the Chinese Fleeceflower portion of this Cracked article shows the effect I would love to get. I have no idea how to go about it.
Old, old article about Christina Hendricks trying to find a gown for the Emmy Awards. She's "too big," so she had trouble, which is ludicrous. Anyway, I've had that open as a tab since, like, SEPTEMBER, so I thought I would just link it and say that the custom gown she wound up with is one of the most beautifully-fitted dresses I've ever seen, and looks like a million bucks on her million-dollar body. It is hard to design for really curvaceous figures. This is what it looks like, done correctly.
Also an old article. Last 'sin-eater' celebrated with church service. The restored grave of Richard Munslow, the last known "sin-eater" in England, has been at the centre of a special service in a Shropshire village churchyard. He was buried in 1906. Nothing of especially staggering awesomeness about this link, it's just a quiet little thing that tugs at my hindbrain and makes me want to tell stories. I've had this link open since September, too. No exaggeration. So I thought I'd just link it here so I can close it.
And, last, a call for participants for research on women's experience of porn. If you're female, over 18, live in the US, and you read/watch/listen to/look at porn/erotica, you might take a look and/or spread the link.
Are You a Woman Who Views, Reads, or Listens to Pornography, Erotica, Romance Novels, and/or any other Sexually Explicit Materials?
If so, please share your experiences!
Complete a Short Survey (30 min or less) and Contribute to a Scholarly Understanding of Women’s Experiences with Sexually Explicit Materials
My name is Kari Hempel and I am a female psychology graduate student who is doing my dissertation research on women’s experiences with sexually explicit materials. For too long women’s real experiences with these materials have been ignored. My goal is not to judge anyone’s experiences, but to accumulate surveys from as many women as possible around the country about their positive, negative, and/or mixed experiences with sexually explicit materials, and to present the differences and commonalities in a scholarly, respectful fashion.
Second, I sort of embarrassed myself in front of the UPS guy. I was out front trying to open the garage door with the keypad, and it was giving me a hard time. When it finally started working, I raised my hands, fingers curled like claws, and in my best mad scientist voice said "Riiiise! RIIIISE!!!" Then I turned around, and the UPS guy was standing right there with a package in his hand and an inscrutable look on his face. I thanked him and didn't bother trying to explain. Tiny bit of dignity salvaged.
Third, I have felt like crap off and on all weekend, and was identifiably unwell on Friday, though no cause has thus far presented itself. My sleep schedule is fucked beyond fucked. So, if I'm slow to get shit done or answer stuff, forgive me. And go ahead and nudge me if you have to.
And, because I have roughly ten thousand tabs open, including some that have been open for, like, months, here are some links!
The wonderful Shadow Manor linked to my dead fairy gaff! Always appreciated.
The Victorian bottled sand art of Andrew Clemens. Amazing, amazing, amazing. More pictures are here. With most stuff I see, I can at least sort of understand how it was done. This borders on the incomprehensible.
The art of Kate MacDowell is deeply disturbing, but also incredibly beautiful. She renders incredibly detailed, accurate, and delicate animal, vegetable, and human forms in fine porcelain clay, blending them together in lovely and frightful ways, commenting on our broken relationship to the world around us. There's a subtle horror at work here. It's beautiful stuff, but it gives me the shudders.
This is much less creepy. Laurel Roth's animal skulls rendered in transparent acrylic. Most are highly polished like clear crystal, but some are orange-tinted like amber. I really, really like these. They aren't just straightforward casts of skulls, although that would be awesome, too. She sculpted them and made them perfectly smooth, which gives them a really neat look. Her detail is perfect.
Wine bar treasure trunk. This thing is really cool.
So is this beautiful table made of a single draped sheet of clear acrylic. Looks like a clear, freestanding tablecloth.
Creating fruit juice 'caviar' using a syringe to drop the juice into a calcium chloride bath. I would LOVE to try this. Go and look at the photos, which are absolutely gorgeous.
Quick and dirty instructions on making a prop mandrake root. There's a lot of room for elaboration here. I really like the idea. What I would love to figure out how to do is give the finished root all those tiny little rootlets and hairs. Scrolling down to the Chinese Fleeceflower portion of this Cracked article shows the effect I would love to get. I have no idea how to go about it.
Old, old article about Christina Hendricks trying to find a gown for the Emmy Awards. She's "too big," so she had trouble, which is ludicrous. Anyway, I've had that open as a tab since, like, SEPTEMBER, so I thought I would just link it and say that the custom gown she wound up with is one of the most beautifully-fitted dresses I've ever seen, and looks like a million bucks on her million-dollar body. It is hard to design for really curvaceous figures. This is what it looks like, done correctly.
Also an old article. Last 'sin-eater' celebrated with church service. The restored grave of Richard Munslow, the last known "sin-eater" in England, has been at the centre of a special service in a Shropshire village churchyard. He was buried in 1906. Nothing of especially staggering awesomeness about this link, it's just a quiet little thing that tugs at my hindbrain and makes me want to tell stories. I've had this link open since September, too. No exaggeration. So I thought I'd just link it here so I can close it.
And, last, a call for participants for research on women's experience of porn. If you're female, over 18, live in the US, and you read/watch/listen to/look at porn/erotica, you might take a look and/or spread the link.
Are You a Woman Who Views, Reads, or Listens to Pornography, Erotica, Romance Novels, and/or any other Sexually Explicit Materials?
If so, please share your experiences!
Complete a Short Survey (30 min or less) and Contribute to a Scholarly Understanding of Women’s Experiences with Sexually Explicit Materials
My name is Kari Hempel and I am a female psychology graduate student who is doing my dissertation research on women’s experiences with sexually explicit materials. For too long women’s real experiences with these materials have been ignored. My goal is not to judge anyone’s experiences, but to accumulate surveys from as many women as possible around the country about their positive, negative, and/or mixed experiences with sexually explicit materials, and to present the differences and commonalities in a scholarly, respectful fashion.