Costume History - an article

Here's an interesting article about about an aspect of fashion/costume history I read this week.  I didn't know that men used to wear high heels to help them stand up in stirrups whilst riding.  It helped balance them so they could shoot their arrows at targets more effectively. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21151350

http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/society/2013/01/130125_high_heel_history.shtml

BBC Article - The Universal Language of Lullabies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21035103


I discovered this interesting article about the similarities of lullabies in different counties, including sound clips of some of them. 

LOL of the day

It's definitely true.......... however in the U.K it's mainly people from the south that have that response to snow, me thinks.  In the city in the south of the U.K where I live, it only has to snow about 10cm and people think it's severe weather & it must be a blizzard!  Shocking!!  Does this mean people buy snow tyres?  No!

Thanks for sharing Olga!  It made me laugh :D

Nature words

It's interesting how our words for different things change from language to language.  Today I was reminded of the different words we have in Welsh for things in the natural world and how they differ from English words.  Here are some -

Dragonfly -  Gwas y Neidr  - literally translates to ' Servant of the Snake'.

Foxglove -  Ffion  - this is a common name for a girl in Welsh

                                          

                                                                     © Dan Morley

 Bluebells -  Clychau'r Gog -  Bells of the cuckoo

                                  

                                                                  © Dave & Lynne Slater

                                                              ©  anemoneprojectors

Grass -   Gwellt -  Probably related to the word 'Gwallt' which means 'hair' when it refers to human hair.
 

Daffodil - Cenhinen Bedr - Peter's Leeks (Saint Peter)

                                  

                                                                        © Alan Cleaver


Hummingbird - Aderyn y Si - Bird of the Buzz


  Badger - Mochyn Daear - Earth Pig

Raven - Cigfran - Meat Crow

                                

                  

Finch - Llinos - Llinos is a Welsh girl's name

Bear - Arth - probably gave it's name to the mythical hero 'Arthur'.  Other Celtic languages have a similar word for 'bear'.

                             

                                                                      © Zero One

Fox - Llwynog - Comes from the word 'llwyn'  which means grove, or bush.


Snowdonia - Eryri - Welsh name for the national park of Snowdonia. It comes from the word 'Eryr' which means 'Eagle', but others say it's means 'highlands'.

The English name for this national park - Snowdonia, comes from Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales and England.  It comes from Old English 'Snaw Dun' which means Snow Hill.  In Welsh this mountain is called Y Wyddfa.

I advise anyone to visit this National Park.   It's a lot greener and leafier in real life than what they show in some of the dramatic photographs of this area.

                                                                   © Les Haines

Forgotten Books

If you like books (not just modern fiction books), you'll probably like (or love) this website.

http://www.forgottenbooks.org

 For those who are interested in out-of-print or rare books, it's a little treasure trove.  It also has an interesting section for those who are interested in folklore, fairytales and myths. 

The Hobbit - film review

If you haven’t seen the film, I wouldn't read much further than this sentence!

  

                         

I haven't read The Hobbit, so my opinions are going to differ from those who’ve read the book.I went to see it in the traditional format.  A friend of mine went to see it in the new 3D 48 frames format, and wasn't very impressed with it. 

Overall, the film was good & most gripes I had were about certain design decisions.

I found myself smiling through about 60% of it, just because of how charming it was. Bag End is featured more in this film, and I got to look around inside and around corners that I didn't in Fellowshipof the Ring, and as a result, those scenes we highly enjoyable. Martin Freeman was perfect in the role, and I couldn't fault him.

Radagast was great as well, drawing some laughs from myself and the audience. Again, charming design.

As always, film studios like to push down the film rating so more (and younger audiences) can lines their wallet. This is really a children / family film, but there were some scenes in it which were so pointlessly graphically violent,  I sat there thinking 'Yep, that was definitely included to draw in a more 'adult' audience'.

If those scenes are in the book, then fine, but if they're new, one has so ask the question 'Why were they included'? To make a film appeal to adult audiences, you don't have to add gore or graphic violence.....and to do so is quite patronising and cheapens it. The Lord of the Rings films were a bit like this, but this time it was even more so.

One thing I did notice with the Hobbit was the design aspect – in places it's weaker. There was a dwarf or two at the beginning which had really fake-looking beards and it was like they hadn’t been taken care of by the make-up team like the rest.

I wasn't incredibly keen on the Elvish design either. I wasn't surprised to learn that this film had a different costume designer from LOTR.  I think they used more CGI in this film, and what were the glittery tiaras all about?

In the LOTR films, the metal-work (everything from broaches to head-pieces) was flawless. I assume they used silver and touched it up afterwards with CGI to give the silver a slight ethereal glow. The glittery material they used in this one just looked a bit like plastic, and deviated from Peter's Jackson deigns philosophy of not being like bombastic 80's fantasy films. Also, this wasn't helped by the fact that the film featured many sunrises and sunsets. Obviously it adds mood to the scene, but too many beautiful sun rises and sunsets can make the film a bit Disney-like.

I think the LOTR film design influenced the games design world (to the point where some were ripping the films).

In The Hobbit, this was reversed - I felt like they had taken inspiration from the games design world. There was something about it that.....well...looked a bit lazy.....like they'd lifted it from the Darkfall games. I just felt the great level of detail wasn't there with this film.

I really enjoyed the film, despite the issues I had with some aspects, and would recommend it. I would say that I even enjoyed it more than the LOTR films when I first saw them in the cinema.



                                                     *********************************************

January Snow

After a year of blah weather, winter is finally here!  We didn't have a summer - only a few days of heat and sunshine and the rest were cloudy days.  It's been raining every week, almost everyday at some point since last June.

This winter has been very mild,  again with lots of rain and not many occasions where is's gone below 5C, and it's often been 12 - 15C.  

Today it was 0C, and I think the poor birds were feeling it!  The little fellow below was so cold he didn't move that much.  Maybe he was conserving his energy, or maybe he was just too cold to care.   I wish I'd brought some bread crumbs with me.  On the other hand, some animals were having lots of fun!  We saw a beautiful dog running around and playing in the snow, and as you can tell, she was born for this weather. 

 

These pigeons looked like they had together for a meeting.....or maybe they were gossiping. 

  

The Gift - подарок

The Gift from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.
WARNING - ADULT CONTENT

I keep coming back to this on Vimeo, hoping that they've made another short film, or somehow made a full film of this project.  It's brilliant - something I haven't seen before.  There's something about about that very vaguely reminds me of The 5th Element, but in a completely different time and place, and without the massive McDonald advert in the film. 

Cats with thumbs - LOL of the day

                      

Green pendants

I was going to tone down this pendant with a deeper green, but I think I'll leave it as it is.  I like this gring - it's refreshing and leafy............although 'leafy' could mean any green really.

I've also made two pendants inspired by orchids.  I'll post more photos in the next week.  I hoped to get more done today, but I spent ages clearing out my studio and bedroom throwing many things away - I can't keep everything!  However, my partner didn't let me throw away any creative stuff.

I'm not sure if to repaint the green part of my pendant (the one in the middle). It has to be perfect!  It needs to be tided-up as well in a few places - I would say it's about 70 - 80% finished.  The ones are the sides are still in the middle of being painted.

Karen Bit Vejle

Yesterday I discovered another paper artist.  Psaligraphy, as some call it, is something that I really enjoy looking at, but not something I'm tempted to try......at least not right now.

 Karen Bit Vejle is from Norway, and she makes incredibly intricate works of art out of paper.  On her elegant and beautiful website, she states 'Psaligraphy – the art of papercutting – requires time', and looking at her work,  you can believe it!  Everything has to be perfect and precise, and her larger works look like vast pieces of lace. At first, I thought she must use a scalpel knife, but on her website it says she only uses scissors.

Her first show was called 'Scissors for a brush' and has been shown at prominent museums in the Nordic countries.   From her website, it says -

'Karen Bit Vejle creates images of air and paper. The works are formed from a large, continuous piece of paper and then cut using only a pair of scissors. Karen Bit Vejle is always cutting while listening to music and every single scissor cut is carefully planned, as the slightest mistake can have disastrous consequences for the finished result. This is a slow art of painstaking patience that demands the utmost concentration. Which part shall be cut out and which shall not?

 

                                                          
                                                                 Photo: Helle S. Andersen
                                                               From: Kalmar Castle Sweden

  

This piece reminds me of a great story, something that would have adorned the walls of the ancient Greeks or Romans (if they had worked with paper instead of fresco).

                                      

                                         Exhibition at THE ROYAL CAFE, Copenhagen.

                                                              Photo: Adam Grønne

  

                                                                                           

                         
 

                                 
                                                                Photo -  Marjaana Malkamäki


                                           To see more, please visit her website and online shop -

                                                              http://papercutart.no/
                                                          http://store.papercutart.no/