Dandelion magic toy.

Here is the dandelion magic trick. Because there is already the element of magic attached to it, I like to think that one can throw in the myths associated with dandelions, and make a wish as you spin it, or send a thought to a loved one. I think the green string worked wonderfully with the image but will not work for many others so I need to start a little collection.
The metal spins much better than the card prototypes because it is heavier= better inertia. ( I say as if I really know what that means).

I think the interactive element to this allows so much more room for triggering and/creating memories associated with this old invention and it's revamp.
I am working on an animated gif to give an idea of how beautifully the images become one when it spins.

Beau Brummel- The Dandy King

I watched a movie about Beau Brummel starring Stewart Granger (who was my Grandmother's favourite) and the curvaceous Elizabeth Taylor.

He reminded me of a walking coat hanger.

Abra cadabra: Concocting the spell

I attempted both etching and piercing the silver for the pieces, etching the pennyfarthing and rider on either side of one disc of silver.

 I pierced the dandelion and diagrettes on two thinner silver discs, as the image allowed for piercing it our without any pieces falling out-a limitation i will have to consider with my future attempts.

 I blackened and then removed the blackening around the pierced sections so that they would stand out next to the vinyl which i used as a backing for each image, in-between the two sheets of silver.

 I drilled holes all around each disc which was quite tricky to align, I did my best by drilling four evenly spaced holes lied up on each, and then tightly tying them together through those holes before drilling further.

 The etched disc is unfotrunately not as harsh a silhouette as is necessary for this trick to work, but perhaps resin might be the solution, if i etch deeper a thicker disc in future. It is quite important to get this one right eventually because it allows for the images in which pierced pieces would fall out- such as the bicycle or bird cage.

The holes around the discs are there because I think threading the edges is a good solution to give it an extra something. a flat disc can be quite boring, and it will also be a visual link to the string that it spins on.

Victorian Magic. Folklore fun.

I have tried a few variations of images to combine for the magic necklaces. And the possibilities are simply endless, but here are a few.

Bird and Cage

Cyclist and pennyfarthing

Dandylion and diagrettes

Tea pot and cup

Animals 

Boy and his stick horse

Fish/butterfly and net

As Metcalf refers to in his essay On The Nature of Jewellery, it's limitations and boundaries can be a useful guideline, as opposed to a constriction. This too can apply in the subject matter, i think, because it becomes overwhelming to consider the world of existing objects or imagery. To help with this, better defining my area of "folklore" and "nostalgia" will happily limit my spectrum of images. 

Perhaps, even then, it might be best to focus on personal or European folklore, for example. I hope to feel it over time.

Folklife, Silhouettes, Dandyism, Victoria, Heaven.

At http://www.thebazaarium.com/ I found these wonderful works full of clever witticisms and inventive word-play silhouettes. Here is a piece called "Dandy Lion."

Dandyism is a term i recently discovered and relate quite strongly to. 

 "Baudelaire, commented that the dandies had "no profession other than elegance...no other status but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons....The dandy must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live and sleep before a mirror." (Seigel, 98-99) "

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/boheme/dandyism.html 

This is a particular kind of personal folklore, in which one essentially makes their own set of associations to be held to, and lives by them. As jewellery is in it's essence a fashion or visual guide to it's wearer, I think it has the appropriate nature to allow for it's own Dandyism. It is then left for me to decide which folklore objects, styles or imagery I wish to apply, or present to the public to choose from.

The nature of a jeweller is perhaps more to offer a range of Dandy personas and allow each to choose pieces according to their own?

http://thebazaarium.bigcartel.com/about

Nice things in Jhb.

Discotiquity is what I call it. I found myself in the most visually interesting place I have ever been. The Classic Corner Headquarters (CCHQ), a club in Johannesburg, is full-to-overflowing with antiques and cult-classic posters, pirate paraphernalia and musical instruments. It feels like there are thousands of stories all around you. I was in folkheaven. 

As Promised- Dandelion Diagrette

Here is the dandelion diagrette that happened to be on my keyboard whilst researching dandelions. Magical Synchronicity!

The Hidden Meaning Symbol- Interesting

This is a great example of the nostalgia people bring to an object leaving it with more, and more intimate meaning than was it's original intentional.

All grown up with no place to go.

 My youngest brother recently had his Matric dance for which I made his date a corsage. The florist was flooded with orders and so I made do with some pearlescent faux flowers.

 I covered the ugly elastic which formed the band with some white lace, gathered such that it could stretch with the elastic. In each stitch where it was gathered I put a pearl bead.

To add some volume and a touch of silver (to match her jewellery) I sewed in some ribbon folds.

I had bought some mini carnations to use but they ended up competing with the fake flowers, and so used some non-competitive Jip to fill up and visually soften the corsage.

The organic with the subtle colour spectrum of the fake flowers made for a very pleasing friendship.

The real reward came not from how well I had or hadn't executed the nit-picking details or balance of old, new, and organic, but rather from the delight in the wearers reaction at the thought of having been given a corsage. She had romanticized about receiving one to her mother and had thought it too old fashioned to be possible.
I am glad that although there were not real flowers as the main feature, what is there is a keepsake which will last longer, with the newly added value of association/connotation. It "is" the Matric dance.