Alex Dragulascu
www.sq.ro
I liked the way Alex Dragulascu morphed spams into some sort of an art format + they looked beautiful.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
The Virtual Community
The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier by Howard Rheingold is an important book on issues surrounding the world online communities + I think it's a must read.
Useful link:
www.rheingold.com
Useful link:
www.rheingold.com
A New Pearl Center In Zhuji, China
China Pearls and Jewelry City has announced the grand opening of pearls & jewelry exhibition center in Zhuji, China, on April 18, 2008 + the facilities and services include a center for manufacturing + processing and trading pearls + jewelry / accessories/equipment + 5,000 shops / booths + a year-round platform for exhibition/ display / trade + warehouse / logistics facilities + import and export / banking / insurance services + a five-star hotel /restaurants /entertainment / residential facilities + an international jewelry appraisal and training center.
Useful links:
www.cpjcity.com
www.zj.gov.cn
Useful links:
www.cpjcity.com
www.zj.gov.cn
The New World
(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:
3. The Modern Jeweler
‘Beauty unadorned?’
Why shouldn’t it be adorned? Even the perfect rose will at times enhance its beauty by wearing a jewel in the form of a flashing dewdrop—and no one pulls a long face of reproof. It may be argued with truth that the dewdrop is always in good taste, while our jewelry is at time sadly lacking in that respect. Nevertheless, fashions of today are sufficiently varied to offer an exceptionally wide choice. The year 1939 brought an influx of so-called ‘costume jewelry’. Heavy and gorgeous in its imitation gold and synthetic gems, such jewelry is not expected to fool anybody as to the authenticity of its materials, but is worn as an accessory to some special gown, much as half a century ago we trimmed our dresses with colored glass beads woven into decorative bands called passementerie. Passementerie was discarded with the gown it ornamented and so will be the costume jewelry of the moment; yet worn with discretion this barbaric style can be extremely effective.
It is to Paris we look for the latest word in styles, yet America is also creating her own styles and rivaling even French technique in the (sometimes arduous) task of making us pleasing to the eye. At any rate, when Paris and New York combine forces in that particular field, you have something hard to beat in any land.
At the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street, New York City, stands Cartier, Inc. First established in Paris about 1840, Cartier’s was soon after to be found in London also, and by 1900 in New York City as well. At Cartier’s Fifth Avenue, may be seen the latest word in twentieth-century jewels, from tiaras, fit for royalty, to tiny golden bangles, fashioned according to the fleeting craze of the moment. Here, it would not be in the least difficult to spend several fortunes (if you happened to have them) without turning around. On the other hand you will also find a display of distinctive examples of the jeweler’s art, priced well within the limits of a modest pocketbook.
Viewed from the street, one gets the effect of a shop, select and conservatively small. But that reticent exterior is a doorway into two six-story buildings whose upper floors are all humming with the varied activities of skilled artisans and designers, for much of Cartier’s jewelry is made on the spot.
As one example of cosmopolitan development of the jeweler’s craft, let us go backstage where the public as a rule does not venture, and watch at close range some of the steps in the making of fine jewelry of today. An elevator takes us to the top of the building, and we enter a room dedicated to the appraisal of precious stones. One’s first impression is lack of all color, a room in black and gray, arranged for the special purpose of giving the best possible conditions for seeing. Daylight, the cold north light most desired by the painter, who must clearly differentiate his colors, falls on tables covered with black felt. Here the expert may examine the precious stone under consideration without any disturbing intrusion of other colors. As a rule, the layman does not fully realize how the eye reacts to a juxtaposition of two or more different colors—each one of which may appear to have undergone a change when seen by itself. The colorless room, however, takes care of that difficulty and allows a single gem to be seen at its true color-value, or else in its true relation to a differently colored stone.
Next we go to a strong room in which great safes hold trays of precious and semi-precious stones, some dressed, some still in the rough. Many of the latter completely hide their potential magnificence and look like dull and shapeless pebbles, yet one or another of these unimpressive little stones may represent cash in four figures. But before their value becomes evident to the public the sleeping beauty in each stone must be awakened by the hum of the lapidary’s wheel.
As we approach the next room we can hear the humming obbligato of wheels, puncutated by little whining solos as a ruby or sapphire is pressed against a whirling ‘lap’. There are many machines, and the lapidaries sit at long tables, each man with his rapidly revolving wheel before him. The stone to be cut is embedded in a bit of wax,of a special kind, and stuck fast to the end of a small stick. Near the wheel is an upright rest, called a ‘jamb-peg’. It is notched at intervals and serves as a brace for the upper end of the stick while the gem is being pressed firmly, at any desired angle, against the lap. Other than this simple contrivance, the lapidary depends generally on nothing but his eye and his long-trained judgment for the exact placement of a facet.
In rooms where loose gems are handled, the floor is covered with a wooden grill. If a stone chances to fall on the floor it is likely to lodge in a crevice, safe from passing feet until it is recovered. Few gems are ever lost, however, for every worker checks and rechecks his supply, and risk is further removed by a man who carefully examines every scrap of waste paper before throwing it into the discard.
The New World (continued)
3. The Modern Jeweler
‘Beauty unadorned?’
Why shouldn’t it be adorned? Even the perfect rose will at times enhance its beauty by wearing a jewel in the form of a flashing dewdrop—and no one pulls a long face of reproof. It may be argued with truth that the dewdrop is always in good taste, while our jewelry is at time sadly lacking in that respect. Nevertheless, fashions of today are sufficiently varied to offer an exceptionally wide choice. The year 1939 brought an influx of so-called ‘costume jewelry’. Heavy and gorgeous in its imitation gold and synthetic gems, such jewelry is not expected to fool anybody as to the authenticity of its materials, but is worn as an accessory to some special gown, much as half a century ago we trimmed our dresses with colored glass beads woven into decorative bands called passementerie. Passementerie was discarded with the gown it ornamented and so will be the costume jewelry of the moment; yet worn with discretion this barbaric style can be extremely effective.
It is to Paris we look for the latest word in styles, yet America is also creating her own styles and rivaling even French technique in the (sometimes arduous) task of making us pleasing to the eye. At any rate, when Paris and New York combine forces in that particular field, you have something hard to beat in any land.
At the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street, New York City, stands Cartier, Inc. First established in Paris about 1840, Cartier’s was soon after to be found in London also, and by 1900 in New York City as well. At Cartier’s Fifth Avenue, may be seen the latest word in twentieth-century jewels, from tiaras, fit for royalty, to tiny golden bangles, fashioned according to the fleeting craze of the moment. Here, it would not be in the least difficult to spend several fortunes (if you happened to have them) without turning around. On the other hand you will also find a display of distinctive examples of the jeweler’s art, priced well within the limits of a modest pocketbook.
Viewed from the street, one gets the effect of a shop, select and conservatively small. But that reticent exterior is a doorway into two six-story buildings whose upper floors are all humming with the varied activities of skilled artisans and designers, for much of Cartier’s jewelry is made on the spot.
As one example of cosmopolitan development of the jeweler’s craft, let us go backstage where the public as a rule does not venture, and watch at close range some of the steps in the making of fine jewelry of today. An elevator takes us to the top of the building, and we enter a room dedicated to the appraisal of precious stones. One’s first impression is lack of all color, a room in black and gray, arranged for the special purpose of giving the best possible conditions for seeing. Daylight, the cold north light most desired by the painter, who must clearly differentiate his colors, falls on tables covered with black felt. Here the expert may examine the precious stone under consideration without any disturbing intrusion of other colors. As a rule, the layman does not fully realize how the eye reacts to a juxtaposition of two or more different colors—each one of which may appear to have undergone a change when seen by itself. The colorless room, however, takes care of that difficulty and allows a single gem to be seen at its true color-value, or else in its true relation to a differently colored stone.
Next we go to a strong room in which great safes hold trays of precious and semi-precious stones, some dressed, some still in the rough. Many of the latter completely hide their potential magnificence and look like dull and shapeless pebbles, yet one or another of these unimpressive little stones may represent cash in four figures. But before their value becomes evident to the public the sleeping beauty in each stone must be awakened by the hum of the lapidary’s wheel.
As we approach the next room we can hear the humming obbligato of wheels, puncutated by little whining solos as a ruby or sapphire is pressed against a whirling ‘lap’. There are many machines, and the lapidaries sit at long tables, each man with his rapidly revolving wheel before him. The stone to be cut is embedded in a bit of wax,of a special kind, and stuck fast to the end of a small stick. Near the wheel is an upright rest, called a ‘jamb-peg’. It is notched at intervals and serves as a brace for the upper end of the stick while the gem is being pressed firmly, at any desired angle, against the lap. Other than this simple contrivance, the lapidary depends generally on nothing but his eye and his long-trained judgment for the exact placement of a facet.
In rooms where loose gems are handled, the floor is covered with a wooden grill. If a stone chances to fall on the floor it is likely to lodge in a crevice, safe from passing feet until it is recovered. Few gems are ever lost, however, for every worker checks and rechecks his supply, and risk is further removed by a man who carefully examines every scrap of waste paper before throwing it into the discard.
The New World (continued)
The Pre-Raphaelites
(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:
3
Meanwhile Rossetti had been treading another path, forsaking the naturalism of Holman Hunt, but avoiding the anecdotal triviality that tempted Millais; his pictures became more and more dream-like in their imaginative aloofness from life. The popularity that Millais courted was shunned by Rossetti, who, relying on the patronage of Ruskin and other admirers, ceased to exhibit his pictures except in his own studio.
In 1857 Rossetti went to Oxford with the intention of executing wall-paintings in the Debating Hall of the Union Society, and there he gathered round him a brilliant band of pupils, chief among whom were two undergraduates from Exeter College, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98) Unfortunately the English climate is fatal to true fresco painting, but though the Oxford decorations rapidly perished, and today are hardly visible, they remain historic as marking the starting-point of a new phase of Pre-Raphaelitism, in which the naturalist element was lost and its place taken by a more deliberately decorative and romantic medievalism. Of this new school Rossetti was as definitely the leader and inspirer as Holman Hunt had been of the original Brotherhood, and though for many years the pictures produced by Rossetti and his followers continued to be commonly described as ‘Pre-Raphaelite,’ it is now clear that their productions really had little to do with the original Pre-Raphaelitism, but formed part of what became known later as the ‘Aesthetic Movement.’
In 1862 Eleanor Siddal, who for ten years had been Rossetti’s model and constant inspiration, died, and at first the bereaved husband was so prostrated with grief that he was totally unfitted for work. But two years later he recommenced painting in oils, and reached the highest point in his ‘Lady Lilith’ of 1864, and ‘The Beloved,’ painted in 1865-6. Though nominally a subject from the Song of Solomon, this voluptuous presentation of feminine beauty, which for sheer loveliness rivals a Botticelli, is far removed from the simple and comparatively stern Bibilical paintings of the artist’s youth. The subject is clothed in the garb of medievalism, enveloped in the romance of fairy-tale, and heightened by a brilliance of color unsurpassed in the painter’s work.
Rossetti’s pictorial work may be divided into three periods, each of which is dominated by an ideal of womanhood derived from a living woman; in the first period she is his sister Christina, in the second his wife Eleanor Siddal, and the inspiration of the third was Mrs William Morris. Of the many pictures she inspired one of the most beautiful is ‘The Day-dream’ in the Ionides Collection at South Kensington, but though he painted her in many characters, he never painted Mrs Morris as Dante’s Beatrice. That character was sacred to his wife, and it was in memory of her that be began to paint in 1863—though it was not finished till much later—the ‘Beata Beatrix,’ now in the Tate Gallery. The picture, according to Rossetti, ‘is not intended at all to represent death, but to render it under the semblance of a trance, in which Beatrice, seated at a balcony overlooking the city (Florence), is suddenly rapt from earth to heaven.’
Rossetti died at Birchington in 1882, but his ideals were faithfully carried on by the most celebrated of his pupils, Edward Burne-Jones, who had been intended for the Church, but after meeting Rossetti at Oxford felt he must be a painter. One great difference between their pictures lay in their different ideals of womanhood, for while the women of Rossetti were full-blooded and passionate, those of Burne-Jones were of so refined a spirituality that to many people they appear anaemic.Otherwise the paintings of Burne-Jones are as remote from naturalism as the later works of Rossetti; he also gives us dream pictures of an imaginary medievalism; and while Rossetti, as became his Italian descent, found his ideal in the Florence of Dante’s time, the Welshman Burne-Jones fittingly found his in the legendary court of King Arthur. Both, however, were inspired by the same feeling for chivalry and romance, and the distance that had been traveled from Holman Hunt’s naturalism may be traced in the famous confession of Burne-Jones that he longed to paint ‘the light that never was on sea or land.’
In 1884 he exhibited one of his best known and most popular works, ‘King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid,’ at the Grosvenor Gallery, and two years later, at the age of fifty thrree, he was tardily elected A.R.A, but he was never much in sympathy with the Academy, seldom exhibited there, and in 1893, five years before he died, he resigned his Associateship.
In addition to his pictures and water colors, Burne-Jones designed a number of tapestries and stained-glass windows for his lifelong friend William Morris, whose unbounded artistic energy found more congenial occupation in reviving crafts than in practising painting. In Morris the medievalism of Rossetti found a furiously eager and thoroughgoing exponent, and though many of his ideas were unpractical, his inauguration of the Arts and Crafts Society was one of the most fruitful art movements of the Victorian era, and to him more than to any other man we owe not only the revival of tapestry and stained glass but a great improvement on fine printing, in furniture, pottery, wall papers, and interior decoration generally.
Holman Hunt, the eldest of the Pre-Raphaelites, survived them all, and after painting a series of sacred pictures unique in English art for their religious fervor and geographical exactitude, he died in September 1910 at the great age of eighty three.
3
Meanwhile Rossetti had been treading another path, forsaking the naturalism of Holman Hunt, but avoiding the anecdotal triviality that tempted Millais; his pictures became more and more dream-like in their imaginative aloofness from life. The popularity that Millais courted was shunned by Rossetti, who, relying on the patronage of Ruskin and other admirers, ceased to exhibit his pictures except in his own studio.
In 1857 Rossetti went to Oxford with the intention of executing wall-paintings in the Debating Hall of the Union Society, and there he gathered round him a brilliant band of pupils, chief among whom were two undergraduates from Exeter College, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98) Unfortunately the English climate is fatal to true fresco painting, but though the Oxford decorations rapidly perished, and today are hardly visible, they remain historic as marking the starting-point of a new phase of Pre-Raphaelitism, in which the naturalist element was lost and its place taken by a more deliberately decorative and romantic medievalism. Of this new school Rossetti was as definitely the leader and inspirer as Holman Hunt had been of the original Brotherhood, and though for many years the pictures produced by Rossetti and his followers continued to be commonly described as ‘Pre-Raphaelite,’ it is now clear that their productions really had little to do with the original Pre-Raphaelitism, but formed part of what became known later as the ‘Aesthetic Movement.’
In 1862 Eleanor Siddal, who for ten years had been Rossetti’s model and constant inspiration, died, and at first the bereaved husband was so prostrated with grief that he was totally unfitted for work. But two years later he recommenced painting in oils, and reached the highest point in his ‘Lady Lilith’ of 1864, and ‘The Beloved,’ painted in 1865-6. Though nominally a subject from the Song of Solomon, this voluptuous presentation of feminine beauty, which for sheer loveliness rivals a Botticelli, is far removed from the simple and comparatively stern Bibilical paintings of the artist’s youth. The subject is clothed in the garb of medievalism, enveloped in the romance of fairy-tale, and heightened by a brilliance of color unsurpassed in the painter’s work.
Rossetti’s pictorial work may be divided into three periods, each of which is dominated by an ideal of womanhood derived from a living woman; in the first period she is his sister Christina, in the second his wife Eleanor Siddal, and the inspiration of the third was Mrs William Morris. Of the many pictures she inspired one of the most beautiful is ‘The Day-dream’ in the Ionides Collection at South Kensington, but though he painted her in many characters, he never painted Mrs Morris as Dante’s Beatrice. That character was sacred to his wife, and it was in memory of her that be began to paint in 1863—though it was not finished till much later—the ‘Beata Beatrix,’ now in the Tate Gallery. The picture, according to Rossetti, ‘is not intended at all to represent death, but to render it under the semblance of a trance, in which Beatrice, seated at a balcony overlooking the city (Florence), is suddenly rapt from earth to heaven.’
Rossetti died at Birchington in 1882, but his ideals were faithfully carried on by the most celebrated of his pupils, Edward Burne-Jones, who had been intended for the Church, but after meeting Rossetti at Oxford felt he must be a painter. One great difference between their pictures lay in their different ideals of womanhood, for while the women of Rossetti were full-blooded and passionate, those of Burne-Jones were of so refined a spirituality that to many people they appear anaemic.Otherwise the paintings of Burne-Jones are as remote from naturalism as the later works of Rossetti; he also gives us dream pictures of an imaginary medievalism; and while Rossetti, as became his Italian descent, found his ideal in the Florence of Dante’s time, the Welshman Burne-Jones fittingly found his in the legendary court of King Arthur. Both, however, were inspired by the same feeling for chivalry and romance, and the distance that had been traveled from Holman Hunt’s naturalism may be traced in the famous confession of Burne-Jones that he longed to paint ‘the light that never was on sea or land.’
In 1884 he exhibited one of his best known and most popular works, ‘King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid,’ at the Grosvenor Gallery, and two years later, at the age of fifty thrree, he was tardily elected A.R.A, but he was never much in sympathy with the Academy, seldom exhibited there, and in 1893, five years before he died, he resigned his Associateship.
In addition to his pictures and water colors, Burne-Jones designed a number of tapestries and stained-glass windows for his lifelong friend William Morris, whose unbounded artistic energy found more congenial occupation in reviving crafts than in practising painting. In Morris the medievalism of Rossetti found a furiously eager and thoroughgoing exponent, and though many of his ideas were unpractical, his inauguration of the Arts and Crafts Society was one of the most fruitful art movements of the Victorian era, and to him more than to any other man we owe not only the revival of tapestry and stained glass but a great improvement on fine printing, in furniture, pottery, wall papers, and interior decoration generally.
Holman Hunt, the eldest of the Pre-Raphaelites, survived them all, and after painting a series of sacred pictures unique in English art for their religious fervor and geographical exactitude, he died in September 1910 at the great age of eighty three.
Freemium Business Model
I found the freemium business model @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium_business_model interesting + insightful + I really liked the concept.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium_business_model interesting + insightful + I really liked the concept.
Nigerian Gem Deposits
Nigeria produces commercially important colored stones such as corundum (ruby + sapphire) + beryl (emerald + green beryl + aquamarine) + tourmaline (various colors) + topaz + garnet (spessartine), but most gem deposits are small-scale operations and irregular and often sold to dealers from East/West Africa/Europeans/Asians/North Americans + marketing channels are inefficient and disruptive + gemological knowledge is almost nonexistent + the local gem cutting industry needs a major facelift.
In my view the country has the potential if there are proper mining infrastructures + less corruption (difficult to get rid off) + improved security + proper gemological training at all levels + less bureaucracy.
Gem sales at Ibadan + Jos are good starts, but the government need to do more so that foreigners feel comfortable when buying gemstones through proper but reliable channels.
In my view the country has the potential if there are proper mining infrastructures + less corruption (difficult to get rid off) + improved security + proper gemological training at all levels + less bureaucracy.
Gem sales at Ibadan + Jos are good starts, but the government need to do more so that foreigners feel comfortable when buying gemstones through proper but reliable channels.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Random Thoughts
When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style.
- Bruce Lee
- Bruce Lee
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