else mora does frida kahlo

today i was lucky enough to find this paper cut necklace based on this frida kahlo self portrait. much like i imagine stencil making being, paper art seems to be a painstaking process meant for the patient and steady of hand. however, especially in the case of elsa mora's work, it's often incredibly delicate and beautiful. i highly recommend voyaging through all three of her blogs, they are overflowing with lovely inspiration and artwork.

elsa wearing her handmade necklace.

her etsy shop, which is filled with original and printed versions of her fantastical papercuts, recently began selling paper cutting patterns for those of you curious about the process.  

XOXO

summer reading

do you know about muumuu house? you should. it's a collective of young writers headed by lost generation writer tao lin. these two books of poetry, "during my nervous breakdowns i want to have a biographer present" & "sometimes my heart pushes my ribs" are a double punch from the house of muumuu and i look forward to getting my paint crusted hands on them this summer to read and review. 
ellen kennedy has a e-book here at bear parade if you can't wait to see what she's all about. 

Mad Tea Party!!!!!

annie leibovitz

gypsy witch fortune telling tea cup 

trixie delicious 7 deadly sins tea cup & saucer set 

tea party ring

Antonio Murado Salome 

Su Blackwell

XOXO 

Blood Milk

please visit our host, vanessa's blog: a fanciful twist to find links to other tea parties today!

kelly louise judd aka swan bones is another lovely member of the etsy cabinet of curiosities team. Her work has an old, victorian feel and her subject matter is always slightly odd and dark fairy tale esq. i'm especially enamored with this wolf girl drawing, the original of which is still available in her etsy shop.

xoxo

bruno dayan does ray caesar

awhile ago i stumbled upon a photo that looked very much like a ray caesar piece and never found out who the photographer was until now. i was reading the lovely blog haute macabre which featured a spread on photographer bruno dayan. mystery solved! the rest of his work features beautiful color control and (my favorite) slightly crazy and half nude women. have a peek for yourself! 

xoxo 

"sleeping by day" ray caesar

russian darlings.

this past saturday i had a chance to pop over to sloan fine art in nyc to see the new jonathan viner solo show. the show featured a harem of plugged in nudes in his signature muted color palette. here the women were less stylized than in the past and seemed to be caught in a restful moment while older works seemed to focus on unfolding actions. i wrote a review of it over at fecal face.

xo.

is there blood in my hair?

i've been completely obsessed over the new season of true blood and thoroughly enjoying all the internet buzz about eric's hair. 

xo

wild wolf jewels

lady thunder wing is my kindred spirit of jewel making. she makes amazing talisman jewelry, such as these moonstone and rattlesnake earrings that i'm wildly smitten with. take a peek at her shop for more wearable oddities i'm sure you'll covet. she's also a member of the cabinet of curiosities etsy team that is filled with many dark and mysterious handmade lovelies.  

xoxo

since i've lately returned to using colored pencils in my work, i've been looking to other master pencilists for inspiration. fumi mini nakamara is one such lady. above is sweet piece from her most recent series, "shapeshifter". i've been a long time fan of hers and look forward to seeing new work in the future.

xo 

haunted photo lab

i've been keeping this secret from here for far too long....i don't remember how i stumbled upon it, but this japanese site that i've named old photo lab quickly turns any photo you upload into a more ghostly,victorian tin-type image. i recently rediscovered it when i was reentering my link list. this editorial photo reminds me of what lydia from beetlejuice might look like in modern day or if she was teleported into a bram stoker novel after the photo lab.....

xoxo

the lovely morgan just sent over some pictures of her modeling 'seeing the unseen', a wolf tooth necklace she just bought from me last week. i love to use teeth in my work, i believe they are metaphors for secrets and fortune telling. 

p.s. i'm trying to remodel my blog and lost all my links! :( i'm trying to list them all again!

xo

leda and the swan

lately i've been thinking a lot about the myth of leda and the swan as i prepare for my upcoming show at mew gallery this august. i was struck by this myth of how zeus took the form of a giant swan and imposed himself in this form on the young and beautiful leda. the idea of the veil between mortals and the gods being so flimsy was captivating to me, as well as the choice of bird zeus choose. the result of this rape was the birth of twins castor and pollux as well as helen of troy and clytemnestra, thought to have been hatched within two separate twin eggs from leda. such a bizarre and striking image to reset the imagination.

this is a photo entitled 'that white rush' from photographer/film maker sam taylor-wood. the title comes from a line from the lovely yeats poem about this encounter:

And how can body, laid in that white rush,  

   But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

fernando vicente

fernando vicente has a whole slew of amazing portraits of exposed women entitled 'vanitas'. these portraits have a strange feeling of deja vu for me in that they visually represent the themes i explore in my fiction; the inner and outer landscapes of ourselves simultaneously  at odds and in harmony. here, the seemingly same women as in the other works, exposes her neck in a seductive manner, as if she's offering her bones and muscles to a lover to bite or kiss. i for one, have fallen entirely in love with the whole series and know at least a few of you might too. check out more bodyworks at his blog. 

i've always loved zines and used to make blank ones when i was in grade school. i would staple printer paper together and decorate the cover with lisa frank unicorn stickers and crayoned rainbows. inside i imagined the words i could write or the images i could draw, but something about all those blank pages intimidated me as a kid. when i found out about "real" zines in high school i would trade random things with people for their photo copied collage books and vowed to make my own one day. 

pikaland  (which is a lovely site worth exploring) has started creating a series of zines called 'good to know', focused on supporting and exposing the arts community by having artists share and confess about what makes them an artist. the first issue includes secrets about creative blocks and inspirations and the second focuses on personal style. being ever so curious and somewhat voyeuristic about what tortures and motivates other artists, i was very excited about this project &  needed to share it here immediately!

you can either download a pdf file for a tiny fee of 2.50 or, if you're like me and need to have a tangible copy to collect and covet, you can order both issues from their etsy shop.  

i don't know much about chinese artist ren jing, but sometimes an image is so captivating that it doesn't need any words.

xo.

being a lover of portraiture, especially portraits of females who look slightly crazed, i was immediately drawn into this painting by gavin nolan called 'ride a white horse'. his other work features like minded individuals who more or less are out of proportion and all have a touch of hysteria and mystery. i was pleased to find him currently showing with another genius painter, julie heffernan, who seemingly obsessively paints her long white body and pale red hair in various landscapes reminiscent of renissance paintings and costumed by heaps of dead animals or natural elements. if you're a lucky californian, check out their joint show at mark moore gallery, open until july 3rd.

live fast, die young

these rainy days i've been traveling around in a boat filled with salt, thinking of a few of my favorite doomed ladies.

joan of arc. (1412-1431) died as a"witch" at the stake despite her many conquests in battle.

lady jane grey ( 1537-1554) executed for being queen at the wrong place and time, lady jane was queen for a mere 9 days and died before turning 17.

marie antoinette. (1755-1793) beheaded during the reign of terror at the peak of the french revolution. 

found.  

i've been following irana douer for quite some time now, ever since i stumbled on her amazing monthly online magazine, ruby mag, while i was still in college. i love the paintings of her braided and bloodied ladies floating in white outer-space. the femmes in her work always throb with psychic traumas and vitality, which is why i'm always falling in love with every new one that sprouts up.

xo

my favorite canadian artist, jon todd, has a new website up! he'll also be showing with NY's martin wittfooth this summer in montreal at yves laroche gallery. the two person show, 'Babylon' will have paintings, sculpture and drawings as well as collaborative pieces based around the apocalyptic themes of the tower of babel. o how i long to be there on opening night! 

also, jon has these amazing prints available as custom panels or loose prints on the elliptic  website, an interesting and fresh take on those 'keep calm and carry on' posters that have been floating around for a while now.

junko mizuno.

one of my long time favorite artists, junko mizuno has a new book out!!!! i'm not entirely sure how to order it, but check it out over here.

also, just when i thought i was over vinyl toys, kidrobot went and released these lovelies by her as well................ i'm especially digging the flintstone-esq- pink haired lady with slabs of meat and the twins, of course.

xo

& the winner is............

to pick the winner i made a list of everyone's name who commented. then i randomly choose 24 tarot cards from my lovely salvador dali deck. amanda then shuffled them up until her heart's content and handed me each card which i then listed next to a name on my list, in order, so each one of you has your own tarot card. they are listed below so if you want to go check out what the card that was drawn for you means, you can over here at learn tarot. there are many other resources online and in books, but i find this one very accessible, especially for beginners. here is a source that outlines the meanings of reversed cards, since so many of you got them and the above website doesn't go into detail about the meanings of reversed cards. 

** EDIT** please don't be alarmed if your card seems "bad." investigate further on the internet or library, or get a true reading from a skilled reader in person. i only give "true" readings in person, when i get a sense of that person and their energy. xoxoxo  

leila: the tower reversed

lady fox and hound:the magician reversed

swashbuckleher: the world reversed

get ready set go: 8 of swords

danielle v: 7 of pentacles

rachel: 3 of swords

claire: the high priestess reversed 

sojournher: temperance 

mariarita: the devil reversed 

sue: the moon

jtk: the empress

keri: the star

joanne waryga: the hanged man reversed 

morgan: the ace of pentacles reversed

the giveaway diva: the sun

beth: the lovers

jen: strength

planet caroline: death

heather jean: king of pentacles

choklit: judgement

kelly patton: 9 of swords

verse: queen of swords

mon victorian: 2 of cups reversed 

pop culture casualty: 10 of pentacles reversed 

so after this list was compiled, amanda and i took turns shuffling the deck, and then i picked the winner!!!!

Ingrid from POP CULTURE CASUALTY!!!! who was the very last person to comment!

when we were picking the winner, my little BT daisy jumped in my lap to be in the photo too!

SO thank you all again for entering my contest, it was a lot of fun to hear all of your reactions to my work! 

last day to enter giveaway!!!

hi........

today is the last day to enter the my giveaway contest for a CUSTOM piece of jewelry! all you have to do is comment on this post here. you can write me anything you want, even just hi! tomorrow afternoon amanda and i will have a creative surprise on how we randomly pick the winner and he/she will then be contacted to start discussing their personal interests, obsessions and beliefs! i can't wait to start making it and to see who wins!

( me at my booth & my bestie amanda who always helps me out  every year! at art star)   

i feel like all this week i've been humming with electricity from meeting such lovely people last weekend at the 6th art star craft bazzar and for all the amazing (!!!) comments to my giveaway post!!! (which i'll respond to after the contest!)  i've already begun to list all the jewelry that didn't go home with anyone and all the new work i've already started assembling on my etsy shop, so keep checking if there was something you had your eye on.......it might pop up there any second!, like these jawbone earrings i coupled with tiny carnival coins and 2 different, vintage brass chains.

good luck and as always, thank you! 

xoxo

p.s check out some of the write ups i've had about art star:

indie fixx

one fine philly

dove my mind.

design philadelphia.

deadly kisses and desert crystals

i'm really digging these lovely new oxidized bullet casing/crystal dagger necklaces by unearthen. they look like lipstick tubes from the future. the packaging looks brilliant as well, it has a nice handmade touch and comes with a hand-bound book describing the magical properties of the chosen crystal.

check out more dark lovlies at bona drag. our very own etsy cabinet of curiosities moderator, lady lavona, has her supernatural specimen necklaces available there as well.

xoxo

i am writing to you with my eyes

now that my intense jewelry assembling has slightly subsided, i'll be focusing  more of my attentions to my upcoming solo show at mew gallery this august. i'm very excited to be showing there again as i had my very first show there (outside of a bar or boutique) last summer and the ladies who run it are absolutely amazing and have supported me from the start!

the show will be called 'i am writing to you with my eyes' which is a line of text i found while i was re-reading frida kahlo's diary recently when i was stuck in bed. i began to think how artists, specifically a few of my favorite female artists have done this by revealing intimate parts of themselves through visual images, such as self-portraits and photographs. i also thought of one of my favorite poets, anne sexton, who i feel also does this in written texts because her language is so visual and intensely personal. and so, the idea for my show began sprouting all the while i was exiled in my bed with frida's diary, a book of diane arbus photos and anne's complete poems. 

i've begun to collect imgaes of vintage cameras for reference, such as the one above, which is really a tiny tiny working camera from Japan after WWII. If you have any images of vintage cameras, please please send them over to me! at jlschnabel@gmail.com.

wow i've been filled with so many wonderful feelings since the art star craft bazaar! i met such amazing people! thank you to all of the lovely boys and ladies who bought jewelry from me this past weekend, who asked thoughtful questions about my work, and who gave such lovely and personal feedback. i make this jewelry for people like you, who have a story that becomes connected to the piece of jewelry of mine that then lives on with you. the above picture is of the cutest lady who couldn't decided which ring to buy so she tried all of them on! 

the shop is bare but i promise to have it filled with all new treasures and stories this week. 

thank you all again and again!

p.s my first giveaway for a custom piece of jewelry ends this saturday! if you haven't already done so, please leave a comment to this post. all you need to say is hi if you like!