Reblogged nadireedperez
ourwayswillchange
Reblogged nadireedperez
1920 c. Just before the emergence of Art Deco, here is a last gasp of Art Nouveau design in this bracelet by Luis Masriera. It’s made of gold, colored glass, diamonds and cameo. From Art Deco, FB.
aaaaa ‘colored glass’ doesn’t even come CLOSE, my friend. This is not like leadlighting. That is plique-a-jour (light-of-day) enamelling, on a curve, with multiple colors, in tiny ‘cells’ made out of gold wire no thicker than your fingernail (which in and of themselves would have been a stone cold bitch to make aaa they are so tiny and those joints are so perfect HOW DID HE DO THAT).
Every. single. cell, has to be ‘hand-filled’ with wet enamel, which has a texture very much like watercolor paint, allowed to set, refilled until the surface tension holds, and then fired in a kiln at a very precise temperature and time, which is different for each color. And then the enamel shrinks back to the edges of the cell so you have to let it cool, refill, and then fire again. I’ve had to refill a single cell as many as four times to get color fill.
Blues and greens are the easiest, so you do them first. You take the kiln to a slightly higher temperature, have a few more seconds of leeway before they go horribly discolored on you. Oh, and this is using a modern kiln with a precise, digital temperature controller, not whatever this dude had back in the 1920s which would have involved a lot of guesswork and standing by the kiln counting under his breath because enamel fires in SECONDS.
Guess which colors are the hardest? That’s right, REDS. The colors this stunning bracelet is full of. I LOATHE working with reds. Ten seconds too long, five degrees too hot, and they’re ugly, black-flecked disasters that have to be dissolved out with acid, not incidentally trashing the other colours you’d spent forever on too. Yay.
And when you’ve finally finished, having spend probably hundreds of hours getting all those tiny cells fired and filled? Time to sit down with a bowl of water and a hard grinding stone and grind every single one of them flat, my friend, because the enamel when properly filled actually domes up slightly. Yes, this part is still best done by hand, even today.
Don’t forget to repolish your gold, making sure to get out all the scratches left by your glass-polishing stone, and set all those diamonds and the cameo!
What’s that, you say? One of your glass cells fractured because you used a tiny bit too much pressure setting a diamond?
Dear me. Time to UN-set all those stones and go back to the kiln again. Have a lovely time!
‘Colored glass’, indeed. Hmph.
Reblogged changretta
Reblogged changretta
Reblogged soothsaying
[Diane, 11:30am, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks. Five miles south of the Canadian border. Twelve miles west of the state line. Never seen so many trees in my life.]
Reblogged bonnettbee
Pierogi pillows
Reblogged soothsaying
cicadas :-) ⭐️
Reblogged greatatuintheworldturtle
The goal is to harm the poorest among us.
No government department was ever created because someone was doing the right thing.
Reblogged nadireedperez
Reblogged punk-granola
aquarium advertisments say stuiff like discover the longtooth grouper this friday
I see that, and raise you my local aquarium's advertising.
Vancouver Aquarium has similar ads!
They also have some SERIOUSLY inventive ones:
(High and Low Tide ^)
the only type of advertising that should exist: "ooooohhhh you want to come look at the animal"
Reblogged nana-glass-chillhop-radio-hour
Can't believe NaNoWriMo just did this, but literally.
Reblogged nadireedperez
do people know that a french ex-president (nicolas sarkozy, from 2007 to 2012) is currently wearing an electronic bracelet after he was sentenced for corruption and influence peddling? do people know? i want everyone to know 😌
and that bernard squarcini, the head of internal security (DGSI) during sarkozy's presidency, just got convicted for influence peddling and has to wear an ankle bracelet for at least two years? 😌🙏
and that marine le pen, leader of the far-right party et one of the (ex)favorites for the 2027 presidential elections, has to wear an ankle bracelet for at least two years and is ineligible for five years?? 😌🙌✨️
My American ass watching other presidents face some form of consequence for wrongdoing…
Reblogged made-of-clockwork
nabigator92
the second eel at the end in its little cuck shelter 💜
eel deets from @whitefangthefightingwolf
