Paper Clip Chandelier | Mosaic Works
Yep, that’s right - paperclips!This is truly one of the coolest DIYs I’ve ever seen. It took over 14,700 paperclips to make this. That is true commitment to a project - I’ve given up over a hour on some projects! There is even a quick guide on how to create your own, though you would of course have to modify for your chandelier. If you try this - good luck! And make sure you share the pics!
stacked
Can you solve this riddle from the Exeter book?
Two-Sided Pendant
With Scenes from the Lives of Christ and Saint Francis. Second half of 16th/17th century.
Enameled gold, antler core, glass, silk, shell, pearl, paper, and wood
Vintage Suitcase Drawer Dresser | Man Made DIY
There’s something nice about vintage suitcases that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s that they feel like they have a bit of history about them. They’re not really practical these days for air travel, but they are usually so sturdily built that it’s a shame to leave them laving in the op shops. This is such a cool use for them - very Mad Men, 60’s, inherited-ish! If you have a retro vibe in your house these would slot in perfectly. And they don’t have to go in the bedroom- these would be perfect for holding your fabrics, craft supplies, in the bathroom to hold towels and other bits and pieces… all you need to do is find enough cases in the same size!
Stairs in medieval fortifications were constructed to contain trick or stumble steps. These were steps that had different rise height or thread depth from the rest and would cause anyone running up the stairs to stumble or fall, so slowing down the attackers’ progress.
Strigops habroptila - The Kakapo
Kakapos have the smallest relative wing size of any parrot, and are also the heaviest parrots out there. Unlike other ground-dwelling birds, they actually have the ability to store fat for future use, and this has given them a quite rotund shape overall. Even in lean times, the kakapo is a huge bird, and did quite well for itself before humans arrived. Even before European colonists landed on the South Island of New Zealand, the native Maori used kakapo feathers (which are incredibly soft, as they don’t need to sustain flight) and kakapo meat at a rate that was unsustainable for a continuing population. However, the rate of decline during that period was relatively slow - though the kakapo would have eventually been hunted out, it was not in any immediate threat.
Unfortunately for the great owl parrot, their musky smell and lack of defenses made them easy targets for newly introduced predators and hunters, and the population crashed so quickly that the Kakapo was one of the first animals to have a conservation plan put into place to try and stop the decimation of the masses. Though the conservation plans helped keep the birds safe from humans, the introduced dogs, cats, ferrets, and rats, all continued to wreak havoc.
Today, there are only 127 living kakapos, and their continued survival is far from assured. Their evolutionary history and unique physiology and behavior (not to mention their very important cultural position in Ngai Tahu society) make their possible extinction that much more important to try and prevent.
A History of the Birds of New Zealand. W.L. Buller, 1888.
(via biomedicalephemera)
The ALEPH mirror of one Jan van Eyck, the genius.
The mirror is the focal point of the whole composition. It has often been noted that two tiny figures can be seen reflected in it, their image captured as they cross the threshold of the room. They are the painter himself and a young man, perhaps arriving to act as witnesses to the marriage.
The essential point, however, is the fact that the convex mirror is able to absorb and reflect in a single image both the floor and the ceiling of the room, as well as the sky and the garden outside, both of which are otherwise barely visible through the side window. The mirror thus acts as a sort of hole in the texture of space. It sucks the entire visual world into itself, transforming it into a representation.
image: The Arnolfini Portrait, also known as The Arnolfini Wedding, The Arnolfini Marriage, The Arnolfini Double Portrait or the Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, among other titles. The painting is a small full-length double portrait, which is believed to represent the Italian merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges. It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art history.
Jan Matejko - The battle of Grunwald (1878)
The Battle of Grunwald or 1st Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410, during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
The alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Jogaila and Grand Duke Vytautas, decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen. Most of the Teutonic Knights’ leadership were killed or taken prisoner. While defeated, the Teutonic Knightswithstood the siege on their fortress in Marienburg and suffered only minimal territorial losses at the Peace of Thorn (1411) Territorial disputes continued until the Peace of Melno was concluded in 1422. However, the Knights never recovered their former power and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and an economic downturn in their lands.
The battle shifted the balance of power in Eastern Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant political and military force in the region.
Jenny Saville | via drawings & digressions x meet-me-in-berlin
(Source: womanonfire)
