Current loves

This started off as a post about growing up and accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. I wasn't happy with my inability to articulate myself wittily enough whilst discussing such a tender subject, so have saved that diatribe for another day and decided to just show you all the stuff I am currently obsessed with, most of which are things that make me reflect on the aforementioned situation.

Pastel bubble hair. Having a quarter/third of life crisis as I approach my twenty-sixth birthday has given me a craving to dye my hair again, having been blonde for a few years now. Growing up, I always loved these ladies' hair, even though they are all wigs (and one of them isn't really a lady). In fact now I think about it these three are probably my ultimate style icons.


Tom Waits. Music for grown ups, definitely... a guy I was at uni with used to play his albums in our studio and I just didn't get it, at the time I was listening solely to hardcore European crust punk, willfully closing my ears to everything else - if it didn't have a strong ethical message, I didn't want to know. Here's a song which as well as being great and having a cool video, is apt for the subject at hand and was covered by the Ramones - a band that kind of get maligned by members of the modern punk scene as being too frivolous, which is utter bollocks.



Beat writers - William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac. I always loved Hunter S. Thompson and Chuck Palahniuk, and these are the guys they learned their style from, they grew up during the great depression and WWII and made their mark during the cold war years - as such their writing is gritty, uncompromising and chaotic. I'm currently reading 'Post Office' by Bukowski and 'Junky', Burroughs' semi-autobiographical story of heroin addiction and life on the edge of society.

Here's William S. Burroughs doing vocals on a track from Tom Waits' 'Black Rider' conceptual play/LP which they collaborated on, his voice is haunting. He was 79.



Geisha fashion - not really anything to to with the others, I just really like this at the moment. Here's a hat I made recently using Japanese Kanzashi flowers, intricately folded from tiny squares of fabric. I'm currently working on some more styles, for a Harajuku-inspired photoshoot I'm helping to style on Wednesday for Chimp Magazine. Hat by Kalandra Jane Designs, photo by Berni Harris Photography.


Daria! I never got to watch this when it was originally on - I was probably a little young anyway, but my stepdad and I used to watch Beavis and Butthead which was on around the same time (and from which Daria was actually a spinoff), back when MTV was still clinging onto its last shreds of counterculture credibility. It's full of all the sardonic wit a young lady needs, and should be required viewing for every girl who can't (or couldn't) wait for high school to end. You can watch every episode of Daria for free here, apart from the two feature-length episodes.



Perhaps inspired by the grunge soundtrack of Daria - Riot Grrl. I always resisted angry girl music as a teenager, totally rejecting any music made by women and seeing it as aggressive feminism, passé in a world where I surpassed my male classmates academically and always felt equal to my male friends. However, I obsessed constantly about boys I fancied - maybe if I'd listened to a bit of Joan Jett or L7 I would have felt a bit more secure about myself, rather than wallowing in introspection and worrying about how I was seen by my peers.



Micheal Cera films. Superbad, Youth in Revolt, Juno, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - at first I hated this new brand of awkward alterna-teen angst comedy. I have now come to appreciate them despite the fact I still think they're a bit twee and formulaic, I like the departure from the plasticky teen movies of the late 90s-early 2000s. I'm sure there weren't sweet, goofy boys when I was growing up... they were all little bastards. Maybe I just scared off the nice ones with my forcefield of adolescent rage? Anyway... I like them.

Mid-century Geisha lamp restoration!

Back in February I bought a fabulous lamp which I blogged about here, including how I had to repaint part of her eye where the paint had chipped off the chalkware. A bigger problem was the fact that she was missing a hand, which I finally got round to rectifying a few weeks ago!


Here she is with her missing hand, you can also see a chip to her sleeve which has been painted over black - I may remodel this at some point with some sort of filler and gold paint, but for now it's not noticeable.


To make a replacement hand I used plain white Fimo (polymer clay), painted with acrylics and covered in an antique effect varnish. I'm capable of sculpting a much finer hand, but obviously it had to match the existing one on the lamp which isn't that well modelled.


Here it is in place! It just slots into the hole in her wrist and twists slightly to hold it firmly in place.


I also picked up two 1950s spun fibreglass lampshades from a vintage rummage sale (£3 for the pair), and have added one to cover her bare bulb. I think she looks great!

Fabulous Mid-Century Geisha Lamp!

I received some money from my Dad and our friend Paul for my birthday, and after some thought this is what I bought! I'd seen her in a shop in town years ago but could never afford her... well this weekend I went down there and snapped her up! Managed to haggle some money off too, I am cheeky.

So, without further ado, I present Anna May!


I think she's supposed to be a geisha but I'm not sure, as she's not wearing a proper kimono and could actually be Chinese rather than Japanese. She's the mid-century Western idea of an Asian woman... hence, I named her after the fabulous Anna May Wong... a stunning silent actress who due to her 'exotic' look and a hefty dose of typecasting played just about every Asian girl of the 1920s - 30s.




I've actually done a bit of work on her here. If you look closely at the centre of her right eyelid, you might be able to detect a slight change in texture - this was a chip in the paint of her eyeshadow and eyelashes which I've restored. I just used acrylics and am happy with the result.


Here's her light fitting... it's working and I really want a spectacular fibreglass shade I've seen on eBay which would look just like a parasol for her, but alas it's too expensive... I might make a shade or maybe just put on a small red tasseled one.


She's also missing a hand, which apparently is extremely common with this lamp, but having never seen another I don't know if it's true. I'm going to make a replica which will just slide into the hand-hole rather than being permanently affixed, and make her look complete. If anyone knows what her other hand is supposed to look like, please let me know!


This is the mark on her back - any info on a maker or date would be appreciated!