New items on the website (jewellery) -Part 4

More items have been included in my website. The latest one,

Antiqued brass bumble bee necklace with topaz jewel. 

http://www.theblackwardrobe.com/Shop/product.php/74/bumble_bee_topaz_necklace

Victorian Gothic literature - "The Grave - A Poem"

I came across this beautiful blog (Graphicsfairy) through another very inspiring blog called jasminstudiocrafts. If you are an artist/designer who works with mixed media, it is always very grateful to find people who collect amazing stuff and don't mind to share it for free. I have seen people on places like for example etsy, charging for images that
a. have not been manipulated or "worked" by themselves
...and B. they are clearly free and copyright-free because I had already seen them somewhere else before.
Anyway, among beautiful "halloween" and lots of other victorian pictures, engravings and illustrations. The following two got my attention.
They belong to a book published in London in 1808. Titled "The Grave, a poem", it features pictures depicting dead bodies with their respective souls. The one below, it says:
"The soul hovering over the body reluctantly parting with life...how wishfully she looks on all she's leaving, now no longer her's"
I have to point out that the cover of the book has been slightly "photoshop-ed" by the the blogger (She covered the genitals of the man with a leaf, as he was completely naked in the original cover) I don't mind her doing that but I have to say, I find that strange, very un-typical of victorian times actually, as they used to cover anything they could....
I wonder how many celtic carvings have been sabotaged in the name of "modesty"!.

Have a look at these two blogs, they deserve a visit.
http://jasminstudiocrafts.blogspot.com/
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

Interesting Victoriana links: VictorianLondon.org

If you are into Dark stuff AND Gothic, it is very very likely that you'll be into victoriana. This is my last discovery.

VICTORIAN LONDON
This very resourceful site is the creation of writer and victorian afficionado, Lee Jackson. Anything you want to know about victorian London, you'll find it here. History, economics, personal stories, literature, maps...Everything! And if you can't find what you want, you can email the writer.
It is a great page for both research and pure nosiness. His blog is worth having a look too. It includes more interesting links.
http://www.victorianlondon.org/
http://catsmeatshop.blogspot.com/

Romantic winter wonderland

Last few weeks have been a nightmare to be in England. Although the whole land magically transformed itself into a fantastic winter wonderland, it became a deadly weapon. Beautiful but deadly. It has been raining in the last days (I'm talking about the Northwest, where I live). That allowed the snow to dissappear silently from the ground leaving the pavement naked and ready to be walked on! You can't believe how happy I am of being able to walk without fearing for my life.
I had the pleasure of enjoying the romantic wonderland and, savvy as I am :), I took some pictures. They are so stunning that I am going to keep them in my fashion/inspiration archive. Hope you enjoy them.

The pictures are taken in the victorian park, next to home, called Victoria Park (of course). On the left side, you can see bits of the Pilkington glass factory (a company that has been existing since 1826).

Steampunk, ever heard of it?

If you are into victorianesque, you might have already heard of Steampunk.

If you are into Jules Verne or any other "visionaire" work you might be a fanatic of it.

I had never heard of it until I reached, by curiosity, a myspace site, owned by "The Girls of Steampunk".

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set inVictorian era, England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.
Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian (?? no idea what the context means) than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.
Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual craftpersons into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

(text taken from Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

"The Girls of Steampunk" (myspace) profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=379792284

Basically, in my opinion, Steampunk seems to be about giving a retro feel to objects, mainly digital/electronic. But not the usual 20th retro feel but victorian look. The best resume about Steampunk I've found so far is on thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com

"I believe that Steampunk is more than just brass and watchparts. It's finding a way to combine the past and the future in an aesthetic pleasing yet still punkish way. It's living a life that looks old-fashioned, yet speaks to the future. It's taking the detritus of our modern technological society and remaking it into useful things. Join me as I search for items for my house that combine the scientific romanticism of the Victorians with our real present and imagined future."