The Perilous Pouf
April 7th, 2009 § 5 Comments
I admit, I have stretched the envelope a bit on this ‘Words and pictures’ effort.
Ok, a lot!
But please be kind because last week …
The printing of my ‘cutsie’ project had to be put on hold as my inks are obviously in the hands of Somali pirates who traffic in precious inks. I expect a ransom note any day now. My gorgeous two year old turned into a drooling, screaming, teething monster. And, we visited our local doctors surgery three times with the entire Pantone range of green snot and ‘old man’ coughs that have perfect strangers dialling for an ambulance.
So, in light of having one of those weeks, it’s perfectly reasonable that I would take a completely surreal fashion and mix it with a good dose of dark Hitchcock-esque threat. Isn’t it?
The freaked out expression in the eyes of the heroine is a mirror image of mine last week, only I didn’t have one ounce of her stiff upper lip. You might call the whole thing hair raising indeed but that’s just too bad a pun!
(This post is part of Pip’s ‘Words and Pictures’ meme. Thanks Pip. You can find more ‘long drives’ here.)
Pouf tales
April 6th, 2009 § 3 Comments
France in the 1700s, now that would have been a sight to see! And lately that’s exactly where I’ve been, absorbing the lavish fashions and colours of the Rococo era. Re-reading my well worn copy of the Scarlett Pimpernel and imagining with the help of some fabulous books and sites the gravity defying poufs of the time. They sound like such fantasy and are so utterly surreal that I’m not at all surprised that they continue to inspire creative peeps, world over.
Can you imagine the bizarre spectacle of a garden party at the Palace of Versaille?! I read that the first pouf Marie Antoinette showed off at court was so tall that her face was halfway between the top of the ‘do’ and the floor! In the garden, the women of the court, must have looked like giggling topiary.
So I thought I’d share a little of my research on the K2 of hair heights, and some the exquisite Rococo engravings I found on route.
…one famous pouf was that of the Duchesse de Lauzun. “She appeared at a reception wearing a most delicious pouf. It contained a stormy sea, ducks swimming near the shore, someone on the point of shooting one of them; on the top of the head there was a mill, the miller’s wife being made love to by an abbe, whilst near the ear the miller could be seen leading a donkey.”
~ From ‘Rose Bertin. The Creator of Fashion at the Court of Marie Antoinette’ 1913. Found here.
If you’re interested in this era you will absolutely adore Ingrid’s fab Fashion is my Muse blog, where I found some wonderful images. Ingrid’s passion for the eighteenth century is certainly infectious and her site is a feast.
… and right down here at the bottom I’ve thrown in some sketches of the illustration I’m busy on. Just to prove there is in fact a point to all this. And in case you were wondering, the munching of macaroons is (ahem!) a completely necessary part of the creative process.
Meanwhile…
April 1st, 2009 Comments Off
… she had other things on her mind!
The ‘she’, in this scenario, is actually me and not the seventeenth century babe above. Truth is, I’ve had to find other distractions because the inks haven’t arrived yet and my gocco printing fun will have to wait. Sigh! But in the meantime I have been pondering:
The incredible fashions of the Rococo period,
Pip’s new ‘Word’s and Pictures’ theme
and personal jet packs for Australia Post delivery people.
(The beautiful image above is Marie Antoinette, as if you didn’t know.)
