Dorothy Grebenak was born in Nebraska in 1913 and was a self-taught rug maker who originally made rugs stocked in a Brooklyn museum. Although these weren’t rugs in the folk style, they are designed to be displayed on walls as art. These rugs were depictions of humble and everyday objects, which brought them into theContinue reading “Forgotten Pop Art Pioneer Dorothy Grebenak’s Rugs Are Awesome”
Category Archives: History
The Viking Imagination: Medieval Cartography of Scandinavia
Just because I love cartography, here’s a couple of remarkable Scandanavian medieval maps. Note the dominance of several kraken and sea monsters off the Norwegian coast and how each country is barely hanging on by a thread because of these menacing beasts. Here be magic, Vikings and mysterious beasts. Velleius Islandia by Abraham Ortellius (1603)Continue reading “The Viking Imagination: Medieval Cartography of Scandinavia”
Roland: Gargantuan Elephant Seal Of Berlin Zoo
Roland was a goliath 4,000 pound sea elephant (A.K.A an Elephant Seal Mirunga patagonica. He lived in Berlin Zoo from the late 1920’s until his death during the second world war. Here he is getting a snow bath from his handler at the Berlin Zoo (date unknown) In this film you can see his largeContinue reading “Roland: Gargantuan Elephant Seal Of Berlin Zoo”
Welcome to Big Biba: A Legendary Department Store in London’s Swinging 60’s
Big Biba was an outrageous cornucopia of weird fashion on the London high street in the 60’s. Before H&M, Topshop or Harvey Nichols there was Biba. Invented by IT girl of the time, Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki, Biba started out as a mail order store that sold one dress available in one size. Very rapidly itContinue reading “Welcome to Big Biba: A Legendary Department Store in London’s Swinging 60’s”
Travel: The ruins of Duntulm Castle on Trotternish
I visited Duntulm on the northerly most point of the Trotternish peninsula on the Isle of Skye back in 2010. Many many moons ago, perhaps several thousand years ago, the now mostly ravaged and ruined castle was originally a Pictish fortress, forming one of a chain of duns or forts stretching along the north coastContinue reading “Travel: The ruins of Duntulm Castle on Trotternish”
Every Picture Tells A Story: William Stanley Moore (1925)
William Stanley Moore according to his official police record was an “opium dealer/ Operates with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine./ A wharf labourer; associates with water front thieves and drug traders.” Mugshot by New South Wales Police Department (1925). He reminds me of one of the brothers in Peaky Blinders, not toContinue reading “Every Picture Tells A Story: William Stanley Moore (1925)”
Travel: Poking around the Mynydd Carningli neolithic hillfort
In 2010 I stayed for a while by the Welsh seaside in Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales. I loved the wild waves and sea air, dramatic black cliffs and bright green hillside dotted with sleepy sheep. But most of all I loved the hill walks there, particularly Myndd Carningli, a splendid 347 meter tall mountain that holdsContinue reading “Travel: Poking around the Mynydd Carningli neolithic hillfort”
The Strandbeest and its glittering seaside evolution
Theo Jansen’s strandbeests are composed of spindly plastic organs that take elephantine strides. They have guts that store energy and are powered by wind. They are sensitive mechanical beasts that can even detect water. Each of Jansen’s ingenious strandbeests are miracles in motion. They may very well be the next stages of natural selection. JansenContinue reading “The Strandbeest and its glittering seaside evolution”
Eerie and Glorious Fake Cities Left Empty in China
“Entire townships and villages appear to have been airlifted from their historical and geographical foundations in England, France, Greece, the United States, and Canada and spot-welded to the margins of Chinese cities,” according to Bianca Bosker, author of Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China. Tianducheng: A Fake Parisian Wonder Originally conceived as an homageContinue reading “Eerie and Glorious Fake Cities Left Empty in China”
Tiny building sites: It’s a small world after all
Readers of this blog will understand and share my obsession with small-scale buildings, tiny books, paper towns and jewelry boxes and boudoir ornaments for mermaids. These quirky art forms are uncannily beautiful in their falseness. They also make Mini Materials now offers lovers of miniature the unprecedented opportunity to build their own life-like models ofContinue reading “Tiny building sites: It’s a small world after all”
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