i've become somewhat obsessed with the oldest versions of some neopets' designs. i really vastly prefer the old jetsam and flotsam, as well as the old design for lenny. the updated lenny stripped it of its jester-like design elements which, imo, muddled and confused the point of its design. i liked its old jester hat and slightly curly toes, as well as its large, floppy-looking, goofy face.

also, i thought the oldest version of kacheeks was really funny. the drawing was kind of meant to be a visual joke, like, an over-rendered and uncannily shiny, but super simplified character like in ancient 3D art. but i feel like it doesn't really come through. oh well lol.

to tell you the truth, i don't really like the official art of ogrins. but i do think their design has potential (despite being somewhat wasted, lol). after all, they are a very odd and unique take on chimeras, being a cross between a goat, a tiger, and with other elements that don't have anything to do with real animals (their ears and tail make me think of fraggles).

regardless, they're really fun to draw.

this was a test drawing i did with the purpose of using glitter nail polish to see how it would look applied to a piece of art. surprisingly, not bad in photos, but obviously much more appealing irl. this would make great decorations to put on stuff like con badges. if only i ever went to cons, lmao.

7 acts of love

heeseung knows you’re not a committed gamer like he is. ( “babe just one more round, i’ll sleep at 4:00 am, promise !” hee) he has multiple leauge accounts but one is specifically for you to play on. he keeps a steady ranking for you and teaches you one on one on that account without the pressure of competition. the only thing is that you can’t change the username since he’s the only one with the controls. guess you’re stuck with ‘donttouchmemybfcanfight’

believe it or not, jay is a journal fanatic. his multiple journals go from jotting grocery list to his most personal thoughts but there is a special journal that he keeps away from the eyes of anybody. it's a simple white journal with a polaroid of you taped to the top that is filled to the brim of song lyrics based on jay's fondness to you. there are little, wonky doodles of you on every page and he uses a photobooth strip of the both of you as a book mark. call him corny but god, this man loves you. who knows, this song might end up at your wedding?

jake never leaves the house without giving you a little smoochy, even when he leaves for early morning practice. in his words, 'your lips are just so addicting. i can never get enough.' (corny) when you're awake, he’ll always give you a kiss on the lips, dragging it longer than he needs to (“ you’re gonna be late-“ you “ i don’t care” *kiss* jake) when you’re asleep, it’ll be the lightest peck on the cheek or forehead. you’ll most likely still be sleeping until layla decides she wants some kisses too.

sunghoon isn’t the best with words when expressing his love for you and he knows that. he’s gotten better over the years but he’s still timid at times, feeling tounge tied at the thought of speaking up. you often fall asleep next to each other, you drifting off the sleep first. he'll turn to you, eyes turning into crescents, pure adoration flowing. he will slowly lift his hand to caress your check, so softly that it won't disturb. you with his touch being as gentle as a feather, he’ll whisper, “i love you”

the amount of photos sunoo has in his camera roll is actually insane. he takes an ungodly amount of photos of you. he doesn't delete any of them because he thinks you looks breathtaking in every picture. unless you really hate the picture and bribe with a kiss. even with that, only a select one or two get deleted. the pictures range from your date outings, you washing the dishes, to taking off your makeup. he’s run out of storage many times but refuses to delete your pictures and ends up buying more icloud.

with his spare time, jungwon can never doubt a good book. you also enjoying your selected books, you and him often wind down with some books you bought on a date. you were always used to scribbling your thoughts down on the side but your eyebrow corked when you see jungwon jotting down notes. “what are you doing?” you ask as you lean over to look. he closes the book and smiles, “nothing.” you shrug it off as jungwon continues to write how beautiful you look in this moment, attention long gone from the book. (she’s so beautiful oh me gee, hopefully she never opens this book, HER SMILE)

riki has artistic talent in a lot of aspects of his life. he becomes one with music when he dances, feeling every beat exude through his veins. his voice flows like smooth honey with lyrics. his art pieces blend in beautiful harmony to create an artwork even picasso would be proud of. he sketches you more than he would like to every admit. during class, lunch breaks, at night when he can’t sleep; he can’t help it. he knows your features like the back of his hand. every dimple, crease, texture, rosiness to your face, he never misses a detail.

Anything-$00000DDD

Summary

He could have been anything. When he looked inside his own mind, he dug through darkness. Memories like ashes, the particles filling his lungs were all that were familiar to him—and those only felt like nothing. No fragments, just a fine powder.

Janus is a cyborg who works for the Dragon Witch, a criminal mastermind who runs a company that designs cybernetics.

He meets Remus, a self-taught biomedical engineer, and a variety of other robotic and alien characters, all of whom are trying to convince him that he is more than just a cybernetic puppet.

But who is “Dee” if not an empty husk created only to be controlled?

General warnings

Psychological horror, body horror, cybernetics, missing limbs, artificial limbs, Non-consensual forced medical treatment, physical abuse, blood, violence, guns, mind control, permanent amnesia, manipulation, emotional abuse, gaslighting, nightmares, streams of consciousness, unreliable narration. Content that resembles depersonalization, derealization, or dissociation

More notes, links, and chapter text under the cut

AO3 Anything, AO3 series, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18

This is my story for the 2021 Storytime! Big Bang! @ts-storytime Thank you to @ben-phantomhive-trash, who is the artist I was partnered with for the event! They created this fantastic art!!!! I love it so much I can't even.

Thank you to PunkRock for helping me figure out the shorts characters and other plot things. Also thank you to AryaSkywalker, Thembo, and Carrotflowerking17 and the Big Bang 2021 discord for additional help!!!!

This fic is an alternative entry point to my (In Other Worlds) Series. This fic happens at the same time roughly as Millennia, a companion novel. You can read this fic and then check out the rest of the series, or check out the series and then read this.

Also, I don't use Janus's actual name throughout the fic for thematic and narrative reasons. You'll see. I hope that does not put you off too much. Consider it part of the angst.

Clarification of general warnings and pairings, minor spoilers

I added the tag unreliable narrator, but I will clarify that the narrator is not actively lying to the audience. This tag relates to Janus's memory issues and the uncertainty resulting from that. tbh I would not worry too much about the events being untrue, and more be concerned about these being Janus's imperfect recollection of events.

I think this fic is a bit more violent than Millennia at times, hence I added the archive warning for violence. I still feel like a teen would be fine reading this, so I am keeping the rating Teen and Up. This fic focuses the most on what I dub psychological horror (angst, mind control, memory issues, consciousness, nightmares, etc.). I also tagged this story with disassociation, and content in this fic may resemble derealization and depersonalization.

If you think I should warn/rate this fic differently, I am happy to hear feedback and reconsider.

I tagged this as Remus/Janus, but like, ya gotta squint. Mostly banter and being soft. I love romance, but I have a hard time writing it. Could be seen as platonic too.

HINT 1: KEY.

HINT 2: "kind of" not "kinda"

CHAPTER START

NAME J. D. Dedrick ID 25:35--25:44 / 51:09 ALIENRACE Dūcesnaca OCCUPATION Robotics Researcher

Chapter Warnings cybernetics, missing/artificial limbs (eye, legs), forced medical treatment/experimentation, amnesia, depersonalization/derealization/dissociation, unreliable narration, psychological horror, swearing Chapter Characters Janus, the Dragon Witch, Virgil (not by name)

He could have been anything. When he looked inside his own mind, he dug through darkness. Memories like ashes, the particles filling his lungs were all that were familiar to him—and those only felt like nothing. No fragments, just a fine powder.

He woke up to yellow in his eyes, stinging and unfocused. Lights beyond the veil flickered. He saw a figure move; he looked small. After a brief glance into the world, he began to drown. He threw everything into the yellow encasement, and after an agonizing struggle, the rush of acceleration threw him to the ground.

When the air touched his face, black fireworks exploded in his hazy vision, and the first memory he had was gone.

He woke up again, like a corpse left in the stale air for vultures: beaks plucking out his skin piece by piece. His vision blurry and halved, he stared up at the birds breaking his body into bits.

Reports say he was involved in a huge space crash. DRACANA has generously sponsored his artificiality.

That sounded like a lie. That sort of blatant untruth where there was no connection to reality tied to it. Everything his senses told him felt unreal, everything except the pain that grounded him like a shot duck.

Whispers like gossip broke into his mind between droughts of consciousness. His senses were pieced together and broken apart, like pieces of clay in a kiln shattering. Memories of vultures and lab coats glued together by agony floated through space until eventually he was awake.

Probably just one of her business rivals

Dei’dra—he knew her name—loomed over him, to his right. He could see nothing to his left. The light stung, he squinted and blinked his eye. He could feel nothing on the left side of his face. Dei’dra smiled at him.

“Wake up, dollface. Didn’t think you’d make it, but you pulled through.”

He did not know where he was. He did not know who he was. All he knew was that this woman was Dei’dra, the Dragon Witch, and he hated her.

“Well, he seems to be doing well. Might as well put him under and move onto the next stage.”

He lived out his days creating sand sculptures in his mind. He saw himself running in place, downloading skills and targets and concepts. The sand would blow away each day, leaving him with nothing to remember them by.

Between bouts of black unconsciousness, he saw grey, and white, and pale pink, brown, and blue. Abstract shapes morphing into creatures that prodded at him. Cold metal seething, machines twisting his body together like crochet. He gave nonsense names for some, not even names consisting of words, just pure thoughts.

Slowly, he lost sight of the sand in his brain, yet the grains still dripped from his ears when he shook his head. He became a part of reality. Or perhaps he became part of a hellish dream.

Darkness huddled in the damp sides of his eyes, danger snapping at his bruised joints and soles. Deep inside his chest, his heart damned, words mixed with intuitive instincts, daring his body to live beyond the yellow veil.

Stage One of Project $DEE has been completed.

$DEE was not his name. It was what he was called. One of the words that would echo in his brain. Dee. Dee. Dee. Like a rhythm, like the beeping machines. Like the ringing of the heart monitor. It was embedded in his ears. Baby words jumping around, forming pictures, babbling him into nothing.

Dee, his brain still a desert, started to make better sense of this reality he lived in. He could control his body sometimes. He could move his arms. Or what was left of his limbs. Or what they had lent him.

The second picture in his brain, the one after the yellow veil: it was the artificial lights on Lab C’s ceiling. Grey illuminated by white, he stared up at the square tiles and textured glass, like undulating waves of melted sand.

With how long he was locked in place staring up at this picture, he memorized it. He could close his eyes at any moment and picture it in its exact detail again.

“Time to get up, Doll-face. It’s time for your first mission.”

He saw Dei’dra’s face again. He felt his restraints loosen and break away.

His first mission was not all that glorious. He was lanky, unused to moving in his body. He was a wall of meat. Disposable. He followed a trail like a zombie. He barely spoke to the team he was placed in. He remembered their orders regarding him.

“He’s still pretty out of it. Give him some good experience, but we’d like to keep working on him so bring him back in one piece.”

Dee felt like a puppet, simply put. Some machine inside him aimed his cannons and lasers. He stood in place, shooting at targets. He was guided by an invisible leash by the team he was assigned to. He saw sepia shapes. Blurs of bodies. All he could feel was the emotions in his gut telling him, repeatedly:

Youaregoingtodieyouaregoingtodieyouaregoingtodieagainyouaregoingtodiestoppleasestoppleaseyouaregoingtodiestopstopstopstopstop.

He was kept suspended in place while his body completed the mission. And then he was back in Lab C, mind clearer.

He was thinking in sentences now. He could monologue, like any great villain. That is what he had become, hadn’t he? Why a villain? Where had he learned that word? The more he sifted through the sand, the more words he could find he no longer remembered learning. They were just there, connected to nothing. No memory. No past life.

He kept thinking these words. And then he decided that since his jaw was not glued shut, he would give speaking a try. Garbled and slurred at first, he kept talking as much as they let him.

They made him run between ceilings of grey. They made him speak between illuminated square tiles. He practiced lines of a script. Subterfuge settled in his brain like a mirage in the distance between the settled sand.

He could walk on the unsteady ground once again. He could see. He could hear. He could experience the world around him. He gazed up at the ceiling but was interrupted by a splotch of dark violet.

Another blot. Another vulture. He stood there out of the corner of his artificial eye.

“What are you waiting for? Get on with the tests.” His voice sharp, cutting through his tongue.

This was an unusual time of day for tests. To say it was a time of day was generous. It was more like he would be experimented on for hours upon hours and then suddenly they would stop. Nothing to do but bask in the nothingness it brought.

At this point, Dee thought that he was done with most of the tests. He had his limbs. He had an eye, which he opened wider to get a better look at the violet blotch. Something about the blotch was connected to something else in his brain, but he could not quite place it.

“Well, whatever it is, get on with it, it certainly could not have waited until morning.”

It shuffled closer to him. Less of a blotch now. He could make out shapes. He could recognize his face now if he saw him again.

Air escaped his lungs, and then he said again, asking, “Whatever might you need from me today, doctor?”

The blotch was shaking. “If you are just here to sight-see, I am going back to sleep.” His eyes weighed heavily on his face, eyelids falling through his willpower.

“Are you… okay?”

No, I am not ‘okay’. I am ‘$DEE.’

“Do I LOOK okay? Yeah sure, I am right as rain, having a grand old time—feeling peachy, even.” At this point, the words just spiraled off his tongue and through his teeth. The blotch made a sound, and Dee’s frustration grew, the pain of today’s tests ricocheting in his body.

“If you aren’t here to run another one of your little tests, then just get out. Go tell your superior, or better yet, go tell Dei’dra to go fuck herself and leave me alone.”

And he left him alone. He wondered vaguely what that was all about. He then fell asleep.

Park Woojin Super Powers Au

So anon requested a Woojin super power au so here we are. Idk this one seemed weird to finish but it’s probably my same style heh.

 • Woojin knew he had an ability from when he was tiny - he’s never not had it,

 • He was a baby who had to stay on a leash because if he started to run, no one could catch him,  • Woojin’s super speed made him a very difficult toddler to control but man he had the time of his little life,  • He could easily escape places, but was banned from sports which upset him, but he kinda understood,  • Like imagine going to run a race against 9 year old woojin and he’s at the finish line within a few seconds of the starting gun,  • So he accepted it and moved on to art and music, something he became very talented in,  • I mean when you don’t have to spend 20 minutes walking home, could get to places faster, generally just lived in the fast lane?  • He had a lot of spare time,  • And school wasn’t great for him, many people without abilities were bitter and jealous and would have bullied Woojin,  • But they couldn’t catch him, as soon as they cornered him he could disappear in front of their eyes and be across the playground,  • Woojin was more of a flight, not fight,  • Relatable,  • And as Woojin got older, got faster, got more in control of his ability, he tried to keep it as low key as possible,  • Everyone with an ability also has a key though, something that signals that they have a power, as little as a birth mark or as obvious as different colour skin,  • Lmao Woojins mark is 2 dark blue lines going from his ankle to his armpit on each of his side’s - like go fast stripes on cars whOoPs,  • But they’re easy enough to cover so Woojin doesn’t mind them as much,  • While there was plenty of people totally fine with people with abilities, there were also many people who refused to employ them, who sent them hate, who assaulted them,  • So Woojin ran as little as he could and lived a totally average life,  • Except the fact Woojin did dance and maybe it helped him a little bit…  • He loved running, and the fact that he couldn’t suppressed a part of himself, but he managed,  • (In this au if you don’t use your ability for a certain amount of time you get uncomfortable or a yearning, or sometimes even pain),  • But when he finished school no one knew of his ability so he was free,  • He decided to pursue a career in painting, because that’s where he found his peace, and he loved watching people’s faces light up at what he made,  • Woojin painted whatever caught his eye,  • When places were quiet, or at night, he’d run and watch colours and shapes blur, imprinting what he saw to memory,  • Then he’d spend the next month perfecting his piece,  • Around 1/12 of the population had abilities, although you could hardly ever see one, most hiding it,  • But people picked up on woojin and what he painted, and it helped people, so he became more open about his ability and became an advocate,  • He’d paint political pieces and paintings with stories without anyone actually knowing his identity,  • (Think banksy)  • And was part of an organisation called Wanna One - People with abilities who tried to raise awareness,  • Woojin got a lot of hate but he gets paid a good amount for his paintings, allies buying pieces,  • Many people make requests, they ask him to run through a certain place and paint what he sees,  • Because Woojin hated his ability throughout his youth and even sometimes in his daily life; he wants to help people accept themselves,  • And Woojin is on a night quest one day, he heard someone with an ability was making art as well in the near by park and he wanted to see it and offer support,  • And you’re also walking down the street heading to the park when you see a teen alone crossing the street,  • But they have glowing green cat eyes, something almost impossible to hide and your heart already softens towards them - they probably go through a lot of shit,  • You’re contemplating talking to them when you spot a car on the road suddenly speed up dangerously,  • You see, behind the wheel, a middle aged man, his eyes focusing coldly on the teen,  • Mnet if they were in this fic,  • You’d seen many people like that before, been against many people like that before, but you don’t want someone, a young teen, to have to face something like this so early,  • So you do whatever you think,  • You sprint forward and push the teen away, hoping they don’t get hurt on the landing,  • You watch the realisation appear on the dazzling slitted pupils and thank god they’ll get to live another day,  • You wonder if your case, mutant killed by car, will even be heard, or if they’ll let him go with a warning,  • If the activists will help and protest in your name,  • You turn to face the car, just meters in front of you to stare at the man,  • But then you feel a hand wrap around your waist and your eyes are watering as colours create a mesh of familiar patterns,  • Your arms find themselves around a neck and cling on instinctively, clinging closer to whoever has pulled you against them, their warmth comforting your mind lost in panic and slightly queezy at the disorientating speed you feel,  • You close your eyes tight until everything is absolutely still an your mind has stopped spinning,  • “Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me? Are you awake?”  • A soft voice rubs your shoulder, although it sounds slightly panicked, which unsettles you,  • Something in your chest feels the urge to make whoever’s speaking feel safe, at ease, so you crack open your eyes and take a deep breath before sitting up,  • The world still spins but a hand is quickly placed against your back to steady you and you lay eyes on a boy in front of you, lent a little too close out of worry,

 • His brows are creased, hair jostled and eyes sharp,  • You laugh at the situation, mind finally grasping into what just happened, and you pull him into a tight hug,  • Woojin nearly looses his balance but laughs in relief himself,  • “Oh god thank you so much, I could have died but wow,”  • You’re sat in a quiet part of the park you were heading to, only the leaves breaking the silence, rustling around you,  • “It was very brave,”  • The guy blushes and looks away and your heart melts,  • “And so were you,”  • His blush intensifies and you want to wrap him in blankets,  • He stands before offering you a hand up, slowly drawing yourself to your feet,  • And Woojin is internally freaking out and this person that smells fresh like a meadow,  • He just saved someone who is a complete cutie and makes his heart race,  • And he just wants to wrap his arm around their waist again, or trace the black vines that tangle and peak out from under their shirt with his fingers, their key sign,  • “Ooh, gimme a second,”  • He watches you as you jog to the second nearest bush and crouch with your back to him, his mind whirls with ideas of what the hell you could be doing,  • For all he knows you could be preparing a magic trick,  • But you turn round with a small dahlia, soft orange and in full bloom in your hand,  • You poke the stem through the hole for the drawstring on his hoodie, hanging it out delicately, the colour complimenting his face perfectly and you smile a little at your handiwork,  • And Woojin is trying to avoid a heart attack at the look on your face and the fact that you’re a green touch - someone who can grow whatever they want wherever they want, which explains the beautiful black vines he saw earlier imprinted onto your skin,  • It’s all way too cute for him,  • “It doesn’t exactly pay you back, and I will pay you back, but I hope it’ll do for now,”  • And that is the story of how Park Woojin develops his massive crush on the person he rescued from near death,  • But he doesn’t think he’ll ever see you again, so stews silently,  • But then he gets asked by the head of Wanna One to work with one of their other artist advocates, so he agrees straight away,  • Working with other artists always lifts Woojins mood because it’s working with someone who believes in the same things to make something wonderful,  • (We’ve done something wonderful by Epik High 10/10 album lads)  • So imagine his pure shock,  • His innocent surprise,  • His bashfulness,  • When he arrives at the meeting spot, a blank white wall to paint, to see you  • He does a whole triple take,  • And he’s like o shit??,  • And you’re like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ WhoOpS,  • It’s not like you figured out he was also part of Wanna One and asked to do a joint project,  • Sneaky hoe,  • V clever sneaky hoe wow you got snooping talent,  • But the two of you work on your memorial together, Woojin having a great skill with spray paint as well, and you raise flowers and vines and bushes out of concrete and pot plants to weave into places and spaces perfect for you to bloom shades of flowers,  • It’s your art style, making pictures and stories out of greenery, the textures and colours blending, it’s truly unique and iconic™  • But when the two of you finish, the wall is a statement and breath catching,  • And the reaction from the public is strong, so the two for you continue to work together,  • You make art all around the city, or you compress and dry flowers for him to paint into canvas or give him models or tips on how to draw them realistically,  • Or you grow huge white flowers, roses or lillies or tulips and he paints them with beautiful detail,  • And continue to meet, and continue to grow together,   • “‘Grow togther’” puNs :DDDDDDDD

• Not only do you meet for art, you start going out for dinners,

 • (At first you insist it’s to pay back for him saving your life but then you don’t have to make any excuses it’s just because you both want to),  • Or you go to museums or theme parks or aquariums together,  • And they’re all beginning to look suspiciously like dates ngl,  • The two of you find yourselves watching the sun set from the hill you’re perched on, sharing blankets, claiming it’s to fight off the cold,  • Dirty liars,  • You lean against Woojins side as he rests his head on top of yours,  • You had mentioned you always wanted to watch the sunset from above but didn’t know anywhere close,  • So Woojin had ran the both of you to the outskirts of the city where the land rose and fell, making the view something you’d want to recreate,  • You look up, looking to Woojins face, smiling softly in the evening glow, he turns his face to catch you staring but you aren’t shy, you’ve never been shy with Woojin,  • You fall back, dragging him with you as you stare,  • His hand traces the black vines that link across your torso sending shivers down your spine at the cold against your warm skin,  • And you think,  • You think about all the things Woojin has given to you, the life you have lived since you nearly died and how you owe him everything you can give to him, how the love that’s developed inside your chest for him drowns out any other feeling,  • And Woojin thinks about how he’s finally so so glad he’s a mutant, that he could save you and you could open his eyes, and that he owes you the world,  • And the two of you share your thoughts and gratefulness and pure admiration when you press your lips together in a gentle first kiss,  • And you spiral even quicker than you were before,  • He paints you pictures and portraits and you make him beautiful bouquets,  • He’s never been bought bouquets because everyone always assumed he’s a boy and wouldn’t want any but??? They’re so beautiful???? Why do people never buy boys bouquets???  • And you learn to paint smoother together,  • And you open a Florist and are living the dream, generally a pure and happy relationship,  • And sometimes you’re yelled at or someone makes a malicious comment,  • Or another Florist confronts you saying it’s not fair on them, you being able to grow your own flowers,  • But Woojin is instantly ready to fight and you just protect each other all the time,  • He protec, but he also attac,  • lmao save me from old memes,  • Woojin loves to trace the vines that paint your body permenantly and you honestly aren’t complaining,  • And like you would love to trace his stripes but he’s so damn ticklish,  • So you use it against him hehe,  • But basically you’re living your dreams, helping others and sharing every moment with each other,

Frugality and Arte Povera

Painting has always presented a problem to me. Use of paint

Don’t get me wrong, I love painting and the relationship between the an acrylic brushstroke and its respective canvas can spawn a subtle beauty of form, texture and colour, I find the actual removal of paints from their nice metal tubes to be all too distressing. I hate the idea of having one crumpled tube of white or black amongst a collection of other barely used paints. Not because I am a clean freak (take a look at my desk if you think that) but because I am all too painfully aware of how expensive paints are now. I’ve been lucky in that I have gotten most of my paints for free, but I know eventually those paints will run out and I’ll have to buy more, and then those paints will run out and I’ll have to but more, and then those paints will run out and I’ll have to but more, etc.

On top of this I’ve recently been told as part of a paint workshop that I will have to access the next grade of paint quality, an exciting upgrade for some but to me it seems more of a burden than anything. Because once again, I am faced with the eternal problem of things costing money. It’s a problem that as a student I am more than aware than ever. I have to plan strategically if I want to buy paints: What colours are essential? What quality grade is necessary? How much should I actually purchase? I feel that in the future it will become a much larger problem than I hope it should be. The only way I can realistically combat is to not splurge on student or artist level acrylics, and stick to my low tier paints. But then of course I will miss on the subtle mixes of colour and smoothness of the higher grades. But maybe there’s a way around that.

I’m always interested in experimentation, especially with paint, mainly in the different ways I can make it smoothly or ruggedly move across the paper, but there’s clearly something I’m missing. Instead of simply using the paint alone I need to really push the physicality of the paint to its limits. I’ve had an idea for a while of mixing multiple different fluids into acrylics and recording their effects, to see if any of them have interesting visuals to them, and now seems to be the best time to look into the idea.

According to the Oxford Dictionary frugality is “The quality of being economical with money or food; thriftiness.” a sought after and somewhat necessary trait for some, but the definition itself isn’t as beefy as I wish it were, I need to know why it is a favourable. Behavioural science suggest frugality is the tendency to acquire goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourceful use of already owned goods and services to achieve a long-term goal. In simple terms, one must buy in small and measured amounts at the longest possible intervals in order to save money. Sounds simply but in experience can take quite a lot of planning and subsequent willpower. Common strategies of the frugal lifestyle include the reduction of waste, eliminating common costly habits, efficiency, avoiding economic traps, defying expensive social norms, avoiding advertising, embracing low-cost options, using barter when possible, staying informed about local markets, and stopping instant gratification by self-restraint.

The original concept of frugality as a subject was to be distrustful of ‘expert’ knowledge from commercial markets and corporate culture to instead focus on the preferred economic, material, and spiritual ideals of a small community or the individual. Many communities see frugality as an aspect of spirituality, helping a person become enlightened to the true measures of life as well as eliminating the aspects of a destructive lifestyle based on hedonism. Quakers and Puritans have adopted this lifestyle for such reasons, so they can save money and allocate it for more charitable efforts.

Frugality can not only help save money for the future but also assist a positive health by eliminating destructive and cost-heavy habits such as smoking, drinking, and drug use. Paired with ultimate goal of saving as such money as possible and the lifestyle being seen as a separated ideal from the conventional materialism of many people’s lives, it has been seen as either being an extremely beneficial method of cost-cutting in its simplest examples, and a more disdained practice in its more extreme lengths. People see planning economically and using coupons as clever, others see it as cheap, most see skip diving to be too far. But personally I’m all for any example of it. Mainly the more spontaneous aspects of it, rather than the fully planned spreadsheets of the cost:volume ratios, monthly charters and coupon-cutting. And Lord knows I’m not above picking things of the street, just look back at my sculpture project for evidence of that. But maybe it is time to change, think more on the numbers side of things.

I purchased some paints from my local Wilko, twelve 200ml tubes of acrylic in the colours Viridian, White, Rose, Black, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Red, Ultramarine Blue, Crimson Red, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Lemon Yellow, and Sap Green at a cost of £24 total. Pretty expensive all things considered, especially for such low quality acrylics, but that low quality, especially the slickness of the surface and unsubtle block colours have a certain necessity to them. The cheapness of the quality relates back into why I brought them, because I’m cheap. The second part of the painting process, the supports, were easily acquired, I simply picked up a collection of MDF offcuts from the workshop downstairs. Normally I would have used paper but I didn’t want to get those ugly dented effects or go through the process of stretching onto a board, as that would have costed more money and taken time until I could actually paint. I did a few small tests at the beginning of the painting into different painting techniques, as it has been a while since I’ve painted for prolonged periods, I tested with impressionist and reductive methods but I settled on using small tabs of cardboard to layer and blend blocks of pure colour atop one another, finding the way the colours relate and the built texture to be quite nice.

During a group tutorial it was suggested instead of using free MDF from the workshop I instead return to the found object motif of my previous sculpture project as well as research some artists who use found objects in their work. I took to this idea and collected some pieces of disused wood from my surrounding area, many of which were dampened and rotting, making them quite delicate, a feature I didn’t find out until I started painting, which was quite annoying. Some of the wood scraps have been pre-painted and varnished, making them smooth to the touch much like the MDF I previously used while others were raw and rough, making for an interesting textural relationship between the support and the paint. Unlike the MDF, these wooden supports aren’t thin enough to fit into my sketchbook, meaning I’ll have to scan them into my sketchbook, eliminating the texture, which is unfortunate.

My tutor gave me a list of interesting artists to look at and study for the found object motif I’ve been running with, but I felt like a link between most of them was too much of a stretch. I did however particularly enjoy the work of the Arte Povera (which literally translates to ‘Poor Art’) movement which was suggested to me. A late 60’s-early 70’s Italian art movement and originally a response to the established government, industries and culture of Italy, mainly with a focus on simplicity, much like the Minimalist Art movement before it, except on a grander scale, with a three dimensional focus, emphasis on more fluid forms, and a utilization of found or recycled objects including soil, rags and twigs in an effort to disrupt the commercial aspects of modern Italian art. The movement was paired with a series of supposed concepts and trends such as:

A return to simple objects and messages

The body and behaviour are art

The everyday becomes meaningful

Traces of nature and industry appear

Dynamism and energy are embodied in the work

Nature can be documented in its physical and chemical transformation

Explore the notion of space and language

Complex and symbolic signs lose meaning

Ground Zero, no culture, no art system, Art = Life

The focus on the found is mainly why I focused on the movement, but I’ve also come to enjoy the fluid forms of many of the sculptures, specifically the use of Anti-Form, a style of sculpture born in the United States which embraced organic processes and a level of chance, in a sense treating the object in a certain way and then leaving it to possess its own inherent qualities rather than the artist imposing restrictions on it. An example I found of this is Lynda Beglis’ Quartered Meteor, a sculpture in which layers of lead and steel are melted on top of each other, forming an appearance of cooled lava. I find the fluidity and methodology of the sculpture to be quite fascinating and relatable to my project, as with the paints and fluids I am mixing, the results are mostly unknown and produce often unperticable effects inherent to the materials I use, much like the ideas of Anti-Form but on a textural basis instead.

Sources used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frugality

http://www.the-frugality.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte_Povera

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/arte-povera

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/anti-form

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/benglis-quartered-meteor-t13353

Friday, 12th July 2019 – DOP, Porto

After a day of food, we were still ready for dinner! Friday night we headed out down the street towards the river, finding the pedestrianised streets full of street musicians, strolling people and cafe tables spilling out onto the pavements. We were headed for DOP Restaurante, a rather impressive looking establishment in one of the older parts of town. The restaurant is based in the refurbished Palácio das Artes down on Largo de São Domingos and used to be part of the São Domingo convent. The place has had a chequered history since its religious days, being used as the HQ of the Bank of Lisbon (now Bank of Portugal), and of the Douro Insurance Company, as well as having been an auction house, and serving as the city hall. It’s been beautifully kitted out, in shades of turquoise, greens and browns that really works well, so much so that I really want to know where they got some of the soft furnishings and light fittings from!

We were asked if we wanted to sit in or out, and decided we’d stay in, but by a massive, open French window would suit us best, thus giving us the best of both worlds. After a glass of white port we decided we would opt for one of the two tasting menus, in our case the one named The Sea, and we would also have the matching wines.

We were soon nibbling on the appetisers, a pair of fishy tidbits, one of them a roll of salmon tartare wrapped in nori seaweed. I didn’t catch what the other one was but it was good!

The sommelier promptly showed up with a bottle of sparkling white wine, a CC & CP Brut White 2007 made from Pinot Noir and grown in the Bairrada region, which seems to be a source of the best Portuguese sparkling wine. Or at least of the ones served in the high end restaurants. I asked a few questions about it, and that was about the time the sommelier started to treat me as if I had an idea what I was talking about, despite me confessing my distinct lack of knowledge about Portuguese wines of any kind.

It went very nicely with the very good first starter, an octopus carpaccio with pomegranate, and a Parmesan tuile to set it off. The salad and the oil used to dress it was also very good, the olive oil nicely peppery and green, and the lettuce having a crisp edge to it. It was all looking very promising so far and the staff were very obliging too, taking the bread away to save us from ourselves (not for fear of having to pay a couvert charge but because it looked so damn good there was a real risk of eating it all and not being able to finish the menu).

After we’d finished we asked for – and got – a short pause while my friend the sommelier returned, this time with a bottle of Quinta da Pedra Alvarinho 2014 from Garrafeira 5 Estrelas in the Vinho Verde sub-region of Minho. It was, as might be expected, a crisp, fresh white and it would prove to be excellent with the next starter.

The second starter was a scarlet shrimp, with celery and a “risotto” of pearl barley, with some tiny little mushrooms, lightly pickled, the latter reminiscent of things I’d expect to eat a lot further north than Porto. The shrimp was juicy and tender, and the pearl barley had some tremendous flavours running all the way through it. This was very assured cooking.

Another wine appeared for the first of the fish courses. This was a rare sort of wine from Vinho Verde, being both organic and aged, and I have to say I liked it. If you see a bottle of Afros Vinho Verde Loureiro Branco 2009 anywhere, you might want to let me know… I’d be interested in buying some for drinking with fish at this time of year! So should you, actually.

The fish put in front of us next was a tiny but satisfying piece of perfectly cooked seabass, the flesh soft and just starting to flake apart, the skin crisp, served with a mussel tartare, which was unusual in texture terms, and cauliflower, both a small roasted slice and a puree. And now the waitress was asking us if we wanted to pause between courses, which was a nice touch.

We had an intermezzo next in the shape of an oyster, and I have to say I really have changed my tune on the subject of oysters now. I used to think I hate them, but either my tastes have changed, or I’m going to places that understand how to treat them and/or buy better one in now, because while I still don’t think I’d want to eat an entire platter of them, I’m quite happy to consume one now. The dressing was piquant and needed to be drunk from the shell once the oyster had been eaten. It wasn’t something I wanted to let the kitchen have back.

We were a long way into the menu now, and were delighted that the kitchen and the staff were not rushing us. And now the sommelier decided he was going to challenge me. He brought the next wine but wouldn’t let me see all of the label. He told me we’d get a free round of port if I could guess the age of the wine within three years, after I’d drunk it! Based mostly on the colour, which I looked at very closely, I was right, having guessed it was at least 20 years old. It was a 23-year old Caves São João Arinto Quinta do Poço do Lobo from Beiras. I was quite impressed with myself!

I was also quite impressed with the second fish dish, a squid ink linguini dish with clams, monkfish, and squid. Again the fish was perfectly executed, and the sauce was rich and creamy, everything coming together nicely to create a rousing finale to the savoury courses.

We moved slowly rather then swiftly on to the pre-dessert which was various textures of apple both in a sorbet and a syrup, with a creamy ice cream. It was small and the ideal palate cleanser before the final act.

Served with a glass of tawny port to accompany it, dessert proper was just listed as perfume (but turned out to be all sorts of fabulous forms of strawberry including a soup). It was delicious, the strawberries themselves still holding their shape where they’d been chopped up into tiny pieces. It was a simple dessert in many ways, but it needed careful treatment to make it work. It worked.

Happy, stuffed, and on a second glass of port, we turned down tea or coffee (way too late for me to want caffeine) but still ended up with petit fours, each of which had a great deal to recommend them, even if they filled up the last space in my digestive system.

We paid up happily, and staggered back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.

Food 2019 – DOP, Porto Friday, 12th July 2019 - DOP, Porto After a day of food, we were still ready for dinner!

The battle wounds of a DIY music blogger are directly reflected in the eye strain due to excessive screen time that such a human is subjected to, and this week, this writer is definitely seeing stars. This isn’t just because Solange and Carly Rae Jepsen are once again turning their sights toward global domination, or the fact that highly anticipated releases from folktale aliens Big Thief, blushing dreamweaver Hatchie, or hardcore angels Fury made great first impressions with their newly-announced albums. There was also scene heroes Emily Reo, Kitty and Potty Mouth doing things on their own terms, too, all the while up and comers BRUTUS and Jackie Mendoza continued to impress with intriguing new dimensions in their respective sounds. In short, this week’s music was very extra, and there’s still a heavy order left to discuss.

Here’s the best of the rest from the week of February 24th, 2019…

American Football feat. Elizabeth Powell - “Every Wave to Ever Rise” [Polyvinyl Records]

On March 22nd, American Football will release their third self-titled effort, and remarkably so, despite the long stretch between their 1999 genre-molding classic and the now, the Midwestern emo pioneers have evolved with the times rather than just rummaging through nostalgia in their sound. A major factor in that on this outing has been the inclusion of guest vocals beyond Mike Knsella’s own hum, as we recently heard third wave emo icon Hayley Williams of Paramore serenade the growing pains on “Uncomfortably Numb”. The LP’s latest preview “Every Wave to Ever Rise” is further proof of both, as it features Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell joining the quartet for a gorgeous listen of ghostly arpeggios that sparkles at the surface like refracted water, as Powell’s soft presence co-mingle a faint spell in layered langued. “Truth or dare / Love is the cross you bear / J'ai mal au cœur, c'est la faute de l'amour,” she sings in its chorus. American Football have also tacked on west coast dates to their North American tour, bringing along emotive next-gens Illumanati Hotties, Tomberlin, and Pure Bathing Culture with them.

Control Top - “Chain Reaction” [Get Better Records]

It’s not very common for a band to have announced an album and its first single well into a year in advance of when it actually becomes slated on the release calendar, but that’s what Philly punks Control Top managed to do when they set “Type A”, off their forthcoming debut full-length Covert Contracts, into the wild last March. Despite the passing of time since, the trio -- comprised of frontperson and bassist Ali Carter, drummer Alex Lichtenauer of HIRS / Get Better Records’ and Bleeding Rainbows guitarist Al Creedon -- remain fiercely awake and confrontational on the LP’s second preview “Chain Reaction”. As Carter tells Stereogum, “The song takes place in the middle of an argument... Vitriol is flying and emotions are running high. With our culture’s growing appetite for anger and conflict, a petty disagreement can easily escalate into a full-out shouting match.” Knife-like guitar riffs daggering over even sharper angles are the vehicle for her choice words as thumping rhythm mimics the non-stop adrenaline drip that ensures emotions remain high and heated. “I'm looking for an open door / But all I see is a broken mirror I can't take it anymore / I wish I could disappear / What start,” Carter shouts, hurling herself at the edge of a point of no return. The album, by the way, officially arrives on April 5th, and they’ll be supporting Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers on the road this spring.

Covert Contracts by CONTROL TOP

Deafheaven - “Black Brick” [ANTI-]

It would seem that for every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction in Deafheaven’s catalog. Last year, the band released the listmaker Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, a listen that you could arguably consider their most accessible work to date in the way they focused on elements of slowcore, shoegaze, and even some gothic balladry thanks to an assist from Chelsea Wolfe, but make no mistake about it -- Deafheaven can be depended upon delivering a reminder that they’re still a metal band despite what the purists hate on them with whenever they push the genre’s corners out a little further into the experimental unknown. “Black Brick”, a new one-off single, is a sharp-toothed epic doing just that by ferociously pulverizing itself up through a scorched earth as George Clarke’s black metal howls damn us all to their intense hellscape. The listen will come in use beginning next week when the band heads out on a co-headlining tour with fellow metal outliers Baroness and avant outfit Zeal & Ardor.

Ex Hex - “Rainbow Shiner” [Merge Records]

Mary Timony’s Ex Hex is another one of the many artists with new music out on March 22nd, as the glammed out indie rock trio led by the former Helium frontwoman will break their five year stretch of silence since 2014′s debut Rip very loudly with the release of its sophomore follow-up It’s Real. So far, we’ve heard Timony, bassist Betsey Wright and drummer Laura Harris spin us through an intergalactic romance and toughened us up with a pep talk with their power-pop licks, but with the album’s latest advance listen “Rainbow Shiner”, the trio go full-on Detroit Rock City with a hair metal twist in their glittering of arena-sized riffs that’s got a big swagger to it. Cheap faux leather, studded vests, tatted arms, and chipped nail polish white-knuckling a vintage muscle car with the windows down may come to mind when taking this one in, which is to say, it’s smashes through the stereo with an effortless, dangerous cool.

Nothing - “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” [Relapse Records]

Shoegazing shape-shifters Nothing outdid themselves once again with one of last year’s best heavy albums in their third studio effort Dance On the Blacktop. Over the years, however, the Philly punk band has amassed an impressive string of covers released in the interim between albums, showcasing a malleable side to their sound in applying textures of loud echoes in the dark to listens you may not originally deem adjacent to Nothing’s own sonic vortex. If you ever wanted to have them all in one place, then you’re in luck, as Nothing’s takes on Concrete Blonde, Low, New Order, Ride, and their latest, a feedback-drenched interpretation of Grouper’s “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping”, will appear on Spirit Of The Stairs – B-Sides & Rarities, due out on March 6th. The compilation includes those listens alongside B-sides, demos, and live versions of songs that stretch the full span of their catalog, making for an essential listen for anyone who considers them a completist. Like many, Nothing heads into SXSW as they tour throughout the entire spring, with one leg featuring CANDY and Tony Molina, and another co-headlining with Basement, supported by Gouge Away and Teenage Wrist.

PUP - “Free At Last” [Little Dipper / Rise Records]

Stefan Babcock is upping his Debbie Downer game for PUP’s upcoming third studio effort Morbid Stuff. Now that he’s made it perfectly clear to the “Kids” that life is meaningless (but it’s what you make out of it), he’s piling on the self-loathing and destructive habits with the album’s second preview “Free At Last”. The listen is characteristically wild and reckless in axe-edged riffs and beefed up drum crashes that topple charging versus into big chorus sing-a-long -- in this case, the deprecating, “Just ’cause you’re sad again, it doesn’t make you special at all...” -- that lifts Babcock’s gloomy sneer of reality into a comforting rallying cry of a punk anthem. Preceding its debut, the band released the lyrics and a basic chord chart to its fans asking them to record the song without hearing it, and those results are now the now the basis of its music video. Charly Bliss’ Eva Hendricks and celebrity stan Finn Wolfhard make guest appearances throughout the altered edit final instructional as well.

Show Me the Body - “Madonna Rocket” [Loma Vista]

Art-minded hardcore trio Show Me the Body have signed on with major indie Loma Vista for the release of their forthcoming Chris Coady-produced sophomore effort Dog Whistle, due out on March 29th. A slicker side of the studio as well as a cohesiveness in the trio’s carnage has already been defined through the crunchy static of the album’s lead single “Camp Orchestre” and again resurfaces through the collision of fast moving walls of ‘80s-era British post-punk and NYC hardcore of its second preview “Madonna Rocket”. It’s a dash that barely makes the three-minute mark over wiry guitars, relentless drumming and frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt snarling over the sea-sawing teetering that intensifies as the listen wears on. “When I meet someone that’s good, I want to die with them / Dead friends / I still want to say goodbye to them / Aside from me, aside from them / All I have is family / I will die with them” his words thrash into bodies. That he finds in the track’s accompanying visuals, a dual shot performance clip recorded at the band’s Corpus DIY spaces in LA and New York City.

War On Women - “The Ash Is Not the End” [Bridge Nine Records]

The great feminist punk band War On Women were also among one of the creators of last year’s best heavy-hitting albums with their sophomore effort Capture the Flag, an album built around unabashed socio-political anthems and a controlled grip around melodic hardcore aggression. Their screams for activism and change in a current climate that could stand to be burned to the ground by their plight continues on “The Ash Is Not the End”, the Baltimore quintet’s contribution to Adult Swim’s Singles series. What’s most noticeable about this listen, as opposed to the gritty firestorms of earlier, is how a greater degree in pop heroics akin to Paramore’s rockier moments in turn pronounce Shawna Potter’s time’s up declaration. “It’s all just a matter of time,” she spears through crisp cut riffage. You’ll be able to catch War On Women all over the world this spring and summer, including dates opening for Jawbreaker’s east coast tour.

  So… Finally the Office is finished … well nearly 🙂  just a few tweaks here and there, one of which is putting the trim down round the edge of the vinyl flooring and also gloss the skirts , make a underneath desk cupboard for the computer tower and casing for the cables as I hate them being visible. As we were told as kids “Children should be seen and not heard” with interior design in mind “Ugly things should most definitely not be seen or heard” confused?  let me elaborate for example we all know that wires are inevitable pain in the backside a lot of things are wireless nowadays but still majority of home appliances are not, making it one of those annoying tedious problems Interior designers to face on a daily basis. 

How are these problems, overcome I hear you ask? … Well the answer is clever designs that hide the hideous items which we don’t wish to be on display i.e. box the wires in, use cable catchers, drill a hole through the desk and thread the wires through. There are many hacks that we as interior designers use to get around those issues. ( A definite future blog post- I think) 

  However honestly its finished, Ha ,Ha I am sat chuckling after writing the “Finally the office is finished” Statement, thing is with me in my own home I never seem to finish it as I always have something else to do to it its almost like a OCD thing.

Its what some may call a continuous rolling project to everyone else who sees it however its a beautiful finished room filled with Colour, Light, Beautiful Textures.

Even the smallest thing is part of the colour scheme right from the smallest pen to the fluffiest dogs bed.

  However I finish clients rooms daily and walk away happy with my creation and so are they .

But at home I am a constant failure at finishing – I feel this is definitely something I should actively put right and leave well enough alone once I say the words “Right I am Finished” and actually finish.

Right so now I am going to go through the before and after images of the OFFICE…

  This was my rough plan (not to scale) – which just gave me a rough idea of how it was going to look

  Tired Desks

So are you fed up with looking at your old tired desk of yours I know I was … well again back to that interior design hack – on the cheap but with maximum ‘wham bam thank you mam power’

See below how I turned old into new – my favourite contact paper white marble design.

The high gloss sheen is just fantastic, I love how this has turned out it looks so real 🙂

Before 

The before image of our “dogs room” as we called it but also rightfully had the title junk room aswell it was awful !

After

The After – Our beautiful Lemon Yellow,Pure White and Grey Office The thing is that most people think you have to spend a fortune when it comes to interior design … but really the finishing touches can be done on the cheap even though they don’t look cheap ……. So in the above and below images you will see the following-

  Small Yellow Boxes £1.00 each from Pound world

Small Yellow Candles £0.69p each from Primark

Pillar Candles £1.50 each from Primark

Yellow and Grey Throws ( dogs bed) from Primark £4.99 each

Cushions on Chair £1.00 from Poundland

Buddha Heads £1.00 each from Poundland

White Pineapples £1.00 each from Poundland

Abstract Bespoke Art with Silver Leaf from ‘Florence’s’ £150.00

Yellow Cups £1.50 each from Sainsburys

Money Plant with vase  – Homebase £ 10.00

Money Plant Homebase- £15.00

Yellow Tulips – Tesco £2.00

  The draws I already had and I painted them in a Yellow chalky finish

  Usually I love the wood floor boards but I had become fed up looking at them they had become stain dirty and dull and I was no longer in love … so new flooring was also a must .

Flooring was from an Ebay shop £75.00 for 4m x 4m

Beautiful White Wooden Flooring  (Vinyl)

  Even the dogs bed matches the office colour scheme  🙂

Click on the images for bigger view

Art From Florence’s Bespoke Abstract Art

ask for more details

  I think this just shows that even if your struggling for funds, don’t put it off  you can do your room up and add the final touches from as cheap as 0.69p each …..

Now I Challenge You to do this to a room in your house … Then send me a picture of your finished product to [email protected]

with your Name and Email Address Plus a bit about your project…The winner will feature in my next blog 🙂

  Below is also an example how easy interior touches can be changed – If your source of colour comes from your accessories look how easy it is to change them giving you a completely new look…..

its as simple as that from yellow to rose gold and wow what a difference ….

    Hope you enjoyed my blog

until the next time 🙂

Emx

  Interior Design – Wow That Office! So... Finally the Office is finished ... well nearly 🙂  just a few tweaks here and there, one of which is putting the trim down round the edge of the vinyl flooring and also gloss the skirts , make a underneath desk cupboard for the computer tower and casing for the cables as I hate them being visible.

English Final assignment

Short Essay ( what is Fashion to you )

People been wondering about this particular question, “What is Fashion ?”. most people answered “ its a piece of clothing that you were in daily bases”. To me is more than just a cloth it define who the real you. Not only that , other still questioning a question that can’t be answer, but more to opinion. Simply because every one that lives on earth have different answer and taste in fashion. in my opinion fashion isn’t just wearing clothes for a day it more than that not only boosting you’re confident as well as showing the true meaning of that person personalities. Without fashion you’re living in black and white world where there aren’t any excitement or meaning into your life. To me I’m more toward into street wear and designer clothes, even If it is expensive but I do enjoy it as a designer I can see why designer clothes are pricey and lots of people enjoy it. in conclusion fashion isn’t just a fabric that you wear and feel good about it and no one have the answer for it and I believe the reason for this simply because everyone have different type of style, preference and personalities .

Long Essay ( fashion culture and trend)

fashion culture and trend are controlled by times and people. This been happening from generation to generation from year to year trend after another no matter where, when and why fashion will revolve around you and around the world no matter what it will change the only solution either to accept it and accept it or being left out by others. Most of the time people that are being ignorant to not willing to change soon will be dead, that is why a lot of fashion back then are so much different than todays fashion. In this essay I’ll discuss how fashion change and look like in 70s, 80s, 90s and nowadays fashion. fashion back in 1970’s consider to be diverse, reflecting new interest in clothing as an self expression. there are lots of mix such as hippie, retro, and punk. general silhouette  was long and more hair, both sexes gave this era an androgynous appeal. This era was the time for uni-sex hair salons, where shoes appeared for both men and woman and both sexes wore high waisted paints and having shag haircuts. it also the era where continued 60’s theme of pop art, op art and psychedelia with bold print in geometric design and bright color, this style toward more to bohemian style of hippies where they wear collars and long printed dresses with lace of bib fronts. In 70’s men and women sported similar styles. High waisted pants were worn by all sexes. Bell bottoms gave the look less exaggerated flare legged pants, then move to straight legs by the end. Short and long sleeved T shirt, button down shirts we worn tight and tucked in. 80’s fashion history is memorable and quite distinctive because it favored applied decoration on T-shirt and suit. 80’s term of fashion is all about extremes, shockingly had its value the idea of women wearing shoulder pads and some big brass button to claim their happiness. The history of fashion is filled with creative styles. Its a combination of practically and innovation, they say nothing truly goes out of out style and they believe it will come back. In 1980’s fashion it refuse to die because it bought a whole new genre of clothing movie, music and other thing that are now still around. Particularly rich era for young British fashion. moving on to 90’s fashion it brought forth a youthful movement and offered carefree style which is a rebellion. Wearing grunge and minimalism were biggest trend with casual streetwear and “ sexy school girl” style. In this generation they’re trying to emulate “ too cool to care” looks and fashion was infused with this attitude. Wearing delicate slip dresses create a feminine and masculinity. one of everyday wear were layering, plaid and low-rise, ripped, wide -leg jeans. Music and fashion went hand in hand as fans replicate the unique style of their musical idols. Iconic films and pop music such as clueless, inspired other with spectrum. Some everyday wear to get that rebellion looks, mini skirt, knee high socks and platform shoes created the schoolgirl look, to top it all of add some playful body glitter.celebrities style icon of the 90’s are inspired the sartorial choices of generation, the generation style and outfits were copied and recreated, all while never failing to celebrate individual, back than everyone wanted to look like their favorite musician such as madonna, Britney Spear, Gwen Stefani or spice girls. Each of this celebrity has their own unique style for example Madonna had her unforgettable jean Paul Gaultier, cone bra. Britney offered the schoolgirl look while Gwen Stefani promote grunge.  Moving on to 90’s hairstyles were anything but boring. It gave birth to several iconic styles with Youthful and Playful hair. “The Rachel” was the most popular haircut in 90’s for girl where the hair styled the half-up-half-down look was simps and modern while schoolgirl gave us pigtails hairstyle. To add more fun to 90’s hairstyle was an array of hair accessories such as butterfly clips, bandanas, scrunchies and colored hair streak were worn with pride. On 90’s they had this trend where shoes are made heavy-duty, combat boots that can be wear for male and female, it made them to look like and army. They were though, gritty and paired with slip dresses and florals to frayed jeans and flannel shirts. one of minimalist trend also had staple shoe in the way. from article that I just wrote we can see that trend overtime will change and evolve to new environments and era. Some fashion might come goes around to the present.

Long Essay ( process Fashion Product)

it took me proximately 4 days to finished my amazing and good looking product called bond. for the most part I found this actually to be okay I found lots of error in progress but overall I got this in the back. the most difficult part I find is time consumption because it is annoying just wasting time and theres nothing you can do about it. first thing that you’ll need is base, so grab some water, glue, tissue and a pair of useless shoes. I need something to stick the tissue on top of the shoes, so I created I mixture to actually stick the tissue and doesn’t waste too much material. By mixing glue with warm water. It is very important to use warm water instead of cold or room temperature water, the reason is simple it help the glue to dissolve quicker and save more energy by less stirring. 60% warm water and 40 % glue a shocker to me is the water act as a glue instead of the glue, it also help to Harden tissue to stick on shoes. another important information you’ll need is to cover every side of shoes with tissue and don’t make sure to not leave any spaces behind. multiple layer is necessary not only it made the tissue to be torn also have more texture I made mine 4 layers on each shoes. please be gentle and careful applying mixture with the tissue if not theres a chance of actually tear the tissue or broke the texture. at this point the tissue are wet and ready to be dry for this progress you don’t have to do anything just leave it on open space or air could flow. It took mine about 1 to 2 hours to completely dry up. Before letting it completely dried I bought a mannequin feet online and slide it in, by doing the base of your shoes won’t be deflated rather have and shoes shape. Once it Harden it’s similar to paper mache, take out your brush water and black poster paint because its time for the best part which is coloring the base. I feel like coloring the base with just all paint is a waste of material, instead I create another mixture involve water. 50% water and 50% paint  since the base made out of tissue It will absorb a lot of moisture on the base that’s why mixing both material are important. Just take your time to paint the whole base because it going to be a while, painting sole is going to be challenged sine it isn’t covered with tissue the mixture won’t affect as well as tissue what I done is to use pure paint. once everything dry you can start making the bone so take out your das Clay and start shaping bones and joints, this is probably second difficult part in the process. I ended up making 537 bones and 315 joints, all of this are necessary and I ended up using 90% of it. the length of each bones approximately 1,5 cm x 7 cm and for the join approximately 1,5cm x 1,5 cm. After you create at least 500 bones and 300 joints you can let it dry outdoor or indoor, for outdoor with sunny weather will take 4 hours to completely dry while indoor it will took 13 hours. i strongly recommended to let it dry outside the reason is first its time consuming second it won’t stink your house with clay smell. after you got this 2 component dry and ready to use you’ll need lots of glue gun and yes this is the most hated part for this process product, reason is either you accidentally miss stick the bone or you burn or glued your own hand, It is countless how many time I actually burn my own hand and It wasn’t a pleasant memories. Moving on by plug in your hot glue and stick some bones. Before we begin to sticking I have create 2 pattern, pattern number one it consist of bone, joint, bone, joint, etc. while pattern number 2 will be joints, bone, joints, bone ,etc. the way its going to be is pattern 1 in between pattern 2 and then pattern 2 beside it will be pattern one, fill this until the front part of the shoes are completely fill and leave some spaces between each bones and joints. on each side of shoes I stick it with bones slanted a bit . At the back of the shoes stick a straight bone. as you get to the back part of the shoes the bones are designed in straight line instead of facing diagonal directions. Next is to put joints on top of slanted bones and try find the same level so it look smooth. stick 7 bones on top of front part of shoes on top of that stick some joints to create a smooth look. Beside  those 7 bones put 5 ones on each side from the first to fourth bone make it straight while fifth bone make it slanted about 45 degree. Remove any glue string or excess glue. let the glue dry and you’re basically finished, this is how you create my product within 4 days .