'I swear......I don't have any extra carrion luggage to declare, sir...."

Which is the least flattering look?.....Queen Elizabeth, weighed down by the heavy jillion dollar crown and diamond choker or Wannahaveittoo Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ?

                                                 

                                                       WHAT'S THAT COMPROMISERY PAINT JOB ON LORD TEFLON'S FOREHEAD?    OBVIOUSLY, 'NOT ENOUGH'.....

                  "Everyone wants to rule the WORLD..."    Some are content to 'wear the crown'....    Others want to snatch the crown from some others' noggins.....    Few want to 'share the Wealth ....... Making ALL OF THESE....Politicians...with their eyes focused on "The Prize"   

                 What's your Stance on this conundrum, Nita Ambani?   

Yacine Kharobi .....my favorite macro-photographer

 

I imagined "octopus buttons" for a fancy silk blouse.....then, realized how awkward 'buttoning' them through tiny buttonholes would be....

                       HOW ABOUT A MUCH LARGER BROOCH, WITH MOVEABLE GEARS!

[In 2016, three interns from Autodesk Interns' Pier 9 lab, Ali Ahmed, Connor Freeman, and Eni Asebiomo, created a mechanical octopus using 3D printing and Fusion 360. Their project showcased the potential of 3D printing and CAD design in creating complex robotic models.]

TEN THOUSAND SEA SNAILS WERE CRUSHED TO THEIR DEATHS TO OBTAIN THE DYE FOR A TYRIAN PURPLE TOGA.....

IN ANCIENT TIMES, TYRIAN PURPLE DYE WAS MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD......WHICH, OF COURSE,  PURVEYED HIGH STATUS TO THOSE WHO WORE TOGAS OF THAT COLOR... CITIZENS OF LOWER THAN 'NOBLE STATUS' COULD BE HEAVILY FINED....OR EXECUTED FOR 'TREASON'...JUST  BECAUSE THEY WERE  WEARING 'THE COLOR'...

TODAY, THE COLOR PURPLE IS NOT AS VALUED, SINCE PURPLE DYE CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM A COMMON DALIA OR ANY OF DOZEN OF OTHER SOURCES...... IF I COULD 'GO BACK IN TIME' TO ANCIENT ATHENS, WITH MY $12 BASKET OF GAUZY CHIFFON, I COULD TRADE THE FABRIC, THAT I GOT FROM A FABRIC STORE CLOSE-OUT SALE, IN A STRIP MALL,  FOR A VILLA, A DOZEN PERSONAL SLAVES, 2 DOGS, A HUNDRED JUGS OF WINE, A COUPLE OF HARLOTS,  AND A BOX OF GOLD JEWELRY......           

Wrapped in a bracelet of intricately-woven brown twine fabric and tiny gold beads.......

I found, in a zip-lock plastic bag....this intricately fabricated ring....which, amazingly, I thought, bears no 'signature'......although it is a tour de force of technical goldsmithing and diamond setting; however, on inspection under a microscope, I discovered a stamp, that I thought was for Gold Karat...."KK"....I believe that the 'maker/designer' is 'KK'.....Alas, it does not fit any of my fingers! It once belonged to 'Vectra' Barnett.....aka Shirley Orkin......of Atlanta.....

229.6 Grams Seymchan Meteorite Pallasite Sphere Ball that is selling for $6500 today!

THE ANTIQUE AUSTRIAN VASE, DECORATED WITH A PAIR OF MAGPIES BECOMES A MEMORIAL URN

I've been 'labeling' some Austrian, Hungarian and Czech Pottery.......with the names of deceased friends.....in memoriam......This large vase was obscured by a 'double rolling rack' of old clothes......Cleaned up and given a name, 'Hunter'..after Hunter Patterson...who loved birds, their viewing, and his 'naming' of them......and, I think these birds are a pair of Yellow-billed Magpie, that many consider the 'smartest' of avians.... [And, I recall a 'Magpie" story.........A cat was stalking a magpie for its potential luncheon fare.....the nervous magpie, mimicking the humans..when they called their dog......."called" the dog out to the yard...to chase the cat away.........then, it was back to Singing.]

perhaps, a particularly perfect performance....if pondering the pit of disillusion beneath an avalanche of Love

"Ebben? Ne andrò lontana"

                                   

amidst all the antagonistic prepossessed polemic partisan prattling and political poppycock, inundating the ears and eyes of America... with stuttering stammering and fallacious foddering, there is...hopefully...still...Art!  

A FREE-STANDING PINE, ELM AND CYPRUS KOREAN APOTHECARY CABINET WITH 139 'LABELED' DRAWERS..WITH PULL-KNOBS

FOR SALE, TODAY, AT A GLOBAL AUCTION....(CURRENT BID IS $625) 

 A 'PERFECT'    SEMI-TERMINAL-MAUSOLEUM FOR ALL THAT 'BRIC-A-BRAC', FINDINGS, JEWELRY ITEMS, LOOSE COINS, STAMPS, SCREWS AND NAILS, WASHERS AND NUTS, HERBS & SPICES....THAT WOULD, OTHERWISE, BE SCATTERED ALL AROUND THE HOUSE......

THE 40 YEAR OLD CRASSULA THAT I'VE 'BONSAI'D' FOR YEARS.....

                                IS NOW IN ITS LAST WEEKS, I THINK..... NOT A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR A  BONSAI PROJECT....IT BEGAN, A FEW YEARS AGO, TO LOSE 'BRANCHES' DUE TO THE HEAVY WEIGHT OF ITS 'LEAVES', NOT WELL-SUPPORTED BY ITS THIN, ELONGATING TRUNK.....OPENING IT UP TO INVASION BY INSECT PESTS, ALSO.....THE BLUE AND WHITE CHINESE PORCELAIN POT WILL BE A HOME TO A NEW BOTANICAL BEAUTY, I HOPE.   

AMIDST THE ROOM, FULL OF REHEARSED 'LOOKS'.....

playing with some of the Masks....recently, at a 'hidden faces party'.....I felt very vulnerable and naked, standing, in my usual dishevelment, looking at practiced faces....disguised by the artifices of makeup, painted & decorated acrylic fingernails, face-lifts, hair-do's, facial tattoos, glistening white, sculptured teeth, glamorous attire, jewels, attitude and self-controlled facial muscles.......I may as well have donned one of these masks from my collection....

IT TAKES A LOT OF 'WORK' TO FIND A WOOD AND LUCITE RING THAT WILL COMPLEMENT MY JEWELLED HOUSEFLY BROOCH.....

                    Patience and attentiveness are rewarded, however....now, to inlay a couple of collet-set cabachon rubies into the ring...to complete the marriage.....

REMEMBERING THE 'TOUCAN' BROOCH THAT WAS STOLEN FROM MY 'ANTIQUE JEWELLRY SHOPPE' 25 YEARS AGO.....

           I hoped, for years, to discover that it had re-appeared at a big Antique Jewelry Show......Alas, it did not.....Its whereabout are, still, unknown........

THE 'SWAMP PLANT' ....REJUVENATED BY RAIN AND SUNLIGHT........

This old 'swamp plant', Ficus Palmeri, that I've cared for so many years , seemed....only a couple of months ago....to have withered and 'kicked the bucket'......I moved it into the moving air and exposure to more sunlight, and dumped an overdose of organic fertilizer into its bonsai pot......This past week, the thing seemed to be growing like a teenager......Interestingly, the other 'ailing plants' that are sharing the Plant Hospital with it appear to be following its example....even a couple that I had...almost,....pronounced DEAD.....Happy Things that are Loved and cared for....want to LIVE! As Summer sunlight gets brighter, and the air....hotter.....the plants red 'veins' grow more pronounced and deeper 'red'......the plant is a 'water hog', requiring....during active growth periods, like Now......copious amounts of water, when growing in direct sunlight...If the ficus is denied its two main needs, it goes into dormancy....'survival mode'.....losing its leaves and ceasing to develop new roots.....looking like a dissicating Yam......until resurrected by heat, light and water..........

A ROSEWOOD AND BLACK LEATHER 'SLINGBACK' CHAIR, DESIGNED BY DON SHUMAKER...IN THE 1960'S....

LANGUISHED, WITH ANOTHER ONE,  ON A SCREENED PORCH, EXPOSED TO THE WEATHER...FOR SEVERAL DECADES.....I THOUGHT THEM 'STURDY ENOUGH' TO SURVIVE AT THE CABIN IN NORTH GEORGIA.....UNTIL.....I DISCOVERED A PAIR OF THEM FOR SALE ON '1ST DIBS'....THE CHAIRS WERE 'LISTED FOR SALE' FOR $7550 + $649/SHIPPING & DELIVERY....AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THIS DISCOVERY...THE CHAIRS ARE NOW STORED IN A GARAGE, COLLECTING DUST AND, STILL, EXPOSED TO 'THE WEATHER'....GO FIGURE!  

 

THE EMERALD, DIAMOND, RUBY AND PEARL 'MALE CRESTED PHEASANT' BROOCH.....OUT FOR AN EVENING PRODUCTION OF STRAVINSKY'S 'THE FIREBIRD' AT SYMPHONY HALL

Please sign the Release of Liability Waiver Form, before descending the steep stairs....to view part of my Art Collection....

Or, at least, avoid an injurious hard fall as you tumble down the smooth, carpeted steps.   Keep in Mind that distraction is not the same as inattention..any more than precaution, the same as prevention.

{this Climb isn't The Hinterstroisser Traverse on the Eiger, exactly; nevertheless, I will supply spiked hiking boots for the clumsy and negligenty oblivious} 

AQUAMARINE AND DIAMOND NECKLACE.....LOCKED AWAY IN A VAULT FOR 25 YEARS.....

     WITHIN ITS PRESENTATION BOX WAS A SMALL LABEL ON WHICH WAS WRITTEN:

        26.26CT -AQUAMARINES         2.83CT -DIAMONDS 

THE 'ROAD/SIDEWALK MAKING MACHINE'.........MACHINE-ASSISTED BRICK PAVING, UTILIZED BY THE OTTEN INFRA COMPANY IN THE NETHERLANDS

FAR MORE AESTHETIC THAN STEEL-REINFORCED, POURED CONCRETE OR ASPHALT....THAT IS THE CONSTRUCTION DEFAULT FOR ROADS AND SIDEWALKS IN AMERICA.....