Tattoo Skulls and Wrap.me

If you have been nice enough to look at my blog before, you will have seen me talking about Tattoo Style.  It's my own concept for interior design which fits perfectly with the styling that we do for Van Asch who has made her name with skulls and roses on cushions and fabric.

Add to that now another fabulous lady designer and artist, Hannah Getley.  I do believe that lady luck or serendipity plays a part in who you meet in the world and it was a chance meeting at a party that drew my attention to Hannahs work, living locally to me in nearby Berkhamsted. 

These Sea Skulls are slip cast in high grade porcelain before Hannah decorates each one individually. The designs applied are influenced by sailors and their tattoos, anchors, swallows, feathers, stars, moths and tall ships.

 As each piece is individually hand decorated, Hannah can take commissions and believes the skulls are good luck talismans to those who buy them. 

You can find Hannah's website here where you can ready about her early training at art college and how she now works in film, making props.

Expect to see more of Hannahs work appearing here on my blog as well as some new cushion designs from Van Asch.  This month I am also collaborating with an interiors shop and a haberdashery so keep checking in for information and photos of some lovely new products. 

Also this week I tried out the https://wrap.me/ idea of using your own photos to make gift wrapping paper. 

make a collage from your own photos and they send you a sheet of wrapping for 4.99 uk sterling, free postage. Just the thing to wrap up your Hannah Getley Sea Skull. 

Vintage Circus Costumes and Clowns

The best thing about my life is that no two days are the same, despite my best efforts to just hibernate in the warm and take photos in my home studio, the unusual offer seems to haunt me like a shadow... and here's just one such instance.

I met the wonderful Ruth from Admiral Costumes on a photo shoot which I helped to style, Ruth had just taken over an established costume hire company not far from me up the country roads.

Ruth had come across a fabulous selection of genuine vintage circus costumes, and thought I might like to have fun with them. When finally we found a young lady small enough to fit into them, I set about building a little set and rummaging around for props. The final part of the jigsaw was finding that our student model Charlotte was best friends with another young lady who is training to be a makeup artist, the girls were fabulous, they really entered into the spirit of it. 

Ruth has been looking into the different types of clowns and we took some ideas from these.

There are four types of clown, there's Auguste who is the fool or joker, he falls over with his big shoes on and has makeup with white round the mouth and eyes which is outlined in black.

Hobo clown is a happy go lucky fellow who is always looking for work, typically he wears a bowler hat and tramp clothing, he has a dirty face due to his constant travelling.

Harlequin clown originated in France and wears an outfit made from triangles of coloured fabric with a ruff at the neck. Harlequin is nimble and performs stunts and acrobatics.

The Pierrot clown wears distinctive black and white and is known for mime.  He is a melancholy dreamer and hides his pain from his audience but reveals only a single tear drop on his cheek, under his eye.

We combined some of these clown ideas to style the showgirl outfits, the sort a bear-back rider would wear and another like a Jeanie.

With the addition of a few feminine touches like ballet shoes and veils, we twisted the idea from a male image to a female performer, albeit a rather sinister one, but I can't help but feel that clowns are a bit scary anyway. 

You can hire any of these items or some just like it from Admiral Costumes. Kerri Victoria Pocknell our MUA can be found through facebook or myself.  Big thanks to Charlotte our model too. 

Send in the clowns, don't worry, they're here...

Top Drawer and Tattoo Style

Happy New Year one and all, yes, Ive been a bit tardy of late in blogging, to be honest I have been very lacking in motivation over the holiday period and am often feeling very blue by January. It's hard to keep your energy and motivation up when you are self-employed and I do think that the dark wet days don't help either, hibernation has set in and knitting has ensued.

But everyone else has battled on back to work and time waits for no man, so it's January and in retail that means the big buying shows for the coming Spring and summer with all the major trade shows being held.  

Top Drawer at London's Olympia also incorporates Home and is a great showcase for the shop suppliers and wholesalers/makers to display the coming trends in gifts and interiors. The show is so vast that I decided just to feature the things that I feel fit into my Tattoo Style ethos.

the perfect presents for your tattooist at Temerity Jones

It pleases me enormously when items which were once thought creepy and maybe too gothic, seep into the mainstream. Some of my personal favourite pieces of victorian, circus, steampunk, crossover can be illustrated here.  Firstly, Phrenology heads and palmistry hands.  

Temerity Jones

Seletti

Phrenology dates back to the Greek era when it was thought that certain areas on the head were responsible for specific functions. This is clearly laid out on the phrenology head but we now see that being tweaked into a more fun object.

Alphabet lights were on several stands, they vary from the large rusty statement pieces akin to old theatrical signs,  to smaller more kitschy ones which would be fun in a kitchen or teenagers bedroom.

temerity jones

PAD Home

Filament light bulbs and cage shades are also hot news in interiors and I welcome the regression away from horrible energy efficient bulbs, sorry but thats the truth.  I love that the lightbulb is a beautiful thing in its own right, now being shaped in a variety of ways and the filaments larger than before like some victorian scientific apparatus.

temerity jones

NKUKU

These look great grouped together and offer a good alternative to areas where a fabric shade would be impractical. 

i-bride France at PAD home

Van Asch Sweden

Victoriana and steampunk, skulls, lace and animals in period clothing, whats not to love. Above you can see how these quite gothic subjects are transformed into something quite delicate and feminine. 

Temerity Jones

temerity jones

Mercury glass is the name for this silver aged effect on glass objects, it is reminiscent of how old mirrors crackle and mist. Personally I love old mirrors, and when buying antique and vintage ones I actually prefer the imperfections. Mercury glass has started to form another of my collections and it looks particularly elegant used at Christmas. For me this look fuses the ethnic style from India with a victorian feel and I love a good fusion. Nkuku has been mentioned by me many times before, for me they are the perfect wholesalers of fair trade products with their eye for mixing country rustic with ethnic whilst hinting at scandinavian cool. I should buy shares in them !

nkuku

Top Drawer is only for shop owners and buyers, not for the public, but I thought it was still worth mentioning these companies either because you may have a shop or you could track down your local stockist. I hope to be bringing you some of these stockists soon as I may be working with a few shops in the future on styling and sourcing.  

www.temerityjones.com
Nkuku
Van Asch
PAD Home

Tattoo Style

One of my current projects is a little something which I have invented all on my own, merging my eclectic tastes and sometimes conflicting styles and interests.  This series of photos is entitled "Tattoo Style" and I shall be fleshing this out more and more over the course of this year. I'm saving my words on the subject for another medium but for the blog lovers out there, heres a selection from the series.....

dreamcatchers and Indian Girls

Art Nouveau and Peacock Feathers

Antlers and Skulls, heads and hands

hot air balloons

dreamcatchers

religious

Wise old Owls and Scientific Steampunkery

Nouveau swirls

Skulls and Roses

Keys and Skulls

Credits for items used in the photos should go to Van Asch who designs the coolest cushions and fabrics, BrocantUK who travel all over Europe collecting the weird and wonderful and to charity shops everywhere, without whom I would be a lot less inspired.

I shall also be updating my Steller story with these photos, Steller is a new app for your phone where you can make collections of photos, videos and words, its rather lovely, so please find me there under the same name I use on twitter Jan.is.IT (my homage to Will.i.am and because its about time I cashed in on having such a ridiculous name).

See you all soon xxx love Janice