Here's a glimpse of my design for my fine art Tickler Ukulele #2. As you can see, it is a pineapple shaped uke. I am all finished painting it now, so it is almost there! Built from scratch by a luthier, it has beautiful ivoroid binding around all sides, neck and headstock! Sweet. The top is spruce, the back and sides are mahogany. The neck is carved walnut. The wood is aged to perfection. Gold tuners with amber-colored buttons (I think), mother-of-toilet-seat fingerboard (pearloid), two rings of B&W rossette around sound hole, a thin strip of persimmon down the back of the neck. There is an end graft triangle of B&W ebony with an ivory border, plus an ivory "cloud" inlay on the bottom of the front (made from an old piano key). The bridge is ebony and there is an ebony cap on heel. It won't be long now (I know I promised it over a year ago, but who's counting). It just needs a few finishing touches and then I can photograph it and present it to you. I call it my hybrid Hawaiian/1920's Jazz design - featuring my trademark pierrot and a banana-skirted hula girl. My monkey in a sailor hat makes an appearance on the headstock.
This is one of my favorite Art Deco works. It was painted by Jean Théodore Dupas (born in 1882 -1964) a French painter, designer, poster artist, and decorator. He won the prix de Rome in 1910. In 1925, he showed this piece, at the Grand Exposition des Art Décoratifs in Paris. It is called "Les Perruches", one of his most famous oils on canvas. It's nice to see the preliminary sketch and a photo of the painting in it's location above a fireplace. Jean Dupas
If all goes according to plan (and there are no breaking stories to bump it), ABC's Nightline is running a segment tonight on MAKE and the maker movement. They taped a piece with Mark Frauenfelder and Mister Jalopy (Dinosaurs and Robots). There may be scenes from Maker Faire and Make: television as well. 11:35pm
Cloudy Collection, Volume 1, Edition 1 (limited to 100 sets). These beautiful images are pressed into ivory-colored bamboo paper using 100% vegetable-based inks. Printed by Boxcar Press in Syracuse, NY. "Cloudy Characters" art by Meg Hunt, Bill Fick, John Martz, Amy Crehore, Tom Kaczynski, Steven Weissman, and David Huyck. A percentage of the sales of the Cloudy Collection print sets will be donated to The Nature Conservancy. Only $35. with free shipping to the U.S. and Canada. These prints go on sale at 9am PST (noon, Eastern time) March 31, 2009. Brought to you by David Huyck.
Photo of dancers on the beach includes Louise Brooks, second from right, as part of the Denishawn Dancers in Los Angeles, CA (Library of Congress). Click to Enlarge.
Top photo is of Ruth St. Denis herself in an unsual pose. (NY Public Library ) Read about Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, what inspired their dance companies, and see more photos on bobster1985's flickr.
I love seeing photos of Louise Brooks that I had not seen before. Those were the days!