Hacklock

Hey Melbournites,

If you like getting your nails did, give this lady some business.
She is tops

blondetiger:

I’m very thrilled to announce that Blonde Tiger is moving on up (cue The Jefferson’s theme song)!

As you all know, I’ve been working from my home studio (aka spare room filled with nail polish) for the last year. As my clientele has grown, I’ve been keeping an eye out for the perfect salon space to move into. Thanks to a series of fortunate events, I will soon be operating out of Level 1, 270 Russell St in Melbourne’s CBD. I will be renting space from Melbourne’s own “Eyebrow Queen”, Afnaan of Arch Enemy Eyebrows. Needless to say, I am beyond thrilled to be working alongside someone with Afnaan’s sterling reputation. She and I have known of each other for quite some time, and we’re both anxious to start working together.

My first day of business will be Wednesday, 13 June.

My business days will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays to start with, but if you’re interested in a Thursday or Friday, please let me know as I’ll be adding those in as soon as there is sufficient interest.

My hours will be approximately 11am-7pm, but earlier or later appointments will be available by request.

My service menu is here: http://blondetiger.com.au/nail-services/

You can contact me via email at blondetigerbeauty@gmail.com                                     or by phone on 0498 474 287

I will be thrilled to accept walk-in appointments if I’m sitting around twiddling my thumbs at the time, but at the rate I’m already booking out, I’d highly suggest making an appointment. You can check my availability daily via my twitter (and keep an eye out for special deals): @getyonailsdid

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported Blonde Tiger while I’ve been working from home! I look forward to seeing you at the salon!

xx erin

• The Art of Mourning - Fascinating site about mourning, memorial jewellery and symbolism
• Suck it up, buddy, She just didn’t like it - An Australian playwrights advice to another who responded to a critic with vitriol. Here is Douglas Day Stewert’s response and attack to the critic that this is about
• Penny Skateboards Plastic Pride
• Little Girl’s Lunch Review Blog Persuades Her School To Serve Healthier Meals
• Inside Kanye’s 7 screen movie pyramid
• Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim - “Declaring that “life must always be protected”, a senior Vatican cleric has defended the Catholic Church’s decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old rape victim who had a life-saving abortion in Brazil.” Sorry but FUCK the catholic church. We treat animals better.
• Pomegranate juice found guilty of lying about effects
• Ugly Renaissance Babies
• MIT’s freaky non-stick coating keeps ketchup flowing
• 10 salts to know - Yes! let’s learn about salts
  

• Toasted Marshmellow Milkshake - @Memily was talking about Marshmellow milkshakes yesterday and now I have a recipe
• Isaac’s live lip-dup Proposal - I got quite emotional while watching, and I’m not a sucker for these kind of things normally
• John Waters is hitchhiking across the US - That’s Cult film director and proffesional weirdo John Waters
• Priest Removed From Ministry Due To Sex Abuse Allegations Now Works At PHL - Ahh the TSA keeping america safe
• Learn all the Mac keyboard shortcuts with this cheat sheet
• Former Guatemalan Dictator to face Massacre Charges
• The internets reaction to Heath Ledgers casting as the Joker is interesting in retrospect
  

Original Article

Last week I reached a big milestone and clicked over to the “30 years and older” category. I’d been approaching the date with a deeply embedded sense of dread. All my life tv and the general media seemed to view hitting 30 as a time to mourn. This is the end of your youth. This is the end of your viability as a romantic prospect. This is the end of being cool, adventurous and exciting. That episode of friends where each person turns 30? MISERABLE!

During the past year there were a lot of times that thinking about my birthday led me to looking back and analyzing my life. Making internal lists of all the ways I considered myself a disappointment. Thinking of all those markers usually considered signs of success and chastising myself for falling short. Where is my career? Where is my long term relationship? Where are my savings? Where is my fitness and hawt body?

Here’s the thing, although I do feel like I have a long way to go, I am pretty happy with my life. I just adore my friends, they are wonderful and fascinating people. My family get along well despite some eccentricity. My job doesn’t give me enough hours to survive on but the work is good and strangely satisfying at times. I feel like I have my mental health under control and my general health is improving. I have longer term plans that I’m slowly working towards and I’m really happy and excited about that. I could get annoyed about the things I didn’t accomplish in the time I’ve had but really, I’m a generally happy person and I’ve still done a lot of amazing things, so why bother?

I had two events for my birthday, a small crafternoon gathering the weekend before with a couple of friends and a big noisy dinner with a whole lot more. Before both of those however, I was suprised with a ticket to see my favourite band, The Mountain Goats. They played a fantastic set and Devo and I got a great spot only one or two people back from the stage. I think my highlight was when they played Autoclave.

The crafternoon was wonderful, we painted bobbleheads and learnt some origami. I was going to do a polymer clay demo but I got too involved in painting, talking, eating lollies and drinking cider.

My actual birthday was the Wednesday, I had a relaxing day which included visiting my Grandma and then headed into e city for a few drinks before dinner. I wore my amazing color splash titles from We Love Colors and a dress and a vest from Modcloth. I was sufficiently brightly colored to get weird looks on the train. YAY!

The dinner was at a little restaurant built in an old cellar. I highly recommend them if you are in or around Brisbane, they do the most fantastic risottos. Halfway through the dinner I was surprised with the most amazing and humbling gift. After opening a few deceptively sized boxes I saw something that i had some trouble comprehending. They had pooled their money and bought me a brand new iPad. Something I never ever thought I would be able to own. The next morning i woke up, saw the box and immediately burst into tears, the generosity is so overwhelming. I’ve barely put it down since, I’m even writing this post on it!

I am so very lucky to have such wonderful friends and to have had such a fantastic birthday.

Original Article

This Friday I fancy…

Stalward Ties - These are some niiiice ties.

Neil Gaiman’s Commencement Speach - Mr Gaiman is wonderful, as always

Hair Band Necklace by Hairy Sock - cool!

Paper Camera Printables by Girlie Pains

Scalloped Wedges - Wowowow, look at these amazing hand painted wedges by Pony Chops

Original Article

 Every Monday I post images and links from around the web that caught my attention during the previous week.

• Cupcakewurst is now a real thing
• Is eating meat ethical? An argument for the eating of meat -  Essay winner
• 5 Ways Modern Man are Trained to Hate Women
• Amsterdam’s Repair Cafes - An Effort to Bury a Throwaway Culture One Repair at a Time. I love love LOVE this idea
• Inside Adam Savage’s Man Cave - A great interview with Adam about his personal projects and movie props
• The Cardboard Tube Fighting League

Original Article

This Friday I fancy…

This Lamp. I really love skull stuff, I think we have covered this before. This beautiful hand made ceramic lamp is even made from BONE CHINA. Get it? Bones? Skulls? ahhh shush, I’m hilarious

This Vintage Tattoo inspired Embroidery - I really love the colours and presentation of this.

Glass Gem Corn! This is amazing. This is an actual cob of corn grown from an extremely old strain of corn seed. Come for the Beautiful Glass Gem Corn, Stay For A Dose OF Genetics

This comic - This time trabble had me burst out laughing and everytime I re-read it I get the giggles.

This amazing video - An animated scene happening on an iphone was animation student Mike Ko’s final graduation piece and took 3 months to make. Gorgeous

Original Article

Last Friday I fancied…

Media Kitty Skirt in Blue - This skirt also comes in a peach colour but the blue is the one that jumped out at me.

Tiny Bug Memorial Shrines by Carmichael Lynch - “But as inconsequential as those countless bugs may seem as they creep quietly into that great beyond — there’s no denying that our shared mortality ultimately binds us all as earthlings, regardless of size or leg-count.”

Hunger Games Nailpolish Collection by China Glaze - I haven’t read the books or seen the movie but I’m pretty excited by the Hunger Games inspired nailpolish collection. Such an gorgeous range! I have a few of these in the mail on their way to me as I write this. Check out the great review over on All Lacquered Up.

Jeffrey Campbell Litas - I know these have been around a while and already collected a huge fanbase. Today I have tried on a pair and felt how light and comfortable they are on my weirdo feet. Now I need at least 100 pairs

Origami Bow from Magazine pages DIY - I love this, the really angular shapes within the bows really make me all gooey inside. What can I saw nice shapes and lines really get me going.

Original Article

I AM SO BEHIND so I’m going to throw a Friday Fancy and Beep Boop at you on the SAME DAY.

• The Mine Kafon - Using a Wind-Blown ‘Mine Kafon’ to Clear Landmines
• There is no such thing as a normal vagina- although this applies to a lot more, the science here is about the bacterial flora that live in your vag and it’s changes from day to day and person to person.
• People May Switch Genders by Choice in Argentina Under New Law - Argentina is light years ahead of us when it comes to gender identity laws and rights
• Received Pronounciation - You know that clipped, slightly nasal accent you hear from announcers over old British newsreels? Also known as BBC English, The Queen’s(King’s) English,  Oxford English and The Standard English of Great Britain.
• Let’s Talk About the Cover of Today’s Australian - A very interesting break down of the front page the day after the Budget was announced
• Everyone go vote for Kill The Music! - An independant record store in Brisbane that needs all the support we can give
• Woman spends night in jail for picking up prescription refill
• Some of Rob Delaney’s funniest tweets
• People just aren’t that into the internet - Most telling line: “but the fact of the matter is that home broadband internet is a much less popular product than cable television”
• You don’t always “get” art but we still need more of it - A kind of response to the Vice “I’m sick of pretending: I don’t get art” article that’s doing the rounds
  

Original Article

I find that once people hear I work with polymer clay and understand that I am talking about Fimo they get that look in their eye that says “oh, yeah, I played with that when I was little.” They mentally categorize it next to finger painting and making cars out of egg cartons.
Yes that’s nice dear, I’m sure you make LOVELY colourful blobs.

I don’t consider myself a high level artist yet (I’m working on it) but I feel that PC is just as valid an artistic medium as paint. The same way paint can do this

it can also make a picture like this

It’s what you do with it!

Here are some polymer clay artists I really admire and I think take that clay well into the realms of art

Meredith Dittmar

Her website

There’s a good article about her work and interview here and here

These sculptures fascinate me. They are intricate, expressive and you don’t see a hint of the standard and overused polymer clay techniques.

Shay Aaron

Flickr Site and Etsy Store
An interview with Shay here 

The world of miniature food making with polymer clay is a highly populated one but Shay stands out from the pack with work that boggles the mind with it’s detail and scale.

Del Moro

Del is a Russian Artist and as far as I can work out, I think this is her main site but there is also this one.
Livejournal and Flickr page

Pier Voulkus

Some pictures of her work here

Artist Profile here

Pier was one of the first people to take Polymer Clay from a children’s toy to new use as an accepted art material and is considered one pf PC’s Greats. She discovered a lot more about the properties of the clay and what it was capable of. She has pieces in a permanent museum collection on the history of Polymer Clay at the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin.

After this I might start doing regular posts highlighting artists that I discover. Would you be interested in reading that?

Original Article

Every Monday-ish I post images and links from around the web that caught my attention during the previous week
(I’m getting worse and worse at posting these on time, sorry ( -.-) )

• Melbourne Finders Keepers markets were on, here is a wrap up
• Farming on Permafrost
• Why Community is TV’s most ambitious show
• For Chissakes, There is nothing wrong with you - A dating manifesto
• Top Ten Best Bookstores in Brisbane
• I’m pretty excited about the new doco from Morgan Spurlock (supersize me) called Mansome that looks at male grooming and masculinity. Looks like a lot of comedians I really love and respect are involved. Check out the trailer here
• Barbie IRL of the day - She creeps me the hell out
• The lost portrait of a transvestite spy

• China Glaze have a new Hunger Games themed nail polish collection
• The original Adele Butter Dance video - this had me in laughing so hard I cried
• Who is Poly at the Queer Crafternoon?
• Absurd tweets illustrated
• Prude Awakening - Alison Brie is more fun than the characters she plays on TV. Just ask a foot fetishist
• iBleed - good healthy discussion about menstruation
• What Game of Thrones can teach us about US Politics
• Never before seen photos from 100 years ago tell vivid story of gritty New York City

• “Pokemadona with Child” - A super excellent photo of Brendan Maclean  - who also recently wrote this excellent piece on Gays and Monogamy
• Celebrity Yearbook Photos - A lot I haven’t seen before. Alice Cooper is so cute
• Corky the Kitten who couldn’t walk has amazing surgery
• “That’s why you don’t have any friends” - really really excellent article on being the weird kid
• Emotipugs - a pug for every emotion
• Dollhouse murder scenes
• Watch Nick Offerman Read the Tweets of Young Female Celebrities While Doing Outdoor Work
• Rules for the Game of Thrones drinking game
• Probably not accurate… probably
• A look inside the State Home for Manic Pixie Dreamgirls

Original Article