Zoya Intimate Collection Spring 2011

Happy new year, everyone!

First new collection post of the year, yay! It's Zoya's new Spring 2011 collection: Intimate.



Caitlin. I know it looks totally blue here, but that's just the lighting. That whole, "it gets dark at 4:00 :(" thing... But really, it's grey, like the bottle color. It's a medium grey creme with purple tones in it, like a lighter version of Kelly.


Dannii. Isn't Dannii pretty? It's a purple shimmer that reflects red and gold. Not quite a true duochrome, but definitely iridescent looking! The shimmer in this is that signature Zoya shimmer- pearly, a little bit flaky, big particles, slightly like a glass-fleck finish.


Dove. Appropriate name. It's a light dove grey creme. So pretty. I've been craving colors like this lately. This seems like more of a neutral grey- it doesn't seem to have blue or green undertones in it at all- just pure, creamy, cozy light grey.


Gemma. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of this! Maybe I'll try again when the sun comes back. I think this is the star of the collection- unexpected, unique, and awesome! It's olive drab with a violet duochrome! I tried to capture the purple flash in the pictures, you might have to enlarge to see the veins of purple shimmer. This brings me back to the 90's when colors like this were all I wore. This one makes me so happy.




Jules. This one's fascinating! It looks taupe overall, but it's made of different tones of light gold shimmer and it seems to have a bit of purple in the base, too. The same kind of shimmer as Dannii. Not frosty or streaky, just lots of little specks of metallic foily particles.


Marley. This one is a light pastel purple, but it seems to have a touch of light grey in it to keep it from looking too bright. And instead of being a plain creme, it has a hidden pearl shimmer that makes it look really soft and creamy. It does have a very subtle pearl finish on it when you view it in sunlight, but it mostly looks like a really soft creme finish.

The formula on these was great. They were neither runny nor thick, I didn't have any application issues at all. The polish went right where I wanted it to. Opacity was good- most colors only needed two coats, but I think Gemma and Jules look better with three. I did three coats in these pictures. Drying time was good (I used Qtica basecoar and Seche Vite topcoat when I did full manicures with these colors). They seemed to wear really well, too. They didn't chip at all by the time I removed them.

My thoughts? Perfection. I think this collection is absolutely perfect for spring. One word keeps coming to mind when I look at all these colors- cozy. They remind me of cozy cashmere sweaters. Some of the shades even remind me of rainy spring skies. They're soft and muted but they're not dirty or blah looking- they have a freshness to them that keeps them from being bland. Plus, it's a spring collection that isn't pink-heavy! It has two kinds of grey and a green duochrome.

I've really been craving these types of colors after all the dark vampy fall and winter colors. The soft greys are especially appealing to me. And Gemma? Amazing. Green/purple duochrome is kinda my thing, you know? How could I not love it? In fact, I love all the shades- I don't dislike a single one, they're all so nice. Soft, cozy, rainy, no pink... It gets my seal of approval. I'm really happy with these shades.

This collection will be available on Zoya.com starting January 15th, 2011.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Hyper Realistic Paintings of Vintage Board Games; Tape, Tears and All.

At first glance, these look like vintage board games one might find on ebay, complete with frayed corners and masking tape holding them together. But look a little closer and you'll see that they are the impressive photo realistic paintings of Missouri based artist Tim Liddy.




Using oil paints and enamel Tim recreates nostalgic Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley board games- some of which are no longer made and others that are still family favorites, on copper.

















Tim will take commissions as well. The prices for these works vary from $3,000 to $11,000 + depending upon size.

Tim Liddy

Those Crazy Leaf Carvings; What, How & Where To Buy Or Create Custom Ones.

In the past year, several sites (Treehugger, Toxel and Neatorama to name a few) have shown images of the asian art of leaf carving and more recently the Gblog from Gessato via lost at e minor, posted about the leaves again which got me wondering if you could have custom images made (the answer is yes, as you will see later in this post).

The tacky artworks have their kitsch appeal especially when it comes to using them to showcase religious and celebrity imagery.



Whether it's the Virgin Mary, Obama, Marilyn Monroe, Victorian Silhouettes or a tourist leaf selling Amish Country, the carved leaves seem to elicit a certain fascination.

















Custom Carved Leaves
You can actually have custom ones made from a photo or purchase previously carved leaves for about $25.00 from several sites (links at the end of this post).




How Do They Do It?
The Sixty Step Process


above: Huang Taisheng, master leaf carver at work

Creating leaf art is a long and complex process. Leaves are put through a 60 step process such as, manually cutting and removing the outer surface of the leaf while leaving the leafs veins intact which add detail into the subject matter of the carving. Pressing, curing and dying are also just a few of the steps needed to prepare the leaf.





Talented artist using magnifying glass, then skillfully carve their masterpiece by hand. No painting or printing is involved. The most common leaf used in leaf carving is the leaf of a Chinar tree, which is native to India, Pakistan and China. Chinar leaves closely resemblance the leaf of a maple tree:



Where To Buy Them:
Several websites will make custom leaf carvings from your own photo or sell already carved leaves in various Western and Asian themes.

http://www.foliagesart.com/Products.asp

http://www.leafcarvingart.com/

http://www.longal-craft.com/leaf-carving-art.html

http://stores.far-eastgifts.com/-strse-Art-of-Leaf-Carving/Categories.bok

Thanks to the above links for images and information.