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Paper Cuts: The astonishingly beautiful cut-out artwork of Ivonne Carley
07.25.2017
10:02 am
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I’m sure most of us recall at some point in our childhood folding paper into squares and delicately snipping patterns with scissors to create something that looked like a primitive doily. I recall it was the end of term, junior school, Miss Burton’s class, the smell of freshly cut grass and the first promise of summer, when I sat deliberately paring triangles and rhomboids in the hope of making something half presentable to take home. This formulaic but effective process made it almost impossible to imagine anyone could create something as spectacular as the designs cut by artist Ivonne Carley.

Ivonne Carley makes beautiful and intricate artworks from cut paper. Based in San Diego, Carley’s interest in creating such art stemmed from spending time with her parents in Mexico during her formative years. It was then that Carley discovered she had a great liking for the traditional high contrast imagery of lino block printing by artists like José Guadalupe Posada, but was especially enamored by the elaborate designs produced by paper cutting or papel picado. In particular, Carley liked the many ornamental designs Mexicans prepared for celebrating the Day of the Dead.

Spool forward a few years and filter this childhood interest through a liking for Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, MC Escher, Bosch, and a great love for Halloween, and you will find Carley has finessed her interest into a fabulous world of beautifully dark and delightfully original designs.

Ivonne Carley has exhibited her work in group and solo shows—most recently in the exhibtions Reliquary and Toil & Trouble—and has several shows coming up. Check Carley’s website, Instagram, and Facebook page for more of her exquisite work.
 
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‘As Above, So Below.’
 
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‘Deliciously.’
 
See more after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.25.2017
10:02 am
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California’s bizarro ‘Flintstone House’ sells for $2.8 million
06.30.2017
09:16 am
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Some lucky schmoe just bought one of the coolest houses in the United States.

The Hillsborough, California home affectionately known as “The Flintstone House” which has been on the market since 2015, sold this week for $2.8 million—$1.4 million less than the original asking price.

The last previous sale of the home was for $800,000 in 1996.

The experimental home, built in 1976, was constructed using steel rebar and wire mesh frames built over large inflated aeronautical balloons and sprayed with high-velocity concrete known as gunite or “shotcrete.”

The home, also known as “Dome House,” “Gumby House,” or “Bubble House,” became more commonly known as “Flintstone House” when it was painted completely orange, from its original white, in 2000.

According to Atlas Obscura, there have been many urban legends surrounding the home’s previous ownership. George Lucas was once rumored to have owned the house. It has also been speculated that O.J. Simpson made a bid following his 1995 trial and that several famous Silicon Valley investors have lived there.

The new buyer of the home has not been disclosed.
 

Photos via Alain Pinel Realtors
 

 

 
More pics after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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06.30.2017
09:16 am
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Crystal Uterus jewelry: Sacred and feminine
06.12.2017
09:59 am
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“Jewelry,” Elizabeth Taylor once said, “has the power to be this one little thing that can make you feel unique.” Romanian-born artist Ouvra (aka Maria Rozalia Finna) creates original, bold, and beautiful jewelry that would make anyone feel unique.

Ouvra produces Crystal Creatrix Pendants in collaboration with the outlet Crystal Child. Her designs look like the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes of the female reproductive system and are tagged #scaredfeminine and #divinefeminine on her Instagram feed. Ouvra’s designs “explore the feminine experience, its intuitive receptivity & connectivity to nature, through bio-electric creative fertility.”

The pendants consist of “aurafied agate” together with a pair of rainbow moonstones set in an electroformed copper base attached to a copper chain. Each pendant is completely unique and available in various different sizes and designs—including some with Ethiopian Opals and an Amethyst Aura Quartz cluster. To purchase one of Ouvra’s beautiful pendants check Crystal Child for details.
 
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See more of Ouvra’s beautiful pendants, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.12.2017
09:59 am
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The strange allure of PAN Books: Vintage cult film, TV tie-in and fab fiction book covers
05.31.2017
11:30 am
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Shelflife. The books you keep tell the story of your own life.

Clearing out boxes of books and personal belongings of lives once lived, I unpacked a whole bookshelf’s worth of Pan paperbacks neatly stored by their author and genre. I could recall the where and when of each book’s purchase and first reading, and of the best could well remember their stories back to front. There were a few of the books I read before age thirteen or so when I had a passion for picking up movie tie-in books and novels that had made thrilling and sometimes controversial films. These were bought new, most secondhand. Some were chosen solely because a favorite actor had starred in the film and was featured on the cover (the usual suspects of Oliver Reed, Peter Cushing, Sean Connery, and Michael Caine), or because they were dark tales of nightmarish horror or strange speculative science-fiction. No matter the reason, these books were keys to new worlds and passions.

Everyone knows Penguin. They publish classic lit and high-end middle-class novels about those things people discuss over lattes. Pan books were thrillers, pulp novels, movie and TV tie-ins, romances, some classics (Bronte, Trollope, Dickens), and best of all the dare to read alone horrors. Everyone read Pan. Because Pan books were always a guaranteed great read.

After Enid Blyton, Capt. W. E. Johns and Geoffrey Willans, the author I probably read most, until I got hip to Ian Fleming, Ted Lewis, and Algernon Blackwood, was probably John Burke. He was the guy who wrote all the big movie tie-ins like A Hard Day’s Night, The System, and the fine set of stories that started me off seeking out his books The Hammer Horror Omnibus with its tales of The Gorgon, The Revenge of Frankenstein and The Curse from the Mummy’s Tomb.

Pan Books was started by a former World War One flying ace, Alan Bott in 1944. Bott believed in enjoyable reads available for all. He focussed on paperback books the public would enjoy which might bring them back to the brand for more. Pan had an impressive roster of authors. It ranged from Agatha Christie to Leslie Charteris, Edgar Wallace to Jack Kerouac, Anthony Burgess to Nell Dunn, and so on. If it was a good and entertaining read then any author could end up inside of a Pan cover—which is not a bad quality control.

There are too many classic Pan covers to share, so I stuck with the ones from the box I had opened, which will probably tell you enough about me…
 
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More Pan covers for Kerouac, Burgess, Fleming and more, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.31.2017
11:30 am
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There’s a Donald Trump pencil holder that can also be turned into a Trump ‘human centipede’
05.08.2017
10:26 am
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A few years ago I blogged about the Donald Trump buttplug that was selling for $27.99 here. Now I’m blogging about the Donald Trump pencil holder because it’s something that exists on this planet and you may want one so you can shove a sharp stick up Trump’s rump. Or not. I have no idea what your consumer or psychosexual motivations might be—and I don’t want to know—but here it is. Your coworkers will either love it or hate it, depending on where you work.

If you have no use for a pencil holder, you can buy three of these puppies and turn ‘em into a “Trumpcentipede.” How delightful. How disgusting. How perfect!

They’re made by Etsy shop Amznfx and each pencil holder sells for $27.99.
 

 

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.08.2017
10:26 am
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Creepy as hell silicone mask of a little girl
05.05.2017
10:47 am
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From the same folks who brought you the hyper-realistic masks of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un comes their newest and perhaps creepiest creation: a silicone mask of a little girl. The mask is by Landon Meier of Hyperflesh. I really don’t know what else to say except it gives me a bad case of the heebie-jeebies. It’s something in the eyes or seeing a child’s head on an adult body. I don’t know what is that bothers me so much. But I don’t like it. Yuck!

A post shared by Landon Meier (@hyperfleshdude) on

 

A post shared by Landon Meier (@hyperfleshdude) on

 
Video of the mask after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.05.2017
10:47 am
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‘Blackout’ blinds turn windows into beautiful city skylines
05.03.2017
08:50 am
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These aren’t “dangerous” per se, they’re just something I really dig: blackout blinds showcasing city skylines. Ukrainian designers HoleRoll created these unique and wonderful blinds by cutting out small shapes in the fabric and letting pockets of light shine through. They give the appearance of a bustling cityscape right outside of your own home, no matter where you might live.

They’re not necessarily “blackout” blinds, as light does come through them by design, but they’re still pretty darn dark.

For pricing and ordering go here. There are also more images and styles in their photo gallery.


 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.03.2017
08:50 am
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‘Hellraiser’ Lament Configuration end table
05.02.2017
09:09 am
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This is one of those things I assumed that would totally be expensive and out of my price range. It’s not. This handmade “Lament Configuration” end table based off the 1987 horror film Hellraiser is affordable. I guess I’m used to finding awesome handmade novelty items that I could never justify buying in a million years.

Anyway, the Lament Configuration end table sells for $160 via Scream for Me Inc on Etsy.

According to the listing:

This is a wooden end table that measures 20” x 20” of surface area and is approx. 20” tall. The center contains 4 8” scratch resistant ceramic tiles which make up the lament configuration from Hellraiser.

**Note: The table will not come assembled! You will only need to attach the legs. All hardware is included.

It’s obviously not IKEA-complicated to assemble. You just need to attach the legs. Even I can do that!


 

 
h/t Coilhouse on Facebook

Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.02.2017
09:09 am
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Finally there are posable life-sized skeleton body lamps!
04.26.2017
10:44 am
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Ever wanted a life-sized skeleton lamp with a lampshade for its head? Then have I got the lamp for you! Zia Priven makes these posable skeleton lamps called the “Philippe.”

The skeleton happily sits on a stand so you can easily reposition it in any pose you want. (Mine would be flipping everyone the bird.) The “human” bones come in silver, bronze or an off-white and is topped with a black or white lampshade.

There is no price listed on the Zia Priven website. I’d imagine these cost a pretty penny. I could be wrong, though. You can contact them here to ask about pricing.


 

 

 

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.26.2017
10:44 am
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Freakishly realistic masks of Trump, Putin and Kim Jong-un for sale on eBay
04.19.2017
08:35 am
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Hyperflesh is selling their freaky-as-fuck silicone masks of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un on eBay. These are jaw-droppingly realistic. I cannot get over the detail. They even captured Trump’s preposterously awful combover (that can’t have been easy) and horrible old man skin down perfectly. You can click on each image to get a closer look.

These masks made their debut at Monsterpalooza 2017 and appeared in a viral video viewed by over 60 million people on Facebook. 

Anyway, the masks can now be yours! Donald Trump‘s current bid is $4,200. Vladimir Putin is at $2,250 and Kim Jong-un is at $3,050. Obviously these prices will change as more people bid on ‘em.


 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.19.2017
08:35 am
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