I did this about five years ago but I thought I’d share anyway cause for some reason I really like it. (Though I know I could do better nowadays.)

Lemminkäinen’s Mother by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1897
(A scene from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala)

The story of Lemminkäinen is grim and it has fascinated me since I was little. The main events leading up to the scene depicted in the painting go as follows:

Lemminkäinen travels up north to propose to the daughter of Louhi, a powerful witch. But Louhi won’t give up her daughter easily and makes him do tasks which he successfully fulfills one after another. One day, he is sent to kill the swan of the black river of Tuonela - the underworld. He takes his arrows and his bow but as everyone who tries to kill a sacred bird, he is sure to face doom.
A man sees Lemminkäinen and throws a small, enchanted rod through his chest, causing him to fall in the river. Lemminkäinen drowns and the bloody son of Tuonela lifts him up from the river with an iron net only to mock him, cut him into pieces with a sword and throw his body parts in the river.
Meanwhile Lemminkäinen’s mother begins to worry about his son and is alarmed when blood starts dripping from her son’s brush. She searches heaven and earth to find him. When she learns of her son’s fate, she asks Ilmarinen - the immortal blacksmith and one of the creators of the world - to fashion her a rake she can use to find her son’s pieces from the river.

Piece by piece, cloth by cloth she finds all of Lemminkäinen and by connecting the muscles and the veins mends his body back together. His body now seems intact but life is still not in him. The mother begs and prays for Ukko - the god of thunder and the highest of them all - to send her honey from the heavens to restore her son’s life. Ukko hears her plea and sends a bee to deliver this ointment to the grieving mother who rubs the lotion on her son. Lemminkäinen comes back to life, yet will never marry the daughter of Louhi.

(Source: spookyloop)

I think most of you don’t know this, but I’m a millinery student. (To those who don’t what a milliner is I can tell that I am a real life mad hatter.) At the moment I’m doing my final projects so I can graduate in June.

And it’s after a week of meticulous sewing that I need to start asking myself, why on earth am I attracted to lace and pearls and why do I put them on everything! (Because they’re pretty, that’s why.) Sometimes I think my preferences in fashion are going to be the death of my patience.
Two mini-tricorns to make; One down, one to go. Four days left. Let’s do this.

Vania Zouravliov and Die So Fluid appreciation post.

(Source: ufopripri, via tuesday-13)

I took it as my job to take pictures of Ankhs when visiting the Neues Museum in Berlin.

“The Ankh, also known as key of life, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read “life”. It represents the concept of eternal life, which is the general meaning of the symbol. The Ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead person’s mummy. Additionally, an ankh was often carried by Egyptians as an amulet, either alone, or in connection with two other hieroglyphs that mean “strength” and “health”.”

(Source: spookyloop)

thevampdiony:

Mental Parasite #Skull #Brains #Goth #Art #DarkArt #Spooky #Coffin #Gothic

amy-addams:

Adrienne Kammerer - An artist I have just discovered and am going nuts over as we speak..

posedeia:

the 13th floor ॐ

One of my goals as a (future) milliner is to produce something like this.

(via blooming-sage)