Fabergé Friday

I love this week's Fabergé object - a gold lady's case, made by Edward Schramm, sometime before 1899!

The rectangular gold case has a hammered surface, embellished with stylized floral sprays of cabochon sapphires and faceted diamonds. The thumbpushes are also made of sapphires, and on the inside of the case there are hinged compartments. The measurements of the case are 3 1/2'' x 2 1/2'' (8.9 x 6.4 cm), and it's price is 18,500 USD. You find it at John Atzbach Antiques!

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15 Years With Rocky

Some of you might be familiar with the comic strip Rocky, written by Martin Kellerman - who happens to be the brother of my landlady Fanny. Last week Martin held an event to celebrate fifteen whole years of writing Rocky! It always amazes me how comic strip artists can come up with new things to write all the time, and then to be able to do it for fifteen years...

I threw on a vintage, 50s dress, and skipped away to the event in the company of Michael. His wife Fanny joined us later.

The party was held at Häktet's outside bar, situated in a closed-in yard in the middle of Stockholm. Very cozy!

Here is Martin Kellerma himself! Signing copies of some of his collected work through the years.

The best clutch of the evening looked like an old newspaper, and was owned by Tia!

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Now Rocky also has his own wine! I tried the red one at the event, and it tasted just fine!

Viola Lahger

Sweden's own Corset Queen, Viola Lahger, is selling out some of her stock, to make room for new things! Thursday September 5th is the day to visit her shop and go home with a few new corsets - at greatly reduced prices! If you don't happen to be in Stockholm that day, you can at least enjoy the pictures below, which are the latest photos to show off Mrs Lahger's work.

The link to the event, with more info on exactly when and where this sale will be, you can find here!

Photographer: Robert Mosbach

Model: Lisa Appelqvist

Assistant: Elle Cleo Mosbach

Fredrik Gille

When you work as a model, you get to see the work of a lot of photographers. And the more you see, the easier it gets to sort out the good ones from the bad ones. And believe me, it's frightening to see how many people out there think they can just pick up a camera, take a few pictures, get a web site, and then call themselves photographers... Don't get me wrong here though. Photography is a wonderful thing, and it's nice to see so many people are interested in it. But if you want to become a "real" photographer, please learn how to do it, practice a lot, and try to understand that the world looks different looking at it with your eyes from looking at it through the lens of a camera... But of course we all like different things, so just because I, for example, think something looks really bad, it might look good to somebody else. I'm not trying to be an "all knower" here...

Sometimes you come across one of the really good ones though. I just met one of them, and his name is Fredrik Gille. He works as a freelance drummer, traveling around the world, playing with people who needs his rhythm. During his travels he also takes pictures of people and places, and this post will be about his pictures. So, without babbling any more, here are some of my favorites. I hope you appreciate them as much as I do...

Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Small village in the Mekong delta, Vietnam.

The Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey.

Children looking from the slum on their wealthy neighbors. The Koreil slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is the largest slum in the capital city and is home to more than 40.000 people. Just on the other side of the small lake is the wealthy neighborhood Gulshan.

Children in a small school in the Korail slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The school was established by Mr. Aminul Hoque "Babul", who himself grew up in the slum, and is part of the Glory Friendship Social Welfare network. 

Tea maker in Algeria Sahara. Tamanrasset, Algeria. 

Hanoi, Vietnam.

Egyptian dancer Mohammed Shafik.

Canadian dancer Leon Feizo-Gas.

Los Andes, Bolivia.

If you want to see more, visit Fredrik's web site, or his Facebook page - which is were I got all the photos and picture information for this post.

Fabergé Friday

I would really like to have a pretty, antique hand mirror, and if it was made by Fabergé, that would be a big plus! Like this one for example, created by workmaster Julius Rappoport, some time between 1899-1908!

The mirror is made of silver, in the Louis XVI style, with it's frame and handle decorated with repousse and chased rococo motifs. The length of it is 10 5/8'' (27 cm), and it's price 5,500 USD. Get it at John Atzbach Antiques!

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Full Moon

And so, yesterday night, my second grandma passed away too... With all the shit that's been happening in my life this summer, I almost long for fall to come... But the moon doesn't care about what happens down here on Earth. She will still continue grow full once every month, spreading her soothing light over us. I think that's a comforting thought. Something secure to hold on to... And for this month's Full Moon post I have chosen a very sad, but still very beautiful piece of music - Mozart's Lacrimosa, from his Requiem.

One Year Older...

On August 16th I turned 23 - for the tenth time! It's amazing how that number never changes! Anyway... The people I live with - Fanny and Michael - said I had to have a party, and so I obliged...

I wore a vintage, black wiggle dress from the 50s, and my Gianmarco Lorenzi stilettos from Dondoca.

As usual at Swedish parties everybody gathered in the kitchen, which filled up quite fast. I was going to take lots of pictures, but since it got so crowded in there, no one could move that much, and the pictures would just have looked messy. I did manage to snap a photo of the party's guest of honor though - Molly - who of course got to sit in the best chair!

Although I had told everyone they definitely didn't have to give me presents, they all came bearing gifts! Marie Antoinette and Tifa gave me flowers and candy. Fellow burlesque dancer Ruby Luscious and her gorgeous man Albin brought me goodies from the Chocolate Factory and a white, soap-like heart from Lush that you're supposed to rub on your skin, to give it a soft, shimmering look. Great for burlesque performing! From Magdalena I got a beautiful pocket mirror she had bought in St. Petersburg, and from corset maker Karin of Viola Lahger, a lovely pearl and rhinestone set hair comb! And then we also have the gift I got from Fanny and Michael...

Fanny just got a scooter drivers license, but so far I haven't been able to go cruising with her, because I didn't have a helmet. So a helmet is what they got me! And then Michael spray painted it with the help of a piece of lace fabric. So now I have my own, custom made lace-helmet!

I love it!!! Three days later I took my first ride with Fanny, when she came and picked me up from a photo shoot. Sweet! We're planning to take a longer trip soon, so look out on the roads people!!!

Hypnagogia

Swedish artist Knut Larsson is right now in the middle of creating a short film - written and directed by himself - that will be his debut in this genre. The title of the film is HYPNAGOGIA - Send me the pillow that you dream on, and it is about Isis - a woman suffering from narcolepsy. After getting sleep paralysis, she is taken to an institute for dream research, led by Dr Kubin, who becomes obsessed with her dreams...

I got the pleasure of being part of this film by playing a small part as one of the nurses at the institute.

We started the day by going through the scenes to be shot that day. Since Mr Larsson also happens to be a comic book artist, seeing the storyboard he had drawn up was really cool.

After makeup and hair, we got to put on these amazing vintage nurse uniforms, from the 50s or 60s. 

Then it was time to get on set and blow some balloons, while the grumpy head nurse (played by Annika Ryberg Whittembury) paced back and forth, annoyed over the fact that we hadn't finished the balloons for the party yet...

And here we have the moody Dr. Kubin (played by Magnus Roosman) himself. Except for being a crazy scientist, he also likes some of his nurses a little bit to much...

One of my fellow nurses was played by burlesque dancer Ivoncita. In the bottom picture she's getting ready to perform a bit of a striptease for the institute's janitor. 

While filming was really fun, it was in the dressing room things started to get really wild!

Nurse Meadows - at your service! My speciality is giving enemas...

From what I've seen HYPNAGOGIA is going to be a dark and artistic, but still comic, film - complete with striptease, dancing and a bit of Russian slapstick! Even though I was just there for one day, working with Knut Larsson was both interesting and fun, and I would happily sit on the floor and bark as a dog for him again any time! See the film when it's done, and you'll understand what I mean...

Fabergé Friday

And this Friday's Fabergé object is - a hat pin! Made by workmaster August Hollming, around 1890!

As you can see, Fabergé's famous eggs were used for many different things - even as hat pins. This 6'' (15.2 cm) long pin is made of gold, with it's egg-shaped head covered in translucent mauve enamel over a hatched surface. Around the base of the egg sits a chased leaf collar, and at it's top a diamond set terminal. For 14,000 USD it can get a new home at any (rich) hat lover. Get it here!

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A New Skirt, And Puma Photobombing

As I wrote about a month ago, I just started working at the new Scandinavian branch of a company called Elevate. Last Thursday though, my lovely boss here in Sweden came into the office and told us she had gotten a sad mail from the highest boss in England. Since he had done no research about the Swedish market before starting up the office over here, and obviously don't understand that doing business in Sweden during the summer months is very difficult, since we all take out around four weeks of vacation this time of year, and so leave the offices pretty empty, he decided to chicken out and file for bankruptcy. Had he waited until fall, I think things would have gone much better, but since he seems to be a coward (I worked there a month, and he didn't even send me a mail welcoming me, or asking how I felt about working there...) he decided to get rid of the office in Sweden, and so leave us without jobs and incomes without even telling us about his plans at least a week ahead, so we could start looking for other jobs. That is what I call an inconsiderate asshole! At least I'm considerate enough not to mention him by his name here on my little blog...

But anyway, screw that, and lets turn our attention to a skirt and a cat instead!

One day when I came home from work, Fanny had cleaned out her closet - again - and created a whole pile of lovely things she was going to sell on ebay. I went through this pile, and ended up buying two skirts, a black 40s dress, and a floor-length black velvet antique cape with a hood! I like home shopping! The butterfly-skirt in the pictures above was one of the things that moved from Fanny's closet, to my closet - in the same apartment... The frilly top I can't remember where I got, but I've had it for ages! As you can see, Puma decided to photobomb every photo I tried to take of this outfit. So since she likes to be the focus of attention so much, here are two more pictures of the Cuddle Monster:

Fräulein Frauke Presents: Hooray for Hollywood!

Even though I always look forward to Fräulein Frauke's extravagant burlesque events, I look forward to the next one a little bit more than usual... The theme this time is old Hollywood glamour, and I happen to be one of thee entertainers on stage this time!

The event will - as usual - take place at Nalen, and the date to get your tickets for is August 31st! Besides for moi, there will of course be a whole bunch of fabulous performers:

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Ofelia Bitz - conférencière of the evening!

Photo: John Paul Bichard

The gorgeous Fräulein Frauke herself!

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La Viola Vixen!

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Wes Zaharuk!

Photo: Jenhell Photography

Elegy Ellem!

Photo: Mariamism

Velma Voluptuous!

Photo: John Paul Bichard

And Yvette Les Fesses!

This time the evening is sponsored by Absout Vodka, who will be handing out drink tickets for their new drink Absoult Hibiscus. The two best dressed guests will also receive a bottle of Perrier Jouet each!

Get your tickets here - before it's to late! See you there!!!