a sampling of Cartier, for your viewing pleasure

I may be jumping the gun on springtime activities up here, but I did see a fully-bloomed daffodil in someone's yard today! A few weeks ago I noticed the bulbs had sprouted some leaves, and then worried about the huge snow that covered them all. Apparently, they are quite resilient.

So, I began clearing out space in my brand-new garden area, previously inhabited by some hay fever-inducing ornamental grasses (still seen at the front of the plot). After a few days of itchy skin and sneezing, all I had left for today was digging up the root balls to these monsters. The task was tougher than it should have been, as my shovel is left behind in Kansas, but a strong spade did the trick.

My plans for it include some essential vegetables and herbs. It's a small plot, but it sure beats the container gardening I've become accustomed to. I was forced to abandon the only other garden I've ever started (as a result of a move to another house), so I'm thoroughly excited for this one.

After cleaning up from a day of digging in the dirt, boyfriend K and I went downtown. There were two exhibits I had been looking forward to this winter: the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's Silk Road exhibit (last week's venture) and Brilliant: Carter in the 20th Century at the Denver Art Museum, which we were able to see only because it was extended for one more week. Yay!

The lighting makes all the difference in exhibits like these, and the presentation in this exhibit was beautiful. There were pieces from the Gilded Age, toned-down Depression Era jewelry, jewelry from famous classic movie stars and royalty, clocks and accessories from India, China, & Egypt, and one area showing the process in making the jewelry-- all the tools to cut and set the stones.

I think these jewels speak for themselves.

the one with the most jewels, commissioned by an Indian king

classic Cartier

with turquoise, my favorite

an aquamarine tiara, my birthstone (it's birthday month!)

a dolphin

animation

I've been neglecting this blog for quite some time, so it's high time for an update! I'm just taking a break from wood carving to write this, before I sit down to a meal of okonomiyaki, currently in preparation by my wonderful boyfriend. Today has been a very relaxing day off from work with me finishing up another art project this morning, then a trip to Ikea this afternoon, and some Leo Kottke listening thrown in to accompany the evening activities.

This past week I was given a ticket through work to see the animated film Boxtrolls. I was in the mood for something lighthearted, so I went. In addition to the film viewing, there was a presentation by someone from the animation company. I had no idea what I was in for, but I came out of there amazed at the process. Boxtrolls is stop-motion animated, like what we usually associate with claymation, but for this film they used actual puppets!

Inside each puppet is an armature that is moved ever so slightly for each frame. We got to try out moving this puppet frame, made from metal and some sort of moldable material. It takes 24 frames for each second of film. To achieve that, 55,000 different puppet faces were used for filming to create the different expressions and these faces were all printed by 3D printer. In the first film this company created, Coraline, they had only a black & white printer (remember those days?), so they had to hand paint all the faces. Even with the color printer, it is a slow-going process. They actually have an employee in charge of cataloging all the faces. No wonder production time for this current film was 10 years!

(Yes, those are actually physical puppets, where I would have thought them to just be computer animated. )

After the presentation, and all during the showing of the film, I was constantly trying to figure out how they created the scenes and the character movements-- everything. What a fascinating experience.