I am at heart a gentleman.

grimsperation:

Michele Caragher 

Embroidered details in Game of Thrones 

‘Michele Carragher is a London-based Hand Embroiderer and Illustrator who has been working in costume on film and television productions for over 15 years. She studied Fashion Design at The London College of Fashion, where the course incorporated design, pattern cutting, garment construction, embroidery, millinery and illustration. At the same time she attended a three year evening course in Saddlery at Cordwainers College learning skills in leatherwork.

After leaving college Michele worked in Textile Conservation, repairing and restoring historical textiles for private collectors and museums, specialising in hand embroidery. She then moved into a career in costume for film and television, initially working as a Costume Assistant/Maker on productions such as the BBC’s Our Mutual Friend, ITV’s David Copperfield and Mansfield Park. She soon gravitated towards the decoration and embellishment of costumes, using skills in hand embroidery and surface decoration, taking inspiration from the many historical textiles she had encountered working as a Textile Conservator. 

The first production that saw her undertake the role of a Principal Costume Embroiderer was for HBO’s 2005 Emmy Costume award-winning production of Elizabeth 1. Her most recent work has been on HBO’s 2012 Costume award-winning television series Game of Thrones, working on all three seasons.

As a Costume Embroiderer Michele specialises in hand embroidery and surface embellishment, using traditional hand embroidery techniques, smocking, beading and surface decoration. She works directly onto the completed garment or starts with motifs and textures on silk crepeline/organza, which are applied to the costume and then worked into once on the actual garment. She also works on existing machine embroidery designs that are not too dense, adding some hand stitching and beading to give a more authentic, hand-finished look.

Michele finds hand embroidery has more flexibility and diversity than that of embroidery created by machine, as there is a greater variety of thread choice and colours to use. It is also possible to work more easily on garments that are already constructed. However, machine embroidery in combination with hand work can be very useful when completing many repeats by creating light outlines or a less dense machine stitch, work can then be completed by hand and again can be carried out on a finished garment.

Michele is a highly creative Costume Embroiderer, producing original designs as well as working closely to a costume designer’s brief to create their desired look.’

Text and images from  http://www.michelecarragherembroidery.com

(via rajalovesallcaptains)

moronicalake:

The woman who invented the modern basis of wireless communication made also film history when appearing in the controversial film Ekstase (also known as, Symphonie der Liebe), Ecstasy. Hedy Lamarr, by that time, Hedy Kiesler plays a ordinary woman who marries an older man who can’t please her so she leaves him and finds a lover who can. This film from 1933 contains the first ever non-pornographic sex scene with a stimulated orgasm. Hedy had trouble to show emotion during the scene so the director, Gustav Machatý unexpectedly jabbed her in the derriere with a pin in order to get the desired expressions on her face. Hedy was 19 when the film released and a lot of sources say she was 19 years old during film but in her elder days she confessed that she was younger than that. The film shows female sexuality in a positive way and was ahead of its’s time. The lead female character is not shamed for her sexual desires as she leaves her husband for a younger lover. She has her own voice and own determination as she goes off leaving her husband and later lover to live happily in her own ways. Pope Pius XII publicly denounced the film and it was banned in Germany main reason was the sex scene was between a German man and a Jewish woman (Hedy Lamarr being Jewish in real life), the film still goes on to be one of the worlds most groundbreaking pictures and even shows a nude Hedy Lamar, from the waist up.

(via sophialorens)

blackpaint20:

Chatelaines

noun dated

a woman in charge of a large house.

• historical a set of short chains attached to a woman’s belt, used for carrying keys or other items

Chatelaine’s were a common accoutrement to a woman’s attire (up until the time pockets were invented on women’s clothing in the early 20th Century).

A Chatelaine fastened to a lady’s waist and one would then hook items which they would utilize during their day (in the case of a seamstress, one item might be a pair of scissors).

Mine would have a scissors, notepad, a small bottle of poison, pen and pen knife

Austro-Hungarian silver gilt turquoise and garnet hunting horn châtelaine, late 19th century.

Sterling silver chatelaine with four matching utensils hanging from a finger ring. The objects include a note pad with simulated ivory pages, a working pencil, a coin purse and a compact. All are covered with a lovely repousse foliate motif and are marked Sterling along with a maker’s mark for Webster Sterling, founded in 1869

A Design for Chatelaine and Etui, Paris, c. 1765

French ebony and silver chatelaine, c. 1890.

above; by Gorham Manufacturing Co.

1887

United States

(Source: blackcupcakekitty, via marshyoftheblobs)

dynamicafrica:

Paintings by Austrian artist Ludwig Deutsch (1855-1935).

I believe these paintings show images of life in Cairo, Egypt.

Click on the pictures for their dates and titles.

(via rhaegartargaryen)

phobs-heh:

Vasily Vereshchagin (russian orientalism)