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A Life Less Ordinary with a Real-Life Snow White

Deep inside one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe, in-between Belarus and Poland, stands an old hunting lodge straight out of a fairytale. For over 30 years, ecologist Simona Kossack lived in this secluded glade without amenities nor electricity or running water and with an unusual band of forest friends. There was a…
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The Factory Girl who Became an Art Deco Ceramics Sensation

When English ceramic artist Clarice Cliff first started designing pottery in the 1920s, her work was so out there, the styled garnered the name “Bizarre.” But the curious and colourful decorative pieces with abstract shapes and pastoral scenes soon gathered an impressive following. Ahead of her time, Cliff’s rise to fame during the mid 20th…
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Nothing Like These Hidden Temples Exists Outside of the Films of Indiana Jones

“Show us these temples or we will dynamite the entire hillside”, threatened Italy’s state prosecutor when police had failed to locate a rumoured network of mysterious chambers buried 30 metres in the foothills of the Alps. They had been dug by hand in complete secrecy in the 1970s under the direction of Oberto Airaudi, a philospher and artist who…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 718)

1. Bezoar stones: undigested matter found in the gastrointestinal tract of deer, goats, porcupines and other animals, once prized as magical cure-all stones, worn by royalty Arabian doctors had been using bezoars since the 8th century, and brought them into western medicine in the 12th century as an antidote to arsenic, a favorite poison used to…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 717)

1. An old French Bank for Sale in the town of Nevers (two hours from Paris) An intriguing listing (asking price 1 544 000 €). Found on Patrice Besse. 2. Gustave Eiffel’s Swiss Villa Getaway Villa Claire, named after his daughter, was Gustave Eiffel’s preferred place of rest when he wasn’t building giant iron towers…

The Sweet & Forgotten Charm of Vintage Sugar Cube Packaging

So I found this peculiar collection on Flickr by a guy in California called Frank Kelsey. He’s been collecting for 30+ years – he’s also got impressive collections of vintage ashtrays, matchbook covers and baseball cards – but it’s his sugar cube wrappers that had me really enamoured. My guess is there aren’t that many…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 716)

Cauldrons ready? 1. Vintage ephemera from the Talking Board Historical Society Time to get your boards out. More imagery here. 2. Hieroglyphic Lioconcha, a true enigma of the ocean Hieroglyphic Lioconcha is a fascinating species of saltwater clam, native to the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. It is distinguished by its intricate patterns on the shell…

The Lost Art of Cyanotype, Found Again

There’s something in the window of my boutique on Paris’ Left Bank that has been stopping wanderers in their tracks. It’s that mesmerising shade of deep Prussian blue, the result of a 19th-century photographic process known as cyanotype, once favoured by Victorian botanists and early female pioneers of photography. Today, cyanotype has found a second…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 715)

1. Currently lusting after these 3D animal portraits: Immediately must have these at the Cabinet. Stay tuned. See more of the artist’s work here. Found while browsing this incredible home in India on AD Magazine. 2. French Kissing by Edouard Boubat  We all know that famous kiss of Robert Doisneau, but I found these portraits…

Sculpted in Paris, a Black Women’s Legacy Finally Comes to Light

In the 1960s, Barbara Chase-Riboud chose Paris as her home and sanctuary away from her upbringing Jim Crow America, and yet frustratingly, for too long, her genius remained quietly overshadowed by the tumultuous tides of history. The Philadelphia-born artist and writer may not be a household name, but her artistic and literary contributions are as…

The Extraordinary Guests of Charles Babbage’s Saturday Night Soirées

Forget your standard 19th-century dinner parties, where everyone sat around sipping sherry and discussing the weather. If you were lucky enough to snag an invite to Charles Babbage’s Saturday night scientific soirées, you were in for a wild ride through the brainiest and most bizarre conversations that Victorian London had to offer. Picture a mad…

The Mystery of Salem’s Great Misery Island

Whilst looking recently at an old nautical map of the North Shore coastline of Massachusetts, one tiny island caught our eye because of its mysterious sounding name: Great Misery Island! Further inspection of the map showed that the island had no towns, roads or any other topographical features apart from in the south west corner,…
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Mum & Dad named me Vanessa, but you can call me Nessy.

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