Kria Bones Up On Jewelry Design, Vertebrae Necklaces and More

kria, n (sterna paradisaea) migrates farther than any other bird and in known for ferocious protection of breeding grounds.

Kria jewelry is a collection of femur bones, wing bones, caudal vertebrae, branches and twigs cast in 14k yellow gold or sterling silver. Necklaces on rope chains or leather, bracelets and rings, some embedded with diamonds, others with pearls, are all delicately rendered as miniature and elegant wearable pieces.



I'm going to show you the pieces in gold, but keep in mind, many of these are available in sterling silver, too.

Some of the necklaces:




Gold vertebrae necklace and bracelet on leather:

Gold bone and branch rings:

gold branch bangle bracelet:

Gold bone and branch earrings:


The inspiration for Kria appeared on a black lava beach in eastern Iceland in the summer of 2006 when Johanna Methusalemsdottir found a skeleton of the bird by the same name nestled in the sand. The birth of her second daughter, Lóla Salvör came soon after as did the birth of the Kria collection and both are growing.

Kria was officially founded in 2007 while Johanna was experimenting with the re-contextualization of elements of the natural world through jewelry. In an effort to integrate the shapes of organic objects such as bones and branches with the shapes of the human body, she began a fresh illumination of the grace of evolutionary design with the Kria collection.


Johanna Methusalemsdottir (above) originally left Reykjavik, Iceland for New York City in 1988 and worked her way into the world of fashion with Me & Ro jewelry as their first employee before she took time off to give birth to her first daughter, Lóla Salvör. Later she became a press officer and a fashion media liaison for Patrick Cox, a manager of a retro-couture showroom, and finally a stylist working with magazines including Crash, British GQ Style, Nylon, Fade, Black, In Style, Oyster, Blast, Trace, Beaux Arts, Black Book, Sportswear International, Clear, Composite, Seventeen, as well as for national television advertising.

ALL ITEMS COME IN A HAND PRINTED EGG SHAPED LEATHER POUCH WITH A POST CARD.

Kria Jewelry is all handmade and produced in New York City. You can purchase her jewelry and other cool Iceland based design items at Icelandic Market

Move Over Snuggie, We've Got Happiness In Bed

The old saying goes "Cold hands, warm heart" but many of us know there's nothing worse that trying to read in bed when your hands and arms would rather be cozy under the covers. But fret no more, The Sleeved Blanket by designer Andrea Ayala Clos for Happiness Brussels will solve all that.

A duvet cover with built-in sleeves and gloves (which even have the index fingertips removed so one can easily turn pages)






The Sleeved Blanket duvet will soon be available for sale. Sign up on the mailing list to be notified here.

Happiness In Bed, The Sleeved Blanket, is from Happiness Brussels, the same inventive folks who brought us the Toyota font.

Hugh Saves Hollywood Sign

digital art by laura sweet

(Reuters) - Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner on Monday donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to save the famed vista of the Hollywood sign from being spoiled by development.



Hefner's key role in reaching the group's fund-raising goal was announced by Los Angeles city officials, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land at a news conference in the Hollywood Hills.

The land trust needed to collect a total of $12.5 million by this Friday under a deal with a group of Chicago investors who bought the 1,820-foot (555-meter) ridge, called Cahuenga Peak, from the estate of billionaire Howard Hughes in 2002.

The trust will now purchase the 138-acre (56-hectare) adjacent parcel and turn it over to the city to be incorporated into the surrounding Griffith Park, preventing any construction that would mar the postcard-perfect view of the Hollywood sign nearby.

"My childhood dreams and fantasies came from the movies, and the images created in Hollywood had a major influence on my life and Playboy," Hefner said in a statement. "As I've said before, the Hollywood sign is Hollywood's Eiffel Tower and I'm pleased to help preserve such an important cultural landmark."

Other private donors to the Hollywood sign preservation effort included actor Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg, the land trust said.

More Steampunk Architecture From Dave Trautrimas - The SpyFrost Project

above: detail of The Radiant Proliferator

David Trautrimas, the Canadian artist about whose steampunk-like architectural art, The Habitat Machines, I blogged about once before, has a wonderful new series of work called The Spyfrost Project.

The Spyfrost Project illustrates David's hypothesizing the origins of modern iconic appliances by reassembling them into top secret Cold War era military outposts. These hybrids of machinery and architecture stand as colossal weaponized ancestors to common objects, such as refrigerators, lawnmowers and washing machines.

Carbon Inversion Device:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 30” x 20”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

Micro Re-Instigator:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 40” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 10. $2600.00 each.

Mnemonic Doppelganger:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 22.5” x 35”. 2010. Edition of 12. $1725.00 each.

Seismic Conduction Tower (and detail):

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 20” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

Storm Crown Mechanism:
detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 40” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 10. $2600.00 each.

Terra Thermal Inducer:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 35” x 22.5”. 2010. Edition of 12. $1725.00 each.

The Aurora Maker (and detail):

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 14” x 17”. 2010. Edition of 16. $925.00 each.

The Brilliant Device:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 30” x 20”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

The Fragment Accumulator (and detail):

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 20” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

The Radiant Proliferator:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 30” x 20”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

The Toronto launch of his latest series will be opening at LE Gallery on Friday April 30th and the exhibition runs from April 28th to May 30th. In Europe, The Spyfrost Series will be exhibited at the Eckhart Gallery in The Hague, Netherlands from May 2nd to June 11th.

See David's Habitat Machines And Factories here.

Ben's So New Money. A Close Look At The 100$ Redesign.

Update: The circulation of this new bill design has taken much longer than initially expected. See an updated post on the new $100 bill here.

Original Post:
Officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the United States Secret Service recently unveiled the new design for the $100 note. Complete with advanced technology to combat counterfeiting, the new design for the $100 note retains the traditional look of U.S. currency.



There are a number of security features in the redesigned $100 note, including two new features, the 3-D Security Ribbon and the Bell in the Inkwell. These security features are easy for consumers and merchants to use to authenticate their currency.



The blue 3-D Security Ribbon on the front of the new $100 note contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as you tilt the note. The Bell in the Inkwell on the front of the note is another new security feature. The bell changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it seem to appear and disappear within the copper inkwell.

The new $100 note also displays American symbols of freedom, including phrases from the Declaration of Independence and the quill the Founding Fathers used to sign this historic document. Both are located to the right of the portrait on the front of the note.

The back of the note has a new vignette of Independence Hall featuring the rear, rather than the front, of the building. Both the vignette on the back of the note and the portrait on the front have been enlarged, and the oval that previously appeared around both images has been removed.

Although less than 1/100th of one percent of the value of all U.S. currency in circulation is reported counterfeit, the $100 note is the most widely circulated and most often counterfeited denomination outside the U.S.

The New Security Features
Below is a close-up look at the new features to help you learn how to identify the real thing and use the two advanced security features: the 3-D Security Ribbon and the Bell in the Inkwell.



1. Portrait Watermark
Hold the note to light and look for a faint image of Benjamin Franklin in the blank space to the right of the portrait.

3. Color-Shifting 100
Tilt the note to see the numeral 100 in the lower right corner of the front of the note shift from copper to green.



2. Security Thread
Hold the note to light to see an embedded thread running vertically to the left of the portrait. The thread is imprinted with the letters USA and the numeral 100 in an alternating pattern and is visible from both sides of the note. The thread glows pink when illuminated by ultraviolet light.

4. Raised Printing
Move your finger up and down Benjamin Franklin’s shoulder on the left side of the note. It should feel rough to the touch, a result of the enhanced intaglio printing process used to create the image. Traditional raised printing can be felt throughout the $100 note, and gives genuine U.S. currency its distinctive texture.

6. Microprinting
Look carefully to see the small printed words which appear on Benjamin Franklin’s jacket collar, around the blank space containing the portrait watermark, along the golden quill, and in the note borders.



5. Gold 100
Look for a large gold numeral 100 on the back of the note. It helps those with visual impairments distinguish the denomination.

FW Indicator (not shown here)
The redesigned $100 notes printed in Fort Worth, Texas, will have a small FW in the top left corner on the front of the note to the right of the numeral 100.
If a note does not have an FW indicator, it was
printed in Washington, D.C.

The note will begin circulating in February, 2011. All U.S. currency remains legal tender, regardless of when it was issued. Visit www.newmoney.gov where you can watch an animated video, click through an interactive note.