Big Rice Straw Beasts Sculpted For The Wara Straw Art Festival.

You may or may not have seen images of large sculpted straw beasts, recently being shared all over the internet. Truth be told, they are not new, but are actually a few years old (from 2010 and 2011) from the annual Wara Straw Art festival in Niigata. According to CNN Travel, The Wara Art Matsuri takes place every year in two locations in Niigata, at Kanko Shisetsu Iwamuroya (96-1 Iwamuro Onsen, Nishikan-ku, Niigata) and Uwasekigata park (1 Matsunoo, Nishikan-ku, Niigata).










The festival is an annual celebration of Autumn where local people and college students of Art and Architecture departments create some impressive straw art in Nishikan-ku, an area is said to have the "largest paddy fields in the country," according to Japan Style.













The art is created from rice straw by locals and college students. The structures are made from pipes and wood sticks, then the straw is added, taking about a week per piece to complete.

images are courtesy of Kotaku and CNN Travel

Photographer Christian Tagliavini And His Unique Paper, Plywood and Cardboard Dressed Portraits.

Recently, artist and photographer Christian Tagliavini completed a stunning series, 'Cartes', an artful take on playing cards using models clad in his paper fashions and decorative accessories.


above: Christian crafts the hat for the "Carte" shown below


Seeing those here on Huffington Post, inspired me to take a look at more of his work. As a result, I want to share with you two other series of his, Dames di Cartone (Cardboard Women) and 1503, both of which are formally photographed portraits of models clad in artful representations of historical fashions crafted out of cardboard, paper and plywood.

Dames di Cartone (Cardboard Women)
His series, Dames di Cartone, consists of two dimensionally outfitted portraits that emulate Cubistic, 17th century,and Fifties fashions. Using corrugated, cut and colored cardboard and plywood, the craftsmanship applied to live models makes for an interesting series.

#1, Dame di Cartone, Cubism I:


#2, Dame di Cartone, Cubism II:


#3, Dame di Cartone, Cubism III:


#4, Dame di Cartone, 17th Century I:


#5, Dame di Cartone, 17th Century II:


#6, Dame di Cartone, 17th Century III:


#7, Dame di Cartone, Fifties I:


#8, Dame di Cartone, Fifties II:


#9, Dame di Cartone, Fifties III:


1503
Similar creations of his can be found in his 1503 series. These represent 16th century fashions and combine textiles with paper and cardboard for a unique look. Several of these photographs have been featured on the cover of many photography and arts magazine worldwide.

#1 1503, Lucrezia:


#2 1503, Donna Clotilde:


#3 1503, Bartolomeo:


#4 1503, Ritratto di giovane donna:


#5 1503, Ritratto di signora in verde:


#6 1503, Ritratto d'uomo:


#7 1503, Artemisia:


#8 1503, Cecilia:


#9 1503, Ritratto di giovane uomo con cappello piumato:


Born in 1971, Christian Tagliavini was educated in Italy and Switzerland, where he lives and works as a photographer. This provides him the perfect frame and background to invent, create and totally produce images that blend fine arts and craftsmanship.


above photo of Christian Tagliavni by Paola Bergamaschi (courtesy of his Facebook page)

Christian Tagliavini

Lipstick Sculptures by Artist Maya Sum Will Leave Your Mouth Agape.

You may have seen some novelty shaped lipsticks such as the cute cat-shaped lipsticks by Paul and Joe and the Pipedream Products Lipstick Penises, but Hong Kong artist May Sum takes the concept of a sculpted and shaped lipstick a step further.

Actress Tilda Swinton Kills It In These Fabulous Fashions Shots by Craig McDean

above: Tilda Swinton in Mark Fast

She may look a bit alien, but Scottish actress and artist Tilda Swinton knows how to strike a pose.  The muse for many fashion designers, you can see why in these stunning photos. AnOther Magazine has a flashback section in which they show the best bits from their archives and these images stopped me in my tracks. They are from the magazine's S/S09 issue's cover shoot, in which Tilda was photographed by Craig McDean and styled by Panos Yiapanis wearing some of that season's most exciting new designers and looking like a million bucks. May be a few years old, but Tilda, the photography and even the fashions hold up nicely.


above: Tilda Swinton in Craig Lawrence


above: Tilda Swinton in Peachoo + Krejberg


above: Tilda Swinton in Mary Katrantzou


above: Tilda Swinton in Louise Goldin


above: Tilda Swinton in Peter Pilotto

Read the article and interview with Tilda in AnOther Magazine here.

Architect Zaha Hadid Designs Unique Bottle & Box For Leo Hillinger's Icon Hill Wine.

Leo Hillinger presents an iconic wine with packaging created by an icon herself. On October 4th of this year, at the Albertina in Vienna, Austrian winemaker Leo Hillinger unveiled his exceptional red wine blend, the 2009 Icon Hill in a precious bottle and box created by Pritzker-winning architect Zaha Hadid.

"With the unique design and the ICON HILL ​​is optimally presented. Powerful and intense it is drawn from the creation in its spell. Zaha has perfectly embodied in the wine bottle shape."-- Leo Hillinger

Zaha Hadid, above, says of the design:
"The elongated volume of the bottle has been derived from the profile of liquid droplets. A continuous spatial curve was then projected onto the bottle’s surface, defining areas for the concave indentation and suggesting the waves created when droplets break a liquid’s surface.

The concave indentation and the bottle’s surface have the same curvature, enabling a set of bottles to interlock and be perceived as singular whole. A smaller indent and volume has been created at the base of the bottle for correct handling and to accommodate any tartrates.

To achieve the precision and accuracy required for production, the shape of the bottle was created using NURB-based CAD software. The bottle manufacturer directly implemented this 3D master geometry to produce the cast iron moulds for the glass forming process."

The Reviews
If you are wondering whether or not the wine is as good as the bottle, it has received a rating of 95/100 from Falstaff, the ultimate Austrian wine guide.



Falstaff chief Peter Moser who tasted the wine in advance and gave the following critique:
"Deep ruby ​​garnet with purple hues, subtle edge whitening. In the nose with fine Kräuterwürze backed mature heart cherry fruit, a hint of dark berries, spices in the background and nuances of fine wood, a delicate hint of nougat, multifaceted bouquet that develops well with air. On the palate, complex, extraktsüße dark fruit, prominent and well-integrated tannins that give the wine length, hints of blackberries and ripe plums, pleasant acidity that for vitality provides, salty minerality on the finish holds good, disposes of secure aging potential, fine cherry fruit in Rückgeschmack. If one were to fully enjoy this wine at this youthful stage, it is advisable to decant the bottle for a good two hours." (optimum eating ripeness 2016 - 2030)

and from René Gabriel:
"The color is a deep dark red with black core. On the nose the wine is fresh, cool and seems so very precise, fruit and seasoning are very harmonious with black berry fruit, smoky Brazil tobacco, licorice and black pepper. ICON HILL ​​displays a beautiful concentration. On the palate it is creamy, with dark caramel, prunes and ripe, balanced tannins stützende. This is not a wine that comes as a new multi-bomb wine, but considered his future and first in terms of class and harmony. Its beautiful balance we must here assume a potential that is loose and overheating of the first 10 years. His most beautiful ripe to eat I expect in about three to four years."



Only 999 bottles of ICON HILL are available. The ICON HILL ​​is available at 99 euros per bottle in all Leo Hillinger retailers and online www.leo-hillinger.at.