Jewelry on Celeb: October 2013 ,

Thursday

Happy Halloween #DailyJewel - Baby Bat from Dana Schneider Jewelry

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

From the #DailyJewel with an assist from Dana Schneider Jewelry!

Dana Schneider is the go-to jeweler for films with edge...I first found her when she did the Rune jewelry for my favorite YA Series - The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

"I love this little guy. I used a fruit bat as my model. He's cast of solid sterling silver."

ABOUT DANA:
I am the jeweler that made the Mockingjay pin for the Hunger Games movie. I have made jewelry for over 50 movies at this point. This year I will have 11 movies coming out that I made jewelry for. Wolverine 2 , The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, G.I. Joe 2, Wolves, and Catching Fire are among them. This year also I have made jewelry for GLEE, Nashville, Go On, Californication and Ray Donovan which will air June 30th on Showtime.

My first job after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Sculpture ( not jewelry ), was working in the jewelry repair department of Tiffany & Co. in New York City. Many of the things I learned there I still apply to my designs today. After about 2 years at Tiffany's, I decided to start my own business and have been making jewelry ever since. Before moving to L.A. in 1999, I did do trade shows, sell through showrooms and sold to stores including Barney's in New York City. My jewelry has been on the covers of Elle, Harpers Bazaar , Mademoiselle, and many others. I found though, that it wasn't that fulfilling for me. I just felt something was missing. I was sitting in a movie theater in upstate New York in December of 1998 when I saw the movie trailer for " The Matrix ". It was then and there that I decided to move to L.A. and try to break into making jewelry for movies.

When I moved to LA and it was almost a year before I worked on my first movie there. I didn't know anyone who could help me and it was just sheer determination that got me through. If you look on my website in the " books " section, all of that work had been made before I moved to LA so I had a lot to show costume designers and directors when I did finally meet them.

On my website, www.danaschneider.com you can see a big portfolio of my film work. I make everything myself. From carving all my own original wax models to the final finishing. I do not have an assistant, ( nor do I want one ) so I periodically have to close my ETSY shop to focus on my film work which will always take top priority for me. I rarely ever take a " vacation " .

...and from her Etsy Shop:

Haunting Taxidermy Doll Sculptures by Stefanie Vega Make The Perfect Halloween Post.

Dolls, in general, freak me out. As they do many people. So do clowns, birds, bones and taxidermy. Now, combine all of those and you have the haunting mixed media sculptures of Brooklyn born, now Venice, California-based artist Stefanie Vega.

Dark, detailed and finely crafted, the sculptures are perfectly suited for a Halloween post. Combining bird skulls, bones, talons and animal legs with porcelain doll heads, doll parts and glass eyes, the gothic, macabre sculptures are often in cages or bondage. Victorian wardrobe elements like leather corsets. petticoats, pocket watches, metal grommets and tophats add a little Steampunk edge to them as well.

Here's a look at some of her sculptures which range in price from $150 for the smallest to $2500+

The Task:

King Krow:

The Prisoner of Folly:

The Brat:

Murder Your Darlings:

The Manipulator:

The Dolly Beast:

La Santa De Las Aves:

Dorian Gray:

The Handless Maiden:

The Pin Slave:

"From the tales that left profound impressions in my earliest childhood memories, I began working not only with unwanted doll parts, but with skull & bones & birds. They spoke to me of wanting to tell the bigger story. The dolls we played with as children were the totems of our dreams. Upon them we laid our hopes & fears...upon them we projected our greatest selves.

I was serenaded by haunting lullabies from long ago. So, drawing on an enormous pool of archetypes & folklore & developing characters based on children's literature & faerie tales, a new hybrid was born. I began to write verse in order to share the tales that influenced the work. This rogue taxidermy with discarded porcelain doll parts and accompanying limerick became a cross-breeding of the unexpected & a departure from the familiar.

Like the resurrection of the forgotten they tell the tales from the soul of the world because they jar the collective memory we have of imagery & symbolism. This collection gives voice to an age old doll tradition that insists on singing its own song." -- Stefanie Vega

The Artist, Stefanie Vega:

images courtesy of Bash Contemporary and others from the artist.

Purchase or see more of her work at Bash Contemporary Gallery
You can also purchase directly from the artist here at her online shop.

Stefanie Vega

Wednesday

Happy Halloween!

Wishing a very Hip Halloween to all my wonderful loyal readers and new visitors, too! Have a wonderfully spooky holiday. With love, If It's Hip, It's Here.