A Photographers version of the XII Valencia Fashion Week (VFW)

We are very happy to welcome our Guest Blogger: Print and Pattern, a blog that was born as a project to discuss everything related to art, focusing on fashion, cinema and photography. since we opened the site in September, we had a great reception and we are very grateful. We love so much photography so most of out photos are taken by us or at least edited by us to give them our personal touch. You can visit our site entering; printandpattern.wordpress.com or follow us on twitter; @Print_Pattern.

V F W

The XII Valencia Fashion Week (VFW), the more austere since her inauguration, has been held from 15 to 18 February. With a reduced budget of 200,000 euros, has drawn over 25,000 attendees, representing a record in this Winter edition of the famous runaway.

This has been ensured in a press communicate from the Fashion Week Association, who believe that this fact “confirms the positioning of the runway and endorsed as one of the most important platforms of spanish designers, specializing in presentations of local designers and emerging artist on the national scene “

The parade of Gabriel Segui opened on Wednesday the current edition with the assistance of eminent personalities from political, business and social, closed on Friday, by Higinio Mateu. Saturday, became the day of solidarity with four names as protagonists and the revenue from the sale of tickets to the benefit of NGOs. In total, 38 artists raised their collections to the whole runway.

The promoters of the event say that, “despite the institutional cuts, this issue is growing in the number of participating designers, collaborating firms and number of media, maintaining consolidated the event as one of the strongest alternative design has to to present their collections to national level. “

Thus, more than 25,000 participants have followed in the Agora (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias de Valencia) and the Off runway (celebrated in the Umbracle) the evolution of the parades, with incalculable people who have passed through the city. As for media, over 300 journalists were accredited.

Print and Pattern were there and actually saw and documented some of the parades, our favorite was Dragomir Krasimirov, a new designer, who presented a very minimal collection that showed that sometimes less is more. All the photos taken by us are form his catwalk.

Did you know that there was no goddess of music?

Ancient Greek and Roman mythology appears to give us only a muse for music and her name was Euterpe, one of 7 sisters who were proclaimed to inspire.  While describing the newest consignment of Carnelian shell cameos my research pulled up that the enticing figure in this 4 cm oval shaped pendant framed in 18K gold could only be a muse, since the only deity of music was Apollo – a man ! THE MOUSAI (Muses) were the goddesses of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets.  Pierino Neri, the artist who carved this particular cameo, choose to use the contours of the shell and hand carve a lyre by her side instead of the more commonly found double flute.

The Bull mouth or Red Helmet sea shell, also known as the carnelian shell, were discovered to have layers of strongly contrasting colors and the shells were large enough to be perfect for carving cameos making them ideal for carving into cameos. The vivid colors and contours of the shell become are both the objective and the challenge that each artist is confronted with as they decide what image and how to portray it.

Our Eutrepe has fine details in her hair, the laurel wreath encircling her head and the folds of the gown.  It is quite impressive how the artists creates an entire story of time, beauty and depth while portraying only one element.

If a picture is worth a thousand words

If a picture is worth a thousand words then I can only imagine the story pouring out of  a hand carved cameo.   An artist will thoroughly study the shell – his or her canvas – to find the curves, bumps, nicks and dents that they need to incorporate in their image.  Then, much like Michelangelo insisted, they will free the story or object that is captured inside of the shell.

One of the newest additions to the Pierotucci Sardonyx Collection is this enthralling cameo, carved to use the shell at a unique angle – as a diamond shaped cameo exquisitely framed in 18K gold with a top hook to be worn as a pendant or a back clip, so that it doubles as a brooch.  The sardonyx seashell is defined by a thick outer layer and a dark brown interior.   In fact a finished sardonyx cameo will have a varying shades of brown in the background and a white foreground, closely resembling marble.  Sardonyx or what is most commonly known as Helmet shells have been used since the Roman Empire for everything from food to cooking pots, trumpets, and jewelry.

According to Homer and others, he was a son of Tros by Calirrhoë, and a brother of Ilus and Assaracus; being the most beautiful of all mortals, he was carried off by the gods that he might fill the cup of Zeus, and live among the eternal gods. (Hom. Il. xx. 231, &c.; Pind. Ol. 1. 44, xi. in fin.; Apollod. iii. 12. § 2.) The manner in which he was carried away from the earth is likewise differently described; for while Homer mentions the gods in general, later writers state that Zeus himself carried him off, either in his natural shape, or in the form of an eagle, or that he sent his eagle to fetch Ganymedes into heaven.  (source)

It appears that the artist of this delicate and unique cameo was inspired by the story of Zeus sending his eagle to carry off the young boy, and carved this image to depicting the fate of Ganymedes, surrounded by a flowing ribbon that frames the cameo within the 18K gold frame.