Today I'll be sharing my love for Victoriana (articles from the Victorian era) and Victorian-inspired designs with you. In January I was looking for a present for my friend at Borders (I'm really upset that it's closing down...) and I saw a rack of those yearly calendars on sale. Browsing through the differently themed designs, I found two that I especially liked and both were Victorian inspired designs with pictures of genuine Victoriana! They cost only 9 SGD each, so I bought them both :) I've taken pictures of some of the pages of both calendars, take a look!
The pretty slip-in case that the Cynthia Hart Victoriana 2011 Calendar comes in...
One thing I love about the Cynthia Hart Victoriana 2011 Calendar is that it does not just contain a calendar within its slip-in case; it also contains other goodies such as a mini notebook, postcards and a standup desk calendar! I'm going to let the pictures do the talking...
As much as I'd like to say I put this pretty desk calendar on my desk and look at it everyday, my cluttered desk just has no space for it :(
Four exclusively designed postcards - and they're even lovelier in real life!
That's what I found in my slip-in case and boy was I pleasantly surprised by the sheer loveliness and intricacy of the designs. Thank you Ms. Hart, for making my life just a little more beautiful :) I don't suppose I've mentioned that I love Victorian designs before, but yes I am a big fan.
Although the more ridiculous aspects of Victorian design like the metal cages the ladies wore under their gowns don't quite escape my criticism, the intricate floral designs and the soft quality of Victorian-era images more than make up for that. Paper materials with Victorian designs on them are great for doing decoupage (a project I intend to do soon!) and for looking at in general. Victorian designs are also used in stamps (I have a collection of Victorian flower stamps!) and other accessories such as jewellery. It's a popular style of design for females because of the perceived notions of soft femininity it embodies.
Because I love Victoriana so much, and because I know some of you out there are like-minded individuals, here's the second Victorian-inspired calendar. It's very whimsical and delightfully irreverent in its combination of Victoriana and modern images. I can't decide if I like it better or the Cynthia Hart one better, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
Zozo The Magic Queen aka Gianna Majzler. The link takes you to an interview with pictures of her quirky and whimsical looking house! I'm loving her style.
A close up. Look at the different textures - the glitter on the butterfly wings, the embossed words in gold in the background and the matte texture of the paper. Beautiful.
This is not a comparison or review post, as it's more like a sharing post; I'm sharing Victoriana with you and giving you some eye candy for those who like whimsical Victorian style things. All the same, imagine if you owned those two calendars! You'll be looking at them very often (like me). And being the hoarder that I am, I'm refusing to write or make any marks on them. I like keeping pretty things (e.g. notebooks) in their pristine state.
And just because you've been such a kind audience, I'll share my secret - Dover Publications - with you. This is where I go to get free clip art images that include Victorian images, Art Deco images etc. If you sign up for their newsletter, you get weekly access to some clip art from their extensive clip art collection and as an image collector, receiving their weekly update gets me very excited! I hope it will be helpful to you if you like Victoriana and other such images. You could also find more of such Victorian images on wrapping paper (some do have decoupage-worthy images), from books, and such calendars, of course. It's a pity Borders is closing down; they always sell such lovely stationery and calendars in addition to their great selection of books.
What do you think of Victoriana and whimsical images/products?
