She's Crafty - Rock and Roll edition

Yesterday was the 63rd birthday of Pat Benatar. She's one of my all-time faves, and certainly one of folks whose music would be included in the soundtrack of my life.



I was a full-fledged teenager during the 80s. Her songs are an enormous part of my rock and roll background. Whenever I hear one of her songs, I'm immediately transported back in time to my old room and singing into my hairbrush while dancing in front of my mirror.

So, in her honor, I've come up with some pretty kickass rock and roll themed stuff. Like this basic black t-shirt with a totally badass rock and roll embroidered pattern, by Katy Flynn.

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She's Crafty - astronomy edition

You know that wonderful kind of synchronicity that happens once in a while? The thing that once you start thinking about a certain thing, you all of a sudden notice all kinds of similar bits of awesomeness? I mean, I know it's not really a coincidence. It's just that since I was reading all about Annie Jump Cannon for my recent post, I started noticing more astronomy-related things showing up in my social media feed. I'm sure it was always there, I'm just primed to see it now. Even so, it's still pretty cool.

Anyway, here are several really great items that I think you all would enjoy seeing as well.

Gracie has created this beautiful Solar System Necklace using a variety of materials -- glass, clay, ceramic, metal. I love that each planet is to scale! Of course, the wearer is the sun, right?

I've talked about the beautiful creations of Lauren Goldberg before. This textured silver pendant of Annie Jump Cannon is so elegant, though, that I have to mention it here as well. I think the floral texture is somehow so perfect for Annie's silhouette. It would make a beautiful science-y gift, don't you think?

Lauren and Tyler of JerseyMaids have a great collection of jewelry with a wide range of themes, but I'm especially fond of this Solar System Bracelet. It's simple, yet quite charming.

Ele Willoughby's shop, minouette, is filled with beautiful linocuts of various scientists and science-y things. I'm rather fond of this Henrietta Swan Leavitt print. I learned a bit about her work while researching Annie Jump Cannon, as they both worked together at the Harvard Observatory, and were friends in addition to being colleagues.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt (July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer. In her day, women scientists were regularly hired to do menial chores. She was hired to count images on photographic plates as a "computer". In studying these plates, in 1908 she was able to deduce a ground-breaking theory, which allowed Hubble's later insight about the age and expansion of the universe. Her period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars radically changed modern astronomy, an accomplishment for which she received little recognition during her lifetime.

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

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Happy birthday, Augusta Savage

Augusta Christine Fells was born on February 29, 1892, in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She began making sculptures as a child, using the natural clay abundant in her area. She liked to sculpt animals and other small figures, but her father didn't approve of it, and did whatever he could to stop her. He was a Methodist minister and believed it was a sin to make "graven images." Savage once said that her father "almost whipped all the art out of me."

"From the time I can first recall the rain falling on the red clay in Florida. I wanted to make things. When my brothers and sisters were making mud pies, I would be making ducks and chickens with the mud."
(source: TheHappyNappyBookseller)

But when he found a statue she sculpted of the Virgin Mary, he changed his mind. She entered some of her pieces into county fairs and won a number of honors. When she could not create a successful career as a sculptor in Florida, she moved to New York City, where she was able to study at the Cooper Union, which offered free tuition, and eventually even gave her a scholarship for her living expenses.

While she was at Cooper Union, she applied for a program to study sculpture abroad in France, but was denied solely because of her race. Instead of taking it lightly, she raised a fuss, wrote letters to the media, bringing attention to the racists practices of the program. The program still refused to accept her, but her life was changed, and she became quite active in the civil rights fight. And she became better acquainted with the movers and shakes in the movement. She was even commissioned to sculpt busts of famous civil rights leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey.

And she did eventually travel to Paris on the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, while enabled her study for one year. When she returned to Harlem, she was very active in the art scene, taught classes in the community, and in 1932 established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts. A few years later, she became the first director of the Harlem Community Arts Center -- which is considered to be the forerunner of similar community arts centers around the country.

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

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