Fall Texture and Print Mixing for SIA Emil Nolde + DIY Triangle Bead Earrings

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the 1911 painting "Mask Still Life III" by German-Danish artist Emil Nolde. She sought out an artwork that had "some hint of Halloween without being too Halloweeny" and was drawn to the "bold colors and the somewhat grotesqueness of the distorted masks." I think this painting fit the bill quite well with the macabre faces of these masks. I'm not sure which one is the worst: the devil? the upside down blood-drenched Klansman? the goblin Joker? the world's creepiest old man? the deranged monkey skull man? OK, it's the deranged monkey skull man because he looks like he's about to eat the viewer.

Source: shelbeeontheedge.com

I wasn't prepared (psychologically or sartorially) to create a horror show of an outfit, so I decided to start with the color palette of the painting in creating my outfit. With November has come the fall weather, so I was able to use my tried-and-true technique of picking a scarf to develop my outfit around. Just when I thought I was going to fail this quest, I found this scarf that included the bold colors of the painting (and some extra ones) in a painted-look print.

I immediately chose my red plaid pants (which you may recall featuring heavily in my capsule wardrobe last fall) for some easy print mixing. Florals + plaid or florals + stripes is a classic print mix that usually works if the two prints share a color; in this case, all the colors in the pants (red with black, white, and beige-gold) are also present in the scarf so the mix has a cohesive look. I decided to lighten up the dark outfit with the choice of this wavy-textured white tunic that I love wearing in fall and spring; it's a medium weight fabric (a bit too warm for summer) and has 3/4 length sleeves (a bit too cold for winter) so it works best in the transition seasons. I half-tucked the top in the front to shorten it a bit.

OOTD 11/4/24

I am 100% convinced that my tan leopard print flats are the ideal shoe selection for this outfit. The spots of a leopard print is very easy to mix with other prints, the black of the spots connects back to the pants and scarf, and the tan background relates well to the golden yellow in the scarf and my hair color. But I chose to push myself to add a different texture/print to the outfit that was a bit outside my comfort zone: these multi-color tweed flats with festive black, gold, and jewel tones. I was surprised to discover that they actually looked pretty good with the pants and the outfit overall. The leopard print would be more exactly to my taste, but I did enjoy trying a new combination and adding a less-expected element to my look. And as a bonus, some of the "extra colors" in my scarf are repeated in the shoes. I'm the only one who would notice that, but it's the kind of small detail that pleases me.

I was very excited to take this opportunity to wear a new necklace right away...and for once, this is not a DIY project! The shorter "tooth/claw" necklace has been in my wardrobe since November 2013, worn 49 times for a cost per wear of $0.57. The longer beaded necklace has been in my life much longer...over 35 years...but only entered my closet last week. It's a vintage 1980s Trifari necklace of my mom's that she included in a package she just sent me. It's funny...it's never been my mom's style (she's a cool light Summer colors, silver metal, small and delicate style, short necklace kind of gal) but I've always, always loved it. On my larger frame, with my "lion's mane" of golden hair, and my general "go big or go home" approach to accessorizing, the necklace is perfect for me. Thanks Mom! I hope this debut outfit is doing your necklace justice.

My all-DIY daily bracelet stack is very similar to one you've seen before with these pants (as in this previous SIA outfit). However, the middle paper bead bracelet is a newer addition to my collection that I made as a versatile supplemental bracelet for my paper bead based stacks. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial}

I also have a new pair of DIY earrings...but they are not made from my bead soup this time! Over a year ago I had purchased a big bag of mixed glass seed beads in different shapes and sizes that I sorted out over time. The small 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads were left as one seed bead mix, and I put all the little flat triangles beads of various colors together in one jar with the intention of sorting them later. And, huzzah, that moment finally arrived when I realized that the red ones would make a cool pair of hoop earrings to wear in this outfit. I wanted to go all-in with the print, texture, and shape mixing in this look, and I thought the equilateral triangular shape of the beads and the circles of the hoops would fit in nicely with the plaid (lines), tweed (lines), waves, rectangles, spheres, and elongated triangles already present in my outfit.

I didn't have enough of either the red-with-gold or the red-with-black triangle beads to make a pair of earrings, so I used both colorways in my project. I counted them out so that each earring had red-with-black triangles in the center of the earring and 2 equal sections of red-with-gold triangles on each side. I had to count them out in advance because the hoop earring findings I used only come open on one end so you have to load all the beads in the right order, if that makes sense. If you realize afterwards that you want two more beads on the other end, you have to take all the beads off the hoop and start over again. So a little math up front saved a lot of aggravation in the end. I was so happy with how they turned out that I've made about a dozen pairs of earrings in this style using different colors of triangle beads :D

Now for the main event: our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! I knew two things about the bunny who would enter and improve our artwork:

1) He has black fur, and

2) He is holding his head in the photo like one of the masks.

That might seem like a kind of overly specific set of requirements but my State Fair rabbit photo archive did not disappoint! In 2016, this black mini rex rabbit (with the characteristic light rims of the "otter" coloration pattern) had nosed up curiously toward the camera, resulting in an overhead shot that puts his gorgeous head and ears front and center.

I'm not sure the Style Imitating Art challenge has ever featured an artwork more in need of improvement through the addition of an extraordinarily soft and cuddly bunny as this one. Everything is so creepy, grotesque, evil, spooky, scary, insane...and then aaaaahhhh, a bunny rabbit. It just soothes the heart to see him. Once the mini rex enters the scene, even the monkey skull man looks less "demented" than "rocking out with big orange headphones"...

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

And he's singing along to this song...

Thanks for joining me today for this Style Imitating Art + Rabbit Imitating (and Improving) Art post!

To see other outfit interpretations of this artwork, check out the review on Shelbee on the Edge.

What do you think of this artwork? Which mask is creepiest to you? What elements of the painting would inspire you in creating an outfit? Are you a Yes or a No to print mixing? How about texture mixing? What are your favorite prints to mix in an outfit? Did you know that Duran Duran is still releasing albums??

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