Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the UNESCO World Heritage Site Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Friesland, Netherlands for the challenge. Built between 1774 and 1781, it is the oldest working planetarium in the world. Shelbee heard about the site from the delightful Nancy and thought it would make great outfit inspiration: "The colors are so beautiful and the celestial theme adds an interesting element to the inspiration as well." Here are just a few images of the planetarium that Shelbee shared, which I used as the springboard for creating my outfit.
Sometimes I have to think a bit about how I want to interpret an artwork with my outfit, but this one came to mind immediately: a solid inner column of color in the deep teal of the paint, brown quilted vest to reflect the dark wood shades, tall cognac boots that bring in the warm wood tones, and a layered necklace in gold to represent the various golden/brass metal pieces in the planetarium.
I also knew what I didn't want, which was to use any print/patterned pieces in my outfit...which is a bit of a departure from my usual style. As a color integrator, I usually like to add a bridge piece that contains the main colors of my outfit, but that wasn't the direction these inspiration photos were taking me. So it was time to experiment with how to make simple solid colors in an outfit look interesting and true to my personal style. Luckily the pieces I'd already selected were very "me" and taken together had a nice variety of textures that create visual interest. (It was a very dark, cloudy, grey winter day in St Paul when I wore this outfit, and this particular photo insists on looking dim and shadowy. All the better to see the stars, no doubt.)
Teal and cognac are gorgeous together, as befits the status of Blue-Green and Red-Orange as complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel). I chose my regular (dark) brown tights to match my vest rather than trying to match either the skirt or boots (I don't have tights in anything like those colors).
My layered necklace does a lot of the work in making this outfit look interesting. Let's break down the 5 pieces I chose, from long to short:
-Open gold circles to reflect the many round shapes in the planetarium (planets, spirals, etc.);
-A double strand illusion/station necklace with round gold beads separated along its length because this style of necklace always looks like planets on their orbits to me;
-A 35+ year old medallion pendant from a high school wizard costume because it has astronomical/astrological connotations;
-Paperclip chain with my Zork brass lantern pendant that has an old-school metalworking vibe that fits with the 18th century origins of the planetarium;
-A chunky gold link chain with oval links that mimic the orbit of planets, chosen mostly to visually balance the heft of the medallion pendant and bring focus upward.
I kept my daily bracelet stack simple, combining the teal, brown, and gold of my outfit with two bracelets in each color. (All DIY except the top rectangular gold bead bracelet from an Amazon set.)
I even kept to the simple theme with my earrings, choosing a pair from Macy's that have two concentric ovals dangling from each earring. I thought they continued the theme from the layered necklace nicely. And as is always the case when our artwork features anything golden or brassy, my hair fits right in too. In this case, I thought the braids were vaguely reminiscent of the swirling gold and black designs on the ceiling that laid out the signs of the Zodiac with their associated dates, etc.
Now that we've looked at the all-solid-colored inner column of color outfit I created specifically with the planetarium as my inspiration, let's review a few other ways I've worn the teal and brown color combination for winter.
First up is an outfit I wore last January using the outer column of color/"suit" color formula with the same brown quilted vest and a pair of brown jeans over a new-to-me-then teal colorblocked sweater.
I added my favorite teal-and-brown bridge piece, a paisley scarf with dark teal tones and various shades of ivory, cream, rust/cognac, and brown that ties the teal sweater and brown vest together while jazzing things up a bit with some print mixing.
I wore a new DIY paper bead bracelet set that I made to coordinate with the scarf, incorporating all its rich autumnal teal, brown, and rust tones. In keeping with the fall feel of the colors, I popped a cute little gold acorn charm on one of the bracelets. January isn't fall, but there's no law requiring you to abandon autumnal colors or motifs based on the calendar. And here in Minnesota, we can use all the warmth we can get in winter, even if it's from the colors of our outfit. {bicone paper bead tutorial}
The top paper bead bracelet with the acorn charm started out as a Coldwater Creek catalog cover with a layout of quilted vests in a lovely array of fall colors. (This feels especially appropriate for me to wear with my brown quilted vest...which oddly enough is not one of the colors in this image.) I covered up the white text with acrylic paint in a rusty orange color. I edged the strips with gold metallic marker to cover the white paper core and ended up with richly colored, gilded beads that look much fancier than paper.
The other paper bead bracelet (second from bottom in the stack) also had autumn-themed origins: a calendar image of an owl against orange-red and green foliage and blue sky. The only doctoring I did to these strips was to add the gold edging because the color scheme was already quite right for the look I was going for.
This stack was a bit unusual because I made three new stretch bracelets to wear with the paper bracelet set. At this stage of the game, I typically already have a nice selection of supplemental bracelets to wear with the paper sets and really don't need to make new ones. (Bettye recently asked me how many bracelets I have, and counting each one individually, I came up with 787. So yeah, I've got bracelets.) But I was feeling the urge to make some simple beaded stretch bracelets as companions to this set, and compared to paper bead bracelets, these are easy because the beads are already made for you. You just put them on the stretch cord, tie it, and glue it - done. I used 6mm orange and bright teal glass beads, 6mm duo crackle glass beads in slate blue and rust, and 6mm dark aqua wood beads to make these bracelets. {stretch bracelet tutorial}
And since I've made paper beads and regular bead bracelets to match my scarf, why not some DIY bead soup earrings to round out this accessory set/beauty bundle? I used wood and glass beads in teal, rust, beige, mint, and brown with antique bronze spacers and findings to create a pair of simple stack earrings that are a very nice companion to the scarf and bracelets. It's all very color integrated in the typical Sally in St Paul kind of way.
Going back a few years, I have another take on the brown "suit" and teal top with the same brown jeans + flats and the same bridge piece scarf, this time with a thrifted brown jacket (no longer in my wardrobe) and a teal henley T (still in my wardrobe).
I wore this colorblocked outfit two winters ago that uses the brown quilted vest with a dark green-teal sweater, dark blue jeans, taupe boots, a white snowflake motif scarf for a bright pop, and a mixed metal palm pendant that is truly out of place in Minnesota winter but adds some whimsy to the look (all still in my closet). I made a simple bracelet stack from the gold rectangular bead bracelet flanked by a DIY 12mm dark quartz bead bracelet and a green jade chip bead bracelet from my husband.
My last teal and brown winter outfit in this round-up features the same brown quilted vest, dark green-teal sweater, and taupe boots combo as the previous oufit, which is funny because the outfits were worn less than 2 weeks apart; I guess I was just feeling that combo. In this outfit, I subbed some taupe-beige knit pants for the jeans and a richly colored and textured striped scarf for the white snowflake one. I'm definitely back to my color integrator preferences in this outfit with the scarf as bridge piece that even manages to bring in the warm golden tones of my hair color. Talk about a piece that really pulls all the colors together, right?
Now for my favorite part of the post: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art selection! I know that we just featured a Netherland Dwarf rabbit in the SIA May Belfort challenge, but I couldn't resist this sweet-faced red-eyed white bunny. His cute little "devil horn" ears (that are typical of the breed) perked up with interest when he heard that a lucky rabbit was going to visit the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in...the Netherlands! This rabbit was way quicker on the uptake about this than I was; I just now realized as I was typing the last sentence that we are sending a Netherland Dwarf rabbit to the Netherlands. No wonder he took such an interest...it's an opportunity to visit his homeland. (The Netherland Dwarf breed was developed in the Netherlands in the early 20th century.)
Our rabbit was a bit disappointed to discover that the orrery was built into the ceiling and the planets were way too high to be sniffed or chewed on, but at least nothing came swooping down from above to startle or scare him. He also discovered that by traveling through space, he also traveled in time back to the 18th century in which buildings were not filled with convenient cords and wires close to the ground for chewing like in the current era. But the timing of his visit was smart in the sense that he chose to explore the planetarium after the building was closed to humans for the day.
After hopping around on the very hard floor for a while, he was ready to retreat to a softer spot to spend the night. Rabbits are not known for their respecting of property rights (ask Mr. McGregor about Peter Rabbit for more details), so he basically treated this museum like a free Airbnb. Fortunately this room provided wood and fabric in reach of his mouth, though the lack of hay would have been a problem if he was inclined to rate the place online (the 4 star review would really trash their ratings). If you wondered why the blue curtains looked so brand new, immaculate, and pristine for an 18th century building, they have to replace them strangely frequently for reasons that they don't understand but that we do!
For those of you who do home DIY, can you imagine telling your spouse about your new project? "Honey, people are losing their minds thinking that the planets and sun are going to collide later this year and destroy the Earth. I'm going to build a clockwork orrery into the ceiling of our living room to prove them wrong! I know you're pregnant, but don't worry - it'll only take 6 months to finish."
Seven long, long years later [in which no additional children were born]: "Well, time proved that rumor false without my help but hey, now we are living in a planetarium! You can check the location of the planets in the middle of the day and without a telescope, right here at home, isn't that convenient? Well, except for that new planet Uranus that has just been discovered. I'd really like to add it to my orrery. I don't have enough room on the ceiling as it is, but I was thinking I could knock down...Um, right...OK...yes, I declare this planetarium complete."
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 Shelbeeontheedge.com.
Do you have a preference between all-solid-colored outfits and those with prints? How would you have interpreted the planetarium into an outfit? Do you like to wear layered necklaces?
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