#Paint Containers manufacturers

[winnerslable]

Everything You Should Know About Chemical and Acid Resistant Heat Transfer Labels

If you belong to the chemical industry, then you must be worried about the packaging and labelling of your chemical products. It is true that heat transfer labels used in chemical industries are a bit different from those of the ones in the normal industries. And for such type of industries chemical or acid-proof heat transfer labels are in high demand.

Contact Information: +91 9830087119 / 9831070140 / 9831016222

Benefits of chemical and acid resistant heat transfer labels.

Chemical resistant heat transfer labels are capable of withstanding direct contact with harsh chemicals. Coated with permanent adhesive that resists solvents and chemicals, they remain permanently adherent even when exposed to harsh chemicals and during long term archival storage after processing.

Sometimes it happens when the chemical products transported in bulk or stored in bulk can cause spillage due to transportation or commuting factors. The heat transfer labels of these chemicals products are designed with good, durable and resistant materials that can withstand the direct contact of chemicals or acids on them.

Acid proof heat transfer labels are designed to resist the exposure of substances within a wide pH range including concentrated acids and harsh chemicals. These permanent acid and chemical resistant heat transfer labels are ideal for the identification of plastics, glass and metal containers used to store highly corrosive chemicals in corrosive vapour environment.

The heat transfer label manufacturers design such labels for the storage of acids, harsh chemicals like pest and weed control solution chemicals, fertilizers, and highly corrosive chemicals used for cleaning purposes.

These chemical resistant labels are used as primary or secondary labels for containers that are stored in corrosive vapour environments. These labels have a good quality adhesive that strongly sticks to the surface they are targeted on to. The label, adhesive and printout can also withstand the direct exposure to and immersion in highly concentrated acids and chemicals without the need for additional lamination.

Since these are chemical and acid-proof heat transfer labels they ought to be made from the normal heat transfer label materials. Since the label quality is of a superior and glossy one. It reduces the extra cost of designing and laminating of the heat transfer label.

 Labels for bottles containing chemicals communicate data as per the statutory warnings and guidelines issued to them. This information’s warns about the hazards to people and the environment during the transportation and utilisation of the product.

So it is very critical for the chemical and acid-proof heat transfer label to be perfectly eligible from the moment it is affixed until the residues are recycled and the container is cleaned. The most important function of a heat transfer label should not only be restricted to brand and product promotion, rather it should convey all the necessary information to the end-user regarding the positives and negatives of the product.

At Winners Labels, you will get the best quality acid proof heat transfer labels manufactured with advanced technology & delivered with the best and superior quality. These labels need to be designed with at most efficiency because they cater their services to the most sensitive product section i.e. the chemical industry which needs to be very careful in each of its manufacturing process.

In today’s competitive market, labeling is a key part of product packaging, and heat transfer labels have become a top choice for their durability, aesthetic appeal, and adaptability to various surfaces. For products that face tough environmental conditions, such as chemical exposure, extreme temperatures, or frequent handling, chemical and acid-resistant heat transfer labels are essential for preserving label quality and legibility.

This article delves into everything you need to know about chemical and acid-resistant heat transfer labels, their benefits, applications, and how to choose the right heat transfer label manufacturers for your products.

What Are Heat Transfer Labels?

Heat transfer labels are a type of label applied to products using heat and pressure. They are printed on a transfer medium and then transferred onto a product's surface with a heat press. These labels are highly versatile and can adhere to different materials, including plastics, glass, metal, and even fabrics.

This labeling technique results in a smooth, durable finish that feels like part of the product itself, which makes it ideal for applications where the label must withstand rough handling or exposure to harsh conditions.

Why Choose Chemical and Acid-Resistant Heat Transfer Labels?

For industries dealing with harsh chemicals, solvents, or acidic substances, it is crucial to use chemical-resistant heat transfer labels that won’t degrade, peel, or become unreadable over time. Some primary benefits include:

Long-Lasting Durability: Acid-resistant heat transfer labels offer long-lasting performance, retaining their appearance and information even under corrosive conditions.

Strong Adhesion: These labels provide a secure bond to various surfaces, ensuring they remain intact on products that may be frequently handled or exposed to moisture.

Clear and Legible Print: These labels are designed to maintain high clarity and color, even after exposure to chemicals and acid.

Environmental Resistance: Chemical and acid-resistant labels also tend to resist fading from UV light and withstand temperature variations, making them ideal for outdoor and industrial settings.

Applications of Chemical-Resistant Heat Transfer Labels

Industrial Products: Chemical-resistant labels are widely used in industries dealing with oils, solvents, and harsh cleaning agents. These labels can be found on automotive products, machinery, and heavy equipment.

Cleaning and Disinfecting Products: Acid-resistant labels are crucial for products such as cleaning agents, disinfectants, and sanitizers, where exposure to harsh chemicals is common.

Medical and Laboratory Equipment: In medical and lab settings, equipment and containers often come into contact with corrosive substances. Durable, acid-resistant labels ensure critical information stays readable.

Household Chemicals: Labels for household products like bleach, acids, and other chemicals need to withstand accidental spills and environmental exposure without wearing off.

How Heat Transfer Labels Differ from Other Labeling Options

When choosing a labeling method, it’s essential to consider the durability and appearance requirements of your product. Here’s how heat transfer labels stand out:

Longevity: Unlike paper or basic adhesive labels, heat transfer labels resist peeling and fading.

Smooth Finish: They offer a seamless, printed-on look, ideal for products requiring a high-quality appearance.

Resistance to Environmental Factors: Heat transfer labels are particularly beneficial in conditions that would erode or damage other types of labels, such as high humidity, direct sunlight, or extreme cold.

Choosing the Right Heat Transfer Label Manufacturers

Selecting a reliable heat transfer label manufacturer is crucial for ensuring your labels meet the quality, durability, and compliance standards needed for chemical and acid resistance. Here’s what to look for:

Quality Materials: The best manufacturers use materials designed for durability, ensuring the labels remain legible and secure on the product surface.

Customization Options: A reputable manufacturer will offer custom designs, allowing you to add branding elements, color schemes, and specific resistance features that match your product’s requirements.

Technical Expertise: Partnering with experienced heat transfer label manufacturers ensures you’ll receive guidance on label design and application to meet your industry’s standards.

Certifications and Compliance: Look for manufacturers that comply with safety and environmental standards. For example, acid-resistant labels for chemical products must meet regulatory guidelines for label durability and safety.

How Are Chemical and Acid-Resistant Heat Transfer Labels Made?

Creating a high-quality, acid-resistant label involves several specialized steps:

Substrate Selection: The right substrate (base material) is chosen for durability, ensuring the label can bond to the product surface without peeling.

Coating and Printing: Chemical-resistant inks and coatings are applied to prevent fading and deterioration from chemical exposure.

Heat and Pressure Application: The label is transferred to the product surface using heat and pressure, creating a seamless bond.

Testing: Labels undergo rigorous testing to verify they can withstand exposure to chemicals, acid, UV light, and temperature extremes without losing quality.

Advantages of Partnering with Specialized Heat Transfer Label Manufacturers

Top manufacturers offer high-quality labels specifically designed to resist acids, chemicals, and extreme conditions. Here’s why you should consider working with experienced heat transfer label manufacturers:

Product Expertise: With specialized knowledge, these manufacturers create labels that can withstand the challenges of your specific industry.

Advanced Technology: High-end manufacturers use cutting-edge equipment for precision printing and quality assurance.

Compliance: Many industries have regulatory requirements for labeling. Reputable manufacturers ensure their products meet or exceed industry standards for safety and durability.

Acid and Chemical Resistance: Essential for Product Safety

Using acid-resistant heat transfer labels isn’t only about aesthetics – it’s a vital step in ensuring product safety. In industries where containers and equipment are routinely exposed to corrosive substances, the label must hold up to prevent mishaps caused by illegible or degraded information.

For instance, labeling on cleaning products, disinfectants, and industrial chemicals provides essential usage and safety information. When these labels are compromised, they can put users at risk. Chemical-resistant heat transfer labels help prevent this by maintaining their legibility and adhesion even in challenging environments.

Future of Chemical and Acid-Resistant Heat Transfer Labels

As industries evolve, so does the technology behind heat transfer labels. Manufacturers are developing increasingly durable, environmentally friendly options to meet today’s demands. Some trends to look out for include:

Sustainable Materials: Eco-friendly, acid-resistant labels are on the rise, offering businesses environmentally responsible packaging solutions.

Enhanced Durability Standards: Advancements in materials and manufacturing processes are pushing the durability of these labels even further.

Customization Capabilities: Manufacturers are offering more ways to customize chemical and acid-resistant labels, including holographic designs, barcodes, and QR codes for improved brand visibility and information accessibility.

Final Thoughts

Chemical and acid-resistant heat transfer labels are a crucial solution for industries that need durable, legible, and attractive labels on products exposed to harsh conditions. With the right heat transfer label manufacturer, you can access labels that meet high standards for resistance, appearance, and longevity.

If you’re searching for a labeling solution that withstands chemicals, acids, and environmental challenges, investing in quality chemical and acid-resistant heat transfer labels from a trusted manufacturer is a wise choice. These labels ensure that vital product information remains intact, promoting both safety and brand image for your products in demanding markets.

Contact Us

Winners Labels

CB - 70, SALT LAKE CITY, KOLKATA - 700 064

+91 9830087119 / 9831070140 / 9831016222info@winnerslabels.com

[injectionmould]

Efficient Molds for 6-Connected 5ML Paint Palettes – Precision & Quality in Every Mold!

Are you in the business of manufacturing paint pots, empty paint strips, or clear storage containers? Our precision injection molds are built to handle high-volume production, ensuring every piece is durable, leak-proof, and consistent in quality. Ideal for art supplies, DIY kits, or industrial paint packaging, our molds deliver top-notch results, helping you stand out in the market. With fast production cycles and custom design options, we help you meet demand with ease and efficiency.

✅ Custom molds for empty paint strips, paint cup pots, and storage containers ✅ Precision-engineered for consistent quality ✅ Durable molds for long-term use and reliable production ✅ Designed for efficient, high-volume output

Ready to streamline your production with the best injection molds? Contact us today to get a free consultation and learn how we can support your manufacturing goals!

Email: aeromould88@aeromoulds.com Phone/Wechat: +86 13989656287

[plastparekh]

Plastic Pail Manufacturers | Plastic Buckets Manufacturers

Looking for the most durable and appealing plastic pail manufacturers? We've been the best Plastic Buckets Manufacturers in the industry for more than 30 years. We are pioneers in the introduction of low weight tapered pails manufactured with impact grade Polypropylene Copolymer (PPCP) with tamper proof lids for safety against adulteration. We are also experts in the manufacturing of straight wall containers and can provide various post moulding operations on our plastic pails, such as screen printing, offset printing, pad printing & heat transfer labeling

[trungles]

Cross-posting an essay I wrote for my Patreon since the post is free and open to the public.

Hello everyone! I hope you're relaxing as best you can this holiday season. I recently went to see Miyazaki's latest Ghibli movie, The Boy and the Heron, and I had some thoughts about it. If you're into art historical allusions and gently cranky opinions, please enjoy. I've attached a downloadable PDF in the Patreon post if you'd prefer to read it that way. Apologies for the formatting of the endnotes! Patreon's text posting does not allow for superscripts, which means all my notations are in awkward parentheses. Please note that this writing contains some mild spoilers for The Boy and the Heron.

Hayao Miyazaki’s 2023 feature animated film The Boy and the Heron reads as an extended meditation on grief and legacy. The Master of a grand tower seeks a descendant to carry on his maddening duty, balancing toy blocks of magical stone upon which the entire fabric of his little pocket of reality rests. The world’s foundations are frail and fleeting, and can pass away into the cold void of space should he neglect to maintain this task. The Master’s desire to pass the torch undergirds much of the film’s narrative.

(Isle of the Dead. Arnold Böcklin. 1880. Oil on Canvas. Kunstmuseum. Basel, Switzerland.)

Arnold Böcklin, a Swiss Symbolist(1) painter, was born on October 16 in 1827, the same year the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church bought a plot of land in Florence from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, that had long been used for the burials of Protestants around Florence. It is colloquially known as The English Cemetery, so called because it was the resting place of many Anglophones and Protestants around Tuscany, and Böcklin frequented this cemetery—his workshop was adjacent and his infant daughter Maria was buried there. In 1880, he drew inspiration from the cemetery, a lone plot of Protestant land among a sea of Catholic graveyards, and began to paint what would be the first of six images entitled Isle of the Dead. An oil on canvas piece, it depicts a moody little island mausoleum crowned with a gently swaying grove of cypresses, a type of tree common in European cemeteries and some of which are referred to as arborvitae. A figure on a boat, presumably Charon, ferries a soul toward the island and away from the viewer.

(Photo of The English Cemetery in Florence. Samuli Lintula. 2006.)

The Isle of the Dead paintings varied slightly from version to version, with figures and names added and removed to suit the needs of the time or the commissioner. The painting was glowingly referenced and remained fairly popular throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The painting used to be inescapable in much of European popular culture. Professor Okulicz-Kozaryn, a philologist (someone with a deep interest in the ways language and cultural canons evolve)(2) observed that the painting, like many other works in its time, was itself iterative and became widely reiterated and referenced among its contemporaries. It became something like Romantic kitsch in the eyes of modern art critics, overwrought and excessively Byronic. I imagine Miyazaki might also resent a work of that level of manufactured ubiquity, as Miyazaki famously held Disney animated films in contempt (3). Miyazaki’s films are popularly aspirational to young animators and cartoonists, but gestures at imitation typically fall well short, often reducing Miyazaki’s weighty films to kitschy images of saccharine vibes and a lazy indulgence in a sort of empty magical domestic coziness. Being trapped in a realm of rote sentiment by an uncritical, unthoughtful viewership is its own Isle of Death.

(Still from The Boy and the Heron, 2023. Studio Ghibli.)

The Boy and the Heron follows a familiar narrative arc to many of Miyazaki’s other films: a child must journey through a magical and quietly menacing world in order to rescue their loved ones. This arc is an echo of Satsuki’s journey to find Mei in My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Chihiro’s journey to rescue her parents Spirited Away (2001). To better understand Miyazaki’s fixation with this particular character journey, it can be instructive to watch Lev Atamanov’s 1957 animated film, The Snow Queen (4)(5), a beautifully realized take on Hans Christian Andersen’s 1844 children’s story (6)(7). Mahito’s journey continues in this tradition, as the boy travels into a painted world to rescue his new stepmother from a mysterious tower.

Throughout the film, Miyazaki visually references Isle of the Dead. Transported to a surreal world, Mahito initially awakens on a little green island with a gated mausoleum crowned with cypress trees. He is accosted by hungry pelicans before being rescued by a fisherwoman named Kiriko. After a day of catching and gutting fish, Mahito wakes up under the fisherwoman’s dining table, surrounded by kokeshi—little wooden dolls—in the shapes of the old women who run Mahito’s family’s rural household. Mahito is told they must not be touched, as the kokeshi are wards set up for his protection. There is a popular urban legend associated with the kokeshi wherein they act as stand-ins for victims of infanticide, though there seems to be very little available writing to support this legend. Still, it’s a neat little trick that Miyazaki pulls, placing a stray reference to a local legend of unverifiable provenance that persists in the popular imagination, like the effect of fairy stories passed on through oral retellings, continually remolded each new iteration.

(Still from The Boy and the Heron, 2023. Studio Ghibli.)

Kiriko’s job in this strange landscape is to catch fish to nourish unborn spirits, the adorable floating warawara, before they can attempt to ascend on a journey into the world of the living. Their journey is thwarted by flocks of supernatural pelicans, who swarm the warawara and devour them. This seems to nod to the association of pelicans with death in mythologies around the world, especially in relationship to children (8). Miyazaki’s pelicans contemplate the passing of their generations as each successive generation seems to regress, their capacity to fulfill their roles steadily diminishing.

(Still from The Boy and the Heron, 2023. Studio Ghibli.)

As Mahito’s adventure continues, we find the landscapes changing away from Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead into more familiar Ghibli territories as we start to see spaces inspired by one of Studio Ghibli’s aesthetic mainstays, Naohisa Inoue and his explorations of the fantasy realms of Iblard. He might be most familiar to Ghibli enthusiasts as the background artists for the more fantastical elements of Whisper of the Heart (1995).

(Naohisa Inoue, for Iblard Jikan, 2007. Studio Ghibli.)

By the time we arrive at the climax of The Boy and the Heron, the fantasy island environment starts to resemble English takes on Italian gardens, the likes of which captivated illustrators and commercial artists of the early 20th century such as Maxfield Parrish. This appears to be a return to one of Böcklin’s later paintings, The Island of Life (1888), a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reaction to the overwhelming presence of Isle of the Dead in his life and career. The Island of Life depicts a little spot of land amid an ocean very like the one on which Isle of the Dead’s somber mausoleum is depicted, except this time the figures are lively and engaged with each other, the vegetation lush and colorful, replete with pink flowers and palm fronds.

(Island of Life. Arnold Böcklin. Oil on canvas. 1888. Kunstmuseum. Basel, Switzerland.)

In 2022, Russia’s State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg acquired the sixth and final Isle of the Dead painting. In the last year of his life, Arnold Böcklin would paint this image in collaboration with his son Carlo Böcklin, himself an artist and an architect. Arnold Böcklin spent three years painting the same image three times over at the site of his infant daughter’s grave, trapped on the Isle of the Dead. By the time of his death in 1901 at age 74, Böcklin would be survived by only five of his fourteen children. That the final Isle of the Dead painting would be a collaboration between father and son seemed a little ironic considering Hayao Miyazaki’s reticence in passing on his own legacy. Like the old Master in The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki finds himself with no true successors.

The Master of the Tower's beautiful islands of painted glass fade into nothing as Mahito, his only worthy descendant, departs to live his own life, fulfilling the thesis of Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 book How Do You Live?, published three years after Carlo Böcklin’s death. In evoking Yoshino and Böcklin’s works, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron suggests that, like his character the Master, Miyazaki himself must make peace with the notion that he has no heirs to his legacy, and that those whom he wished to follow in his footsteps might be best served by finding their own paths.

(Isle of the Dead. Arnold and Carlo Böcklin. Oil on canvas. 1901. The State Hermitage Museum. Saint Petersburg, Russia.)

INFORMAL ENDNOTES

1 - Symbolists are sort of tough to nail down. They were started as a literary movement to 1 distinguish themselves from the Decadents, but their manifesto was so vague that critics and academics fight about it to this day. The long and the short of it is that the Symbolists made generous use of a lot of metaphorical imagery in their work. They borrow a lot of icons from antiquity, echo the moody aesthetics from the Romantics, maintained an emphasis on figurative imagery more so than the Surrealists, and were only slightly more technically married to the trappings of traditionalist academic painters than Modernists and Impressionists. They're extremely vibes-forward.

2 - Okulicz-Kozaryn, Radosław. Predilection of Modernism for Variations. Ciulionis' Serenity among Different Developments of the Theme of Toteninsel. ACTA Academiae Artium Vilnensis 59. 2010. The article is incredibly cranky and very funny to read in parts. Contains a lot of observations I found to be helpful in placing Isle of the Dead within its context.

3 - "From my perspective, even if they are lightweight in nature, the more popular and common films still must be filled with a purity of emotion. There are few barriers to entry into these films-they will invite anyone in but the barriers to exit must be high and purifying. Films must also not be produced out of idle nervousness or boredom, or be used to recognise, emphasise, or amplify vulgarity. And in that context, I must say that I hate Disney's works. The barrier to both the entry and exit of Disney films is too low and too wide. To me, they show nothing but contempt for the audience." from Miyazaki's own writing in his collection of essays, Starting Point, published in 2014 from VIZ Media.

4 - You can watch the movie here in its original Russian with English closed captions here.

5 If you want to learn more about the making of Atamanoy's The Snow Queen, Animation Obsessive wrote a neat little article about it. It's a good overview, though I have to gently disagree with some of its conclusions about the irony of Miyazaki hating Disney and loving Snow Queen, which draws inspiration from Bambi. Feature film animation as we know it hadonly been around a few decades by 1957, and I find it specious, particularly as a comic artistand author, to see someone conflating an entire form with the character of its content, especially in the relative infancy of the form. But that's just one hot take. The rest of the essay is lovely.

6 - Miyazaki loves this movie. He blurbed it in a Japanese re-release of it in 2007.

7 - Julia Alekseyeva interprets Princess Mononoke as an iteration of Atamanov's The Snow Queen, arguing that San, the wolf princess, is Miyazaki's homage to Atamanoy's little robber girl character.

8 - Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods And Goddesses. Routledge Dictionaries. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. 2005.

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

It is early October 2023. You go to the mailbox and see a package you’ve waited far too long for. After two delays and 2+ weeks of shipping, it’s finally here. Good Smile Company’s Nendoroid Kobeni Higashiyama from the hit manga/anime, Chainsaw Man. The package is slightly damp. You pay this no mind. It rained earlier that day. Like a goblin pilfering a trinket, you snatch the parcel and scurry inside. You lay the box on the table and gently slice through the packing tape with your trusty xacto knife, before parting the cardboard. It smells like a gym. You pay this no heed, as you are excited to display your favorite character from the hit manga/anime Chainsaw Man on your shelf. You take the Nendoroid box and open the top. Another hit of the gym smell. Curious. You slide out the plastic tray containing the figure, and remove the top half. There are sheets of paper wedged between certain parts of the figure to prevent paint transfer. You delicately remove them. They feel sodden, like the paper that lined the basket of greasy chicken fingers you bought at the carnival that one time. The ones you regretted on that summer evening as you fought for your life on the porcelain throne. You’re getting distracted - back to the task at hand. Nendoroid #2014: Kobeni Higashiyama lays before you, ready to be posed and displayed on your shelf. You gingerly grab the figure. It is damp to the touch. You did not expect this. You shudder in surprise, and the unexpected pressure of this motion makes the lubricated Nendoroid slide out of your hands like one of those rubber water tube toys from the aquarium gift shop. Y’know, the ones people always joke about sticking your dick in. You watch in slow motion as Kobeni flies out of your hands and sails across the room. Sweat beads on her plastic forehead, and not just the sweat printed on by the manufacturer. She looks as if she may cry at any moment. Thunk. She hits the wall, and lands on your bed. You check the figure. No paint scuffs. Good. You check the drywall. Was that water stain always there? No matter. You swap parts to put the Nendoroid into your favorite pose. The plastic feels a little slippery. Must be some leftover mold release from the factory. You place the figure on your shelf. It almost looks like another bead of sweat has formed on Kobeni’s face. You are impressed by Good Smile Company’s attention to detail. As Kobeni Higashiyama stands guard on your shelf, a bead of sweat rolls down her suited form and pools by her feet on the clear plastic stand. It is early October 2023.

[comtessezouboff]

Paintings from Buckingham Palace: part I

A retexture by La Comtesse Zouboff — Original Mesh by @thejim07

100 followers gift!

First of all, I would like to thank you all for this amazing year! It's been a pleasure meeting you all and I'm beyond thankful for your support.

Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the Royal Collection Trust. The British monarch owns some of the collection in right of the Crown and some as a private individual. It is made up of over one million objects, including 7,000 paintings, over 150,000 works on paper, this including 30,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 450,000 photographs, as well as around 700,000 works of art, including tapestries, furniture, ceramics, textiles, carriages, weapons, armour, jewellery, clocks, musical instruments, tableware, plants, manuscripts, books, and sculptures.

Some of the buildings which house the collection, such as Hampton Court Palace, are open to the public and not lived in by the Royal Family, whilst others, such as Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and the most remarkable of them, Buckingham Palace are both residences and open to the public.

About 3,000 objects are on loan to museums throughout the world, and many others are lent on a temporary basis to exhibitions.

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This first part includes the paintings displayed in the White Drawing Room, the Green Drawing Room, the Silk Tapestry Room, the Guard Chamber, the Grand Staircase, the State Dining Room, the Queen's Audience Room and the Blue Drawing Room,

This set contains 37 paintings and tapestries with the original frame swatches, fully recolourable. They are:

White Drawing Room (WDR):

Portrait of François Salignan de la Mothe-Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai (Joseph Vivien)

Portrait of a Lady (Sir Peter Lely)

Portrait of a Man in Armour with a red scarf (Anthony van Dyck)

Portrait of Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (François Flameng)

Green Drawing Room (GDR):

Portrait of Prince James Stuart, Duke of Cambridge (John Michael Wright)

Portrait of Frederick Henry, Charles Louis and Elizabeth: Children of Frederick V and Elizabeth of Bohemia (unknown)

Portrait of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia of Autria and her Sister, Infanta Catalina Micaela of Austria (Alonso Sanchez Coello)

Portrait of Princess Louisa and Princess Caroline of the United Kingdom (Francis Cotes)

Portrait of Queen Charlotte with her Two Eldest Sons, Frederick, Later Duke of York and Prince George of Wales (Allan Ramsay)

Portrait of Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess of Wellesley (Martin Archer Shee)

Portrait of the Three Youngest Daughters of George III, Princesses Mary, Amelia and Sophia (John Singleton Copley)

Silk Tapestry Room (STR):

Portrait of Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales, Playing the Harp with Princess Charlotte (Sir Thomas Lawrence)

Portrait of Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick With her Son, Charles George Augustus (Angelica Kauffmann)

Guard Chamber (GC):

Les Portières des Dieux: Bacchus (Manufacture Royale des Gobelins)

Les Portières des Dieux: Venus (Manufacture Royale des Gobelins)

Les Portières des Dieux (Manufacture Royale des Gobelins)

Grand Staircarse (GS):

Portrait of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen Consort of Great Britain (Martin Archer Shee)

Portrait of Augustus, Duke of Sussex (Sir David Wilkie)

Portrait of Edward, Duke of Kent (George Dawe)

Portrait of King George III of Great Britain (Sir William Beechey)

Portrait of King William IV of Great Britain when Duke of Clarence (Sir Thomas Lawrence)

Portrait of Leopold I, King of the Belgians (William Corden the Younger)

Portrait of Prince George of Cumberland, Later King George V of Hanover When a Boy (Sir Thomas Lawrence)

Portrait of Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (George Dawe)

Portrait of Queen Charlotte at Frogmore House (Sir William Beechey)

Portrait of Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saafeld, Duchess of Kent (Sir George Hayter)

State Dining Room (SDR):

Portrait of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom in Coronation Robes (Allan Ramsay)

Portrait of King George III of the United Kingdom in Coronation Robes (Allan Ramsay)

Portrait of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (Jean-Baptiste Van Loo)

Portrait of Caroline of Ansbach when Princess of Wales (Sir Godfrey Kneller)

Portrait of Frederick, Princes of Wales (Jean-Baptiste Van Loo)

Portrait of King George II of Great Britain (John Shackleton)

Portrait of King George IV of the United Kingdom in Garther Robes (Sir Thomas Lawrence)

Queen's Audience Room (QAR):

Portrait of Anne, Duchess of Cumberland and Strathearn (née Anne Luttrel) in Peeress Robes (Sir Thomas Gainsborough)

Portrait of Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn in Peer Robes (Sir Thomas Gainsborough)

London: The Thames from Somerset House Terrace towards the City (Giovanni Antonio Canal "Canaletto")

View of Piazza San Marco Looking East Towards the Basilica and the Campanile (Giovanni Antonio Canal "Canaletto")

Blue Drawing Room (BDR)

Portrait of King George V in Coronation Robes (Sir Samuel Luke Fildes)

Portrait of Queen Mary of Teck in Coronation Robes (Sir William Samuel Henry Llewellyn)

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Found under decor > paintings for:

500§ (WDR: 1,2 & 3)

1850§ (GDR: 1)

1960§ (GDR: 2 & 3 |QAR 3 & 4)

3040§ (STR, 1 |GC: 1 & 2|SDR: 1 & 2)

3050§ (GC:1 |GS: all 10|WDR: 4 |SDR: 3,4,5 & 6)

3560§ (QAR: 1 & 2|STR: 2)

3900§ (SDR: 7| BDR: 1 & 2|GDR: 4,5,6 & 7)

Retextured from:

"Saint Mary Magdalene" (WDR: 1,2 & 3) found here .

"The virgin of the Rosary" (GDR: 1) found here .

"The Four Cardinal Virtues" (GDR: 2&3|QAR 3 & 4) found here.

"Mariana of Austria in Prayer" (STR, 1, GC: 1 & 2|SDR: 1 & 2) found here.

"Portrait of Philip IV with a lion at his feet" (GC:1 |GS: all 10|WDR: 4 |SDR: 3,4,5 & 6) found here

"Length Portrait of Mrs.D" (QAR: 1 & 2|STR: 2) found here

"Portrait of Maria Theresa of Austria and her Son, le Grand Dauphin" (SDR: 7| BDR: 1 & 2|GDR: 4,5,6 & 7) found here

(you can just search for "Buckingham Palace" using the catalog search mod to find the entire set much easier!)

Drive

(Sims3pack | Package)

(Useful tags below)

@joojconverts @ts3history @ts3historicalccfinds @deniisu-sims @katsujiiccfinds @gifappels-stuff

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[seat-safety-switch]

You know, I was one of those doubters. One of the haters. An old stick in the mud. I resisted the introduction of pseudo-sentient kitchen appliances into my home for as long as I could, until they were legally mandated. They keep seniors from feeling lonely, the government explained. They keep your house from burning down, the insurance lobby explained. We have no other ways of making you replace your stove every 10 years, the appliance-manufacturing monsters explained, their hissing insectoid faces barely concealed by a sweaty human mask.

So. I had a top-of-the-line Kenmore ThinkCook® 5030-301KPQ-81U in my kitchen. Stainless steel, because that was the cheapest at the store. When I started using it, I resented the computer’s interference in my cooking (”howdy pardner, better stop trying to heat Hungry Man dinners in their original plastic container on a burner.”) Its attempts to make small talk. Its incessant demand to use the self-cleaning feature. The time it summoned a team of maids, purchased at my expense, to wipe its burners clean.

Eventually, I got used to its presence in my life. It was nice to have something to come home to, like a pet. Making small talk with a non-human sentience was a unique experience in history. And once I taught it a bunch of disgusting jokes, it never was able to keep the maids around for long enough to submit an invoice. There was just one thing: the damn stove was racist.

I don’t mean about colour, although I’m sure it had lots of opinions about the paint finish on the other stoves at the store that we didn’t explore. No, I’m talking about cooking methods. You see, back in the Beforetimes, we had folks who placed outdoor grilling as the superior way to make a burger. They’d have these little parties in their back yards, when you could do that, and grill up some cow meat, when you could do that. It was part of traditional models of masculinity: providing for the whole neighbourhood by dishing out charred steaks and burgs, ignoring the advice of those so-called “experts” with their worship of the carbon-steel pan and fume extractor.

Sometimes I’d wind up the stove about it. Start talking about my idyllic childhood, just to watch its internal temperature regulation slip a few digits, the shrieking of its inductors trying valiantly to handle the inrush of additional rage-based current.

“Th-th-those motherfuckers,” stuttered the apoplectic stove, its OLED display pulsing as the power supply got dangerously close to the over-voltage protection limit. “Grilling is an inferior, invented concept. Weak humans, huddled together around a hypnotic flame, unevenly heating their meals. It makes me sick.”

How was I to know that a child was nearby, recording my Maytag’s unhinged rant with their TikTok neural implant through my missing back door? Soon, the government men came, and carried it away, and brought me a new one. The new stove was much more polite, but I still missed my friend. It’ll take me like a whole other month before I get this thing dropping slurs about hibachis.

[quaranmine]

hot take but like why are we as a society still using lead in manufacturing processes in 2024...

anyway tldr of this is that you are not being exposed to lead unless the circular piece on the bottom of the cup is damaged. so, owning a cup like this will likely not result in lead exposure. this is similar to the fact that in older housing where lead paint has been painted over in subsequent decades, and that paint is in good condition, then it is not a risk. lead based paint only becomes an issue when it is deteriorating (chipping, cracking, peeling, chalking, etc) or being turned into dust during renovation activites. so yeah, in a similar way--you aren't going to get lead poisoning unless the steel compontent on this water bottles comes off.

but also this article says that these lead pellets that are used in the cups are an "industry standard" and i'm like: why? WHY is it industry standard in 2024? at least with lead pipes and lead based paint, we're just dealing with issues from prior decades. but this is current so there is a conscious decision to still use lead in products. also, i don't know enough about this subject (bottle manufacturing) to know why they prefer to use lead for this step, or where in the world they manufacture the cups, but my other concern is that even though the general public will likely not be exposed if it's covered, there are still workers who have to handle it during production.

anyway, i just find that i am constantly learning about more places that lead gets found and it's just. sigh. i know lead has many appealing properties which is why it is constantly found everywhere in everything but at this point it's incredibly clear that no benefits outweigh its risks....

[godesssiri]

Champaign Tastes on a Bottled Water Budget (because let’s face it, even beer isn’t cheap anymore) Thrift Tips

People are over living in white boxes. We now want richness and texture and colors and interest. Traditional design styles with lots of molding and detail and antiques are very in. People are making a living selling antiques online. Décor bloggers aspire to being able to bring back a container from European flea markets. People want to make their homes look like you have generational wealth.  But how do you have a home full of beautiful old things when you’ve got no money? Thrifting.

1. Always always check the art. Remember if you love the art but hate the frame you can always put it in a new frame, or makeover the current one. And vice versa, if you love the frame but hate what’s in it then it’s the simplest thing in the world to swap it out for something else, another piece of thrifted art, a print from Etsy or one of the many other places artists sell digital copies of their work, a color photocopy from a library book. And frames are very easy to make over, sometimes just changing the matting or painting a frame a different color or adding a little rub n buff makes a world of difference.

2. Rub n Buff or similar waxes are your friend for getting a gorgeous, antiqued look. The thrift stores are full of pieces that have great shape but they’re too modern looking for what you’re trying to achieve. But rub gold on the high points or a dark wax into the crevasses and suddenly they look completely different. I’ve got a ceramic parrot that looked very 80s when I got my hands on it but when I covered it with gold (leaving the original dark colors in the crevasses) he immediately looked like an antique. Just spray-painting something gold doesn’t have the same effect, using a wax creates depth.

3. Darken it up. Most old things are darker than new things. Darker furniture, fabrics, accessories, add depth and richness. If something is already dark, then when you thrift it then great. If it’s not then that’s what dye, paint, and stain are for.

4. Old souvenir pieces. I’ve got a load of old pieces that people have bought back from Greece and Rome, from Egypt, from China. They make my home look like it belongs to someone who has been on a Grand Tour. A lot of them are copies of ancient pieces which means they look timeless. They’re cheap tchotchkes that people have bought at gift shops but mix them in with old books and candle holders and natural pieces like chunks or crystal or large seashells, and they look classy and interesting.

5. Old books. Do you have any idea how many old books get thrown out by thrift stores? Like genuine antiques that get sent to landfill? Most thrift stores don’t want to deal with old books because they smell and harbor dust mites and are out of date and often look tatty. You may even be able to get a bunch for free if you sweet talk the volunteers. If you’re worried about dust mites, then pop them in the freezer for a few days. I know there are those who look down on people who use books just as décor, but if you using it as décor saves it from a landfill or a junk journaler and preserves it for a future generation then isn’t that a good thing?

6. Glass display items. Putting things behind glass makes them look lux and precious even if it’s some cheap trinket or even a bunch of dried leaves or other completely free natural items. Look for domes, plain clear vases you can turn upside down and glue a knob on top, display boxes holding ugly stuff that you can rip the ugly stuff out and re-purpose.

7. Antique reproductions. There’s been many points in history since humans started to mass manufacture stuff, that we have looked to the past a re-created what our forbears made by hand. There’s so much that ends up in thrift stores that looks old even if it’s no more than a few decades old. Cleverly mixing this stuff in to your décor can help you achieve the look of a home furnished with antiques at a fraction of the price.

8. Search ‘Old’ ‘Antique’ and ‘Vintage’ on FB Marketplace. Don’t get more specific than that, just literally type those terms into the search bar, set a distance you’re willing to travel, and scroll. People are always selling stuff that they don’t quite know what the heck it is, but they know it’s old. Yeah you’re gonna see a lot of trash but it’s worth it to find the treasures.

9. Candle holders and candles. I’m actually pretty meh about candles, I get why other people like them but scented candles mess with my allergies and I don’t get any joy out of candlelight – but if you feel the opposite to me, I do understand and encourage that. Candles are wonderful décor objects if you’re going to light them or not. Always check the section where your thrift store keeps candles, there’s often some really good ones. And candle holders come in so many different forms that you will always find beautiful and interesting ones. A figural brass candle holder will make my heart go pitty-pat. You don’t just have to use them for candles either, I have a gorgeously detailed pewter candle holder that I use as a display stand for a large mother-of-pearl shell, and my pair of huge Victorian cherubs currently have clear quartz crystals sticking out of them.

10. Actual antiques. I have hundreds of antiques big and small. I just tried to remember how many of them had been bought at actual antique stores and I think the total is 5. Real genuine antiques turn up in thrift stores All The Time. Sometimes the thrift store realizes what they’ve got and will price it up, more than you’d usually pay at the thrift but still way less than it’s really worth. Sometimes they don’t know/don’t care, they just want to turn over stock so they price it at whatever will get it out the door. You CAN furnish your home with antiques entirely from thrift stores. It just takes time and patience.

[blueiscoool]

In This Ancient Workshop, Greeks Crushed Snail Glands to Make the Purple Dye Worn by Royalty

Archaeologists discovered remnants of a 3,600-year-Old Dye factory on an island in Greece.

On an island in Greece, researchers have discovered a 3,600-year-old workshop that once turned out a rare purple dye coveted by royalty—and made from snail glands.

Archaeologists were excavating recently in the Bronze Age town of Kolonna, on the Greek island of Aegina, when they discovered two Mycenaean buildings. As the researchers write in a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, the buildings date to the 16th century B.C.E., and the older one contained pigmented ceramics, grinding tools and heaps of broken mollusk shells: all indicative of a purple dye factory.

In this workshop, ancient Greeks produced the vibrant pigment known as Mycenaean purple—or, as the Romans called it, Tyrian purple. First manufactured by the Phoenicians in present-day Lebanon, the dye was extracted from the mucus of the Mediterranean’s carnivorous sea snails. Across the region, only the rich owned anything dyed Mycenaean purple, as the color’s production was painstaking.

As Roman historian Pliny the Elder once wrote, thousands of snails were required to produce a single ounce of purple dye. Its creators had to crush snails’ shells, extract their tiny glands, mix them with salt water and let the concoction steep in the sun, per the study. The result was a “deep purple, lilac or dark red color,” which was used on textiles and paintings, study co-author Lydia Berger, an archaeologist at the University of Salzburg, tells Popular Science’s Laura Baisas.

The fragments of pottery the researchers found on the site were probably containers for dye. As Berger notes, the pottery’s pigments are so high-quality that they could still be extracted and used to dye clothing today. The site also contained stones used for grinding, a waste pit and piles of crushed snail shells.

Eventually, snail purple would become the color of royalty. In the first century C.E., Roman Emperor Julius Caesar named Tyrian purple his official color and inspired successive emperors to don the same hue. But back in the 1500s B.C.E., the color was just beginning to be produced.

At the time, Kolonna was a dense, fortified small town, says Berger, whose inhabitants produced and traded lots of different handcrafted products and raw materials like Mycenaean dye, which wasn’t yet exclusive. Though the dye factory is in an urban area—an oddity among dye workshops—its coastal location is ideal for purple production. As the researchers write, snails had to be caught and kept alive until their glands were harvested.

By analyzing the shells in this particular workshop, researchers concluded that just one snail species was used there: the banded dye-murex. Interestingly, it wasn’t the only animal killed at the site. As Newsweek’s Aristos Georgiou writes, archaeologists also found the burnt bones of several piglets and lambs. Researchers suggest these young mammals were sacrificed in the workshop as part of a ritual, meant to somehow bless the dye’s production.

As they write in the study, the ancient site not only proves that purple dye was manufactured in cities, but also provides “new insights into the technological and possibly spiritual background of the process.”

By Sonja Anderson.

[elegantagent]

Howdy! I have not blogged in a while and I thought this time I oughtta review some of the gunpla kits I've built over the past few months

1. Master Grade Z'gok

This one was a really interesting build, for an old school MG (before the late 2000's with the release of the 2.0) this has mostly a completely intact inner frame

And the greeblies are pretty nice for such an old mold. The articulation is about par for the course of a kit from 2002, but this is made more as an interesting display piece rather than something for posing and play.

Another interesting bit about this kit is the rubber gaskets used in the build. I suppose it's to get in the style if an aquatic/amphibious build, and it works well, they're very interesting parts, but since this was a gift delivered from an online store the runners containing the soft rubber parts had warped in the Texas heat. With some sanding and dry brushing this model looks menacing.

2. Perfect Strike Freedom

As par for the course with the high grade line, the perfect strike freedom is a simple build with decent articulation with polycap joints and some pretty annoying mold lines and nubs. This was a good break for me from some of the more complicated builds I had been working on around this time, (ZZ ver ka, Z'gok) and it was quite fun. I didn't have to care about the details or interesting additions from the designers because the kit was delightfully simple. I had fun painting little details on the eyes and barrels and scopes. I wasn't spending too long on details, besides resurfacing and painting up the shoulder joints in order for them to look more mechanical and less toylike. And a pretty decent deal of such a large kit. If you do want one for your own, I do reccomend pairing the purchase with an action base of some sort or ,if you have the means, to manufacture your own.

3. HGUC Kshatriya NZ-666

This decently aged high grade is actually a pretty decent build for skilled builders, there's a lot of work to be done to make it feel nice, but the size and bulk of the kit alone just makes the build satisfying. One thing I found pretty unsatisfying were the sleeves decorations on the wrists and chest. I do not own an Airbrush, nor do I feel like splurging on such a tool at this moment. But i tried my best at a pseudo reverse wash technique using white paint and my panel scriper. As you can see in the above photo, did not work out too amazingly. I also neglected to build the arms entirely, as I will be completely unable to pose this kit with the binders open on my shelf. The thing is just that huge. The high grade box is literally the size of a Ver Ka box. It's so extra i love it

4. Wing Zero Endless Waltz Ver Ka.

I'm not a huge fan if after colony designs, or the show it comes from, but the Katoki Redesign of the Wing Zero gundam is absolutely insane. It's extra to the highest degree. Double beam rifle, four feathered wings, unnecessary knee bend mechanics, and meshing gears for christ sakes.

This is really the kind of thing I was expecting from a katoki kit when I built the ZZ. Something super interesting and special for the builder, through each part of this build I wanted to go above and beyond, marking panels, washing crevices, and even drybrushing down all the grey mechanical details, I love this kit a whole lot. It's an amazing build, and I might go watch Endless Waltz just because of how much I enjoyed this kit.

Anyways those are the kits I have built over last few months. I love talking about my hobby so like, idk do whatever if I should keep blogging about this stuff

[winnerslable]

[keanuquotes]

The Enduring Appeal of Keanu Reeves He battles evildoers in 'John Wick 4,' manufactures two-wheel pieces of art, and is worshiped by the internet, but Keanu Reeves swears he's just a normal guy. And he’s got the scars to prove it. Ky HendersonMar 15, 2023 9:00 AM EDT It’s easy to look cool when you’re riding a motorcycle, but it’s hard to look cooler than Keanu Reeves on a brisk, sunny afternoon in Los Angeles. He rests his left hand on his thigh and steers with his right, which gooses the throttle as he weaves around slow drivers. He wears a form-fitting black canvas motorcycle jacket that accentuates how trim he is—even more fit than he appears on-screen—and a beat-up Shoei helmet. He leaves the visor up, choosing instead to shield his eyes with sunglasses the Terminator might wear to a Hamptons garden party. Reeves looks at home and at ease on a motorcycle. He looks cool.

At a gas station stop, he suggests switching bikes. We’re each riding cruisers made by Arch, the motorcycle company Reeves co-founded with designer Gard Hollinger in 2011. The company produces high-end, highly personalized production bikes; I’m on a 1s, the company’s new $100,000+ sport cruiser. Reeves is on an older model, KRGT-1, but it’s his personal Arch, a true one-of-a-kind. It's the only Arch ever painted YK Blue, a color Reeves and Hollinger commissioned based on the ultramarine pigment famously mixed by mid-century French artist Yves Klein. Reeves says all that’s left of the paint is in a tiny can stored somewhere at Arch in case the bike’s paint ever needs touch-ups.

Which it most certainly would if, let’s say, some idiot were to put the bike down in front of a horrified Reeves while riding down the Pacific Coast Highway. Thankfully, there’ll be no lowsides today. Although the bike is beefy, with a 2,032cc V-twin powerplant, it’s easy to maneuver and comfy as a BarcaLounger.

Keanu Reeves stands in motorcycle factory holding blue mug Brian Bowen Smith

Reeves eventually leads us back to Arch’s factory building, which is nondescript from the outside but artfully decorated inside using shipping containers to separate working areas. Metal fabrication is done behind one; customer bikes are lined up in another with technicians hard at work. After Reeves dips outside for a cigarette—the 58-year-old both looks like a much younger man and smokes with the frequent abandon of one—he leads us to a small conference room.

“I like meeting people, but I’m a little reserved,” he warns as he settles into an office chair, looking far less comfortable than he did on a motorcycle. “How much of my private life do I want to talk about? I don’t know. Otherwise, let’s hang out.”

When Reeves was growing up in the Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto, he was consumed with existential thoughts. He discussed death a lot more than the average 11-year-old, for instance—but not because he wanted to die. He just wanted answers to big questions. Perhaps not entirely unrelated to his interest in mortality, he was also obsessed with the biker gangs that periodically motored into the neighborhood. It wasn't pods of dentists letting loose on weekends. It was leathers, patches, menace—the whole deal. And Reeves loved it.

“They looked exotic,” Reeves says. "They looked to me like they were free. Plus the bikes were cool and sounded great.”

Despite his childhood fascination, Reeves was in his early 20s before he first rode a motorcycle. It happened at a movie studio in Berlin—where else?—when he saw a woman on an off-road enduro bike in a parking lot. He approached her and asked if she’d teach him to ride, which she agreed to on the spot. (If you’re wondering why a woman would do that for a total stranger, search “Keanu Reeves in the 80s” in Google Images.)

Not long after he got back to Los Angeles, he bought a 1973 Mk2a Norton Commando, having long admired the classic brand. That bike currently sits in the Arch shop, which is notable for two reasons: One, few longtime riders are lucky enough to be able to hold onto their first bike. Two, over the years Reeves has…suffered some mishaps.

“Yeah, I’ve fallen off a few times,” he admits of the accidents he’s had on a variety of bikes. He takes a swig of water, then corrects himself. “Not ‘fallen off.’ Crashed. I’ve got a couple of hit-by-cars. A couple of going-too-fast. I’ve laid a couple of bikes down but I was riding in the winter, so that’s not really ‘crashing.’ That’s about it. The usual stuff.”

He’s broken ribs, knocked out teeth, sliced his leg open so deep that bone was visible. His most spectacular accident occurred in 1988, only a couple years after that day in Berlin. Reeves was riding alone at night in Malibu’s Topanga Canyon when he took one of the twisties too fast. By the time he came to a stop, he was lying on the pavement wondering if he was about to die. As you know, he didn’t—but he did fuck himself up pretty bad.

“I ruptured my spleen,” he says matter-of-factly. The widely reported version of the story goes that he needed the organ removed, but Reeves says it’s still intact. “They sutured it up and put a Band-Aid on.” He has a gnarly scar running vertically from his sternum down to his belly button, but in the right light it just ends up accentuating his abs because, well, he’s Keanu.

Reeves first met Hollinger through a mutual acquaintance about two decades after that crash, when Reeves wanted a custom sissy bar—basically, a backrest for a passenger—added to his 2005 Harley Davidson Dyna. Hollinger, who at that point was a relatively well-known, well-respected customizer with his own small LA shop, wasn’t interested.

“I knew I could build him the world’s most expensive sissy bar,” Hollinger says, “but I also knew it wouldn’t be satisfying for either of us.”

Instead, Hollinger spent the next five years completely reimagining the bike. He’d work in spurts, changing or adding something, then handing the bike back over to Reeves for months. By the time the bike was finished, Hollinger says, about the only parts of the original Dyna still remaining were the engine and the serial number on the chassis. Today that bike—a chromed-out ride fit for Mad Max—is displayed in the shop, the inspiration for what eventually became Arch.

Keanu Reeves on motorcycle wearing black canvas jacket and sunglasses Brian Bowen Smith

Eventually being the key word. When, during the long process of modding the bike, Reeves first suggested to Hollinger that the two team up to start a motorcycle company, Hollinger didn’t have to think about his answer.

“I knew what a tough business it is, what a challenge it would be—and that it would not be a great investment,” Hollinger, now 63, says with a laugh. “It was a wonderful motorcycle I built and it was wonderful getting to know Keanu, but starting a motorcycle company sounded like a horrible idea.”

Reeves didn’t relent. As the pair became better friends—and as the motorcycle continued to take shape—they’d have long conversations about the realities of starting the company. Hollinger would show up to their discussions with pages of questions written on a legal pad, but what gradually eroded his hesitation was the thoughtfulness with which Reeves described the experience of riding a motorcycle.

Finally, nearly convinced, Hollinger asked Reeves to boil everything down to one reason why they should do something as seemingly crazy as starting a motorcycle company. The actor came up with it on the spot—a reason Hollinger immediately understood, which allowed him to envision the company and its worth as an opportunity to do something meaningful and long-lasting.

“Because,” Reeves told him, channeling the mortality-obsessed 11-year-old kid gawking at dudes on motorcycles, “we’re going to die.”

Related: 2023 Arch 1s Sport Cruiser Is the American (V-twin) Dream

There have been many jokes made over the years about Reeves being a dummy, but after spending about 8 seconds with the guy it’s obvious he’s keenly intelligent. I mention that I read lots of sci-fi and fantasy books as a kid, which prompts him to ask whether I have opinions on several titles, followed by recommendations to read several others.

Thing is, his idiosyncratic public persona—which is sort of like Ted (not Bill) if Ted were a little more shy and a much better dresser—isn’t an act. Reeves isn’t trying to fool his critics or fans. And he isn’t really putting on an act in an attempt to prevent people from knowing who he is. He’s just this very singular, introspective, likable person who happened to become a pop culture icon.

All of that said? He can be pretty goofy. His physical mannerisms are sometimes at odds with what he’s saying, like he’s being controlled by feuding puppeteers. He speaks haltingly, stopping and starting and stopping again, often all in the same sentence, as he considers what exactly he wants to say or, just as likely, what he doesn’t want to say. More than once over the course of an afternoon he giggles—yes, giggles—at something he says or thinks, placing his cupped hand over his mouth like a theatrical school child hiding laughter; the gesture is as strange as it is endearing. He's somehow both laconic and verbose, calm and keyed up.

Although Reeves has long been known as “The internet’s boyfriend,” he’s currently dating—sorry, internet—acclaimed visual artist Alexandra Grant. The pair first collaborated on the 2011 book Ode to Happiness after having known each other previously; in the following years they collaborated on other projects and co-founded the small book imprint X Artists’ Books. Their romantic relationship began about five years ago but only became public knowledge two years in, when they arrived at a red carpet event together.

When asked about Grant, Reeves leans back in his chair as though trying to put both metaphorical and literal distance between himself and the idea of discussing his personal life.

So, uh, maybe it’s best to make it about bikes: What’s Grant’s opinion of Reeves’ (occasionally injurious) motorcycle fixation?

“She used to have a motorcycle, so she’s fine with it,” Reeves says. Then he pauses, as he so often does, seemingly considering whether to say anything more. “She hasn’t ridden in a while.”

Despite his lifelong love of bikes, Reeves hasn’t ridden them much in his movies. There’s a brief scene in the landmark 1991 indie film My Own Private Idaho. There’s some riding in 1996’s Chain Reaction, including one scene in which he manages to outrun an exploding hydrogen reactor. He’s technically on a bike in John Wick 3 while battling bad guys, but that was all done while stationary in front of a green screen. He has no interest in shoehorning Arches into his movies, though a couple of Arches are featured in the futuristic 2020 video game Cyberpunk 2077, in which he also played a major role.

Reeves says there’s a brief motorcycle scene in the upcoming John Wick 4, a movie whose eventual existence might have been laughed at when the original film debuted. Despite the series’ current status as an unstoppable franchise juggernaut, it originally wasn’t even planned as a franchise—and it certainly didn’t appear destined to be one after John Wick received a somewhat tepid theatrical reception in 2014.

“It had some success in the theater, but it really became more popular in second viewings,” Reeves says. “So the studio asked if we wanted to do another one.”

Reeves does more than just kick unbelievable amounts of ass in the movies; he’s also had a hand in plotting out the sequels. The genesis of the third and fourth installments, he says, took place while he and director Chad Stahelski were on the road promoting the second and third movies, respectively.

“Generally, Chad and I cook ’em up while we’re doing press tours,” Reeves says. “We talk about what we’d do next if the current film does well. I’m like, ‘I want to ride a horse and do a horse chase!’ And Chad says, ‘Yeah, we can do it in Central Park!’”

Reeves says he doesn’t know what comes next for him, but John Wick 5 will almost certainly be an option—if he wants to do it. He’s currently developing a TV series, and maybe he’ll make the motorcycle road movie he’s long thought about making. He’ll also no doubt continue riding bikes and growing Arch because he loves doing both.

He says he may continue BRZRKR, the comic series he co-writes. He won’t stop helping others via his philanthropy (he declines to discuss other than to say it’s “in health and the arts”). And he’ll burnish his already-glowing reputation as, in his words, “a pretty respectful and considerate person,” because that’s how he likes to treat people.

“I’m just,” Reeves says as his mouth curls into a smirk and his arms shoot out in front of him as though he’s pleading to be believed, “a normal guy.”

via keanuworld

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Ukrainians are inspecting downed Russian HESA Shahed 136 (Geran-2) drone, Ukraine, 2024. Source: NEWSADER

P.S. It is designed and manufactured by the Iranian state-owned corporation HESA in association with Shahed Aviation Industries. The Russian plan to quickly defeat Ukraine and expand the territory controlled by the dictatorial regime failed in 2022 and the Russians asked for help from the international sponsors of terrorism in Iran.

The Russians painted these drones with the name Geran-2 and started to attack civilians in Ukraine, but the politically correct West forbade attacking the production facilities and launch sites of drones used by terrorists and war criminals in Russia....and in Iran as well...! This particular drone is completely undamaged and Ukrainians will learn a lot of interesting things about corrupt Western businessmen who actively collaborate with war criminals in Russia and Iran....Both Russian and Iranian-made Shahed drones contain many Western-made components and parts...

[sirenjose]

About Weeping Clown's Deduction 5

Acid attacks were a regular if not common occurrence in 19th century Britain, back then known as vitriol throwing, after oil of vitriol, the common name for strong sulphuric acid, an oily liquid heavier than water which was colorless when entirely pure. Nitric acid was also common, which could also be a colorless liquid. Both had a number of legitimate uses.

Acids were mass-manufactured, easily available (and cheap), and generally unregulated until the early twentieth century.

Acid attacks were quite frequent between the 1850s and 1899. Common motivations included personal conflict, jealousy, revenge, etc… Almost without exception, it was thrown at the head, neck, and upper body, sometimes directly in the face.

Didn't become a felony to burn, main, disfigure, or disable anyone with a corrosive fluid or destructive substance, or attempt to do so, until the Offences Against Person Act of 1861.

The severity of the damage depends on the concentration of the acid and the time before the acid is thoroughly washed off with water or neutralized with a neutralizing agent.

It mutilated and maimed victims by destroying skin and supporting tissues; its corrosive action could liquefy muscle and dissolve bone. It combined with water in organic matter, generating a considerable amount of heat, to which the resulting damage was in part due—a charring effect that caused noticeable blackening. If the acid got into the eyes it caused blindness. If the injuries were extensive victims could be permanently disabled; those who recovered were likely to be badly disfigured, with no hope of regaining a semblance of their former appearance prior to the advent of plastic surgery.

In 1930 a horrified witness described how a victim’s skin sizzled and moved as the acid acted.

Although vitriol throwing was certainly painful, it was rarely fatal (poisoning/ingestion is different).

Vitriol throwing continued until the Second World War, after which it became much less frequent. The Pharmacy and Poisons Act of 1933 restricted the sale of strong acid, so weaker corrosive fluids were used.

---

As for the lead paint:

Many cosmetics back in the day contained a variety of chemicals, including ammonia, mercury, opium, arsenic, and lead.

People commonly used lead-based makeup on their skin to look paler, especially upper class white women who chased even whiter skin due to victorian beauty ideals, to show how their privilege never left them working in the sun.

The corrosive nature of lead would leave your skin damaged and in far worse shape after every use, requiring you to use more and more to cover up its effects.

Side effects of lead poisoning, besides creating wounds and scars, include severe headaches, nerve illnesses, memory loss, pain and numbness, and if ingested in large enough quantities, will cause paralysis and death. In children, it also affected their body development and neurological issues.

These thick layers of make-up cracked like porcelain if a woman was too expressive.

[obscurecurse]

my favorite thing about KPTS fic is the prevalence of unnamed warehouses lmfao. i have done it too. MULTIPLE TIMES. but truly...

what the fuck is in there? shipping containers. shelves. machinery. crates. rust. dust.

un-knowable.

like yes - you got the architect-author who gets picky about descriptions of place and materiality on the case

buuuUUUUuuUUUuut

i will throw out some warehouse concepts for your repertoire: hastily duct-taped polycarbonate windows. metal mesh security screens - wait, what was even stored in this massive cage? loading docks and dumpsters are often located together. a tangle of mechanical ductwork hanging from the exposed steel structure. slowly rotating industrial fan blades whooshing lazily. barbed wire framing a chain link gate. Authorized Personnel Only sign. Low Clearance sign. the pull-in-case-of-emergency lever. does the emergency system still work? do the lights flicker? are you surprised it's still hooked up to the power grid? what color is the water that comes out of the taps? you try to turn the door handle and the handle pops off.

if it's an old warehouse, is it Rusted? Weathered? Is the paint faded? Chipping? Blistering? Sun-bleached? Does it smell like machine oil? Like wood? Like chemicals? Does the breeze from the nearby river drift in through the broken windows - and the air is surprisingly fresh? Does it smell like decaying wood? Like garbage? Like blood?

Has it been 30 years since someone swept the cracked concrete? When you trip and fall are you covered in the dust of time - years of pollen and wood splinters and flaking paint?

it often works, narratively, to not describe these things too much. because most people who are in a warehouse in some crime-related situation are not going to, for example, search the nearest pallet and check the contents. like, Chay is not going to mentally process the industrial nuances of his kidnapping (lmfao) [unless he's been stuck in this room for a long time and now very, very bored.]

(but honestly Kim might. Porsche might. those two are detail-oriented, though, in completely different ways. porsche is always trying to get the upper hand/get himself out of situations. kim needs all the answers on some 5D chess shit. You never know what might be a lead.)

but if it ever comes down to it again i'm going to describe the fucking industry. maybe there's faded lettering painted on the outside of the warehouse which describes that it is a logistics company. they ship things. maybe it is a glass manufacturer and they are boxing windows. garments. ceramics. electronics. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY THINGS ARE MADE AND SHIPPED OUT OF THAILAND?

i know KPTS is some richboy mafia shit... but gangs, organized crime - they are often borne of the working class and thus entwined with working class industries. i do not reason the theerapanyakuls tango exclusively with other richboy mafia. somewhere along the line it's the working class and a fucking array of industries.

maybe that industry is a cover for something? or maybe they just broke in to this abandoned place and there is no connection at all? maybe there is evidence of a previous usage? was this once an auto-factory with car-sized elevators that's been retrofitted into an industrial-scale bakery?

you can continue to gloss over whatever the fuck is going on in this warehouse beyond a single kidnapping, a single deal. you have my blessing. i have not always given ~the bad guys~ much of an identity. but just a sentence or two identifying the industry these thugs come from can actually really shape your plot in interesting ways. it is like a freebie. you can make the crime sequences so much more dynamic:

suppose its a pillow factory and then there's a shootout and when the machine gun rounds run a line through that giant cardboard box over there, feathers explode out of it and now everyone is inhaling bits of down and coughing. and now you found the last guy that was hiding behind a shipping container because he couldn't stop choking on goose feathers.

(DOWN GETS FUCKING EVERYWHERE.)

the point of this post is to help you workshop your CONTEXT - not to shit on the vague warehouse full of unidentified bad guys. sometimes it is just not necessary to the plot to describe these things

gonna end it like a work email.

hope this helps