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How The Oscar Statuettes Are Made & Other Fun Facts About The Academy's Golden Man.





Each year around the day of the Oscars, I run this post - albeit slightly updated. Enjoy :)



In honor of tonight's 83rd Annual Academy Awards, here's a look at how the coveted statuette is actually made, from start to finish.


The exterior of R.S. Owens in Chicago:

Casting, Buffing and polishing:



The metal is heated to 960 degrees before pouring into the cast.

The Oscar, removed from the cast, and ready to be polished and buffed:

The rough seams are sanded:

And the statue is polished:


Electroplating:


being dipped into the nickel (the second step, it's first dipped into copper):

Dipped into the 24k plate, the fourth step (the third step is dipped into silver):



Engraving and Mounting:


Affixing the engraved plate to the base:

a close up look at base:

Placing the felt pad on the base:



Oscar Fun Facts:

• The official name of the statuette is the Academy Award® of Merit

• Oscar is 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds

• The First Recipient was Emil Jannings, named Best Actor for his performances in “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh” in 1929

• Number of Awards Presented to date as of 2010: 2,701 statuettes



• It was designed by Cedric Gibbons, chief art director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley.

• The Oscar statuette depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy (actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers.)

• How Oscar received his nickname is not exactly clear.
The most popular story is that Margaret Herrick, an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the Academy staff began to refer to it as Oscar. Although the nickname was used with increasing frequency during the late 1930s, the Academy didn't officially use the name Oscar until 1939.

• The Oscar statuette hasn't been altered since his molten birth, except when the design of the pedestal was made taller in 1945.


Official Oscar site.

images and info courtesy of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Designer Chess Set Stimulates The Body As Well As The Mind With Sex Toys As Pieces.

 

 Design and product consultants Aruliden teamed up with intimate luxury brand Kiki De Montparnasse to create a line of high-end private label sex toys. One of which is this $7,000 chess set whose pieces are fully functioning sex toys, making it the perfect game for the cerebral, sensual and wealthy.

Jeremy Scott Designs 3 New Watches For Swatch





Irreverent fashion designer Jeremy Scott has collaborated with Swatch to design three new watches for Spring 2011. The Winged, Lightening Flash and Opulence watches play with the iconic shape of Swatch watches by adding to or altering elements of the traditional Swatch shape and design.

Winged Swatch:



Lightening Flash:



Opulence:




Limited edition set of all 3 watches [777 pieces available]:

all images courtesy of Swatch

The Jeremy Scott Swatch watches are be available February 24th at Colette and March 3 at Swatch stores worldwide.

Teepees & Cabins For Your Feline Friends From Loyal Luxe.





Simple and affordable ways to give your finicky feline a home of which she can be proud. Loyal Luxe designs and offers flat-packed, easy to assemble cat homes made of recyclable cardboard in the shape of Teepees and Cabins. And yes, they sell the faux bearskin rug, too.

Native American Teepee and Faux Bearskin Rug:


Canadian Cabin:




Modern and rustic simultaneously, the cute abodes- suitable for cats, kittens or even a chihuahua- come with additional adornments and can be easily customized.





Loyal Luxe was founded in 2008 by Maud Beauchamp and Marie-Pier Guilmain, two industrial designers and pet lovers who graduated from Université de Montréal. Born from the idea that products for domestic animals deserved to be different, they knew that people and their animals would be excited by the prospect of products that were more refined and daring, by products that were a perfect match with their tastes and the interior design of their home.



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