Moroccan wedding blankets

These beautiful blankets are vintage hand-woven, traditional wedding blankets from Morocco.

All blankets were made in homes and are thought to be instilled with “baraka.” Baraka is a positive power with many meanings in Morocco, and is a source of creative inspiration. In the case of carpets and weavings, the religious faith of the weaver and her belief in the supernatural are inextricably connected with the objects she produces. The loom itself remains the ultimate symbol of magical protection. It is looked upon as a living thing and is treated as such. If the weaver takes care in remembering the number and combination of threads to produce a design, the finished textile will be imbued with talismanic power and contain baraka, acting as a “power shield” against the evil eye.

Who’s that cat?

Most cats don’t react to pictures of cats. Usually. The image isn’t real enough for them, lacking three dimensions, smell, movement, or something else. But the cat in this video reacts to its portrait with caution and curiosity.

This might not be unique to animals. If people aren’t raised with pictures, they might not recognize them. I once read that some forest people in Africa did not recognize pictures of elephants because they don’t smell like elephants. But I don’t know if that is true.

Chimera

Chimera, originally uploaded by pzmyers.

Who would have thought that there’s a Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists? I can see something like this gracing the mantelpiece of a dedicated member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (motto: Re-living the Middle Ages—the fun parts).

Calvin and Susie and Hobbes “all growed up”

This is neat: a conception by two artists of what Calvin, of Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes, and his sparring partner Susie, might look like as young adults. Obviously, their spirit of adventure is intact!

Calvin, Hobbes and Susie by ~sora1589 on deviantART
. Nami86 did the line art and sora1589 colored it and supplied the background.

A big hat tip to Mike Mussington, who found it.

Make your own photo set

The Tall and Short of It has a “Decorating tip: Pottery Barn on the cheap,” with pictures.

Spell with flickr

From the Spell with flickr site by Erik Kastner:

Renovated Art Gallery of Ontario

The Digital Journal has images of the renovated Art Gallery of Ontario.

Obama pumpkin!

Potter Michael Kline saw this pumpkin portrait of Barack Obama:

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Extreme pumpkins

This site has some unusually carved Hallowe’en pumpkins:

Art Ramblings from Inner Space blog

The Inner Space blog has some good articles about art.