Oddity Central |
- Woman Tries to Sell Her “Slightly Used Soul” on eBay
- Another year, Another Dress Made Exclusively of Human Hair
- Chinese Puzzle Balls – The Rubik’s Cube of the Ancient World
| Woman Tries to Sell Her “Slightly Used Soul” on eBay Posted: 05 Jul 2012 01:02 AM PDT
I guess it’s true what they say, you can find anything on eBay, even a slightly used human soul. And while some of us wouldn’t sell our soul for all the money in the world, a woman from Albuquerque tried to give hers away for just $2,000. It might sound like a stupid joke, or an-attention grabbing scheme, but the woman selling her soul, identified as Lori N., said her eBay ad is a cry for help. ”I guess you could say that. I’m at the point now, I’m tired. I don’t feel good. I’m near the end of my rope. I really am,” she told WOAI. Up until five years ago, Lori was living a normal life and made a living as a freelance writer, but a serious car accident completely changed her life. She was a passenger in a car hit by a drunk driver, and the repercussions were dire. The poor woman was in a coma for three weeks, and woke up suffering from a stroke, a broken hip, broken pelvis, leg, collarbone, sternum, ribs, a collapsed lung. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she lost one of her breasts. Lori N. is a freelance writer who can’t write much anymore and gets by on part-time inventory work. So she figured if she can’t use her body anymore, why nor market her soul? ”What I’m gonna deliver is the opportunity for someone to save my soul,” Lori says. “They can save it through prayer, they can save it through conversion. They’re also gonna get a certificate detailing the white and black marks on my soul.” That’s sort of like the vehicle history you get when you buy a used car, only spiritual. The opening bid for this “slightly used soul” is $2,000, but so far she hasn’t had any takers. Still, the ad had quite a lot of hits, and that’s encouraging to Lori. The Albuquerque woman said she realizes her unusual ad might offend some people’s religious beliefs, but she wanted to make it clear that she’s just really hoping to make contact – maybe with somebody else’s soul.
Woman Tries to Sell Her “Slightly Used Soul” on eBay was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Another year, Another Dress Made Exclusively of Human Hair Posted: 05 Jul 2012 12:19 AM PDT
While most people are trying to remove hair from their bodies, others are more than happy to put it on, in the form of fashionable dresses. English hairdresser Jodie Breeds has recently created a dress made entirely from human hair, which was worn by Miss England finalist Holly Lyons on the catwalk of the beauty pageant. Jodie apparently came up with the idea for the dress while contemplating how to represent her hair-salon in the Miss England contest. “My business is about hair and beauty so I wanted to represent what we're about here. So I designed a hair dress, I sketched out the design and my aunty, Margaret Jenner, who’s a dressmaker, made it. It took about six hours altogether,” the hairdresser said. The “blonde” dress was made from hair donated by the salon’s clients and about 10 rows of hair extensions. Although Holly, who went into the Miss England competition with Jodie Breeds’ salon name, “Miss 24 Carat”, didn’t win, she did manage ti turn heads with her unique dress, and also put Jodie’s business on the map. People kept turning up at her place to see the hair garment, claiming they had never seen anything like it before. Now the hair-stylist is thinking of displaying the hairy creation at her salon, because everyone keeps asking to see it. Hair dresses are definitely nothing new. In fact, new ones seem to be created every year or so. Last year we had one made from 250 meters of human hair, and in 2010 a Vietnam designer made a dress out of 1 million meters of hair. I can’t wait to see what next year brings. via Daily Mail Another year, Another Dress Made Exclusively of Human Hair was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Chinese Puzzle Balls – The Rubik’s Cube of the Ancient World Posted: 04 Jul 2012 10:57 PM PDT
For centuries, Chinese arts and crafts have been known around the world for their incredible beauty and finesse. If I were to pick a single object that best describes the Chinese attention to detail it would surely be an ivory puzzle ball. It’s definitely one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. Chinese puzzle balls are ornate decorative items that consist of several concentric spheres, each of which rotates freely, carved from the same piece of material. Although the master carvers of old used ivory, in modern times you can find puzzle balls made of synthetic ivory, resin, wood, jade, and other materials. These detailed works of art are usually made up of at least 3 to 7 layers, but the world’s largest puzzle ball is actually made of 42 concentric balls all enclosed one within the other. Although the inner balls can be manipulated to align all the holes, Chinese puzzle balls got their name from people who, through the ages, pondered the mystery of making such objects. Photo: LiveAuctioneers.com So how exactly are puzzle balls made? Well, it certainly requires mountains of patience and a very steady hand. Chinese masters rotate a solid ball on a lathe and start by drilling holes toward the center of the objects. Then, using special “L”-shaped tools, they begin to separate the innermost balls. The tool with the longest upright has the shortest cutter, and the one with the shortest upright has the longest cutter. The craftsman lowers the longest tool to the narrow bottom of each hole in turn and rotates it to cut the innermost ball free. Then, using the second longest, which doesn’t reach as far down, but cuts a wider arc, he separates the second ball, and so on, from the innermost to the outermost shell. Because it is easier to work with, the exterior shell is the most elaborately carved, usually featuring an intertwined dragon and a phoenix. Photo: Tennants.com Chinese puzzle balls are so delicate that they can only be carved by hand. Even the slightest flick of the wrist can chip one of the fragile inner layers and ruin days of hard work. To understand just how fine these things are, it’s not recommended you try to solve them by aligning all the holes, because there is a risk of damaging the concentric balls. Still, if you insist on solving this ancient puzzle, it’s best to use thin toothpicks or quills. Photo: David Wyatt Mystery balls, as they’re sometimes called, are usually categorized as good luck charms because of their symbolic decorations and their shape of an eternal circle. The layers can symbolize a variety of things, from the four compass directions to the natural elements, while the carvings on the outermost layer usually feature the dragon and phoenix, which correspond to our yin and yang. A puzzle ball decorated with these two figures is said to strengthen the marriage and bring success and prosperity. Photo: KW Monster Photo: Bizarro Bazar
Chinese Puzzle Balls – The Rubik’s Cube of the Ancient World was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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