DIY: gothing-up a bag

This post is inspired by Trystan from This Is CorpGoth, because her last Mid-Month Status Report was about the bags one uses everyday. I wanted to participate, but the bag I have been using is so ugly an un-goth that I just could not show it! :)

I used to use this bag, but then one ugly winter day I slipped, the bag fell on the ground and a vine bottle inside the bag broke. Even after three washes it still smells of old booze.

Back to the DIY. To make my everyday-life more gothy, I went and bought a bag from a flea market (5,85 euro). In the photo below, the bag is as it was bought, no alterations made yet.

Then I tried to find some metal spikes from local alternative shops, but only one used to sell them. So, I ordered them online. one small spike was 0,50cent and a skull 2,45 euro and post costs were 2,95 euro. The total amount of cost for the gothier bag was 19,25 euro.

First, I was thinking of putting the spikes on the shiny fake leather parts, two roads on both sides of the metal decorations. Sadly, that could not be done, because the material was so thick and multiple layers. I could not get through it with a needle. So, I put the first ones to the thinner parts of the shiny leather-like fabric. I can honestly say, that it was really tricky to get the back part of the spikes inside the little bounds.

I do not do things like this that often, even though I definitely should. That is why I did not have any special equipment to make the process easier. After four spikes I was totally fed up with the slow process, so I took a little knife to poke the holes into the fabric. It still took a hideously long time, but I must say I am quite proud with what I have accomplished.

Reading tips: 4 books for twisted minds

Now, this is going to be a short post about the books I last bought. Two of them is fiction and two of them are about art. I bought all of these in Oslo, in a bookstore that had a massive sale going on and I was thrilled.

First, the fiction, which is usually so dear to me. To be frank I must confess, that I could not finish the novel of Terry Prattchett. Snuff was repeating a same monologue over and over again and I lost interest. Maybe I'll read it during the summer and I hope it gets a bit better.  I shall not say any more of it, hoping my perspective will change during time. One has to be twisted to enjoy a book called Snuff. just for the sake of it , I shall introduce another novel called snuff in near future. No worries, it is good literature, my dear readers!

The other fictitious story is Forgotten by Cat Patrick. The beginning is intriguing: a girl who can remember the future, but not what she ate yesterday. At the same time there is supernatural stuff and a teenage crush and a first kiss and the whole package. Unfortunately  the story doesn't go anywhere. There is no closure and the parts that are made to fit the "classical chick lit genre meets teenage raging" are sometimes a bit dull. I guess you have to be more twisted than I, in some sense, to enjoy it with a full heart.

Then I shall move on, like a bullet train, to art books. The other one is not that goth-y, but it is about street art and some of the pictures in there would certainly fit to the darker aesthetics. ;)  I did not start to take pics of the pages, so you just have to believe me and start to check out your every-day surroundings for cool contemporary art. Honestly, I have seen in my home town some pretty amazing and twisted graffiti and I have started to carry my camera around, just in case I see a great graffiti again!

Last but definitely not the least: Erotique - Masterpieces of erotic art. First of all, many of the themes in those pages fit the category of Goth or dark aesthetics. Secondly, this is a really great book that demonstrates why Zeus as a Swan making love to a human called Leda is "art" and why bestiality in manga is "not art". Whether we like it or not, there are categories and gatekeepers saying this and that and they exists. Erotique shows how different pieces of art can change their status during time, and many other things too.