{"id":28635,"date":"2015-02-19T17:08:52","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T22:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=28635"},"modified":"2015-02-19T17:08:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T22:08:52","slug":"throwback-thursday-for-chinese-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/throwback-thursday-for-chinese-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday for Chinese New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I really need to get back to writing my history-inspired posts! Here&#8217;s a throwback one in honor of the Chinese New Year. One of my favorite badass royal ladies was Empress Wu, as she&#8217;s known now. When she ruled China in the 7th century, she used the name Emperor Shensheng (spelling may vary), making her the only female ruler of China to use the <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/from-gloria-steinem-to-miley-cyrus-in-one-day\/\" target=\"_blank\">male title<\/a> of &#8220;emperor.&#8221; In 2007 and 2008, I had a fun time telling her story:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/thursday-book-club-empress-wu-part-i\/\" target=\"_blank\">Empress Wu, Part I<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/thursday-book-club-empress-wu-part-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\">Empress Wu, Part II<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/jewel-of-the-month-empress-wu-dragon-ring\/\" target=\"_blank\">Three years<\/a> after those posts, I unveiled my jewelry tribute to Wu: an 18K-gold dragon ring with diamond eyes and a spinning lapis lazuli globe in its mouth.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_28636\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/store\/products.php?product=Empress-Wu-Dragon-Ring\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28636\" class=\"wp-image-28636 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Empress-Wu-Dragon_M__96883_std.jpg\" alt=\"Empress-Wu-Dragon_M__96883_std\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Empress-Wu-Dragon_M__96883_std.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Empress-Wu-Dragon_M__96883_std-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Empress-Wu-Dragon_M__96883_std-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-28636\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to see this one-of-a-kind piece on my website.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Here is how the ring looks on &#8230;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_28637\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/store\/products.php?product=Empress-Wu-Dragon-Ring\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28637\" class=\"wp-image-28637 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/EmpressWuRing__23555_std.jpg\" alt=\"EmpressWuRing__23555_std\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/EmpressWuRing__23555_std.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/EmpressWuRing__23555_std-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/EmpressWuRing__23555_std-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-28637\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seen on model Tina J.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and here it is in motion.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);\" data-instgrm-version=\"4\">\n<div style=\"padding: 8px;\">\n<div style=\"background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;\"><a style=\"color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/zTApxJDZao\/\" target=\"_top\">A video posted by Wendy Brandes Jewelry PR (@wendybrandesjewelry)<\/a> on <time style=\"font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;\" datetime=\"2015-02-19T20:59:24+00:00\">Feb 19, 2015 at 12:59pm PST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center>Once I got the ring done, I did matching earrings.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_28638\" style=\"width: 508px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/store\/products.php?product=Empress-Wu-Dragon-Earrings\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28638\" class=\"wp-image-28638\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/dragonearringslowres2-768x1024-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"dragonearringslowres2-768x1024\" width=\"498\" height=\"664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/dragonearringslowres2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/dragonearringslowres2-768x1024-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/dragonearringslowres2-768x1024-300x400.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-28638\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to see how they look on model Tina J.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In the December 2011 post I did about the earrings, I showed photos of the whole design process, taking you from from initial sketch, to wax model, to metal just out of casting, to the final product.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/jewel-of-the-month-empress-wu-dragon-earrings\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to see the dragon earrings as a work-in-progress.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By the way, this is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/codeswitch\/2015\/02\/19\/387203812\/whatever-floats-your-goat-asian-languages-interpret-lunar-year-animal-differentl\" target=\"_blank\">Year of the Sheep (or Goat)<\/a> &#8212; meaning it&#8217;s my year! <span class=\"st\">If we go with goat, I&#8217;m a double zodiac goat, because I&#8217;m also a Capricorn.\u00a0Hmmm! Does that make me one of those screaming goats that are so popular in commercials lately?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4r2r0Cfs8DI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This is my favorite screaming-goat ad because I like the way Rick the goat&#8217;s colleague, Kelly, is ready to kick some goat butt.<\/p>\n<p>Happy New Year! <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really need to get back to writing my history-inspired posts! Here&#8217;s a throwback one in honor of the Chinese New Year. One of my favorite badass royal ladies was Empress Wu, as she&#8217;s known now. When she ruled China in the 7th century, she used the name Emperor Shensheng (spelling may vary), making her&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/throwback-thursday-for-chinese-new-year\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140,60,101,43,37,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-animals","category-earrings","category-holidays","category-my-designs","category-queens","category-rings","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28639,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28635\/revisions\/28639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}