{"id":434,"date":"2008-02-27T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-27T21:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=434"},"modified":"2008-02-27T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T21:45:00","slug":"queen-min-mysterious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/queen-min-mysterious\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Min the Mysterious"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would have loved to do a Thursday Book Club on Queen Min, the last queen of Korea, but it’s very hard to find information about her in English. She’s a hotter topic in South Korea, where there have been books, a TV show and even a musical<\/a>. Unfortunately, my fascination with Korea<\/a> has not inspired me to learn the language because I’m lazy. What? I’m not ashamed. I’m here, I’m lazy, get used to it.<\/p>\n

Poor Queen Min<\/a> was only in her 40s when she was murdered by Japanese assassins<\/a> in 1895. Her body was burnt afterwards, and that’s the happy version of the story. According to other accounts, she was burnt alive. The Hugh le Despenser<\/a>-level goriness of Min’s death is not what fascinates me. It’s her elusive image. Even though she lived in the age of photography, no one is 100% sure what she looked like. There are some photos and drawings<\/a> that are tentatively identified as her, but there is still reasonable doubt, as we Law & Order people like to say.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This painting of Min was done after her death<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The mystery of Min is what inspired my Queen Min Ring. The elegant crane is carved into one side of the lemon quartz. Depending on which way you turn the ring, the crane’s reflection appears or disappears in the other side of the stone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Queen Min Ring \u00a9 Wendy Brandes 2007-2008<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span>Photo by John Muggenborg<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

To give the ring a Korean feeling, I designed a setting that looks like a pagoda<\/a>. This shot gives a clear view of that at the top of the ring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Queen Min Ring \u00a9 Wendy Brandes 2007-2008<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span>Photo by John Muggenborg<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/span>The brown lines at the bottom that give the impression that the crane is standing among reeds are part of the natural coloration of the quartz. Whoever buys this ring gets something unique, because part of the design was done by Mother Nature, and she’s usually not too cooperative about re-ordering.<\/p>\n

The yellowish color of the lemon quartz (as well as the long, skinny shape it was cut into) reminded me of an Asian scroll painting, which is why it seemed especially well-suited to my Queen Min concept. However, I will use a variety of stones and carvings in future Queen Min rings. <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would have loved to do a Thursday Book Club on Queen Min, the last queen of Korea, but it’s very hard to find information about her in English. She’s a hotter topic in South Korea, where there have been books, a TV show and even a musical. Unfortunately, my fascination with Korea has not…<\/p>\n

Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[43,37,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-my-designs","7":"category-queens","8":"category-rings","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","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=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}