Service to be tested in Spain and Portugal this year, with a UK rollout if successful, as pre-loved markets boom
Ikea is to test an online version of its buy-back service where the retailer offers vouchers for unwanted secondhand furniture.
The service will be tested in Spain and Portugal before the end of December and will be launched in the UK if it proves successful. Ikea already offers buy-back in stores, including in the UK. The online version will extend it to a much wider audience, with Ikea predicting pre-owned goods are likely to grab 16% of the UK homewares market by next year
Continue reading...On a night where he equalled Peter Shilton’s England appearance record, Harry Kane did what he always does
It is a very Harry Kane kind of thing to equal a record. Respectful, no ego, all about the collective. On a room temperature night at Wembley Stadium Kane duly did this, drawing level with Peter Shilton’s record for England caps, and doing so while delivering a performance of Total Midweek Kane.
There were two neat, slick goals, one in each half, the high points of a 3-0 win against Czechia that all but guarantees a place in the Nations League knockouts. England need one more point in November to be certain. At which point Kane will have the chance to carry on equalling his own new caps record, humbly paying tribute to himself each time, saying, yeah, it’s an honour to share that number with a man like (myself).
Continue reading...Beldina Odenyo was on the verge of stardom when she took her own life in 2021. In this beautiful documentary, her grief-stricken sister Leah attempts to finish her album – and her journey will make you cry again and again
In 2021, the Kenyan-Scottish singer-songwriter Beldina Odenyo was on the brink of major stardom. That October, aged 31, she headlined a gig at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, delivering an instantly legendary performance; barefoot, cloaked and bone-shaking in its intensity. Everyone in that concert hall knew they were witnessing something extraordinary that night. Two weeks later, Odenyo took her own life.
This tender and grief-stricken documentary, which opens a year after her death, is directed with remarkable care by Louise Lockwood. What emerges is a sensitively drawn portrait of a visionary artist haunted by trauma, formed through her teenage video diaries, the words of those who loved her, the handful of exquisite songs she left behind – kept in a folder on her hard drive named “passable demos” – and the determination of her older sister, Leah McAleer, to keep her astonishing voice alive. A deeply painful venture that she understands is itself a product of her insurmountable grief.
Continue reading...Justice department detained James Codey Bryant and allege he offered ‘technical advice’ to primary suspect
A surprise suspected accomplice has been arrested in connection with a mass school shooting in Canada that was made notorious after an 18-year-old allegedly killed six children after discussing it with the AI chatbot ChatGPT.
The US Department of Justice said Tuesday it had detained James Codey Bryant, 30, a resident of western Washington state, on a charge of conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.
Continue reading...Farewell match kicks off at 7pm ET
Email Pablo your analysis, jokes and more
I could populate the entirety of this pre-match coverage with milestones and statistics from Messi’s illustrious career – his international career alone is a statistician’s dream, especially in the past two World Cup cycles, which saw him solidify his status as an immortal.
Our own Ryan Benson unpacks the statistical absurdity of it all, arguing that Messi has at this point “completed football.” It’s hard to disagree:
Continue reading...Her glacial poise in North By Northwest made her a cinematic icon, but films including On the Waterfront and Loving revealed great subtlety alongside the glamour
‘I’m Eve Kendall. I’m 26 and unmarried. Now you know everything.”
Not quite everything. That is the famously succinct introduction given in a swaying dining car in a voice creamy with insinuation. Eve is speaking to Cary Grant’s fugitive ad man Roger Thornhill, wrongly accused of murder and hiding out from the cops on a train from New York to Chicago in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic North By Northwest. Eve is going to hide him in her compartment because she wants to have sex with him, and much later that train of theirs is to symbolically enter a tunnel. But is that the whole story? Eve’s amazingly beautiful, enigmatic face encodes a secret.
Continue reading...The actor, who has died at the age of 102, was best known for her Oscar-winning performance in On The Waterfront as well as for starring in Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. Her career spanned eight decades – here we look back at her life and work
Continue reading...Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:
The Gare do Oriente, Lisbon's Train Station in Portugal. 2026
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AegirPhotography has added a photo to the pool:
Afternoon storm drifting over Cockatoo Island on Sydney harbour. Shot from Cammeraygal country.
rajbhoy has added a photo to the pool:
Pincushion Protea, Leucospermum. At the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden in Mount Tomah, NSW Australia.
John from Brisbane has added a photo to the pool:
Poor old "Chinook" seems to have been blown up by the elements onto the beach on the Brisbane River at Colmslie. This shot taken below the Colmslie Park looks downstream under the Gateway (or dual Sir Leo Hielscher) bridges that carry 12 lanes north/south as part of the Bruce/Pacific/Hume highways that connect Cairns in North Queensland with Melbourne, Victoria.
In playful, anthropomorphized sculptures, Hannah Lim takes inspiration from historical ceramics, classical Chinese literature, and her British-Singaporean heritage. For several years, the London-based artist has been interested in the 17th- and 18th-century design phenomenon known as Chinoiserie, in which European producers mimicked Chinese and other Asian motifs, appropriating a variety of regional aesthetics that catered to a Western market. “In my own work, I attempt to reclaim and re-imagine this practice in a more conscientious way,” Lim says in a statement. “My sculptures often draw inspiration from specific cultural styles or processes.”
Snuff bottles represent a consumer trend that emerged in China in the 17th century. Its namesake substance, which originated in the Americas, is a kind of powdered, scented tobacco that’s scooped with a tiny spoon and inhaled directly into the nose. As in Europe, its popularity spread especially among the affluent. When Lim observed several examples in museum collections around the U.K., she was fascinated by their ornate designs and variation and began experimenting with sculpting similar motifs. Then, she began to scale up.

A typical snuff bottle is diminutive and jewel-like, typically just a couple of inches in diameter so that it could be both portable and easily tucked away. Lim’s are several inches tall and usually need to be held with both hands. “Initially, my own snuff bottle works were designed in a way to highlight certain personal aspects of my heritage. Over time, they’ve come to reflect different points in my research,” Lim tells Colossal. “Each of my own snuff bottles also has a hanging charm hidden within its lid. The hanging charm references the tiny spoon attached to the lid of traditional snuff bottles.”
For the structure, Lim uses a combination of polymer clay and Jesmonite, a casting material made by blending a mineral powder with liquid acrylic polymer. She also applies chalk, acrylic paint, and a layer of gloss to give each piece its finishing touches, including small painted or relief portraits of animals and imaginary creatures.
Inspiration comes from a wide range of mythological writings, particularly an ancient Chinese tome called The Classic of Mountains and Seas, which is a mostly fantastical account of more than 550 mountains and 300 waterways. “I’ve been attempting to interpret the text through my work, using the enchanting alchemic descriptions of these creatures as inspiration for my most recent series of sculptures and paintings,” the artist says.

Lim is continuing to experiment with scale and materials, especially through the use of metal, and recent sculptures like “Orchid Table” incorporate laser-cut elements. She’s also frequently making bespoke frames that serve as extensions of her paintings, and she plans to incorporate motifs onto the frames themselves.
If you’re in the U.K., see Lim’s solo exhibition Reimaginings through November 14 at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath. She’ll also have some works on view later this month with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in Paris, and later this year, she’ll unveil a new public artwork in Paddington, London. See more and follow updates on the artist’s Instagram.







Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Hannah Lim Draws on Her British-Singaporean Heritage in Sculptural Snuff Bottles appeared first on Colossal.