#royal python

[heartnosekid]

marshmallow, the royal python mojave lesser (bel) morph | source

[flawless-imperfections]

look at that face, she brings such a sense of peace 🥹

[sisiroos]

My little ball of Love, Houdini. 🐍🥰

[thlpp]

My supervisor is very laid back today.

[chainslobber]

Kai's been super spicy lately so I'm doubling his handling time.

[fanotastic]

Tumblr, if you could give this little girl a name, what would it be?

[rainbowsnakes]

[omg-snakes]

I was with @fractiousrvt at a reptile show this past weekend and heading to my car to grab supplies, and I found a little buddy cruising the floor unattended. It was pretty early and most of the booths were set up but unattended, so I got them into the hands of the event organizer until their right people could be found.

I forgot that I'd taken a photo of the wayward child!

[teleos]

terminal mlem. i'm sorry. we have no cure

[chandaza]

Merengue says good morning!

[redsugarx]

青白之魅 1: Introduction & Presentation

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

tw snakes i think? yeah if you don't like snakes you might wanna just skip this one

Taking a break from the informational stuff—I would like to present a project that my sister and I (Cloud9 Hanfu) just released on Lunar New Year: 青白之魅！This is a photo project that we've been working on since last summer, with the intention of celebrating the year of the snake, as well as to show the hanfu community that has supported us for so long what they've done for us and what they've made possible :>

I've got a blog now aka a poorly disguised excuse to yap for several hours straight, so I'm going to be documenting the design background and symbolism behind my work on this project through a series of long posts.

This'll be split up into 6 parts, which I'll link as they go up UPDATE they are all up!:

Introduction & Presentation (this post): introducing the project's intentions and the presenting the first set of photos

Background & Influences: going more in-depth about the particular sources and pieces of media that inspired this project

Hair & Makeup: opera references and stylistic choices in the design of the hairstyle for both characters and the makeup of the green snake

Set Design: references to Green Snake (1993), explaining the symbolism in some of the props

Clothes & Accessories: process of designing the clothing, behind-the-scenes sketches, archaeological background

Conclusion: reflection on the whole process + Things I Would've Done If I Had Infinite Money And Time

For those of you who just want to look at pretty pictures and move on with your life—this post is for you! If you want to see all the nerdy guts that went into this thing though, keep an eye out for more ;)))

Even if nobody reads this I'm gonna regard it as an exercise in reflection, or just an act of documentation that I might be able to come back to later on. But if you do read it and like it then yay! :)

青白之魅

青白之魅/qing1 bai2 zhi1 mei4/'Enthralled by Green & White' is a photo project primarily based on 白蛇傳/白蛇传/bai2 she2 zhuan4/the Legend of the White Snake. It's one of China's Four Great Folktales, one of the most well-known stories in Chinese culture.

It tells the story of two snake spirits who have taken the form of human women, the White Snake and her younger sister the Green Snake. The story is set in Hangzhou, China, and depicts a dramatic romance between the White Snake and a human scholar. We set the focus on the two snake sisters instead of the romance.

This project features my older sister Yulan and I as the White & Green Snake, respectively. This was a collaboration between three organizations: Cloud9 Hanfu, our brand; Art of Scales, a professional snake handler & ophiologist from Riverside; and Bloomin Studio, a comprehensive photography studio from Santa Ana, CA. None of this could have happened without them!

This year is the Year of the Snake. Snakes are often demonized, especially (though definitely not only) in Western culture, and seen as inherently evil or malicious creatures, partly because of the very real danger that some species pose. Like all animals, though, they are simply a part of the natural world—we happen to think they are quite beautiful evidenced by the fact that my sister owns a truly egregious number of pet snakes! We wanted to bring the Legend of the White Snake to life through our hanfu photoshoot with real snakes.

Our photo project aims to show that, much like the public interpretation of snakes, and the Legend of the White Snake, Hanfu is a multifaceted concept—full of rich history, self-contradictions, and a reflection of the people that engage with it. We hope that, similar to the rise of sympathy given to these characters with time, we can reduce fear of the unknown and share the beauty of our culture, our clothing, and (Cujo's) snakes with everyone this year.

青白之魅

白蛇之魅

The older White Snake sister is named 白素貞/白素贞/bai2 su4 zhen1/Bai Suzhen. Bai Suzhen, also called 白娘子/bai2 niang2 zi0/Madam White is the main character of the Legend of the White Snake.

Spirit the blue-eyed lucy represented the White Snake in this shoot! He's a blue-eyed leucistic (<- a highly coveted morph of ball python) ball python/royal python. He was truly one of the most beautiful snakes I've ever seen, an absolute sweetheart and posed like a dream. I applaud his core strength!

青蛇之魅

The younger Green Snake sister is named 小青/xiao3 qing1/Xiaoqing. 青 is a color that doesn't translate directly into English—it covers colors ranging across what we might call blue, green, teal, or black (see the grue phenomenon). Green is the translation that most people agree on.

Dragun the emerald tree boa represented the Green Snake in this shoot! He was super calm and chill, even when some of my hair got stuck in his scales (sorry bby :((((), which is saying something for an emerald tree boa (they considered extremely exotic and are usually cranky asf). He has a deviated septum and makes a funny hissing noise when he breathes! It was very calming.

If you actually read this whole post through, congratulations! Feel free to ask if there’s anything you’re curious about that I didn’t cover or doesn’t look like I’m going to cover. (And by ‘feel free’ I mean there’s a little guy in my brain doing his best impression of someone dying from thirst in the desert and only your validation can save him.)

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

[hogteeth]

Now I know why he's been so skittish, even with 90% humidity the dingus likes basking too much and ends up getting himself too crispy to shed properly. He got a stuck eye cap. Time to make spaget

Dropping them in the bathtub full of water is a bad idea, but sometimes your snek will be dumb and get crispy no matter how high the humidity is, and will need some help. His soil is moist, digital readings at 85-90% throughout the day, it just happens when they nap too long in the heat (his temps are fine too, 95-75 °F across the enclosure). I can't raise the humidity any higher to where it would make a difference in what already occured, and it's causing him stress to not see out of one eye.

A snek sauna where you saturate a towel in warm water and put them in a tupperware or pot if they're too big with the lid cracked for air lets the shed hydrate with minimal stress, and they rub it off themselves without much invasiveness. Even if it doesn't come off while they're in the pot, they'll probably rub it off in the enclosure. If not, can repeat for 10-15 mins a day until it does.

If you notice them freaking tf out, let em out, but it's not that stressful usually

[elderitch-poet]

This is your sign to get a new time piece

[sisiroos]

My 4 year old ball python named Yuki. He is the morph Blue Eyed Leucistic (BEL) 🐍🥰

[fellowshipofthenoodles]

Oolong hanging out on the sofa while I clean his enclosure 🐍

[myuutan]

her eyes are so freaking pretty (she's so freaking pretty)