Every Day Is Special: sugar

Showing posts with label sugar. Show all posts

June 30 – Anniversary of a Very Sweet Art Show

Posted on June 30, 2015

There is an Australian artist who doesn't paint with oils or watercolors. She doesn't paint with acrylics or pastels. She doesn't paint with paint!

Instead, she “paints” with candy and candy-colored sugar!

Tanya Schultz, under the name Pip and Pop, sometimes alone and sometimes with other artists, creates pictures or 3-D “sculptures” using candies. Her art is colorful and fantastical and fun. It's like wish-fulfillment meets magic meets sweet-tooth paradise!

Today is the anniversary of the 2014 start of her art installation in a museum in Amsterdam. A week later, the artwork was complete; this is called the “sugar finissage.” It was followed by a “ruination ritual.”

How fun would THAT be??!!?

Apparently, during Schultz's ruination rituals, the audience ritually takes the landscape she built apart and “cleanses” the museum of the sugar; some people make their own sugary mini-artworks in jars, drink sweet drinks, and eat cotton-candy.

I would just LOVE to see one of her pieces!

This piece was made with artist Nicole Andrejivic.

Also on this date:

Independence Day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Anniversary of the Tunguska Event

Anniversary of the discovery of the Excelsior Diamond

Anniversary of the 1859 crossing of Niagara Falls on a tightrope

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

June holidays

June birthdays

Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

July holidays

July birthdays

Historical anniversaries in July

December 7 – National Cotton Candy Day

Posted on December 7, 2014

When I think of cotton candy, I think of summer evenings at an amusement park or carnival, or days at the circus in the sprint or at the county fair in early fall. I don't think dead-of-winter!

However, people who make cotton candy want to remind you that “Fairy Floss,” as it used to be called, can be enjoyed any time of the year!

I would've thought that this treat would've been an invention of the industrial revolution, but in actual fact, rich people in Europe of the 1700s could enjoy the airy treat. (Only the rich, since spinning sugar took a lot of time and effort!)

It took until the early 1900s for a machine to spin sugar was invented. Get this: it was invented by an American dentist working with a candy-maker! And another American dentist, apparently separately, invented another similar machine to spin sugar. I think these dentists knew what they were doing: make a sticky sweet treat that would cause tooth decay... Okay, I'm just kidding (I guess), but it's pretty funny that two different dentists would be responsible for the inventing of this particular sort of machine!

The first dentist, William Morrison, introduced Fairy Floss at the 1904 World's Fair, and he was able to sell 68,655 boxes of the stuff! His 25 cent charge per box would be equivalent to $6.00 now – so it wasn't exactly a bargain!

The second dentist, Joseph Lascaux, used the name “cotton candy” on his patent form, and for some reason the sweet name “Fairy Floss” faded away (except in Australia, where “Fairy Floss” is still commonly used).

Find out how cotton candy is made here.