Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - August 10th

Hey everyone!

Welcome to August's Second Friday, Inspirations and Oddities post!

I've got a just one very exciting inspiration to share with you this month, so lets get right to it!

I am a huge fan of Kickstarter, as I've written about here before. Supporting projects that I fall in love with and seeing them come to fruition is so rewarding.

I had someone tell me recently that the part they didn't like about Kickstarter was the lag time between supporting a project and getting your rewards. Because the funding is often needed to produce a product, this can take months from the time the original project funds. There can be delays if printing, shipping or just life go awry.

I get that. . . but what I LOVE about that delay from funding to delivery is when something shows up in the mail that I had, not forgot about, but simply lost track of when it was going to be arriving.

So, when we went to the Post Office yesterday and found these had been delivered, all the way from Queensland Australia, it was the best of surprises!

Hathor and Thoth Enamel Pins from Mamath's "Tiny Pantheon" Kickstarter

Oh, oh, OHHHHH these are amazing! The illustration work, the quality of the Pins and the complete package of the presentation! All flawless!

The card each pin came on, front and back, simply BEAUTIFUL!
And the heart shaped rubber pin backs! (there are two on each pin, I removed one to show you the text of the card back.) 

One of my favorite things about Kickstarter is the possible rewards that are "unlocked" or added on as a bonus when a project passes the basic funding point. Some folks offer material upgrades on the finished products, post cards, bookmarks or stickers of art prints, extra playing pieces if the Kickstarter is for a tabletop game or deluxe covers / embossing for books.

In this case, over 2,200 backers supported the Kickstarter!!! Here again, Mamath went above and beyond. These are the adorable stickers that were added to EVERY supporter's package as the total funding climbed above the initial requested amount.

And a lovely thank you card in the middle of them as well! 

Of course I was drawn to these, given their Egyptian influences, but I could easily spend wayyyyy too much money on Kickstarter that I don't have. lol So I am selective, to say the least.

I'll be sharing more of the Kickstarter rewards I have received over the coming months.I am currently awaiting a few that should be due this fall! These include a wonderful hardbound Unicorn book of illustrations/paintings and a few "Spell Scrolls" from a very imaginative creator. While the scrolls are meant for D&D players, we have the first of them on our wall, framed as pure magical art, and eagerly await the second. :)

Kickstarter is a fantastic way to get your art out there. I LOVE being part of making it come true for others! :)

Mamath is on Etsy

And instagram where you can see images of more these amazing Pins ( I need more I think!)

instagram.com/mamathzilla

And that's all, next month I'll be sharing three new books I've read that have completely captured my imagination!

Have a great weekend everyone! Thank you for dropping by!

nicolas XO

New Work - June 2nd

June is here! for a lot of you it means school is out, kids are home, vacation is close at hand. Whatever your summer holds (or winter if you are down under) I hope it will be a magical season!

For me, if you aren't familiar with my own feelings, summer is my least favorite season. I do think I have a reverse SADS and, when it is sunny for too many days in a row, I get pretty cranky.

Now, this year we had more than our fill of rain so I think I will be ok even if it is sunny for the next three months. So far, fingers crossed, no day has been hotter than 74 and that was just once a few weeks ago.

Last month I tried a little different approach for my shoppes. I focused almost exclusively on Shadow of the Sphinx and tried to fit as many custom pieces in as I could. This was, of course, at the expense of Bewilder and Pine. This month I will reverse that and spend the majority of my time on the Fairy world. I may experiment with working this way, alternating focus months going forward, as it seemed to be a really productive month for me. Now, after almost four weeks with very little "fairy activity" , I am reallllly quite excited to make new fairy houses and little scenes again!

In other projects/news, work continues on my book, "The Ledgerkeepers".  As it's my first attempt at writing a full novel (yikes)  a lot of it has been experimenting with ways around and thru the process. Discovery writing seems to be the ticket for me. I am very adept at coming up with what some writers refer to as the "WOW! moments" but filling in all the spaces in between seemed impossible to figure out ahead of time. So I just pick a spot in the story and go! It twists and turns and opens new doors that lead to new characters, plot twists, little pieces of the world emerging etc. What I love is it's almost like I am discovering it all myself for the first time too. When I look at how the story has gown in scope and how much of that comes from just that sort of free writing without an outline, I am shocked.

I still sit down first thing each morning for between one and two hours and write or research or plot and plan. I'm hoping to be able to share a bit of it here before the summer is done.

The Bewildering Pine website is also coming along. Once I realized the Ledgerkeepers book was going to be a novel  (Or series) and not just a set of short stories and descriptions I knew I wanted a place for all of that to call home too. So the website will house little descriptions of each town, the points of interest and the dozen or so types of elven folk and outer-world traders that inhabit the Pine. There will be maps and charts as well as descriptions of shoppes and societal structures. The website is also on schedule for a late summer /early autumn launch. There will be a blog, a newsletter, a separate shop with perhaps a few exclusive offerings from the world of the Bewildering Pine and all the magic and whimsy I can manage to stuff into that tiny cyber-space!

And last, a Bewilder and Pine print newsletter that I likely will not kick off until the website is up and running but I have a template for it all ready to go. Printed once a quarter I think it will be crafted as if from a press within the world itself, articles and columns by regular elven writers with news from the world of the Bewildering Pine and other realms as well.

Whew!

OK, that's about it for now. . . Welcome June!

So, here are a few of the new items that I finished in May. It's heavy on the statuary and amulets this month since I spent so much of the month working in that world. The one thing I really was able to step back and appreciate this month was how I have developed a very distinct style working with ancient statues. They still resemble their ancient inspirations but I think there is a very distinct style I've forged thru the years with the creating of some 1000 statues and amulets now. That's the beauty of giving something time and effort to develop. Having faith in the processes and just following it along the path willingly. :)

Thank you, as always, for dropping by!

xo
nicolas

Custom Sekhmet Lioness Statue

Mini Wadjet Cobra Statue just 2 1/2" ( 6.25cm) tall

Esma, the second Mouse Market of Muridae Figurine

A very Narrow Fairy Tower from an area of the Bewildering Pine called the Narrows!

One of my Favorite Egyptian Deities to make, no-one is completely sure what animals inspired it but the Anteater is definitely one of the likely suspects!

A very simple Rising Sun amulet

Etsy featured these not too long ago and I have been unable to keep them in the shoppe!. I'll be making a handful in June!

Anubis the jackal and Nekhbet the Vulture. They make a nice couple! :) 

Bes, a multifaceted, multicultural Protective Deity who was well represented by the ancient Egyptians.
 I LOVE the fancy headdress and the tongue sticking out!

New Work - July 1st

Well June certainly went by in a whirl. . .

Ok, quick update. I spent much of the month cramming in custom orders left and right, and was very happy to do so knowing that most of (I say "most" because I never hit all the deadlines just so) July, August and September are mine to do as I wish! Which is to say, stocking both Etsy shops as much as possible for the season to come and exploring many, many new ideas!

Even with the load of custom work, I had a great month with so many fun requests and the satisfaction of all the completed projects that did get out.

And the writing of the short stories is taking shape nicely too. Still too early to share anything but soon, I promise!

I joined a site called 750 Words which is for writers who want to get into the habit of writing every day. I promised myself I would write at least 5 times a week and the goal being 750 words each time.( about 5 pages in book form) So far I have exceeded the required 750 every day I have written, sometimes doubling it.

It feels so good because the most intimidating thing for me when I began is that the idea of writing with a project/goal in mind seemed just overwhelming at times. When would I find the time? How could I ever write complete stories?

All the world-building has paid off though as so many of the ideas and little details are already fleshed out. . . and new ones arrive every day to continue the creation process. Now I think my biggest worry is "How will I know when I have enough?" and "Will I be able to stop?" :)

Also this week, as a treat to myself, I took an afternoon and went to our county's main library. We have a branch in our little town and via the internet can have any book in the system sent to us here in a day or two but it is literally a one room operation. . .  though it's one room filled with books! :)

Still, I love to hit the main branch once in awhile to spend time just browsing and reading. I found two books on the "New" shelf that are completely inspiring to me as I go about writing. One is called "The Natural World of Winnie the Pooh" and is about the landscape and locations within the actual forest that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood of those Winnie the Pooh stories. The other, is called "Ivory Vikings" and is about the set of Ivory chess pieces discovered in the 1830's, that date to Viking times and the identity, skill and artistry of the woman who, in all likelihood, carved them. It's a grand peek into the 400 year history of the viking sea trade as well.

More on all that another time. . .  the month left me with quite a few pieces to show for my monthly new work post so I hope you'll enjoy!

Cottage from another town of the Pine, named Sylvan, with their crooked chimney stacks.

And I love little gabled, nooks (for reading or spell practicing) of houses so I add them often to mine. :)

Finally getting these back in the shop this summer. I needed a better support design for such skinny, wonky, top-heavy houses. The metal door charms help and a thicker but flexible wire inside. Trial and error. . . and more trial and error. lol

These are not "new" actually but the addition of the long "meadow grass" growing on top of each level is. 

An original Anubis Amulet. I've been working on making functional, smaller amulets while still trying to get decent detail. Not easy in polymer but my confidence with it keeps growing.

Chatsworth Village (Alpine) Houses I mentioned last month. The available selection is starting to grow!

This may be one of my favorite anthropomorphic pieces that I have ever completed. Thoth, the Ibis headed deity of creativity, time and writing.

Another Mushroom House!

A fine garden Gargoyle, named Callalla, for watching over ones magic gardens!

and finally, a custom pair of statues. . .  this is Nephthys and Sutekh (or the Set animal), both based on traditional statues and styles from antiquity.

Sooooo, that's it for now! Wishing you all a lovely weekend and an enchanted summer season as July opens before us!

Thank you, as always, for dropping by!

XO

nicolas

Long Absence and New Work

Two months? Has it really been two months since I've posted. . . anything?

Well, it's been a crazy two months. Off to a busy start this year. Throw in a couple of eye surgeries for cataracts, (the second one coming in a week. . . and if I hear "Oh you're awfully young to have cataracts." one more time. . .  it's little consolation!) The first surgery went great and the new lens they implanted is crazy-good! My vision has not been this good since I was 5 or 6 and no side effects at all.  . well, except I did have a hankering to watch some old "Six Million Dollar Man" episodes after-wards but that went away.

But I have been busy with my work and so thankful for the wonderful customers who have been so kind and patient as I get back to full tilt productivity.

Below is a sampling of the work I have been doing this month and hopefully, after the next surgery, I'll be able to really go, go, go this summer!

So here is what I am up to. . .

The smallest pieces are always my favorite!

There's a TINY mailbox in front of this one. The textured walls are a new feature I plan to use a LOT! lol

He's got a rather pleasant disposition for "God of Storms and Chaos" but everything can't be all gloom and doom can it?

A custom piece by request. . . but I loved creating the night-time sleeping Elf motif!

Two rather pleasant fellows in their own right!

A custom landscape for an Australian customer. I'd really love to get more into finished landscapes as an offering in my shoppe one day.  Perhaps for the next year to come.

Osiris. . . My Egyptian statues get larger and larger as my comfort and skill level grows.  I've only been sculpting forms like this for four years so I am still learning a lot. He is one of my finest though I believe.

Another house with mailbox and picket fences. And the textural roof and walls. LOVE those!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the peek into what's been going on in my creative world. In addition, there's been loads of story writing and idea jotting and plan making.  . little books, fairy stories and maps, more than I can squeeze into a day!

Hope all is well in all of YOUR creative worlds too!

xo

nicolas

A Tidy History with Sutekh the Egyptian God of Storms and Chaos

I had no way of knowing when I was a child that the "Osirian" character of Sutekh from the Dr. Who, 4th Doctor Serial, "The Pyramids of Mars" would one day be a major part of the world I create now.

I am certain this Dr Who episode was shown around the same time I was given a book about the tour of the treasures of King Tuts tomb which were in America for the first time and my world opened to the first ancient civilization that would shape my imagination in ways I could not grasp.

The character of Sutekh that was out to destroy Tom Baker's Doctor with his bulky mummies frightened the 7 yr old me while the protective, anthropomorphic and animal creatures I found in the books of Ancient Egypt were presented in ways that made them feel more like companions of my own.

It was only in the last few years I understood that the Dr Who Sutekh and this fellow below, more commonly known as Set or Seth, were one and the same in origin. And since I have been creating Him in statue form for my shop, they have become one of the most requested which inevitably is due to Set's association with Chaos and Storms. So much a part of all youth isn't it?

There is still much mystery as to what exactly Set is derived from. . .

And I tend to stylize the often boxy ears a bit but I find Him to be a regal form. :) 

So these days, when I make a statue of Set, I always think back to that wonderful time of discovery. As with so many of my creations, the past and present are inextricably linked. . .

If you have never seen The Pyramids of Mars, it is available as a streaming watch on Netflix under Classic Dr Who. I highly recommend it if you would like to know why Tom Baker is such an icon to fans of the show. He made every episode shine and in this one, he is at his very best. :)

So here's to Sutekh. . . Set. . . Seth. . . whatever you choose to call Him. a mystery and an inspiration for a lifetime. . . or several millennia. . . again, whichever you choose. :)
nicolas