Showing posts with label creative ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creative ideas. Show all posts
Friday, February 22, 2019
Ten Pieces of Creative Advice
Hey all!
Just finished a list of what I think are Ten essentials for creative growth and for working towards making your living in a creative way! I though I would share them all here with you first. :)
I've been around a lot of younger people lately who are hungry for learning creative skills and finding their own mode of self-expression and more than a few adults who are thinking of turning some craft or creative idea into a product for on line sales. The world is becoming more open to anyone being able to make a creative living but often I find the hardest thing to teach is not the techniques but the mindset that enables one to follow through with their plan over time.
This is my default list, as of now, of the thingsI would like to impart to every young creator or one who is new to creating at any age.
Hoping you are all well!
XO
nicolas
1. Create EVERY Day.
I am likely, for the rest of my days, to begin any advice list with this one! I think it's the best advice. The best plan of action. AND I think most people could do it. The usual argument against is that the person has a job/homework/a family/hobbies/a life, and it’s hard to find time for creativity in the middle of all that.
Well, maybe I'm the oddball, but it’s mind-boggling how many “busy” people I know these days- including people with full-time jobs, families or studies- who still manage to find time to go out, play computer games, go on road trips, play sports and watch hours and hours of movies and tv shows.
We find time in their days for all of these things. If we dream of creating, shouldn’t we be able to find time for it as well?
2. Don't Put Too Much Into the Idea of Inspiration.
The old idea that there must be an air of “inspiration” or a visit by the "muse"to make anything worthwhile is just silly. Some ethereal or, more to the heart of procrastination, elusive entity that everyone is waiting to come along and drop the great idea into their heads.
t's not true.
People can be “uninspired” and still create and make beautiful work when they're doing it for an art class or for a deadline like a birthday or a wedding gift. And in the case of that art class, no art instructor would ever accept “But I didn’t feel inspired!” as an excuse for a late project.
So create with or without the visits from the muse or the guiding hand of inspiration. If you really want to create on a given day and you know you’ll only have an hour to do so because of other commitments, then get ready to make something in that one hour.
3. Realize it takes time to build skills or flesh out an idea.
I’ve known a whole mess of people who sculpted, painted, wrote, cooked, drew, danced or took up an instrument for a few weeks or months and then gave up. They wanted to be good right away.
I don’t know why so many people resent the notion of needing to invest “time” to become good with creative endeavors. They look at the artists they admire the most and then imagine they will be right up there in skill and ability in a fraction of the time those folks put in.
Time invested most certainly = ability.
I like to think I’m a good maker-of-things and that some of the skills that go into my work I have been doing them since childhood. But if we look at sculpting, well, I took that up with the medium of polymer clay just ten years ago in my thirties. In between then and now it's been a lot of time and hard work.
It applies to every medium of creativity and then to the art of making a living from your art as well. Time has to be invested and not rushed into showing results.
4. Collect and Jot Down Ideas.
I have forgotten more ideas than I will ever see through to completion and, though I may not remember all of them, I have no doubt I forgot many of my best ones by not taking a moment and recording them somewhere.
I get ideas from the art of others, songs, dreams, random things heard on the street, books, nature or just something I am imagining in a daydream. This is a kind of free play for the mind, but it’s where most of my creative ideas spring from for me. And by all means, THINK about that when you go out into the world! Don’t be a passive vessel. Actively go in search of them and when the come WRITE THEM DOWN!
5. Realize You Will NOT Like Everything That You Create
There are many things I made, even sold, but was not happy with the results when they were done. I am, of course, seeing every little flaw, every aspect of the piece that I did not pull off quite the way I wanted to.
That doesn’t mean that when I make something like it again (and I will) that I should shelve them or toss them out. Often these are the ideas that I build on and work towards making better the next time around, which builds my skills. I often hear that people who hire illustrators or comic artists look at the hands (or lack of them) in the drawings immediately because they are often the hardest thing to get right and, therefor, someone who does them well has obviously put the time in to do so.
Learn to love the imperfections now but strive to overcome them tomorrow. Taking either the view that everything you create has to be perfect and you should destroy everything that’s not, or that you can’t possibly create something if you’re not passionately interested in every aspect of it, is self-destructive and not worth your time.
6. Realize That a Good Portion of Creativity is Purely Mechanical.
Even if you are someone who manages to drill into an endless well of “inspiration,” there’s going to come a point in the path to seeing it to completion, where that dries up a bit, and you’re left with what may seem like a mess. Yes, that happens. I don't know a single artist who didn't struggle with that "dry spell" at some point along the way.
Don't give up and don't stop working through it. Remember advice #1? Keep at it! Just the act and the exercise of working on your craft is as important as those days of fevered inspiration.
7. Learn to Only Be Concerned With What YOU Can Accomplish
Yeah, simple, but when you know someone who can turn out painting a day or a drawing in an hour, and it takes you on average ten times as long, don't let that bring you down. You are only accountable to you. How someone else goes about their creativity is not your concern.
I sculpt across the work table from someone who can complete one of their sculpted pieces in an hour or two. I'll take that long to make the assorted pieces of a fairy landscape or to sculpt a statue and then have to put them all together, paint them, add all the tiny details etc etc etc and I cannot charge as much for them as she can for her work because of the niches our work falls into. (that's a story for another rant!) That is FINE. It's not a competition and if I held myself to someone else's standards in that way I would have given up long ago and most certainly have failed at trying to make my living from my work!
8. Be Honest About What Distracts You.
Do you really have to go clean up the mess you’ve left sitting in the kitchen after throwing together dinner so you could keep working? Do you really only have an hour left before you have to leave for your walk or to meet a friend? Inventing excuses to keep from creating, waiting for that perfect time, is perfectly normal, but unless you learn to recognize that these are distractions and excuses and put creating above things you value that are mostly distractions from it, then your creative skills and your goals will most likely not grow as fast as they might otherwise when you make them a priority.
9. Develop Goals.
I have an old-school work ethic that pushes me to create for a certain number of hours each day. It gets upset with me if I don’t do as much work as I can and the one thing that gets in the way of me doing just that is not having goals set each day. Yes, sometimes that's not very much fun, going down the list and getting the things done, photo taking, making listings, shipping etc. These are the things that I know should be done before I get into my remaining time where I can make whatever my heart desires. But there’s no one standing over me with a whip and telling me to create, which means I have to internalize the whip. I never, or at least very rarely, match what that work ethic expects me to achieve, but I do far more than I would if I only dreamed about goals and didn’t set them in writing.
And finally…
10. Love Creating For Itself.
Another obvious one, but one that many people don’t seem to get.
They dream about the day they will be making a living creatively, or at least selling their work as a side hustle or for extra income. Perhaps they dream about being featured in a magazine or on a web site they love, or about how much people will love a certain painting, Zine, handmade jacket, bracelet or ceramic sculpture.
But they don’t love the actual work of it.
That strikes me as the absolute most pitiful lack that someone who wants to be a creator can have. Yes, a lot of it is mechanics and skill development and discipline, but that doesn’t mean that something doesn’t surprise you in the middle of the sculpture or the illustration and make you laugh out loud or even start crying when you finally get it right!
And all of those dreams, as lovely as they are, are nothing to that moment you see the physical item you have been working on or developing finally emerge from YOUR fingers.
Friday, June 8, 2018
New Work - "First" Friday Post - June 8th
Hey everyone!
Soooooo, yeah. First Friday. . . somehow I did not realize that last Friday was June first until halfway through this week when I noticed that this Friday was the 8th. So while last week should have been first Friday, there are still four Fridays in the month and I've decided to just pretend they are the only four Fridays instead. :)
It's new work time then! This month I am going to focus on just two pieces, both very special creations that I was so honored to be asked to create. . .
These are partly why I missed the date last week I suspect. In and amongst the usual orders and requests, I have been working overtime to try and get some truly new pieces going here the last few months for the summer and holiday seasons ahead. Days bleed one into the next and it's a very lovely creative oblivion. :)
Thank you all for dropping by and may the magic and enchantment of the realms of Faerie and beyond, be found within everything that you see!
XO
nicolas
So, first up, Madame Emi's Fortune Teller's Wagon.
The very best compliment I can receive is when the recipient of a scene like this says, "I want to live there!" That's because I create them with just that idea in mind — what would I want to see in a setting like this that makes ME want to live there as well!
This was built to HO scale, I really loved creating this elaborate scene. From the tiny resin birdbath, the strung globe lantern on the wagon itself, the shelves of special cure-alls and potions, the goats and goose and the tiny crystal ball on the table in front of Madame Emi. . . it's all about making it a magical scene. This was so much fun to bring to life.
And second was an N scale farm scene. The base is roughly the same as the Fortune Teller's Wagon above but being a scale half as large, it allowed for even more detail!
Thank you for taking the time to peruse my blog! Drop me a line or comment to let me know how you found me or share your thoughts.
Nicolas
Soooooo, yeah. First Friday. . . somehow I did not realize that last Friday was June first until halfway through this week when I noticed that this Friday was the 8th. So while last week should have been first Friday, there are still four Fridays in the month and I've decided to just pretend they are the only four Fridays instead. :)
It's new work time then! This month I am going to focus on just two pieces, both very special creations that I was so honored to be asked to create. . .
These are partly why I missed the date last week I suspect. In and amongst the usual orders and requests, I have been working overtime to try and get some truly new pieces going here the last few months for the summer and holiday seasons ahead. Days bleed one into the next and it's a very lovely creative oblivion. :)
Thank you all for dropping by and may the magic and enchantment of the realms of Faerie and beyond, be found within everything that you see!
XO
nicolas
So, first up, Madame Emi's Fortune Teller's Wagon.
The very best compliment I can receive is when the recipient of a scene like this says, "I want to live there!" That's because I create them with just that idea in mind — what would I want to see in a setting like this that makes ME want to live there as well!
This was built to HO scale, I really loved creating this elaborate scene. From the tiny resin birdbath, the strung globe lantern on the wagon itself, the shelves of special cure-alls and potions, the goats and goose and the tiny crystal ball on the table in front of Madame Emi. . . it's all about making it a magical scene. This was so much fun to bring to life.
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| Welcome to Madame Emi's. . . |
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| Madame Emi offers all sorts of potions and remedies, expertly crafted, of course, for whatever ails you. |
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| Madame Emi's crystal ball will reveal all! |
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| If you are in the woods and stumble across Madame Emi's wonderful wagon, don't pass her by. . . |
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| This all just fell into place. The truck and house were the focal points. The truck is a model but I did build it and paint it. |
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| Scenes like this need motion I think. So the figures (.5" in / 1.25cm tall!) and the animals really help. |
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| Little detailed additions like grass between the dirt road's tire lanes, the pine cone tree flocking and the single apple tree. |
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| Horses in the pasture beyond, the garden being tended/harvested and the little lawn chairs and rail fences add mini-magic. |
Thank you for taking the time to peruse my blog! Drop me a line or comment to let me know how you found me or share your thoughts.
Nicolas
Friday, April 13, 2018
Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - April 13th, 2018
Does Friday the thirteenth mean anything to you?
While that particular superstition holds little meaning for me, I did grow up with a whole host of little self-created superstitions, mostly rituals and to keep my young self safe from the things that went "bump in the night'. Especially when watching scary movies. I'd lay on the couch, completely wrapped in one of my grandmother's crocheted afghans, no part of my body other than my head exposed. At commercial breaks, IF I wanted to get up for a snack, I had to be back on the couch and fully covered when the movie resumed . . . or else!!!
I look back now at them all with a sense of nostalgia. The power of the mind, the strength of a young spirit to fight the unseen in the shadows and to believe he could prevail.
From those days forward, I have always been a lover of folklore, superstitions urban legends and strange beliefs.
The last year or so, it's been a blast diving into the world building of writing a fantasy book that allows me to create some of my own folklore for the world of the Bewildering Pine. Beyond that, for me, the real treat has been uncovering the folklore and superstitions of other cultures as I've taken that dive in again through reading and research.
A few of the things I've unearthed that have stuck with me are:
Celtic:
The plainest girl will be beautiful if she rises early on May Day and bathes her face in morning dew at sunrise.
Estonian:
Frost is regarded as an ill spirit named Morozco and frost-cracks or breaks in a tree are attributed to him. The cracking sound is the snapping of his fingers!
Romani:
A moth hovering around a candle flame, means a letter will arrive in the morning.
Scandinavian:
The new Year was an auspicious time for healing. Deemed the "seam of the year" it was considered the best time for ritual curatives.
Do YOU have any favorite folklore or old beliefs you love?
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Inspirations and Oddities!!!
I couldn't choose a single story or video that captures the whole idea but, in Catalonia Spain, they participate in these amazing festivals.
"A person dressed as a demon shoots off fireworks during a correfoc, meaning "fire-run," a traditional party in which participants dress as evil mythical creatures and delight in wild pyrotechnic displays."
> I stumbled upon this inspiring sculpture and in-progress making-pics. AMAZING!
Big Fish!
> I LOVED this article and the accompanying images of
"Flying Foxes"
> And finally, I'm looking VERY much forward to the release today of Netflix new Sci-Fi-Fi series, "Lost in Space", a reimagining of the late great 60's show ( who could ever forget the guitar playing robot!) . I got to watch the original in syndication over the years of my childhood and it inspired many wonderful adventures and one or two cardboard box, Jupiter 2's.
I'm hoping to be taken away yet again with the new series. . . and without seeing anything more than the trailer. . . Parker Posey in the role of Dr. Smith???!!! COME ON! That alone makes me quite happy. Looking forward to starting the adventure this evening!
I hope YOUR week has been inspired and at least a little odd!
Nicolas
xo
While that particular superstition holds little meaning for me, I did grow up with a whole host of little self-created superstitions, mostly rituals and to keep my young self safe from the things that went "bump in the night'. Especially when watching scary movies. I'd lay on the couch, completely wrapped in one of my grandmother's crocheted afghans, no part of my body other than my head exposed. At commercial breaks, IF I wanted to get up for a snack, I had to be back on the couch and fully covered when the movie resumed . . . or else!!!
I look back now at them all with a sense of nostalgia. The power of the mind, the strength of a young spirit to fight the unseen in the shadows and to believe he could prevail.
From those days forward, I have always been a lover of folklore, superstitions urban legends and strange beliefs.
The last year or so, it's been a blast diving into the world building of writing a fantasy book that allows me to create some of my own folklore for the world of the Bewildering Pine. Beyond that, for me, the real treat has been uncovering the folklore and superstitions of other cultures as I've taken that dive in again through reading and research.
A few of the things I've unearthed that have stuck with me are:
Celtic:
The plainest girl will be beautiful if she rises early on May Day and bathes her face in morning dew at sunrise.
Estonian:
Frost is regarded as an ill spirit named Morozco and frost-cracks or breaks in a tree are attributed to him. The cracking sound is the snapping of his fingers!
Romani:
A moth hovering around a candle flame, means a letter will arrive in the morning.
Scandinavian:
The new Year was an auspicious time for healing. Deemed the "seam of the year" it was considered the best time for ritual curatives.
Do YOU have any favorite folklore or old beliefs you love?
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Inspirations and Oddities!!!
I couldn't choose a single story or video that captures the whole idea but, in Catalonia Spain, they participate in these amazing festivals.
"A person dressed as a demon shoots off fireworks during a correfoc, meaning "fire-run," a traditional party in which participants dress as evil mythical creatures and delight in wild pyrotechnic displays."
> I stumbled upon this inspiring sculpture and in-progress making-pics. AMAZING!
Big Fish!
> I LOVED this article and the accompanying images of
"Flying Foxes"
> And finally, I'm looking VERY much forward to the release today of Netflix new Sci-Fi-Fi series, "Lost in Space", a reimagining of the late great 60's show ( who could ever forget the guitar playing robot!) . I got to watch the original in syndication over the years of my childhood and it inspired many wonderful adventures and one or two cardboard box, Jupiter 2's.
I'm hoping to be taken away yet again with the new series. . . and without seeing anything more than the trailer. . . Parker Posey in the role of Dr. Smith???!!! COME ON! That alone makes me quite happy. Looking forward to starting the adventure this evening!
I hope YOUR week has been inspired and at least a little odd!
Nicolas
xo
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - February 9th
It's time for Inspirations and Oddities, my monthly, second Friday post.
I am hoping you all are well in Blogger Land! I look forward to catching up a bit more on my favorite blogs in the coming weeks. A busy time ahead for us that culminates with a train trip home for me in March. I love the 2-day cross country train experience. This may be the last time I do it though (time/cost etc) so I am going to make the most of every moment!
So on with the oddities and inspirations for this month!
From the book world I wanted to recommend "I Kill Giants" which, I just found out is being made into a movie! This really caught me by surprise. It's a story was originally told in graphic novel form and it was a story that really touched me. I am such a fan of comics and yet I am still amazed at the difference in the genre from my own childhood. More and more are being turned into movies and shows it seems and this one will be wonderful I am sure.
Here is the trailer for I Kill Giants
What I like best, having read the graphic novel, is that this trailer gives away NONE of the true depth of the story but still looks pretty amazing!
And this is the graphic novel cover. The art inside is all black and white and borrows from the Manga style quite nicely while still being very original.
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Nature never lets us down. . . Perfect for almost any story where you'd like a bird to be used a snitching plot device, I give you Australia's Superb Lyrebird (that's the actual name, I'm not giving it extra praise with the addition of superb, but it earns it I promise you!)
The Lyrebird of Australia
And one about beautiful and mysterious Lichens!
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Ok, and lastly, an odd inspiration for sure. . . I have mentioned before that Sofie and I are always on the lookout for that perfect, magical place/house/cottage to buy. We can't afford many areas of the country and we are picky, only wanting to do this once in our life. . . all of which have pushed us to widen our search. Even if we aren't planning to move to many of the places we may peek at, I have to say they can be very inspiring. There is a lot of enchantment out there. A LOT! And, of course, we're in no hurry as we love where we are at but the dampness is proving to be a bit troublesome for finding home that isn't affected by it. Also I'm starting to feel the lack of snow and it's making me nostalgic as I'm still a Northeast, 4 distinct seasons kid at heart.
Finally, the cost of housing here is making us both blue. When the perfect place comes along, we think we will just know. It helps to be able to do what we do from anywhere just as long as internet is available and a post office and decent grocery store are within reach.
Some of the towns we have put on our watch list are:
Elk Horn, Iowa
Otttumwa, IA
Berlin, NH
Weiser, ID
Burns or Baker City, OR
Wiscasset, ME
or just about any town in NH, VT, ME really as we both love old farmhouses :)
But really, almost anywhere that is not too near a major city and where the weather is not too hot for too much of the year and the houses are truly affordable. And, of course, it must be magical. . .
Anyway, the first house I posted here, the one in Tennessee, already sold!
In it's place I've decided to post one that likely will not sell but that gives you our ideal of "charm".
We like to call it the "Witch House", and it's more than a bit out of our price range. . . and it's in a remote part of Idaho in the Sawtooth mountains where the last 40 MILES of road to the town is gravel soooo, yeah, that wouldn't really work either!!
But who wouldn't want to live in a Witch House?
This one in Crumpler NC almost fits the bill. we would just prefer a large work space instead of all the small rooms but that scenery!!
Our priorities for a home are: a large workspace that's well it by natural light, access to nature (if not our own land), garden space and charm. Also, a shop/garage space would be great to allow us to try some of the creative ventures we cannot do here like soldering/jewelry, casting, high temp firing, acid etching, wood burning and more. We've little to no concern for entertaining, putting up guests and the like if it means sacrificing any of our creative desires. Besides, we still want to have that "fortress of solitude"feel around us as we do now :)
Well I think that's it for this week! Back to a post on packaging next week and then world-building/mapmaking the following week!
XO
Nicolas
I am hoping you all are well in Blogger Land! I look forward to catching up a bit more on my favorite blogs in the coming weeks. A busy time ahead for us that culminates with a train trip home for me in March. I love the 2-day cross country train experience. This may be the last time I do it though (time/cost etc) so I am going to make the most of every moment!
So on with the oddities and inspirations for this month!
From the book world I wanted to recommend "I Kill Giants" which, I just found out is being made into a movie! This really caught me by surprise. It's a story was originally told in graphic novel form and it was a story that really touched me. I am such a fan of comics and yet I am still amazed at the difference in the genre from my own childhood. More and more are being turned into movies and shows it seems and this one will be wonderful I am sure.
Here is the trailer for I Kill Giants
What I like best, having read the graphic novel, is that this trailer gives away NONE of the true depth of the story but still looks pretty amazing!
And this is the graphic novel cover. The art inside is all black and white and borrows from the Manga style quite nicely while still being very original.
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Nature never lets us down. . . Perfect for almost any story where you'd like a bird to be used a snitching plot device, I give you Australia's Superb Lyrebird (that's the actual name, I'm not giving it extra praise with the addition of superb, but it earns it I promise you!)
The Lyrebird of Australia
And one about beautiful and mysterious Lichens!
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Finally, the cost of housing here is making us both blue. When the perfect place comes along, we think we will just know. It helps to be able to do what we do from anywhere just as long as internet is available and a post office and decent grocery store are within reach.
Some of the towns we have put on our watch list are:
Elk Horn, Iowa
Otttumwa, IA
Berlin, NH
Weiser, ID
Burns or Baker City, OR
Wiscasset, ME
or just about any town in NH, VT, ME really as we both love old farmhouses :)
But really, almost anywhere that is not too near a major city and where the weather is not too hot for too much of the year and the houses are truly affordable. And, of course, it must be magical. . .
Anyway, the first house I posted here, the one in Tennessee, already sold!
In it's place I've decided to post one that likely will not sell but that gives you our ideal of "charm".
We like to call it the "Witch House", and it's more than a bit out of our price range. . . and it's in a remote part of Idaho in the Sawtooth mountains where the last 40 MILES of road to the town is gravel soooo, yeah, that wouldn't really work either!!
But who wouldn't want to live in a Witch House?
This one in Crumpler NC almost fits the bill. we would just prefer a large work space instead of all the small rooms but that scenery!!
Our priorities for a home are: a large workspace that's well it by natural light, access to nature (if not our own land), garden space and charm. Also, a shop/garage space would be great to allow us to try some of the creative ventures we cannot do here like soldering/jewelry, casting, high temp firing, acid etching, wood burning and more. We've little to no concern for entertaining, putting up guests and the like if it means sacrificing any of our creative desires. Besides, we still want to have that "fortress of solitude"feel around us as we do now :)
Well I think that's it for this week! Back to a post on packaging next week and then world-building/mapmaking the following week!
XO
Nicolas
Friday, February 2, 2018
New Work - Happy Groundhog Day! First Friday Post - February 2nd
Happy Imbolc, Candlemas or Groundhog Day, depending on how you celebrate it! May it be magical!
February already???? The time does indeed fly. . .
This month, for my first Friday post, I just wanted to share some of my new work.
I mentioned before that we are taking time out to make truly new pieces, explore new ideas and branch out a bit. It's a bit scary as it has meant NOT focusing on restocking favorites in the shops and allowing sales to dip a bit but I was really starting to feel a tad burned out last year remaking the same things over and over while constantly pushing new ideas further down the "to-do" list.
It's worked like a true charm. Just allowing myself to go in directions I want and not worry so much about what might sell has been SOOOOOO rejuvenating.
I hope you enjoy this first peek into the world of my new work!
Thank you as always for all of your comments and support!
Nicolas
February already???? The time does indeed fly. . .
This month, for my first Friday post, I just wanted to share some of my new work.
I mentioned before that we are taking time out to make truly new pieces, explore new ideas and branch out a bit. It's a bit scary as it has meant NOT focusing on restocking favorites in the shops and allowing sales to dip a bit but I was really starting to feel a tad burned out last year remaking the same things over and over while constantly pushing new ideas further down the "to-do" list.
It's worked like a true charm. Just allowing myself to go in directions I want and not worry so much about what might sell has been SOOOOOO rejuvenating.
I hope you enjoy this first peek into the world of my new work!
Thank you as always for all of your comments and support!
Nicolas
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| So I have spoken about making figures many times before. This year it may finally happen. Still nameless, but here are a few views of a Faun Figure. |
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| Each little curl of his leg hair is added and shaped individually. He is just over 4" (10cm) tall. |
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| Mica powder adds the weathering to the cape and hat. The staff features a Swarovski crystal teardrop. |
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| I have not decided on the price. . . or even if I CAN part with him. And this is why I rarely make figures. lol |
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| Towers? Yes, that's not new. . . but I have been inspired to build them on the most enchanted and precarious of landscapes. Like this precipice! The whole piece is over 7" tall. |
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| Of course, as I go "bigger and better", I am continually drawn to making things smaller and smaller for some reason as well! That little flower pot is all of 2" wide! |
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| Since childhood, mice have been deeply imbedded in my imagination. Brian Jacques' "Redwall", Mrs. Frisby and not all that long ago, David Petersen's "Mouse Guard" to name a few. . . I started working on this idea for a story, "The Brotherhood of the Muridae", a few years back. Only recently have a I settled upon the figure shapes, clothing style and the basis of the whole background story. Here we have a cheesemonger and a fez topped mouse monk as the first two! They're awaiting names and their individual stories. :) |
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| With the exception of custom orders, I've stayed away from making large statues for some reason. Changing that this year as well! |
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| I've talked about the thrill of seeing my skills grow over the years. I NEVER would've attempted such a large, intricate cobra with that looping body and scales before this! |
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| And using accessories like the crystal scarab in Bast's neckpiece (I know that it's hard to see!) is also something I wanted to try more of. |
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| Doing all the new things has rekindled interest in the old as well. Such as my miniature Moai statues! |
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| Or this particular mushroom fairy house style! Welcome back! |
Friday, January 26, 2018
The Bewildering Pine - Inspiration Is Found All Around - 4th Friday Post - January 26th
Hi Everyone!
It's time for my fourth Friday post again.. Fourth Fridays area peek into the world I am creating for my fantasy novel titled, "The Ledgerkeepers"
I'll be focusing over the coming moths on the things/places/tales from our world that have inspired my fiction and stories for this book.
Some of you know I began the world building for the book over 18 months ago. A slow process that I immersed myself in fully. I was well aware when I began that I might only use 1/10th of what I create, at least in the first book, but I needed it all to have the world make sense to myself as the narrator.
Choosing what to show is not difficult. Most of it is dictated by the characters actions and the setting they move through but there are always some bits of coolness that you just want to have in there no matter what!
So with my plan being to unveil the near complete Bewildering Pine map here next month, I wanted to talk abut about what inspired that map from our own physical world.
I knew the world was going to be set in a post cataclysmic landscape. The entire geography shifting and leaving many of the inhabitants of the pre "Great Upheaval" world in survival mode. How that might shape this world physically was a lot of fun to ponder.
The idea of a place surrounded by immense sea walls on three sides and incredibly high mountains on the fourth that rose up splitting a larger landscape and basically creating a large bowl shaped land t to the south hat rises to outward towards it's edges and slopes downward from north to south. Accessibility or departure is only via the bay whose natural defenses are tricky and dangerous in their own right and nearly imperceptible from the Great Sea beyond.
The climate is sub arctic but warmer several months of the year to allow for a massively productive growing season (the short-season). An ancient Pine forest spreads along the base of the mountains and there are two rivers that originate in the mountains. There is a round peninsula at the furthest point south that holds a large bog where all the runoff collects and saturates the loamy soil. It's a fantasy novel so I was able to stetch the bounds of reality a bit. It was only necessary that these things were all possible in the climate and then I could bend them to my writer's will a bit.
So in thinking of the form and function of the landscape, I simply looked to our own world for examples that gave me the "ok" I was seeking. I could have done all this research on the internet but I went to the main branch of our county library to try and capture some of that old-time investigative fun of looking through a stack of books!
So that's where the world began. Well, my fantasy world. Having a starting point gave me the canvas for making the map, which is an ongoing work as well, and I hope to share it with you next month on fourth Friday!
Thanks for reading!!
Nicolas
PS: I recently listened to a short Sci-Fi-Fi story called "Repairing the World" by John Chu as read by Levar Burton on his Levar Burton Reads podcast. What I loved most about the futuristic world the story is set in was that there were only a few indicators that it WAS in the future. Rifts in the fabric of time that can be repaired and the use of mechanical dragonflies as messengers. The story is completely about the main characters and the prejudice that survives in that future world, the way society views people on it's fringes. Leaving a very real and scary notion that things may not get better in every way as we move forward in time. . . Well worth a listen though!
It's time for my fourth Friday post again.. Fourth Fridays area peek into the world I am creating for my fantasy novel titled, "The Ledgerkeepers"
I'll be focusing over the coming moths on the things/places/tales from our world that have inspired my fiction and stories for this book.
Some of you know I began the world building for the book over 18 months ago. A slow process that I immersed myself in fully. I was well aware when I began that I might only use 1/10th of what I create, at least in the first book, but I needed it all to have the world make sense to myself as the narrator.
Choosing what to show is not difficult. Most of it is dictated by the characters actions and the setting they move through but there are always some bits of coolness that you just want to have in there no matter what!
So with my plan being to unveil the near complete Bewildering Pine map here next month, I wanted to talk abut about what inspired that map from our own physical world.
I knew the world was going to be set in a post cataclysmic landscape. The entire geography shifting and leaving many of the inhabitants of the pre "Great Upheaval" world in survival mode. How that might shape this world physically was a lot of fun to ponder.
The idea of a place surrounded by immense sea walls on three sides and incredibly high mountains on the fourth that rose up splitting a larger landscape and basically creating a large bowl shaped land t to the south hat rises to outward towards it's edges and slopes downward from north to south. Accessibility or departure is only via the bay whose natural defenses are tricky and dangerous in their own right and nearly imperceptible from the Great Sea beyond.
The climate is sub arctic but warmer several months of the year to allow for a massively productive growing season (the short-season). An ancient Pine forest spreads along the base of the mountains and there are two rivers that originate in the mountains. There is a round peninsula at the furthest point south that holds a large bog where all the runoff collects and saturates the loamy soil. It's a fantasy novel so I was able to stetch the bounds of reality a bit. It was only necessary that these things were all possible in the climate and then I could bend them to my writer's will a bit.
So in thinking of the form and function of the landscape, I simply looked to our own world for examples that gave me the "ok" I was seeking. I could have done all this research on the internet but I went to the main branch of our county library to try and capture some of that old-time investigative fun of looking through a stack of books!
 |
| This image really started the whole notion of the sheer cliffs and a very inaccessible landscape from the sea. |
 |
| This pic of the Andes mountains was perfect to inspire the mountain range which I wanted to be volcanic, sharp-featured staggered ridges and massively tall/impassible in my low-tech world. Also, it inspired a legend of the mountains being the remains of the last living giant's teeth. . . and that led led to an expression of surprise used among the folk: "Bezik's teeth!" |
 |
| These bogs and the walkways that run through them are the inspiration for a similar area, known as Berwick, in my world. |
 |
| And this strange landscape in the Faroe Islands gave me the idea for the "bowl" shape with rising cliffs out at the edges. |
So that's where the world began. Well, my fantasy world. Having a starting point gave me the canvas for making the map, which is an ongoing work as well, and I hope to share it with you next month on fourth Friday!
Thanks for reading!!
Nicolas
PS: I recently listened to a short Sci-Fi-Fi story called "Repairing the World" by John Chu as read by Levar Burton on his Levar Burton Reads podcast. What I loved most about the futuristic world the story is set in was that there were only a few indicators that it WAS in the future. Rifts in the fabric of time that can be repaired and the use of mechanical dragonflies as messengers. The story is completely about the main characters and the prejudice that survives in that future world, the way society views people on it's fringes. Leaving a very real and scary notion that things may not get better in every way as we move forward in time. . . Well worth a listen though!
Friday, January 19, 2018
Making of a Maker - The Art of Packaging (Part 1) - Third Friday Post - January 19th
Hey everyone! Hoping this finds you all well and enjoying the winter days wherever you are!
This week I wanted to begin a two part post of my third Friday, Making of a Maker blog. For these next two third Fridays (February 16th will be part 2 btw) I wanted to talk about the importance of how your art/creation/craft/product is received when you send it out into the world.
Let's just say it here and now. . . I LOVE packaging.
I have had a few dozen ideas in my life that were just for packaging of a product. Ideas that had no product to go in them mind you. Just a name/look/design that I thought would be cool or interesting. Jewelry, figurines, music CD's etc. They just come to me as any other creative idea might.
When I got into making art for sale, I knew that I would put a fair amount of time into how that art looks when it is received.
I have three different shops on Etsy, My Fairy houses/figurines/oddities, my Ancient Egyptian statues and amulets and my digital art prints. Each has it's own thank you cards and notes that I use with the items when they are shipped. I designed the cards and print them myself but there are a dozen good printing services out there too that you can use. I print my own more so I can tinker and play with the design over time and not have to have a large run of cards printed at any one time.
Today I want to focus on the packaging for pieces from Shadow of the Sphinx.
So below is the packaging and accompanying cards for a small statue, a figure of Bes, who is a multipurpose protective deity that is found in one form or another in many ancient cultures from that region. He's a rather jovial fella to my eyes but others find him a bit scary and I do suppose that was the purpose in antiquity.
With the exception of my largest statues, all of the amulets and pieces from this shop get packaged in very much the same way.
With each order, I make the gift box for it by hand so that it fits the piece and it's warping, perfectly. With each statue being completely handmade, no two are ever quite alike.
I use a black, smooth-textured, almost velvety paper called Plike. I order it in 12x18 sheets which covers most all that I do. TO date I have made roughly 1200 boxes now so while I know it seems a daunting task to figure out how to make them, and it was at first, I have it down to a science now.
The box for the Bes took me 3 minutes to measure, cut (on my favorite packing room tool, a Fiskars slide cutter), score and fold.
Then I punch holes in the top flap for a gold organza ribbon for statues or black and copper raffia for amulets, and I attach a handmade name tag on the front. That tag is a two step process. First, on brown paper, I print the name of the deity in a hieroglyph surrounded blank space. So in this case it reads, "Bes Altar Statue". Then I cut that out and glue it to a frosted gold card stock paper and cut the final tag from that so that the gold is a border and then I adhere it to the front of the black box with a few super strong glue dots.
With each piece I include the stamped card envelope and handwritten thank you card, a business card with the Etsy address, a card that features a bit of general information that I've collected about the deity purchased and a slip of paper that describes the process of making the piece and my policies for future returns if repairs are needed or just to reapply the shiny patina if desired as they do dull/age further over time. If it's an amulet, I also include an "amulet care" paper for that since they are made of clay and fragile to wear on a day to day basis.
Now these all I print in small quantities ahead of time and have cut out and ready. I have over 60 different deity description cards and the box tags for amulets AND statues for most of them. The sometimes-amusing thing is how often I am out of the card/tag for the very one I've just sold.
I think there is a little gremlin who eats them because I swear I print mulitples and then they just seem to disappear!
This, I am a little embarrassed to say, is the EASIER/Less involved of the two shops to package items for. lol :)
Next month, on the Third Friday, I will focus on the packaging for a fairy inspired piece from Bewilder and Pine and share a few of my thoughts about why I think that packaging has been so vital to the shop's, and my own, success. Also, because I am asked this more often than almost anything about my packaging, I will share with you why I NEVER put images of the packaging IN with the photos of my listings.
As for Shadow of the Sphinx, I receive quite a bit of feedback in the reviews people leave and in private emails about how the packaging made the customer's day when they opened the box or how they were so happy to give it as a gift.
The theme is simple, the execution not so much. Smooth black paper boxes and gold flourishes with a whole lot of personal touch. People really respond to it and it's become the branding for the shop. The few retail shops I sell thru are thrilled to have the packaging to go with the items. I've been told that the packaging has even "swayed" customers to purchase my work, which is usually a bit more expensive in those shops, over something that is mass produced.
Well, that is all for today!
Wishing you all a magical weekend and thank you, as always, for dropping by!
Nicolas
(Typing pet peeve of the day: Auto-correct/spelling keeps changing the name Bes, even when capitalized, to Bestsellers! REALLY? Not "best" or "Bess" or even besties?)
This week I wanted to begin a two part post of my third Friday, Making of a Maker blog. For these next two third Fridays (February 16th will be part 2 btw) I wanted to talk about the importance of how your art/creation/craft/product is received when you send it out into the world.
Let's just say it here and now. . . I LOVE packaging.
I have had a few dozen ideas in my life that were just for packaging of a product. Ideas that had no product to go in them mind you. Just a name/look/design that I thought would be cool or interesting. Jewelry, figurines, music CD's etc. They just come to me as any other creative idea might.
When I got into making art for sale, I knew that I would put a fair amount of time into how that art looks when it is received.
I have three different shops on Etsy, My Fairy houses/figurines/oddities, my Ancient Egyptian statues and amulets and my digital art prints. Each has it's own thank you cards and notes that I use with the items when they are shipped. I designed the cards and print them myself but there are a dozen good printing services out there too that you can use. I print my own more so I can tinker and play with the design over time and not have to have a large run of cards printed at any one time.
Today I want to focus on the packaging for pieces from Shadow of the Sphinx.
So below is the packaging and accompanying cards for a small statue, a figure of Bes, who is a multipurpose protective deity that is found in one form or another in many ancient cultures from that region. He's a rather jovial fella to my eyes but others find him a bit scary and I do suppose that was the purpose in antiquity.
With the exception of my largest statues, all of the amulets and pieces from this shop get packaged in very much the same way.
With each order, I make the gift box for it by hand so that it fits the piece and it's warping, perfectly. With each statue being completely handmade, no two are ever quite alike.
I use a black, smooth-textured, almost velvety paper called Plike. I order it in 12x18 sheets which covers most all that I do. TO date I have made roughly 1200 boxes now so while I know it seems a daunting task to figure out how to make them, and it was at first, I have it down to a science now.
The box for the Bes took me 3 minutes to measure, cut (on my favorite packing room tool, a Fiskars slide cutter), score and fold.
Then I punch holes in the top flap for a gold organza ribbon for statues or black and copper raffia for amulets, and I attach a handmade name tag on the front. That tag is a two step process. First, on brown paper, I print the name of the deity in a hieroglyph surrounded blank space. So in this case it reads, "Bes Altar Statue". Then I cut that out and glue it to a frosted gold card stock paper and cut the final tag from that so that the gold is a border and then I adhere it to the front of the black box with a few super strong glue dots.
Now these all I print in small quantities ahead of time and have cut out and ready. I have over 60 different deity description cards and the box tags for amulets AND statues for most of them. The sometimes-amusing thing is how often I am out of the card/tag for the very one I've just sold.
I think there is a little gremlin who eats them because I swear I print mulitples and then they just seem to disappear!
This, I am a little embarrassed to say, is the EASIER/Less involved of the two shops to package items for. lol :)
Next month, on the Third Friday, I will focus on the packaging for a fairy inspired piece from Bewilder and Pine and share a few of my thoughts about why I think that packaging has been so vital to the shop's, and my own, success. Also, because I am asked this more often than almost anything about my packaging, I will share with you why I NEVER put images of the packaging IN with the photos of my listings.
As for Shadow of the Sphinx, I receive quite a bit of feedback in the reviews people leave and in private emails about how the packaging made the customer's day when they opened the box or how they were so happy to give it as a gift.
The theme is simple, the execution not so much. Smooth black paper boxes and gold flourishes with a whole lot of personal touch. People really respond to it and it's become the branding for the shop. The few retail shops I sell thru are thrilled to have the packaging to go with the items. I've been told that the packaging has even "swayed" customers to purchase my work, which is usually a bit more expensive in those shops, over something that is mass produced.
Well, that is all for today!
Wishing you all a magical weekend and thank you, as always, for dropping by!
Nicolas
(Typing pet peeve of the day: Auto-correct/spelling keeps changing the name Bes, even when capitalized, to Bestsellers! REALLY? Not "best" or "Bess" or even besties?)
Friday, January 12, 2018
Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - January 12th
Hey everyone!
So it's been an incredibly hectic start to the new year here! It seems like it might be late February before we can get "caught up" and then I will be taking off 12 days early in March to go home for a visit which will, of course, put me way behind again I suspect. *sigh*
It's best to just keep the focus on the day in front of you when it all feels a bit overwhelming and that is usually what I prefer to do anyway. Sometimes though I can't help but look ahead and it's never a good idea really! lol
So then, deep breath. . . and let's focus here and now and I'll just take a treasured moment with a cup of coffee and a date and almond pastry to share with you this month's inspirations and oddities! :)
First, and I could spend an entire blog post on this one, is an Irish animated film that we watched recently called "The Song of the Sea".
Song of the Sea follows the story of a 10-year-old Irish boy named Ben (David Rawle) who discovers that his mute sister Saoirse, whom he blames for the apparent death of his mother, is a Selkie who has to free faerie creatures from the Celtic goddess Macha.
This film, every frame of it, is entirely hand drawn, a rarity in this modern age of digital and, I believe, it is part of what makes the film so breathtaking. This had been on our "to watch" list for a few years and we almost removed it because we rarely seem to take or make the time in any one evening to watch a full length movie.
I am SO glad we watched this though!!! Now that I'm infused with the beauty of Song of the Sea, I have to say that this is one of the most visually stunning animated films ever made. It's awe-inspiring and filled with absolute magic.
Now, as I am always looking at the natural world for inspirations for my written stories I thought I'd share a few links to some of those wonders that I have yet to figure out what to do with but which will remain on my list for the future. :)
How about a world that has "glass" katydids? Ohhh, that would be OUR world! :)
Glass Katydid
I've heard of luminescent jellyfish and have seen many photos of them. . . but never saw one in action in the deep!
Halitrephes Jelly
And one more. . .
The reality of the prehistoric world of dinosaurs gets more interesting all the time!!!
Duck, Duck, Duck. . . Dinosaur?
And lastly, I've mentioned before that I have been quite taken with the world of RPG's of late. What began with Gary Gygax and the original Dungeons and Dragons over 40 years ago has become a force again in our world with a resurgence today and it seems to only be growing and expanding in it's creative influence. So a shout out to Wizards of the Coast who achieved a rather impressive feat. Topping MANY best seller lists this past month with their release of "Xanathar's Guide to Everything". Amazon, USA Today, Detroit Free Press and on and on. . . it's already the most successful D&D related book of all time and what makes it more amazing is it sells as a "non-fiction" book because it's a rules and world primer! Only in D&D my friends could a non fiction book about a fictional game world become a best seller! :)
RPG's are creating a whole new generation of storytellers and I find so much inspiration in the way these stories are collaboratively told. The sci-fi/fantasy genre is only going to grow in the coming years which is great news for all of us who love the places they can take us.
Hoping your week ahead is INSPIRED and at least a little ODD!!
Thank you for reading!
nicolas
So it's been an incredibly hectic start to the new year here! It seems like it might be late February before we can get "caught up" and then I will be taking off 12 days early in March to go home for a visit which will, of course, put me way behind again I suspect. *sigh*
It's best to just keep the focus on the day in front of you when it all feels a bit overwhelming and that is usually what I prefer to do anyway. Sometimes though I can't help but look ahead and it's never a good idea really! lol
So then, deep breath. . . and let's focus here and now and I'll just take a treasured moment with a cup of coffee and a date and almond pastry to share with you this month's inspirations and oddities! :)
First, and I could spend an entire blog post on this one, is an Irish animated film that we watched recently called "The Song of the Sea".
Song of the Sea follows the story of a 10-year-old Irish boy named Ben (David Rawle) who discovers that his mute sister Saoirse, whom he blames for the apparent death of his mother, is a Selkie who has to free faerie creatures from the Celtic goddess Macha.
This film, every frame of it, is entirely hand drawn, a rarity in this modern age of digital and, I believe, it is part of what makes the film so breathtaking. This had been on our "to watch" list for a few years and we almost removed it because we rarely seem to take or make the time in any one evening to watch a full length movie.
I am SO glad we watched this though!!! Now that I'm infused with the beauty of Song of the Sea, I have to say that this is one of the most visually stunning animated films ever made. It's awe-inspiring and filled with absolute magic.
 |
| One of countless beautiful still-frames from "Song of the Sea" |
Now, as I am always looking at the natural world for inspirations for my written stories I thought I'd share a few links to some of those wonders that I have yet to figure out what to do with but which will remain on my list for the future. :)
How about a world that has "glass" katydids? Ohhh, that would be OUR world! :)
Glass Katydid
I've heard of luminescent jellyfish and have seen many photos of them. . . but never saw one in action in the deep!
Halitrephes Jelly
And one more. . .
The reality of the prehistoric world of dinosaurs gets more interesting all the time!!!
Duck, Duck, Duck. . . Dinosaur?
And lastly, I've mentioned before that I have been quite taken with the world of RPG's of late. What began with Gary Gygax and the original Dungeons and Dragons over 40 years ago has become a force again in our world with a resurgence today and it seems to only be growing and expanding in it's creative influence. So a shout out to Wizards of the Coast who achieved a rather impressive feat. Topping MANY best seller lists this past month with their release of "Xanathar's Guide to Everything". Amazon, USA Today, Detroit Free Press and on and on. . . it's already the most successful D&D related book of all time and what makes it more amazing is it sells as a "non-fiction" book because it's a rules and world primer! Only in D&D my friends could a non fiction book about a fictional game world become a best seller! :)
RPG's are creating a whole new generation of storytellers and I find so much inspiration in the way these stories are collaboratively told. The sci-fi/fantasy genre is only going to grow in the coming years which is great news for all of us who love the places they can take us.
Hoping your week ahead is INSPIRED and at least a little ODD!!
Thank you for reading!
nicolas
Friday, January 5, 2018
Five Words for 2018 - First Friday Post - January 5th
Happy New Year to you all! I hope the first days of the year have been bright and inspired in each of your worlds. :)
Over the years I've had quite a few people ask about the words I choose each New Year as my focus words for the coming 365 days. Thinking of it again of late, I have been more focused on exactly how that process works and the answers were a bit surprising to me, so I thought I would share them here with you as well as the words that I've chosen for 2018.
I tend to not spend too much time choosing the words each year. At least, not right at the end. I start thinking of them early in December and by the last days of the Year, I pretty much have the new words settled on.
What I discovered this last week or so as I thought about 2017's words was that the words really reveal themselves to me and I learn the most about them in relation to myself at the END of the year!
All year I DO see them above my calendar or on my desktop and I take time with them all at some point, maybe picking one for a day to really focus on or apply. But it is at the end of the year, when I am looking back, that I seem to find how those words worked for me or what I learned over that year as it pertains to them.
Last year, one of the words I chose was "Vagary". Strange word, right? It is. . . and I chose it for it's more archaic definition which I only discovered as it was Merriam Webster's word of the day sometime before and it just sort of stuck with me in the back of my mind.
"In the 16th century, if you "made a vagary" you took a wandering journey, or you figuratively wandered from a correct path by committing some minor offense. If you spoke or wrote vagaries, you wandered from a main subject. These senses hadn't strayed far from their origin, as vagary is probably based on Latin vagari, meaning "to wander." Indeed, in the 16th and 17th centuries there was even an English verb vagary that meant "to wander." Nowadays, the noun vagary is mostly used in its plural form, and vagaries have more to do with unpredictability than with wandering."
I chose the word hoping that it's own wandering in the sense of it's definition over the years might help remind me to wander in my creative journey. To stray from the well worn path. To pay attention to, or think back on, my own wandering journeys in life. Maybe even to be a little more unpredictable creatively. So how it affected me on any given day I cannot recall BUT I know that as I spent time over this last week of the year looking back, I DID practice and invoke vagary and I can see how the wandering I did in my creative work paid off.
My life, I came to see, has been one great adventure in vagary. Changing careers four times, each by choice even when things were just fine in the previous ones. Striking out on the cusp of 40 years old to begin an art practice/Etsy shop by taking up a new medium of polymer clay. Moving across the country on a gut feeling just before I turned 24. Living in a big city til then, then a small town, then onto another big city and now a small town again.
Yes, I've wandered. Strayed from the path. Practiced vagary before I even knew the word had that older meaning.
So in realizing that these words seem to etch themselves deepest at the end of the year, I decided to choose five words for 2018 and went with simpler, less archaic choices. lol
Because these are words I might easily overlook in that search for a little pizazz. (Ooooooh wait. . . pizazz. . . hello word for 2019!)
For 2018, I chose these five words:
Challenge - challenge myself to try new creative ideas, follow inspirations, push forward on my bigger long term goals, stretch my comfort zone into the difficult and uncertain creatively and challenge myself to venture into realms not yet explored in myth, fantasy and sci-fi reading.
Value - Value my work and my time. I have often undercharged for just about everything I've done in life at some point or another. I forget, when say we are speaking of custom orders, to factor in the time spent communicating, planning, looking for materials I need and trying and retrying techniques etc. Maybe it's meant to show me how to value my time by accepting fewer commissions so I can do even more of the work my heart wants to do. I've also recently begun donating to funding art projects on kickstarter. I'm learning to discern value of what I give to there as well since I cannot donate to everyone I would like to.
Whimsy - Sofie laughed at this one because, really, do I need a reminder of this? lol But yes, I do, and in this case I am thinking most of my writing. Finding the balance between a good, emotive and large scale story and the magic of a fantasy world. A small example: It's all well and good that I've included the plausible use of messenger birds for long a distance/expedient message delivery system but where's the whimsy? Ahhhh, so then I decide that these are "honey guides", birds who find their way home or to another location based on a particular scent/strain of honey that they are conditioned to seek out and identify. And they have small quivers on their backs to carry the messages. There are real "honey guide" birds in our world though they are not messengers. . . all I did was stretch the truth a bit there to make them more homing pigeon-like if one could train them to discern the various scents of the honey over distances. :) So yes, finding whimsy around every corner in the year to come.
Organization - OK, yes. . . Boring! But boy could I use a bit more of this. Work space, packing room, notes and ideas, recipes, you name it. I tend to let things get a bit too in disarray before I tackle them and that's never fun.
Routine - As in a more monastic sense of the word. Monasteries have always fascinated me no matter the type or the belief. I've spent time in a Zen monastery here in the NW though I am also drawn to the Benedictine rule and Franciscan sects and the schedules they keep. Now if the pslams and vespers were say, writing and creating time instead, I'd be in a robe faster than you could blink an eye!! The simplicity of the life and the repetition of it is what draws me. I need it to be my most productive. Work periods, meal periods, end of day etc. Not so regimented that there is no room for spontaneity but certainly most days, most weeks, and most hours are best filled with that scheduled intent for me.
So what will those all bring? Well I hope to share anything along the way if it pops up but it will likely be the end of 2018 before I can look back and assess all the little things that came to pass under each heading. Once, in the Zen monastery, I was sent out into the world after a weekend retreat with a task. To pick a location and watch the entry door of said place for a few hours. Just to observe how people reacted and related to that door. It seemed pretty Zen and I expected to not "get it" because, you know. . . Zen.
None of the openings of the door were memorable in and of their own BUT, at the end of the day, the cumulative effect was very striking. I saw such a variety of ways people approached the door, how close they got before grabbing the door knob, if they were regulars I could tell because the door had a "hitch" to it, the doorknob was rickety and lower down on the frame than normal. Also, the door opened in and not out as most non-regulars seemed to expect it to. I saw how some people held the door for others while some were so in their own heads they didn't notice the person right behind them. I noticed people approach confidently or with a strong step and others cautiously and tentative as if the door might bite. . . And on and on. All of that from observing a door over a period of time.
So that's how I find the words work best. Over the long haul. I don't expect an enlightening occurrence any one time I choose to focus on a word. But 12 months from now? We'll see. ;)
Next month I will be back to my usual First Friday post showing new work.
Thank you for coming by, as always,
nicolas
Over the years I've had quite a few people ask about the words I choose each New Year as my focus words for the coming 365 days. Thinking of it again of late, I have been more focused on exactly how that process works and the answers were a bit surprising to me, so I thought I would share them here with you as well as the words that I've chosen for 2018.
I tend to not spend too much time choosing the words each year. At least, not right at the end. I start thinking of them early in December and by the last days of the Year, I pretty much have the new words settled on.
What I discovered this last week or so as I thought about 2017's words was that the words really reveal themselves to me and I learn the most about them in relation to myself at the END of the year!
All year I DO see them above my calendar or on my desktop and I take time with them all at some point, maybe picking one for a day to really focus on or apply. But it is at the end of the year, when I am looking back, that I seem to find how those words worked for me or what I learned over that year as it pertains to them.
Last year, one of the words I chose was "Vagary". Strange word, right? It is. . . and I chose it for it's more archaic definition which I only discovered as it was Merriam Webster's word of the day sometime before and it just sort of stuck with me in the back of my mind.
"In the 16th century, if you "made a vagary" you took a wandering journey, or you figuratively wandered from a correct path by committing some minor offense. If you spoke or wrote vagaries, you wandered from a main subject. These senses hadn't strayed far from their origin, as vagary is probably based on Latin vagari, meaning "to wander." Indeed, in the 16th and 17th centuries there was even an English verb vagary that meant "to wander." Nowadays, the noun vagary is mostly used in its plural form, and vagaries have more to do with unpredictability than with wandering."
I chose the word hoping that it's own wandering in the sense of it's definition over the years might help remind me to wander in my creative journey. To stray from the well worn path. To pay attention to, or think back on, my own wandering journeys in life. Maybe even to be a little more unpredictable creatively. So how it affected me on any given day I cannot recall BUT I know that as I spent time over this last week of the year looking back, I DID practice and invoke vagary and I can see how the wandering I did in my creative work paid off.
My life, I came to see, has been one great adventure in vagary. Changing careers four times, each by choice even when things were just fine in the previous ones. Striking out on the cusp of 40 years old to begin an art practice/Etsy shop by taking up a new medium of polymer clay. Moving across the country on a gut feeling just before I turned 24. Living in a big city til then, then a small town, then onto another big city and now a small town again.
Yes, I've wandered. Strayed from the path. Practiced vagary before I even knew the word had that older meaning.
So in realizing that these words seem to etch themselves deepest at the end of the year, I decided to choose five words for 2018 and went with simpler, less archaic choices. lol
Because these are words I might easily overlook in that search for a little pizazz. (Ooooooh wait. . . pizazz. . . hello word for 2019!)
For 2018, I chose these five words:
Challenge - challenge myself to try new creative ideas, follow inspirations, push forward on my bigger long term goals, stretch my comfort zone into the difficult and uncertain creatively and challenge myself to venture into realms not yet explored in myth, fantasy and sci-fi reading.
Value - Value my work and my time. I have often undercharged for just about everything I've done in life at some point or another. I forget, when say we are speaking of custom orders, to factor in the time spent communicating, planning, looking for materials I need and trying and retrying techniques etc. Maybe it's meant to show me how to value my time by accepting fewer commissions so I can do even more of the work my heart wants to do. I've also recently begun donating to funding art projects on kickstarter. I'm learning to discern value of what I give to there as well since I cannot donate to everyone I would like to.
Whimsy - Sofie laughed at this one because, really, do I need a reminder of this? lol But yes, I do, and in this case I am thinking most of my writing. Finding the balance between a good, emotive and large scale story and the magic of a fantasy world. A small example: It's all well and good that I've included the plausible use of messenger birds for long a distance/expedient message delivery system but where's the whimsy? Ahhhh, so then I decide that these are "honey guides", birds who find their way home or to another location based on a particular scent/strain of honey that they are conditioned to seek out and identify. And they have small quivers on their backs to carry the messages. There are real "honey guide" birds in our world though they are not messengers. . . all I did was stretch the truth a bit there to make them more homing pigeon-like if one could train them to discern the various scents of the honey over distances. :) So yes, finding whimsy around every corner in the year to come.
Organization - OK, yes. . . Boring! But boy could I use a bit more of this. Work space, packing room, notes and ideas, recipes, you name it. I tend to let things get a bit too in disarray before I tackle them and that's never fun.
Routine - As in a more monastic sense of the word. Monasteries have always fascinated me no matter the type or the belief. I've spent time in a Zen monastery here in the NW though I am also drawn to the Benedictine rule and Franciscan sects and the schedules they keep. Now if the pslams and vespers were say, writing and creating time instead, I'd be in a robe faster than you could blink an eye!! The simplicity of the life and the repetition of it is what draws me. I need it to be my most productive. Work periods, meal periods, end of day etc. Not so regimented that there is no room for spontaneity but certainly most days, most weeks, and most hours are best filled with that scheduled intent for me.
So what will those all bring? Well I hope to share anything along the way if it pops up but it will likely be the end of 2018 before I can look back and assess all the little things that came to pass under each heading. Once, in the Zen monastery, I was sent out into the world after a weekend retreat with a task. To pick a location and watch the entry door of said place for a few hours. Just to observe how people reacted and related to that door. It seemed pretty Zen and I expected to not "get it" because, you know. . . Zen.
None of the openings of the door were memorable in and of their own BUT, at the end of the day, the cumulative effect was very striking. I saw such a variety of ways people approached the door, how close they got before grabbing the door knob, if they were regulars I could tell because the door had a "hitch" to it, the doorknob was rickety and lower down on the frame than normal. Also, the door opened in and not out as most non-regulars seemed to expect it to. I saw how some people held the door for others while some were so in their own heads they didn't notice the person right behind them. I noticed people approach confidently or with a strong step and others cautiously and tentative as if the door might bite. . . And on and on. All of that from observing a door over a period of time.
So that's how I find the words work best. Over the long haul. I don't expect an enlightening occurrence any one time I choose to focus on a word. But 12 months from now? We'll see. ;)
Next month I will be back to my usual First Friday post showing new work.
Thank you for coming by, as always,
nicolas
Friday, November 17, 2017
Making of a Maker - Daydreams - Third Friday, November 17th
Once again I sat down with a particular post in mind and something else comes calling for attention.
For this monthly "Making of a Maker" post I want to say a few things about one of the most important aspects of my own creative process and one that, when looking at anything I have ever done, from making plays when I was 12 to my music-making/recording years to digital art to miniature houses, has been a major contributor to the realization of each of those pursuits.
Daydreaming.
To me, this is something other than what most might call inspiration, which tends to be more momentary and immediate, just popping up wherever and whenever without notice. It's also different from intentional, constructive brainstorming with an idea or preconceived notion you want to realize. It's also not quite the same as actively doodling or experimenting.
This is also not to be confused with time that might be spent on pinterest or instagram though those are both excellent starting points for ideas and I have scores of images that have inspired my own creative world. . . but only in the same way that the words "Once upon a time" are a starting point for many great stories.
There are things that I believe we can only tap into when our hands are at rest and our minds are allowed to just vanish into the world of daydreams.
Daydreaming, for me, is about allowing yourself to sit in silence and just work your way deep into your own imagination. In my life, I've met many people who say they are not capable of imagining things as vividly or as realized as I do but, with those I have worked with, I find that it's almost always a case of the person not being able to quiet the world around them enough to allow their daydreaming self to find footing.
Sometimes it seems to be more about them turning away when the door to imagination opens and they are asked to step inside. Sort of like that odd little back alley curiosity shoppe in that "found" neighborhood where you stare in the window trying to find the courage to walk inside. . . but then the door opens and you hurriedly walk away instead of accepting the divine's invitation to enter. . .
I cannot imagine doing what I do without taking the time to daydream. . . often. In fact, when I am feeling burnt out it is almost always because I have not allowed myself to look ahead and to daydream about new avenues, new ideas and to not put any constraints on that process.
Writing, my latest pursuit, is no different. My storytelling runs in fits and starts and I am not nearly as productive when I try too hard to manufacture the story as I am when I first allow myself to "live " the story through a good bout of daydreaming. I will sometime give myself five to fifteen minutes before I get up at 5am to lay in the silence and the dark and think about what part of the story I want to work on that morning. I see the scene, the characters, the possible twists and turns and I allow it run it's course, maybe two or three times if I am unsure where to go with it.
It's like seeing a film playing in my head. The characters move about, interact, speak. . . and I just follow along with them. It doesn't have to be a long process. Just a few minutes can bring quite a welcome surprise.
I don't have a long list to share for the "how to's" of daydreaming. I think it helps to have silence or only natural sounds around you and low light if possible but definitely not light that is not glaring, buzzing or emanating from a device/digital.
From a kid who always had one foot on the ground but his head in the clouds (or in daydreams!) I hope this will work for, or inspire, you as well! I can't say it enough.
Daydreaming is huge part of my daily creative world.
Keep dreaming (day AND night)!
XO
Nicolas
PS - You know, I realized while writing this that I always stepped inside those strange/odd shops I used as a metaphor above.
One, in a back alley of a neighborhood in my hometown, was a new age store called "Sign of Aquarius". I will tell that tale in full in the future but the retired couple who ran it were a treasure to stumble upon that first time I stood staring in their shop's windows and the old creaky door opened to welcome me in. If I had run away, I shudder to think what my life might have been like. It was the first step into a world I never knew existed but was definitely in need of finding.
I'd like to think I may have found my way eventually but there is something about the depth of impression made at 13 that would never have been the same even just a few years later.
Never run from the unknown and strange! : )
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Beginning in October of 2017 I started to follow the following format for my blog, posting every Friday and under the following headings:
For this monthly "Making of a Maker" post I want to say a few things about one of the most important aspects of my own creative process and one that, when looking at anything I have ever done, from making plays when I was 12 to my music-making/recording years to digital art to miniature houses, has been a major contributor to the realization of each of those pursuits.
Daydreaming.
To me, this is something other than what most might call inspiration, which tends to be more momentary and immediate, just popping up wherever and whenever without notice. It's also different from intentional, constructive brainstorming with an idea or preconceived notion you want to realize. It's also not quite the same as actively doodling or experimenting.
This is also not to be confused with time that might be spent on pinterest or instagram though those are both excellent starting points for ideas and I have scores of images that have inspired my own creative world. . . but only in the same way that the words "Once upon a time" are a starting point for many great stories.
There are things that I believe we can only tap into when our hands are at rest and our minds are allowed to just vanish into the world of daydreams.
Daydreaming, for me, is about allowing yourself to sit in silence and just work your way deep into your own imagination. In my life, I've met many people who say they are not capable of imagining things as vividly or as realized as I do but, with those I have worked with, I find that it's almost always a case of the person not being able to quiet the world around them enough to allow their daydreaming self to find footing.
Sometimes it seems to be more about them turning away when the door to imagination opens and they are asked to step inside. Sort of like that odd little back alley curiosity shoppe in that "found" neighborhood where you stare in the window trying to find the courage to walk inside. . . but then the door opens and you hurriedly walk away instead of accepting the divine's invitation to enter. . .
I cannot imagine doing what I do without taking the time to daydream. . . often. In fact, when I am feeling burnt out it is almost always because I have not allowed myself to look ahead and to daydream about new avenues, new ideas and to not put any constraints on that process.
 |
| This image, "The Bubble Factory" came to me almost just as you see it during a good round of Daydreaming. |
Writing, my latest pursuit, is no different. My storytelling runs in fits and starts and I am not nearly as productive when I try too hard to manufacture the story as I am when I first allow myself to "live " the story through a good bout of daydreaming. I will sometime give myself five to fifteen minutes before I get up at 5am to lay in the silence and the dark and think about what part of the story I want to work on that morning. I see the scene, the characters, the possible twists and turns and I allow it run it's course, maybe two or three times if I am unsure where to go with it.
It's like seeing a film playing in my head. The characters move about, interact, speak. . . and I just follow along with them. It doesn't have to be a long process. Just a few minutes can bring quite a welcome surprise.
I don't have a long list to share for the "how to's" of daydreaming. I think it helps to have silence or only natural sounds around you and low light if possible but definitely not light that is not glaring, buzzing or emanating from a device/digital.
From a kid who always had one foot on the ground but his head in the clouds (or in daydreams!) I hope this will work for, or inspire, you as well! I can't say it enough.
Daydreaming is huge part of my daily creative world.
Keep dreaming (day AND night)!
XO
Nicolas
 |
| This too was born from a daydream exploring fantasy landscapes. |
PS - You know, I realized while writing this that I always stepped inside those strange/odd shops I used as a metaphor above.
One, in a back alley of a neighborhood in my hometown, was a new age store called "Sign of Aquarius". I will tell that tale in full in the future but the retired couple who ran it were a treasure to stumble upon that first time I stood staring in their shop's windows and the old creaky door opened to welcome me in. If I had run away, I shudder to think what my life might have been like. It was the first step into a world I never knew existed but was definitely in need of finding.
I'd like to think I may have found my way eventually but there is something about the depth of impression made at 13 that would never have been the same even just a few years later.
Never run from the unknown and strange! : )
<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>
Beginning in October of 2017 I started to follow the following format for my blog, posting every Friday and under the following headings:
1st Friday of Each Month - New work ( New to the shops and a look at the making of one item each month)
2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me)
3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)
4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)
2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me)
3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)
4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)
Friday, October 13, 2017
Inspirations and Oddities - October 13th
This is the first edition of my Second Friday blog posts. In these I'll be posting links to what inspires me and my work. Blog posts, Wikipedia pages, imagery, books etc etc
So without any delay, here is this month's entry on "Inspirations and Oddities"
*****
"I’ve written in other venues about the “thrill of the hunt.” And by that, I mean the hunt for that one back issue of a comic series you loved, that old album by the band you loved, or that out of print book by that author you loved. These “hunts” were a big part of my youth, and the very concept is gone now. Everything is easily found on the Internet with a few keystrokes." - Monte Cook
The world is filled with inspiring and amazing things to take in. As a child those discoveries led to the worlds of my imagination. We didn't have everything at our fingertips and, as Monte suggests in that quote above, it is now common to find almost anything within moments on the internet. But is that true? I really think there are still untold worlds to discover. Pinterest, for all of it's amazing possibility, seems to narrow the treasure trove based on algorithms that they think shows us what we want to see when beyond those first pages of results one finds a world deeper than the most favorited or popular of images. Instead, it's when I choose an image, then look at it's similar images and then pick one, repeating the process a half dozen times that I finally come upon something I really want.
I have to dig, search, follow trails and spend time to get there. The best of what is out there is often not found on page one of my search results but buried in the depths.
My news feed is devoid of the glut of negative world events but loaded with National Geographic, Scyfy, Smithsonian etc. I'll download a dozen previews on Ibooks just hoping to find that one self-published or lesser known gem. I want the mystery, the new, the inspiring and the possible.
What I am saying I guess is that I am not certain the thrill of the hunt had been totally removed. . . just that the means to enjoying it are changing with technology. What I worry about is that the DESIRE for the hunt is being lost with the ease modern technology provides.
These days I compare the internet to taking pre-arranged travel tours. Back when I used to travel in my early 20's. I usually had a departure and return date and then filled the between with whatever I was inspired to do or see that day. I only took one arranged, group tour, and that was of Greece and Turkey because it allowed for seeing 5 of the Greek islands and a much desired stop in the ancient ruins of Ephesus. While the entire group often went everywhere together, taking in all of the exact same locations, restaurants and sights, I always set off on my own to find the out of the way places and local cafes.
In Ephesus as they took in all the planned sights along the ancient streets, I spent my time there sitting on the actual communal benI walked along the streets following the wagon and chariot ruts cut into the heavy stone over their ages of use.
In Greece, at the temple of Poseidon, the group all took the usual photo op and hurried out of the wind down to the gift shop while I stood alone facing that stiff wind overlooking the Aegean sea and tried to imagine what it was like to stand at that temple when it was in it's prime. In Delphi, when they ran off to lunch and gift shopping, I wandered down to the temple of Athena where we had spent all of 10 minutes as a group, so that I could sit there alone and imagine myself coming to Delphi though the olive groves of the valley below, hoping to receive the oracle's wisdom. . .
The whole trip went like that and every time we reconvened on the bus or at the hotels, I'd be asked all sorts of questions about where I went and what I did. Where I ate. What I saw. As if I was on a different tour!
All I did was go off on my own and explore. . . that's what it takes today to find the "treasures".
In this monthly post, I hope to share a bit of it with you. :)
*****
I use the word paracosm a lot. It perfectly describes my childhood experiences in imagination and also what I strive for daily as an adult. I'm definitely in the world of my making more than not which leads to being a pretty blissed out guy. I am often asked "Are you ever in a bad mood?" and, of course, the answer is yes. I'm human (really, I AM!) But the smiling face people see most of time is DIRECTLY related to my paracosms and the world I dwell in most of the time.
Much of the outside world is not allowed in. No horrors of the news, no clocks, phone on silent always, no pop-ins from other people. I put strong boundaries around it to keep it safe and it pays off. I get to create, imagine and invent each and every day with little interruption.
Four years ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Andrea over at Falling Ladies created this blog post:
The Hama Water Wheels - How about water wheels for moving water in a tech challenged world? I'm a visual person and while I could see waterwheels in my mind quite easily it was nothing as grand as these gasp-worthy structures dating to the Byzantine world.
The Singing Tree - Need an inspiration for a truly new musical "instrument" or ancient mystery? Oh, it's out there!
And a monthly Book Suggestion too!
I just finished listening to Neil Gaiman read his "The Ocean at the End of the Lane." I'm neither a fan nor a critic of Gaiman's work. It's hot or cold for me. I love some, can't get thru a few chapters of others, but this story may be one of my all time favorites. It's really about that struggle between the worlds of childhood and adulthood and every bit of it is magic. Both Sofie and I agreed that it sounds "true". Like there is no part of it that you can't imagine being possible. And of course I identify totally with the boy in the story. I was that boy. I had magical encounters of my own and I often returned to them time and again when life seemed overwhelming. they remain like polestars to me today.
Magic IS everywhere and I just need that reminder sometimes.
So without any delay, here is this month's entry on "Inspirations and Oddities"
*****
"I’ve written in other venues about the “thrill of the hunt.” And by that, I mean the hunt for that one back issue of a comic series you loved, that old album by the band you loved, or that out of print book by that author you loved. These “hunts” were a big part of my youth, and the very concept is gone now. Everything is easily found on the Internet with a few keystrokes." - Monte Cook
The world is filled with inspiring and amazing things to take in. As a child those discoveries led to the worlds of my imagination. We didn't have everything at our fingertips and, as Monte suggests in that quote above, it is now common to find almost anything within moments on the internet. But is that true? I really think there are still untold worlds to discover. Pinterest, for all of it's amazing possibility, seems to narrow the treasure trove based on algorithms that they think shows us what we want to see when beyond those first pages of results one finds a world deeper than the most favorited or popular of images. Instead, it's when I choose an image, then look at it's similar images and then pick one, repeating the process a half dozen times that I finally come upon something I really want.
I have to dig, search, follow trails and spend time to get there. The best of what is out there is often not found on page one of my search results but buried in the depths.
My news feed is devoid of the glut of negative world events but loaded with National Geographic, Scyfy, Smithsonian etc. I'll download a dozen previews on Ibooks just hoping to find that one self-published or lesser known gem. I want the mystery, the new, the inspiring and the possible.
What I am saying I guess is that I am not certain the thrill of the hunt had been totally removed. . . just that the means to enjoying it are changing with technology. What I worry about is that the DESIRE for the hunt is being lost with the ease modern technology provides.
These days I compare the internet to taking pre-arranged travel tours. Back when I used to travel in my early 20's. I usually had a departure and return date and then filled the between with whatever I was inspired to do or see that day. I only took one arranged, group tour, and that was of Greece and Turkey because it allowed for seeing 5 of the Greek islands and a much desired stop in the ancient ruins of Ephesus. While the entire group often went everywhere together, taking in all of the exact same locations, restaurants and sights, I always set off on my own to find the out of the way places and local cafes.
In Ephesus as they took in all the planned sights along the ancient streets, I spent my time there sitting on the actual communal benI walked along the streets following the wagon and chariot ruts cut into the heavy stone over their ages of use.
In Greece, at the temple of Poseidon, the group all took the usual photo op and hurried out of the wind down to the gift shop while I stood alone facing that stiff wind overlooking the Aegean sea and tried to imagine what it was like to stand at that temple when it was in it's prime. In Delphi, when they ran off to lunch and gift shopping, I wandered down to the temple of Athena where we had spent all of 10 minutes as a group, so that I could sit there alone and imagine myself coming to Delphi though the olive groves of the valley below, hoping to receive the oracle's wisdom. . .
The whole trip went like that and every time we reconvened on the bus or at the hotels, I'd be asked all sorts of questions about where I went and what I did. Where I ate. What I saw. As if I was on a different tour!
All I did was go off on my own and explore. . . that's what it takes today to find the "treasures".
In this monthly post, I hope to share a bit of it with you. :)
Hoping you'll find a little inspiration here! PLEASE feel free to send me links to what inspires YOU! Let's help each other in that hunt for the unusual and the treasures of the internet!
xo
Nicolas
*****
I use the word paracosm a lot. It perfectly describes my childhood experiences in imagination and also what I strive for daily as an adult. I'm definitely in the world of my making more than not which leads to being a pretty blissed out guy. I am often asked "Are you ever in a bad mood?" and, of course, the answer is yes. I'm human (really, I AM!) But the smiling face people see most of time is DIRECTLY related to my paracosms and the world I dwell in most of the time.
Much of the outside world is not allowed in. No horrors of the news, no clocks, phone on silent always, no pop-ins from other people. I put strong boundaries around it to keep it safe and it pays off. I get to create, imagine and invent each and every day with little interruption.
Four years ago, one of my favorite bloggers, Andrea over at Falling Ladies created this blog post:
Paracosm - In the four years since I have returned to that post time and again for a bit of inspiration and just for the magic of the world Andrea hints at there. Often I am hoping to find more of it somewhere that I did not see before. . . that's the power of magic! Thank you Andrea!
Here are a few more for this month:
The Hermit Monks of Karouliya - I needed a remote, hard to access setting for the "monks" of my world. But my world is not very vast and is self contained sooooo . . . this post inspired me greatly. The website, though loaded with active content and ads that sometimes frustrates me and my laptop, is alike a random WOW generator! I go once a month and find at least two or three things in our world that I never knew existed.Here are a few more for this month:
The Hama Water Wheels - How about water wheels for moving water in a tech challenged world? I'm a visual person and while I could see waterwheels in my mind quite easily it was nothing as grand as these gasp-worthy structures dating to the Byzantine world.
The Singing Tree - Need an inspiration for a truly new musical "instrument" or ancient mystery? Oh, it's out there!
And a monthly Book Suggestion too!
I just finished listening to Neil Gaiman read his "The Ocean at the End of the Lane." I'm neither a fan nor a critic of Gaiman's work. It's hot or cold for me. I love some, can't get thru a few chapters of others, but this story may be one of my all time favorites. It's really about that struggle between the worlds of childhood and adulthood and every bit of it is magic. Both Sofie and I agreed that it sounds "true". Like there is no part of it that you can't imagine being possible. And of course I identify totally with the boy in the story. I was that boy. I had magical encounters of my own and I often returned to them time and again when life seemed overwhelming. they remain like polestars to me today.
Magic IS everywhere and I just need that reminder sometimes.
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