New Work - First Friday Post - May 4th

Happy May everyone!

The month is off to a wonderful start here with perfect Spring weather, (which most say is still to cool but perfect for me!) and lots of Spring love as the birds find their mates and start next building. Our feeders and container garden are full of Red Finches, Juncos, Swallows, Starlings and both regular and Golden Crown Sparrows.

Also, the annual reshuffling of the crows has taken place. I go from having a flock of 30 or so all autumn and winter, a murder of juveniles I believe, as I know that crows go through this social phase and it always starts in the late summer after they all hatch and fledge.

From late summer on, the whole group visits me each morning and they know my whistle and will come whenever I am around town and have a treat for them! I've been "followed" from the bakery or the Post Office several times, starting with one or two who put out the call when I whistle and, by the time I get back home (just a few blocks away from either) it may grow to a dozen or more!  Crows have the ability to recognize faces and I have seen them, on many occasions, sitting on theories in town and they turn their heads and look down at me as I walk by. If it's one of "my" crows, they'll follow. I usually carry a pocket full of dry treats for them during this time.

They also know how to call me.  I will sit at out front windows in the mornings writing and, if  am distracted and don't notice the rising light, they fly from the back of the building around to the front, taking up a place on the wires and they'll let me know, in no uncertain terms, what time it is. ;)

Come March they all suddenly disperse and for a few weeks I get a break. I may not see a single crow in the mornings then. Some of that seems to revolve around daylight savings time and the change in the light. . .but I assume that this is also the pairing/nesting phase and they are busying other things. :)

 I always leave food out for them but never see more than one or two at a time. Then, suddenly, they start to return. First one pair. Then another, and then, this morning, twelve crows waiting at the break of day! Soon though it will be just the males who will stockpile food in their mouths and try to carry as much back to their nests as they can manage. I've watched countless times as a crow tries to fit one more salmon cat kibble or piece of egg in it's mouth only to lose the whole mouthful.

But my favorite part will come in late summer.  Once the young are hatched and fledged, the adults  bring them by to teach them about the morning"routine". Though by this time it is hard to tell a young crow from their parent in size, the easiest way is to watch them land on wires where the young crows haven't quite got the hang of it all yet and bob back and forth trying to learn their balance in the wind or rain. I never get tired of that! And if I'm lucky,  I'll get a few days where the adults are still feeding them. The group lands and the young stand their with their mouths open waiting to be fed. This is at the very end of the raising stage so it only lasts for a day or so until the parents decide to make them fend for themselves.

I love these avian hallmarks of the seasons.  Each year we wait with that strange anticipation, as if in fear that any or all of them might not return. . . but they always do. :)

So on to some new work for the season as well!

A Classic "castle" tower scene. 

Potted Fairy House

One of the new creations I've been working on: Stone Troll!!

Windmill with Tulips and delicate sails! 

Egyptian Otter statue very similar to one in the Met Museum.

Thoth as a baboon and Khonsu as a kite/hawk. Both lunar deities.

Gardener's house featuring large polymer flowers. 

I hope you enjoyed the peak at the latest work and I look forward to sharing more as time goes on.

I'll be changing up my routine a bit. I am close to launching a separate blog/site for my Makings of a Maker posts. I feel like I would like to write in greater detail about the processes of making a living from art/craft from start to finish but without it being tied to me here or at Etsy.

I know that probably does not make much sense but I want it to be separate from my shops, which I will mention where necessary but I think it would be more helpful to allow people to find their own way to what works for them without the influence of my own or any perception that I have something to sell. Those weekly posts seem to get the most views/reads, near double to my others, so that has been encouraging.

It may be month or two away but, when it comes, I will swap out that weekly post with one abut living in a small town (pop 800) which I also hope will inspire some. I was reading an article recently about the number of 20 somethings who cite having feelings of despair and anxiety over their futures and while I know 20 somethings aren't about to move to small towns in droves, I want to speak to the way that it was simply the knowing that I always HAD choices was, I believe, a big part of why I never felt that despair. The awareness that I was making choices and that I was creating my world, not the other way around. .  . Anyway, more on that to come.

Thank you, as always, for dropping by!

nicolas
xoxo

A Gift from the Faery Postal Service - The Makings of a Maker - Third Friday Post - February 16th

It occurred to me that I meant for these weekly Friday posts to allow for a little more freedom as far as what I am posting and writing about and I've been sticking to the format pretty tightly so far.

This was originally going to be a post about my packaging for the Bewilder and Pine Etsy shop but I've decided that this little tale I have to tell, a true story, was far more enchanting and fits the bill for the Makings of a Maker theme.

The Fairy Postal Service Creed- Neither ogres, nor trolls nor wayward customs officials stays these Fae couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.



In the first week of the new year I received a message thru Bewilder and Pine from a prospective customer in France. His question was how long would it take for a package to arrive in France as he was hoping to have a few things in time for a child's birthday party on February 10th.

This, to understate it, tickled me greatly! I do not think there is anything I love more than knowing my little fairy pieces are going to be in the lives of children (of ANY age, of course) and that they would be going off to France? Well, that was all the more thrilling.

I once spoke French fairly fluently. Enough to get around without a phrase book on my three trips there in my late teens and early twenties. Enough to carry on conversations with people I met in Paris or Nice or Calais. Enough to get around on the metro, or on foot with a map. Enough to sit on a park bench with a sweet, white haired grand-mère in the little picturesque town of Menton on the southern-most part of the Riviera and talk about life in our two countries as well as receive a lesson in French profanity!

Whenever I get a message from someone in France, I try to answer it at least in part in French. These days I have to look up certain conjugations and phrases and I confuse one word for another quite often. I forget the placement of accents and simple sentence structure. But I still try.

All that is to say this meant the world to me to be able to send a package of faery magic bound for France.

All of my shipping experiences within the EU told me that the package would certainly arrive in plenty of time. I wasn't worried in the least nor did I even consider suggesting we use Priority Mail International to expedite the shipment.

Four weeks was more than enough time.
I was certain of it.

It ended up being a rather large order of eight different fairy houses and towers. I stayed up late to pack it all up and the following day I shipped the package off.

Then, I forgot all about it.

For some reason, which I cannot begin to fathom even now, on February 7th, I suddenly thought of the package. Certain it would have arrived by then, I went to the order and clicked on the receipt for the shipping. The tracking loaded slowwwwwly and when it finally showed on my screen, I was more than a bit surprised. . .

I shipped the package on January 12th
It left the US Customs in LA on January 19th (an unusually long time for that transfer)
It arrived in France on January 21st
It then, for some reason, left France. . . and went to ISRAEL. . . on January 22nd

And that was it. There was no further tracking for it either on Etsy or thru the USPS sight.

I was, to say the least, devastated.

I wrote a very heavy message to the buyer explaining what I thought had happened while hoping that, against the odds, the package had perhaps arrived in France without any further tracking having been recorded. That's would not be so unusual for a returned or redirected package

It had not arrived.

The customer wrote back and while he was very understanding that it was not my fault as he could see the strange tracking information, he was terribly disappointed. It was, after all, meant for a birthday party.

I felt so badly about it. I asked him to let me check with my post office on the following day just to see if they could offer any more assistance.

They could not.

So, on February 8th, I sent one final message. I told the buyer I would refund the purchase amount in full and asked if he would refuse the package if or when it arrived in France.

I apologized again and sent the message off feeling rather defeated.

Then something, I have no idea what, nudged me to check the tracking one last time.

I did, and would you believe just as I was sending that last message to France a brand new entry showed up on the tracking list, the first in almost two weeks, and it said:

February 8th - Attempted Delivery Abroad - France

I know this generally means a package was attempted to be delivered and, a note should have been left for the recipient. I wrote again to the buyer asking him to let me know if this was correct and if he was going to be able to get the package in time.

I received a very happy message informing me that, yes, he would be able to pick up the package on February 9th just one day before it was needed!!! If the story needed any more of a happy ending, after all that traveling and bouncing around, everything inside was in perfect condition! The customer was thrilled!

Now, I don't share a lot of my personal beliefs here but let me. say that I don't usually do anything special to ask for favors from the kind folk or the faeries. Some stories, after all, say the Fae folk do not like being thanked. . . it actually is an insult to them.

I have, since I was a child, simply believed — no, I've KNOWN— that they are with me. Watching over me. There have simply been too many instances and encounters, one of which was life saving, for me to deny it. It's been a thread in my life.

I like to believe that all of the magic I put into the world through my creations are the reciprocations of that fateful connection. They are my end of the deal. One I intend to uphold with all my ability for the rest of my days.

And that deal? Ohhhh there's so much more to tell you. . . .another time perhaps?

Thank you for dropping by!
XO
nicolas

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

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. 

Each little curl of his leg hair is added and shaped individually.  He is just over 4" (10cm) tall. 

Mica powder adds the weathering to the cape and hat. The staff features a Swarovski crystal teardrop. 

I have not decided on the price. . . or even if I CAN part with him. And this is why I rarely make figures. lol

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. 

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!

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. :)

With the exception of custom orders, I've stayed away from making large statues for some reason.
Changing that this year as well! 

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! 

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.

Doing all the new things has rekindled interest in the old as well. Such as my miniature Moai statues! 

Or this particular mushroom fairy house style! Welcome back!

September 1st - New Work

So much going on this month. . . it was an exceptionally busy month. I received a LOT of practice in saying no to custom work I did not wish to take on and I laid the groundwork for several 2017 ideas.

I will get into those more as the new year draws closer but, at the top of the list, I have been toying with one idea in particular for a combination of a limited edition figurine, chapter based story and interactive experience. So a certain character set (say 100 total figurines made over time) that would come with several accessories (scrolls, old spell books, coins, map, staffs, glowing orbs etc etc) and also each would come with the first chapter of a story which revolves around the whole group of figurines, their reason for their journey to our world and their quest while here.  Then, perhaps every two months the next "chapter" of the story would be sent to anyone who purchased a figurine. Each might include a "mission" for the owners of the figurines to be a part of (photographing their figurine in a certain type of location or sending field reports back to the "base" here at Bewilder and Pine either of which may become included in future chapters!) The goal being writing the story in 12 chapters over 2 years and letting it evolve naturally over that time too.

 Each chapter would arrive via mail and include another little "something special" for the buyer/figurine. Anyway, more on that to come as it is just in the early stages of planning. . . so much to figure out such as pricing for mailing 11 successive chapters to people all over the world but I think the shop has the credibility and longevity now to pull it off.

Most of this comes from the reaction I get to the little stories, scrolls etc that I often include with almost everything that comes out of Bewilder and Pine. Customers write and say that on one hand I should "advertise" those little extras in the listings and photos but, on the other hand, they are so happy to open the box and receive little fairy messages, booklets/stories etc when they are unexpected "extras".  When all is said and done, the figurines might be all sold out at some point but I'd have another short, 12 chapter book to offer, hand-bound in it's complete form, as well.

They're small and just a little added touch but it got me to thinking that I could offer something so much larger and actually more immersive, for those who truly get into that experience.

For this month I have little actual new work to show but here are a few of the things I enjoyed/enjoy making most this past month!

An original design - Auset/Isis Altar Statue, I had not made on in a year or more and of course, when it is done, I ask myself "Why is that?"  lol

I've said it before but I NEVER tire of making this guy, Bes, a multifaceted protector deity. I am surprised how many different reasons people buy this form for. Everything from new house protection to baby/birth/pregnancy protection to a desire to ward off bad dreams.  

On the Fairy side of things, I never tire of making these Mossy Lane Fairy houses. It's interesting to look back and see how they change and evolve in little ways over the last 5 years.

And it's always the least expected things that I get repeat requests for. The fact that these little houses sit on their own little wooden platform, above the landscape and with the tiny stairs, seems to appeal to SO many people! I never could have guessed that.

Always a favorite too is Sekhmet. A fiercely protective, but loving, lioness companion deity. 

And lastly, I am trying to get these stocked for the holiday rush to come (and that's all too soon!)  they seem to find homes so quickly though. . . I'd love to be able to have them available in maybe eight pearl colors in the shop all at once. :) 

So that's the scoop for now. Hoping everyone is ready for the autumn season ahead (or spring if you are down under) It's my favorite season, always, and I could not be more ready for the autumn chill and the end of the tourist season around here. All the little woodland paths and hideaways as well as the beaches. . . will all be deserted again. : )

Thank you, as always, for dropping by!

Until the next. . .
xo
nicolas

Here Be Dragons (OK. . . ONE Dragon!)

Hey everyone!

The first dragon. . . oh I feel like a proud maker-parent here, I have to say!

I have wanted to make my own dragons for some time now and you may recall I posted the little "Dragon tower" not too long ago but this is the first stand alone creature I have finished. Again, a culmination of ideas, experiments and developing techniques. I loved the form and expression on my tower dragon so I kept that as my look and just expanded in size and detail with this little one.

All the little things like how to add scales to an entire body when you have to hold the piece somewhere to get into all the little places and legs and such without smashing the scales you already imprinted! Finding the right wings, the right coloring techniques and on and on. . . and then there was the oft-forgotten but quite important consideration of planning them so they can be shipped. . . not something I tended to think about in the early days. . . but something I now do regularly. :)

To say it has been a few years of process and trial and error would not be wrong!

I am considering whether or not dragons have a role in my stories/book. If they do, I know that it won't be as fire-breathing destroyers or creatures that instill fear or dread. Nope, it is more likely to be that they are quite docile and, in fact, rather meek.

And mostly, that is because I really have trouble making "creatures" that aren't sweet. :)

So let me introduce you to Aramara

She is 5.75" ear tip to back claw/toe (the longest dimensions) and 2.75" deep. Her head is just about 3" high.

Her eyes are made with faceted Swarovski aurora Borealis elliptical beads and her wings are beautiful, large wing charms painted with gold pigment acrylics.

She is an awesome shelf companion and rather loves to look over my shoulder while I type. . . like right now. . . like, always. lol

I am looking forward to making friends for her to keep her company. Hoping to have a few of them to offer in the shop this summer as well. Once I have enough that is. . .

I hope you enjoyed seeing Aramara and, as always, thank you for dropping in!

XO
nicolas

The Inner Nine Year Old Strikes Again

It's funny, The more that I have been thinking about the idea of wanting to please my inner nine year old, the more that comes to me about what that actually means.

On the surface, it seems easy to do. Seek out the tv shows, music, games etc that one loved so dearly in childhood. It is all, thanks to the internet, at our access after all. But, in truth, I wanted to go deeper than that to something more essential.

First, I chose to think of my inner nine year old because, in truth, I can barely remember anything of relevance from that time. No single major events. . . but a world of joy and imagination.

A few years earlier? Yes. . . I have recall as far back as 5 or even 4 and I know I can recall some key moments from even those years.

Everything pretty much from age 11 on?  Absolutely. Crystal clear.

And I have glimpses. Little bits that come to me that I THINK might have been from that time.

But with nothing concrete to grab ahold of, it seems my mind goes in search of something deeper and, in all honesty, I am not sure what it means or how one would exactly embrace it.

This is what came to me the other day.

Do you remember being anywhere in that 7 to 10 age range and having made a plan to go outside and, perhaps, play a game with your friends? Maybe tree climbing or rope swinging? Maybe to the pool? Maybe the weekend neighborhood wiffle ball game or unexpected sled riding on a snowy winter morning? Anything from that time that was something you just couldn't wait to do or be part of when the time came?

What I want to know is this. . .

Do you remember the urgency with which you ran to do said activity? Do you recall being so filled with excitement that you literally could not contain it and hit the front or back door of your house RUNNING? The latch pushed and the door thrown open in one single motion while almost at a full run. . . the door swinging as you bounded out and across the porch, or yard, or down the steps. The inability to contain the fervor for whatever lay waiting you in the coming hours just beyond that door?

 Or maybe you were running to come back inside to catch a favorite show or movie on TV.

Yes?

When was the last time you experienced that same thing as an adult? Now here we are, as adults, we shuffle here and there, keeping composure and cool. Always wanting to be in control. We may be feeling something that would inspire such behavior inside but, outwardly, we are often not able to let that same childhood joy show.

So maybe pleasing that inner 9 year old is about allowing ourselves to really feel the utter joy of those simple things again.  Dropping the adult overtones and just basking in that cup-flowing-over of happiness and anticipation.

I feel like I DO have an adult's sense of that joy. I am truly excited to get up every morning and begin my day. It's always a French press cup of coffee (yay adulthood!) and a fresh pastry from the bakery a block from our place. But I have never, in four years, RUN down the stairs, out the door and all the way to that bakery. Though my excitement for an Almond Bear claw or a Cherry danish is no less now than it was back then. Maybe MORE so since I can go and get one whenever I want and I do not have to ask for it from a parent. : )

I feel super excited to create every day too. To invent the things that I do and ship them out all over the world.  To make up the little stories that go with them and make booklets and maps and all manner of creative outlets that are part of the world I dwell in. . . but I think I can let that joy out a bit more than I do as an adult as well.

And, just yesterday, as I was thinking of all of this, I saw a little girl of maybe 7 or 8 with fairy white-blond hair, picking the first dandelions of the season across the street. Selecting them ever so carefully with her discerning eye and then, bouquet in hand, turning abruptly and running with that same urgency I've been talking about across the park to give them to her mother who was sitting on the bench just 100 feet away.

THAT is the urgency I miss.

Maybe it's harder as adults because we are supposed to have our emotions in check. To maintain that cool exterior and the idea of keeping it together. But really???  JOY is supposed to be that visible. Excitement for what we are doing should come with such outward expression.

So I will be running to the bakery at least once this week. And unashamedly beaming at the job I am blessed to be able to do here. And maybe, just maybe, more of these little facets of the joy of the inner 9 year old will be revealed?

Do you have any you'd care to share? Please feel free, I am all ears. . .

nicolas

And just one new thing to share. . .

Another HO Scale Fairy House. . . I rediscovered the word "Chantry" while researching ideas for this cottage. I think, if fairies were to borrow from our old-world architecture, stone and belfry bells and heavy wooden doors would be musts!

New Work - February 2016

February already? My, my. . .

Well, January went pretty much to plan. More time spent on new items and ideas and less worrying about "best sellers" and custom work. That feels reallllllly good!

So, here are a few new pieces for you to see today. Some are already listed and some await their stories before listing. GOTTA have stories!!!

First, the Little Caravan I showed in it's initial stages a few weeks ago. All done and ready for listing: "Theia Straedoors Tart Cart"!

How does Theia make all those delicious tarts in such a small space? Fairy magic of course!

Loving the poofy moss and the tiny tart table piled with Joonberry tarts!!

Next is another new idea and new way or working with creating small figures.

I have been trying to develop a style of animal figurines that will allow me to use colored polymer as opposed to painting with acrylics.

Now, in my world, this presents itself as an issue for several reasons.

One, I am not in any way shape of form, neat enough to keep colored polymer clay pristine as I work with it. There are always mossy bits and flowery bits about the table no matter how hard I try to keep it clean. This leads to having to rework soft faces, hands etc and, in the end, ruining them before I can complete them.  With the fox figure below, I took a completely different approach. Making the face from flesh toned super sculpey and then, after baking, layering the thinnest layers of colored clay over top of that already baked, flash-toned face.  It went better than I could anticipate.

For a first try, I think it worked amazingly well! I was able to blend, texture and work around the face without worrying abut smashing the face's form as I often seem to do trying to get the perfect details. I used the same technique with the body/clothing too. Making a flesh toned body-form and then layering the clothing on top of it. Only the feet and hands were made in colored clay without a base clay beneathe them.

For a first go with this new technique, I think Brother Severon is a wonderful lil' fellow!

His white birch staff and lantern are also polymer clay, but they are painted.

And then, a few random pieces. . .

A Lunar Hare. . . just because. :)

A little gold crescent on her back. . . she still requires a short story before listing!

 A little Tudor Style, timbered inn. Usually I make the timbers from thin strips of polymer applied at the time i make the building and paint them but, for this new "Enchanted Woods Inn", I wanted to make the timbers from scale lumber so they would be perfect and consistent. Very tedious but worth the results!

"The Enchanted Woods" Tudor style Inn.

And a completed group of 5 Fairy Shoppes/Inn/Crooked Tower upon Stars for one of our dear, regular customers!

Anyhoo, that's a look at some of what has been coming out of the studio these days. February promises a whole other bevy of new items and ideas so I hope you'll check back over the month and visit with me in my little world. . .

Have a lovely February wherever you may be. . .

nicolas

Work In Progress: January 20th

In progress. . . the story of my daily creative world. : )

I'd be the very first to say I usually have far too many things under construction at any one time.  I will, on any given day, have 10-20 pieces in some stage of completion or design. I'll usually. . .  well, sometimes. . .  prioritize custom pieces but, after that, what I work on on any given day is really just what I feel like working on.

This is not always the best course of action, admittedly. There are days where my actual "work space" is down to about 6 inches square and I am surrounded by pleading eyes and waiting limbs and moss-less houses and half sculpted creatures!

I'm really trying to be a bit more con top of that and I think showing some of my in-progress work each week will help me push things thru instead of setting them aside for long periods while I get blissfully lost in the newest projects and never-ending inspirations!

So. . . some new things on the work table this week! Just wanted to share these as they are in progress and I'll update them when they are all complete. . .

Fairy Belles - These are the new iteration of something I tried two years ago but never really liked the results.
They actually have a jingly little bell in the hollowed bottom of the figurine that can be rung to summon fairy magic!

Two figurines in process. I've decided to focus on a feature story for my Bewildering Pine World that includes creatures known as Hobs ( like the little fella on the left) and Grimalkins ( the familiars of Hobs, as seen on the right) 

The Hob above (no name as of yet) will have a very dapper Victorian waist coat and tie and likely a bowler hat that he will be doffing! The Grimalkin (also as of yet unnamed) will look like the larger, completed one in the next image. 

Grimalkin is an old English archaic word for a cat! I love the Pewter finish and the claws that will match the eye color.

This is how I make the Fairy things on Stars! This one will become "Theia Straedoor's Tart Cart" on a Star with
mossy roof, stairs and fences, cooling table for the special, tiny Joonberry Tarts and the usual trees and landscaping!

And one recently finished addition to my Foxgoyle/Land of Kitsurada story/world. 

A mythic Kitsune, 9-Tailed Foxgoyle! 

Her name is Okudara and I think she's quite the creature!

So that's what's cooking here! Hope you are making magic today in your world too!

nicolas

Creating the World We Live In

Last night I was discussing the town I grew up in with my mother who is now 80 years old and who lives in the house my grandparents built back in 1950. This was, as many Midwest US towns were in the early part of the 20th century, a factory town. Steel and glass to be precise.

The entire neighborhood I grew up in existed only because of the mill and, by the time I was a kid, the steel industry was already taking it's leave from our town. Jobs had been outsourced and builders were placing orders overseas. Clean air and clean waterways were also now a priority and the combination of many factors led to the reduction of jobs and eventual closing of the mills.

My grandfather worked in those mills for 45 years. My brother had been working in them for a dozen. The town, once thriving with four pharmacies, three grocery stores, over a dozen and a half churches and a hundred or so small shops, slowly began to disappear too. The public was being drawn out of the cities to the suburbs and for the neighborhoods built along the rivers close in to the city, the tide had turned.

So, in talking with mom about the old days, I realized that we had totally different ideas of what the town was like.

In her day, when she was just out of school she worked walking distance from their house at a flower shop, a dress shop and a diner. She shopped every weekend after the matinee movies and spent many Saturday nights at the soda fountains in those pharmacies. The five and dime was a must see each week to catch new, inexpensive imports and clothing and the ethnic flair in the food, born of the community consisting of German, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Irish, Greek and Italian families that lived there, must have been a treasure for the taste buds.

In my day, what was a fractured but still close knit community was, to her, a crumbling shadow of it's former self. I grew up with one pharmacy. One grocery store and every other building along the 10 blocks or so of the main street closed and boarded up.

It was only in the last few years, in looking on line for old photos of the neighborhood and in talking more and more with my mother about the history of that place, that I came to know it in her day.  In the images of the town from the 40's and 50's I find bits and pieces of my childhood too. Some of the businesses that remained when I was a teenager were there even back then. Harder to spot in the pictures of busy streets, lively foot traffic and every door and window filled with life.

But I never knew that thriving town. It never existed in my life. And when I got to the age of making adult decisions, I did not see much in the way of reasons to stay.

I have been back the last few years to visit her and have taken several drives around the town with her. It is going through a mini-revitalization. A new library, a summer farmers stand, community projects to beautify the area. Though it comes too late for many of the lovely buildings that fell into disrepair all those years being empty.  Now there are single and sometimes double and triple gaps between all the buildings where others once stood.

It's hard to believe I lived there at all. It's no longer "home" in some ways but still every bit as much so in others.

So this is my point.

The world I have created with my miniatures and artwork, and with my life in total, is very much like life in the town I grew up in. Wherever we live, to some extent, you tailor your life to fit the location. To fit what is at your disposal. And many choose living in places where they have every possibility and convenience around them. . . though often at the expense of having to drive, commute, speed up, do more and more, schedule, compromise and somehow find the time to fit it all in and the money to pay for it.

If I showed you images of the town I grew up in, you might think, never having lived there, "No wonder you got out!"It wasn't pretty and it had, in the end, nothing to make it an "easy" place to live.

But it is what I knew. All I knew. And I think, one of the keys to being able to create THIS world I have built around me here, in this beautiful and affordable place I live now, comes from what I found in those days long ago.

You see, the very small town I live in now is also somewhat aged and, in the sense of the beauty of urban-ness, not much to look at.  Though being at the very edge of a massive ocean bay and set in among lush tree covered hills makes up for a lot and I always will prefer the beauty and abundance of nature, as well as a general lack of humans to the hum and rattle of any thriving urban environment.

But coming here and building a life that could support our art, that would allow us to not worry about money so much (we cut our expenses drastically when we left the city four years ago and it made ALL the difference in allowing us to focus on our creative work 24/7)  and giving me the freedom to stroll to the grocery store, post office and bakery, to a beautiful waterfront or to the library, city hall and fish markets. . . all withing 5 minutes walk, it's as close as I could hope to get.

And somehow, in some way that I am sure I am far from being able to articulate, the lost town I grew up in is a huge part of the work I create too. I was always inside my imagination as a child. Always creating worlds of escape and possibility. There was really nowhere else to go in those years. It just took me a few decades to realize that to live in a world built on that imagination as an adult meant leaving much of this modern but no less self-created one behind.

For my mother, today,  "creating" means talking about the old times and living in the very fond memory of what was all those years ago. And I get it now. I am the same. All I have done is create that world in my work. In the fairy realms and miniature worlds of my choosing. I bring it to life every day. I create, quite literally, the world that I live in.

And in that, I have to give credit to the town I grew up in. . . even the one from my Mother's childhood years that I never knew. To the place where perhaps the ghosts of what once was lingered just long enough to speak to me of possibilities and map-making and imagination. . . and to tell me that I, in my own way, could live there too.

I believe that we, ultimately, create the world we live in.
Everywhere.
Every day.

We choose.


xo
nicolas

This was the main street in my Mom's day during the 1950's the wonderful brick architecture of these early 1900's buildings. The Five and Dime, the cobblestone roads and the trolley tracks. and that's the flower shop she used to work at on the left.

Bloom - The Renewal of an Idea

Inspired by the creative challenge issued Sunday by the lovely creative spirits at Pixie Hill, I took the word "Bloom" and decided to see where it took me.

I am much more of an Autumn soul than a Spring one and I never am at a loss for creative ideas and a to-do list a mile long. . . so then, what would "Bloom" bring up in my own creative world?

Well, for me, it does mean renewal. . . so how about the renewal of an old idea?

Bookmaking. . .

I have dabbled, many times over the years, in the art of bookbinding. Never seriously but always with the knowledge that the ideas I would love to bring to life in that realm would definitely fit my work and my expression of possibility and magic.

I tend to get excited whenever I have down time (rarer all the time these days)  about the art of bookbinding and I'll jot down ideas, start on covers, buy book cloth, binding tape, waxed linen thread etc etc. . . so all of the necessary supplies are here. I just never seem to take those ideas to the completed stage and get sidetracked with orders and finishing the work for my shoppe.

Well, the last two days while recovering from eye surgery, I thought "OK, here it is, a bit of time with a chance to try to renew this idea.

The results are as follows:

A blank spell book, perhaps left behind intentionally for a human child to write their dreams and wishes, large or small, within? 

The completed small, blank Elven Spell Book with ribbon marker 1.75" x 2.5"

An incantation in "Elven font" on the facing page. . . this spell allows the person who writes their dreams within the book to have them protected and spell-bound by the magical wee folk.

A map of my imaginary world (still in progress) of The Bewildering Pine where the elven folk of my little paracosm reside.

The cover is an antique book cover printed on archival linen paper. I want to try staining the inner pages and adding little printed symbols etc here and there for the final versions.

 It's really a wonderful thing to get outside the usual mode of my creative production and try something new . . . or, at least, renewed! I can't tell you how many years I have been dreaming of making little books. . .  though most of my ideas are not for blank paged books but, instead, for almost-filled "sketchbooks" that a fairy might "lose" or leave behind in your garden with sketches like these I completed a while ago: 

The font is slightly askew which leaves for me to include "translations" in the packaging! :)

Faerie Garden Obelisks

Cataloging of Vegetables, Flowers and Insects of course are part of the design.

Yes, I think it's time. . . . Spring. . . . ideas do bloom too. . .. so, thanks, to Nichola, for the gentle nudge of inspiration to allow these to do so!

A very magical and happy Spring to all!

nicolas