Fifth Friday - Kickstarters - March 29th - The Most beautiful Tarot Deck I've Ever Seen!

Hi All!

Still so much going on I cannot seem to find the time to write here but I wanted to share this one link (or two) to the Kickstarter for the most amazing Tarot deck I have ever seen!

It only has six days remaining but we jumped on board a few weeks back and have been thrilled to watch the support for the artist's work grow! She is amazing so I am including a link to her gallery page as well since all of her artwork is stunning. But the TAROT! 78 OLI paintings???

Each highly detailed and very original in style and depiction of the tarot symbolisms.

DO check it out as you can order after the KS expires through the gallery!


The Slow Tarot by Lacey Bryant


And this is the link to her paid at the ME art gallery:

ME Gallery Page for Lacey Bryant


And because I know 50+$ is steep for anything, let alone a tarot deck, I thought I'd include a KS that ANYONE can afford. This gent named Will has decided to write handwritten letters to anyone who wants one and post it to you for only $1!!

13 days left to support it and receive a handwritten letter too! :)

A Handwritten Letter Kickstarter

Anyway, I thought these were both equally deserving of sharing and of supporting.

May you find them both inspiring and, in the case of the letters, even reassuring that as the world around us changes, some people still hold the value of something such as a handwritten letter close to their heart.

XO
nicolas

We Need Secrets

I read the following a few weeks ago and it has stuck with me ever since.

"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.

But there’s more to the phenomenon than just the hunt for material goods. Just a few decades ago, it was hard to be an expert on something—even something frivolous. If you wanted to deep dive into something, it took time, determination, and sometimes a bit of creativity. When my friends and I could quote Ghostbusters verbatim back in the day, it was because we went to see the movie over and over again in the theater. If someone knew about a rare, alternate track by Elvis Costello, it was because they immersed themselves in Elvis Costello fandom over the course of years. When my friend could recite the names of all the First Age elves mentioned in The Silmarillion, it was because he pored over the book and made the list himself. 

Now, all of those things could be accomplished with a quick Internet search.

This isn’t “back in my day” complaining. I love the fact that all this information is readily available at our fingertips. We’re better off now, despite the loss of what I’m talking about. But I think there’s still something in human nature that wants to discover. To hunt. To learn some secret not easily found—or, perhaps more importantly—not found by someone else. For some of us, we don’t want to read about someone else’s discoveries; we want to make them on our own.”

- Monte Cook - MCG game design blog

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I could not agree more with Mr. Cook and what I also identify with in those thoughts above is the core of what makes creativity such a compelling pursuit for me. Everything I do, I realize, is about the slow discovery. The unfolding of time, abilities and the way we grow incrementally closer to what we create the more we put ourselves into it.  The secrets within.

For me, hand crafting in the internet age is an absolute salvation. I have been blessed by a lot of wonderful twists and turns along this road to making a creative life and the internet and technology are crucial in the avenue of selling, marketing, even offering inspiration. Yet one of the most refreshing discoveries was that folks, for the most part, still love a handmade item over something easily reproduced. 

I am befuddled by the number of people who set out to try something, creative or otherwise and, if it is not an instant success or at the very least, if it does not quickly show signs of being so, they move on. Now, I've done my share of "moving on" in my own life but we are talking about moving on after investing years in something before making that ultimate decision. Really taking them as far as I thought I could go, sometimes further. And all those things I left behind still play a role in my new discoveries at times today. The same way that a 16th century map informed the 17th century cartographer and on down the line. 

When I look at the sculpting and making-of-things that I have invested myself in over the last 8 years now, and I see those first pieces that sold, that people actually gave me money for, I am truly amazed.

I never questioned if I would get "here" one day. I knew that from experience and from the fact I grew up in an era when you HAD to put the time in. For anything. Nothing was available with such immediacy. And for that I am extremely grateful. 

It just takes time.

When I sit down each morning to work on my book, I know very well how far I still have to go. I'm new to that creative form of expression and I have to learn things on the fly, stop often to seek out a reference or sidestep the story to explore a character, setting, idea, grammar usage or ancient myth. It takes time, yes, but it has to be done.

In a day when folks are abandoning the well written blog left and right, the hard form of writing, for the ease of instant I-phone photo glam, for the lifestyle account and the Instagram fix, I feel grateful to have been brought up in another time. At the very least, one that bridges both worlds.  

I am so grateful for the fact that the one thing the internet will never change is that, to be good at something physical, something creative, be it sculpting, writing, RPG game design, painting, illustration, dance, cosplay, architecture, acting, landscape design, and on and on, you are going to have to be willing to sit down and put in the time. All the instruction, how-to tutorials and step by step instructions won't give you the skill without the hours of application. And they won't give you an original voice/style/expression either.

In the work of almost all of my blog friends here I have been given the gift of seeing YOU uncover those secrets in your own work over years. I've watched them grow and reveal themselves in time. There is so much beauty in that and it sustains me and inspires me as well. 

Those who are just starting or still dreaming of a creative life.  .  . you are going to have to take that deep dive, start at square one and do the work, try to refine that technique or reinvent it until you think you can't possibly do it again, then go ahead and do it again anyway. 

You'll pore over the hints, tips, instructions whether they came from a 100 yr old book or from a website. But trust me, it WILL be worth every moment you put in down the road.  By all means, embrace technology as a tool, just not as the means to the end. It will never be creative in and of itself. People made it so. People opened that door and refined it for you too. Now go further.

And if you, like me, want secretes to be revealed? 
Stick with the art. 
Stick with the practice.
It will make you so glad that you did one day.
I promise you.

And along the way

You will make those important discoveries

You will improve and know yourself better

And you're going to learn those secrets.

The most important of which will be the ones locked within yourself. 
The ones that nobody else can access for you. 

And those, no matter what the internet and our digital age provides for you as far as information at your fingertips, THOSE secrets will be the ones you will cherish the most.

XO

nicolas

New mini woodland Muridae Market mouse. Chettes is the first but more to come soon!

One continuos build/sculpt, layering colored clay, onyx eyes, a culmination of 8 yrs of secrets revealed and discovered.
Worth every moment spent. :)

Leprechauns!

Had a commission recently to create this set of two Leprechauns, Sigge and Dilton, and the Codding Fox Public House for a client's first fairy garden! I would LOVE to move into more figure work and am pretty settled on this sort of size (3.5 to 4 inches) and composition. I do not know if I will ever get into making clothing from fabric but I do love creating these outfits made entirely of Polymer clay (hair made of wool roving).

Below the images I placed the little story that was included in the listing. . . of course, all my work HAS to have a story to inspire it. ;)

Thanks for looking and I hope the magic is flowing in your world. . .

nicolas

Sigge Fritch and Dilton Beedle are two of the many regulars who frequent The Codding Fox (est. 1813), which is a tiny little Pub in the back reaches of the Bewildering Pine. Here, among the tall spruce and cedar, a small colony of Leprechauns has dwelled for many, many years in Heathgrove, a tiny village found in the shadow of Aster's Keep, a long-abandoned castle once used before the closing of the time rift by the last remaining "Otherkind" in this world.

The Codding Fox (codding, in the language of the Leprechauns, means kidding or joking) is always a gathering place among the inhabitants and on any summer night, you might find almost everyone seated around the tables inside or on the benches outside enjoying a refreshing pint of their favorite tasty beverage and telling tales and yarns until the proprietor, Miss Delaney, kindly asks them to head home.

Now, not everyone in this village is particularly good with remembering their coin as they head out for the evening and so, every now and again, the tabs which Miss Delaney allows the locals to run in the Pub begin to mount. Kind soul that she is, Miss Delaney will never request payment or ever embarrass a patron who has not paid in several weeks. However, on occasion, when it's time to pay her own monthly bills, she will invite the tab-runners to come down to the Codding Fox for a special event. This, it turns out, is an evening of tale telling in which the winner is absolved of their debts and the rest are required to pay in full by weeks end.

Now, it must be said that, in truth, all the Leprechauns are quite able to pay their bill. Leprechauns do, after all, have a tendency to do well with gold and fortunes. . . but it is storytelling the Leprechauns deem their greatest asset and it is the desire of every Leprechaun to be the winner of just such a story contest. So, no matter how many tales they tell on a given night, the Leprechauns are careful to keep their very best tales for this sort of event.

The rules are simple. The tale told must be new and unheard before by all in attendance. It must be no longer than 4 minutes long (this rule is absolutely necessary if you have ever heard a gathering of Leprechauns tale-telling) and it must not involve the misfortune of anyone other than the teller of the tale. (The kindness rule Miss Delaney calls it)

Sigge and Dilton are two of the regulars of this event. Sigge, who is quite a few years older than Dilton, has won the event a handful of times while Dilton, still learning the finer points of timing and truth-stretching, is looking for his first win. This night, in the poses you find Sigge and Dilton in, the two friends are practicing their tales on each other before the contest begins.

All agree that the best part of these evenings is the round of new stories to be heard, many of which will be repeated again and again for travelers and newcomers to the Fox over the coming weeks and months, and the fact that all libations, on these nights are also on the house.

Needless to say, The Codding Fox and Miss Delaney are somewhat legendary among the Leprechauns and it s no surprise that this little Pub is often considered the finest establishment in any corner of the realm.

So the next time you are wandering north through Heathgrove on a summer's eve, stop by for a dish of Miss Delaneys hand-cranked Brambleberry ice-cream, a dish of traditional Colcannon or a Pale Lucky Clover Ale and let the stories of your table mates and hosts whisk you away and, once the evening is over, may they stay with you now and for ever more.

New Work from Shadow of the Sphinx

Just time this evening for a few images of four pieces just finished for some of my delightful customers. Enjoy!!

Small 5" Statue of Seshat the Goddess of Writing, Arithmetic and Architecture

Serqet or Selket - 7.5" tall - Scorpion Goddess - Protective Deity - The form I chose borrows from the famous gold statue of Her that guarded Tut's burial sarcophagus/shrine.

The Sutekh on the right I posted yesterday but he goes with this second Seshat as a pair. Aren't they a formidable duo?