New Work - First Friday Post - August 3rd

Hello Everyone!

We had our first rain here in a few weeks and it feels like fall already! Foggy, gray and moody. A fine walk in the forest this morning revealed many yellow leaves and berries on the ground. It's been a lovely summer but I am ready for fall and winter again! :)

Alright, on to the new work from the last month. . . I want to get back on an every Friday pace AND get back to commenting more regularly on my favorite blogs so I am going to keep the first Friday posts minimal on words. I have lots to share with coming month, new inspirations and oddities, a few book recommendations and a few video links.

Plus, 4th Fridays will be back with a look into my process as I continue to push through the first draft of my fantasy novel.


For now, enjoy the newest and most recent from my shops:

Nicolas XO

Let's get right to it with this fantasy inspired piece. A monk's hermitage set atop a stone spire with a circular staircase cut into the stone and winding it's way up the sides. . . and a tiny N scale Monk figure! 

Rarely get a request for the Goddess Nephthys as a Kite. This may be my favorite that I have made. 

A more detailed and complex Mushroom House Scene

I love the regal simplicity of the Sekhmet face. She truly is the Lady of Light. 

Too Soon? Not for the shop! I've been slowly stocking up on making mini tombstones for the Halloween season! 

This new blue "faience" patina is a mess to work with but yields such amazing results!
My fingers are blue for two days afterwards! (Note to self - gloves!) 

Had some of these enamel pots around from a few years back and just found them again.
So the mini-village makes comeback! 

A request for a set of votive altar candle holders led to the creation of this unique, one of a kind set! 

Tiny terra-cotta pots, tiny houses BIG magic! 

And I know, I know. I have shown many Taweret statues in my blog. . . I cannot help it! There is no other figure I make where I am so giddy while I create it each and every time!  A chubby hippo can really make a "kid" smile. 

First Friday New Work - Álfablót - November 3rd

Hey everyone!!

Well the holiday season is off and running already around here. My custom work slate is now practically full and I am already a little behind this week.  I'll have another start to finish, work in progress, series of pics for December but this month I'm going with examples of completed new work from the shops.

Speaking of the holidays. . .  we are going to be following along this holiday season with a wonderful book, "The Old Magic of Christmas" which talks about the old traditions and origins of the holiday traditions in many European and Scandinavian countries and, most importantly (for me) the baking that accompanies it. :)  It's ALL about the baking isn't it?

So I'll be baking up a host of special holiday season treats this year. Icelandic Snowflake Bread, Cattern Cakes, Lussekatter, Sisky and others as well.

Tonight we are celebrating Álfablót, a welcoming of the elves, or Álfar, in after the harvest. In Scandinavian tradition this is a local celebration in homesteads after the harvest as winter approaches and the celebration is not only to honor the ancestors, but also other spirits, such as the elves and the land spirits, the "Landvaettir". This is a home/family celebration, doors are left ajar to let the elves in and strangers were not welcomed near the homesteads during the celebration. 

You want to celebrate Álfablót between Samhain and Thanksgiving, tying it in conjunction with the moon (waxing better than waning) and not on a recognized day like St. Martins day (Nov 11th) when the elves would have to share their day with anyone else. :) 

We'll be welcoming the elves with this invocation: "Let them come who wish to come, let them go who wish to go and do no harm to me or mine". It is not considered auspicious to converse with the elves beyond that welcoming. Simply to welcome them in and provide the feast. Of course, we in the human world may talk among ourselves as we would at any gathering.

We'll set out a red table cloth hoping to draw a few elven female spirits, the Dísir, to the feast night as well. There will be no electricity after dark as it can disturb or irritate the sensitive elder folk among the elves so candles or a hearth fire is best. Simple foods like bread, meat and milk are preferred for feasting with the Álfar.

I'll try to photograph it and post pics mid week. :)

 Next weekend we will be celebrating Martinmas or St. Martin's Day November 11th by making Turnip lanterns (if we can find big enough turnips) and Martinmas Horns. They can be made with a cookie dough or with a yeast dough and are filled with apricot jam and a touch of marzipan.  I'll probably make the yeast variety since I don't get to do nearly enough yeast baking these days!

For now, I hope your November is off to a lovely beginning and to close this First Friday post, here are a few new creations from the Enchanted studio.

Thank you, as always, for dropping by!

Nicolas

I love the sod topped houses of the Faroe Islands. The black houses (color provided by pitch on the real houses)
are as much a favorite as the red ones which I also make! 

Three Mushroom Fairy Houses on Stars. Always a holiday favorite and I am
trying REALLLLLL hard to get ahead on them! 

A custom request for a little Glitter Shoppe on a star. New Pink trees and the druzy disc
on the roof gable add something magical too I think.

I've been making these translucent "alabaster" Egyptian pieces. In making them I realize how much I count on the aged patinas to cover the dings and blemishes where as these require more attention to getting the smoothness of the sculpt.

A special request from a customer for this piece with two angels sitting on the bench conversing,
representing two family members who had passed.

These are hand-painted N scale figures that are about 1/2" (1.25cm) tall and check out those tiny little metal wings!

New Work - July 1st

Well June certainly went by in a whirl. . .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Mushroom House!

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

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

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

Thank you, as always, for dropping by!

XO

nicolas

New Work - March 1st

Ohhhh February was quite a month of exploration and decision making for my creative self.

I think that I am realizing more with each passing day that I have to just accept that choices need to be made if I want to be happy with where my work is going. The number of projects tugging at my heart (those yet to be realized most of all) makes it hard to focus on the "shoulds". . . so I am trying to give myself the freedom to work on several new ideas a month. Then there are redesigns, revisiting old favorites again etc etc. . . oh the to-do list. . .

February was a month where I took it upon myself to really attack that list and, while it caused a bit of apprehension in my "responsible, money making self", in the end the month was quite good all the way around.

In addition to what you see below, I will post, in a day or two, my first art doll that I think really captures the essence of what I want to make happen with them going forward. I worked on it a bit almost every day the last few weeks, giving myself the time to get each detail just so.

 Also a new series of mid-sized statues for Shadow of the Sphinx and some enchanted amulet ideas that I have been developing too!

For now though,  I would like to share some of the new/revamped work!

First, this is a redesign of my old stand alone Mushroom House. It needed an update BADLY!  It's really reassuring to see how your skills have grown over time when you remake an old item all over again!

So, while I was at it, I though "Why not plop one into a little star landscape too"?  

Windmill Updates include wooden planking on the gable's front side. and I returned to painting tiny people again for my scenes. . . I just think it adds so much to the image.

A new Stump Town Fairy house with Mailbox, rooftop mushrooms and trees and, of course, a goose about to take flight!
I love seeing how much I can cram onto one tiny little landscape! This one even has a tin pair of pearly shoes sticking out a knot-hole in the tree in the back!

And making scenes again, like this one, for some of my little houses. Again, the figures add so much and the climbing vines are a new favorite that I just want to put on EVERYTHING! lol

And lastly, a strange little creature. . . the first iteration for an idea for my Bewildering Pine storybook, an Order of monks who are, in essence, descended from Mimes. With strange mind-bending powers like being able to put someone in an invisible box, or behind an invisible wall that you cannot walk thru. Or to make invisible wind. Or levitate by holding invisible balloons. This little guy was based on the Jawas of Star Wars fame but I am working on a larger one with verrrrry long features and flowing, Erte-like robes and a mask. Too much fun!

Well, that's the whole of it for today! More very soon though I promise.

Including another post about pleasing my inner 9 year old. I think I really had a lovely little breakthrough with that idea this week and want to share it!

Thank you, as always, for looking!
xoxo
nicolas