Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - June 15th

Continuing my "better late than never" month. . . .

Just a quick post with a few inspirations to share this week.

First, even with all the social media out there I am amazed that we can still find things we have never seen before. . . I stumbled upon this site/work while researching some polymer clay options.


Forest Rogers Sculpture

A-MA-ZING!!!

I figure, another ten years at this and I may be able to create work like that. . . I've spent a lot fo time this past year working on the design and technical aspects of more elaborate figurative pieces and though most of those first attempts will never see the light of day, each teaches me something new.



National Geographic recently had an issue devoted to the art and culture of Ancient Egypt. It's funny,  there were not more than one or two images that I hadn't seen before and yet it still pulls me like it did when I was 8 and first encountered it.  Such wonders. . .

In May, one of my favorite podcasts, "Unexplained" by a delightful Brit, Richard MacLean Smith, took up the story of the discovery of King Tut's tomb and the accompanying curse

The Discovery of Tutankhamen's Tomb - Unexplained Podcast

So may historical podcasts have become rather mind-numbing "I'm just going to read the Wikipedia entry to you" type monologues that just aren't very interesting at all. I appreciate when a podcast can take a subject or story I've heard or read about and still manage to make it fascinating.

This podcast does that with MANY of it's subjects. But this episode was among his best.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

XO
nicolas

Inspirations and Oddities - Second Friday Post - May 11th

First a Happy Mother's Day to all of you who will be celebrating Sunday!



Well, some months I feel like I barely come across one thing that really sparks my imagination and others, like this past month seemed chock full of more than I can handle but I am going to keep it to just a few. . .  in case next month is a dry one. :)



Little House remembered:

This month's media recommendation has got to be one of the strangest ideas I have come across but it is A-MA-ZING!

It's a podcast called. . . Little House on the Podcast

If you remember the show Little house on the Prairie as fondly I do from childhood, this is a must. If like me you have not watched an episode in a decade or more and you think you can't recall a single episode with much detail,  this podcast is going to change that.

The podcaster takes every episode and gives a comical 15 minute recap from her perspective. It's HILARIOUS.

She's witty, sassy and picks out all of those bad 70's tv tropes that we missed as kids but are hilarious to recall now. She looks at it from the perspective of a mom today and from her childhood as well.

Fair warning! She has favorites among the characters and a few she has never liked and she does not hold back. Like me, she loved Laura, not so much Mary, and wonders why Carrie was even around. :)

Best of all, I don't feel the need to rewatch the episodes again myself because in that 15 minutes, she really hits the best of every episode.

Hmm, I'm not doing a very good job of selling it here but trust me, if you loved Little House, you'll love the podcast. She is currently in the middle of season three but that means there are two-plus, full 22 episode seasons to listen to!

The amazing thing is this. Yes, she makes fun of the show, the characters and the silliness of some stereotypes of tv (like how many characters who are "residents" of Walnut Grove, are in one episode and then never heard from again!)  then BUT she clearly has a reverence for the show too and if you were a fan, this podcast will make you laugh AND cry! I promise.


Inspiration is for, or taken from, the birds

I've been working on creating creatures for my fantasy world but sometimes I come across an animal or bird from our world that inspires something else in the fantasy world. In this case, I give you the Secretary birds from Africa. I think those awesome head feathers will make for a wonderful and regal addition to the formal clothing of an elven orders highest office.

A Secretary Bird with it's fancy feathers!

Flashback! 

Remember enamel pins? In my teens they were most prevalent as the little guitar and comic character pins that kids wore on their jackets. They had the metal pin back and the bright enamel colors on the fronts. If I remember right they were like 3 dollars each at most record shops.

Well, When I joined Kickstarter a year ago, I began to notice an uptick in the number of enamel art-pin projects popping up. And now, a year later? It's off the Hook Ya'll!

Here is the latest one that I sponsored, no surprise it's designs are based on the Egyptian Pantheon.

We purchased Thoth and Hathor, they are the two on the far right!
But all of these these, and the other dozen the creator added since,  are beautifully done!  

There are pins for anime, chibi, mythological beings and original designs and characters of all and any imaginings. Right now I think there are at least two dozen or more enamel pin projects going on Kickstarter.

I love when something old comes back around and gets a twist. They seem to be a wonderful way for new illustrators to get their work out there and on Kickstarter, I'd say 80% of them get funded more than fully.

Well, that's it for this week!

I hope one or more of these made you smile!

See you again in a week!

Nicolas
XO

Six Things I Am Happy About

Just creating lists today and decided to make this one to share with you all. :)


1. (Oh and this is number one by a MILE!) After more than 50 years, there is finally going to be a female Doctor Who! Jody Whittaker is taking the role in 2018 and I could not be happier or more excited! I still love to watch "my  Doctor",  the 4th Doctor Tom Baker, and I can't imagine anyone topping him for me. Though Peter Capaldi came very close the last three seasons with his dour, sarcastic leanings and those wickedly, wild eyebrows.

Anyhoo, this is lonnnng overdue and I have held out hopes we'd see our first female actor in the Doctor's shoes since the role of the Master was given, in a stroke of GENIUS, to Michelle Gomez a few seasons back.

I hope Ms. Whittaker will capture a whole new audience and generation with the role and I cannot wait to see her create the persona and make the role all her own.



2. Darci Lynne - Ventriloquism has always fascinated and, as a small child, frightened me. . .  it's always been there on my periphery as a somewhat mystical talent/ability. . . then someone sent me this link to 12 yr old Darci Lynne's audition for America's Got Talent: All I am saying is, whatever you may think of these types of talent shows or of the art of ventriloquism, it's something you'll never have seen done so well before and the final few minutes of the video are a tear inducing, feel good moment. :)  You GO Darci!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paIYpech9pY


3. Levar Burton Reads Podcast - I love a well told short story and I love the actor Levar Burton. This new podcast has just a handful of episodes right now but I suspect it will be around as long as Levar wants to read to us. This week the newest edition was a story that I read last year and would have listed in my top 5 short stories of all time but, after hearing Levar read it, I'd say it's now my all time favorite short story. It's a tear jerker, so be warned. But it's just beautiful. . . it's episode 11,  " The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu. It's the most recent episode and the link to his podcast is below. I'd also suggest episode 9 called,  "1,000 Year-Old Ghosts", which I had never read, but which is now also in my top 5 of all time. (it's getting crowded in that top five these days!)

http://www.levarburtonpodcast.com



4.  Comic creator Gail Simone received an Ink Pot award for her work in the comics industry at SDCC last month. Gail has done so much for inclusiveness in the comic industry, writing diverse characters and bringing very modern storylines to the page that no one else would have thought of or written nearly as well. She's worked on Wonder Woman, Red Sonja, Batgirl and a host of others. If you don't know Gail's story, she is a former hairdresser who is now one of the biggest names in writing comics and, if I can share a little secret with you, Gail used to cut MY hair back in the day some 20 years ago. lol And I am not surprised at all that she has reached the heights she has. . . her compassion, fierce heart and fiery wit all combine to make her a force. . . and she just gets better, and more outspoken, with time. Cheers Gail! :)



5. Back to School - It's that time of year . . . again.  Just walking into the store the other day and seeing all the notebooks supplies etc in the front aisles gave me that same feeling I always got as a kid. I've said here before that I feel like September is the start of my year. A reset and check in that is, for me, far more effective than the New Year's tendency of a lot of people. Some of it is truly that something, namely Autumn's essence, is in the air! I am sure that some of it to do with all the school years of my youth. What I remember most was that, coming from a family who did not have a lot, it was the one time of year I could ask for art supplies, paper etc etc and NOT get that "look". lol  So that feeling of having what seemed like endless notebooks, BLANK paper, new crayons, gel pens or markers. . .  whatever was cool at the time. . .  and other implements for drawing and daydreaming, the possibility of it all. . . I don't think I will ever outgrow that nostalgic reminder or the way it rises in me again this time of the year.



6. County Fairs - Also took in our county fair in the past week. There is not much that compares to a county fair in a rural area like this. From the animals (cows, pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, chickens and more rabbits than you could ever hope to see!) to the beautiful fabric art (quilts, weaving, knitting) to the master gardener's garden and the exhibit halls (baking, canning, cake decorating, flower displays etc) it's a great time. And I won't even get into the food - will they never stop coming up new with things to batter and deep fry? :) I settled for a pronto pup and pizza. Passing on the favorites of old like elephant ears, curly fries and funnel cakes. Also, we tend to go on day one as early as possible. I imagine that by day three and four the usually smiling and delightful folk who work every facet of the fairs must be at wits end by then. . .

OK, New work coming in a day or two but I wanted to share that all with you and I hope there are dozens of such things in YOUR world making you Smile! Please feel free to share some of them here with me!

Until the next. . .

nicolas

New Year, New Plans, New Work

Wishing a very Happy New Year to everyone in the blog-world and thank you, for your comments, for just taking a moment to read and for being a part of my world. :)


Hoping YOUR year to come is filled with magic and wonder every day!


“Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places.” 
― May Sarton


2017. . . yikes! I can recall, in the early 1980's being old enough to realize that I  would see the turn of the century. It felt like it was a world away back then. Now, 17 years after that millennium date came and went,  feel like I can hardly remember it passing.

I found myself, this past week, thinking of so many of the things I have tried in my life. as it pertains to "making a living" — Cooking, writing music, sound engineering, running coffeehouses, owning cafe's,  photo editing, photography, digital art. . . all took up a bit of my life as my main "pursuit".

A perfect word, pursuit.

Looking back I think I am realizing that I was always chasing something — some dream I held at that moment.  And at the core of those dreams was the thought "Wouldn't it be great to be able to make a living doing ___ " Of course, if I am honest, I wanted more than that. I wanted to be "known" for what I did too. And I often, in those early adult years, let that misguided part of it in the driver's seat far too often.

How wonderful now, all these years later in life, to have discovered thru the process and elimination of all of the attachments to that particular ideal, that it is truly enough to just say, "I want to make magic!" Well, that and then to put it into this world"

I feel most grateful that I have been able to become a "maker-of-things" and that, for the last six years, it's been my sole occupation. I do not think, in that time, I have ever thought about anything else other than gratitude for the fact that I get to rise each day and travel down whatever road my imagination wishes to go.

When I am asked about my "occupation", as with my recent, mid-December eye doctor appointment, it is funny to notice how speaking of what I do tends to stop people in their tracks. That's how it was with Dr. Paul,. Like him, they'll often ask the question, take in the answer, then turn, look at me and say "Really? You can make a living from that?" In Dr. Paul's case, this led to us stopping the exam mid-stream so he could open up Etsy on his computer and look at the shoppes! :)

But behind the magic of my two main shoppes is, at this point,  seven plus years of diligence and hard work, experimentation and lessons learned along the way. From those first days of running to the store to get the right sized box with every sale to now, where our "guest" bedroom is 100% devoted to packing and shipping. Walls lined with shelves of gift and shipping boxes, tissue and bubble wrap and oodles of rolls of raffia and ribbon.

From not knowing how to ship an international package at all to having a pretty good grasp on many of the oddities one cannot ship to specific countries. We've adapted and grown into it with every step of the process. And the thing I believe that we are most aware contributed to our ability to turn these ideas into our life's work, was the way we look at each new obstacle and are willing to do almost anything to overcome it.In short, as I have said before, the willingness to shape our life around the work and not try to force it the other way around.

Even at the beginning, when Sofie and I first took an apartment together, on day one we decided we needed to make the living room space the bedroom and the two small bedrooms into our work studios so we had more space and better light to work within. Our lifestyle never goes over well with family, though our few friends seem to appreciate it and understand. It's all in service to the creation of what we hope IS magic. And that magic has to come first for us or it's just not going to work.

Now I have gone about things pretty much the same way my whole life.

All or nothing.

No safety net or cushion below the high wire.

It's always paid off beautifully with either wonderful experiences or total collapses — and I mean that. It's always paid off BEAUTIFULLY.

Even the worst of it was a better learning experience than anything I might have gained playing it safe or taking things slow and sure.  Diving in always felt like learning to ride a bike. The uncertainty of your steadiness before that first glorious moment where the pedal completes a revolution and you catch the balance of the wheels just right. Now, I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 30, so I recall the feeling oh so well. I'll never forget it.

That said, all or nothing was a younger person's game to play for sure. And I never had the stress in those years of a mortgage or of kids or of car payments etc. I moved across the country, started four or five businesses over the next 15 years and, when things didn't work out? Next idea please! Along the way I've accumulated skills, equipment and insights that I would never have had otherwise. And they all seem to be converging in the here and now.

Thru all the trial and error, I kept looking for that one thing. That certain "magic"I could call my own.

It was never a case of wanting to have it all for me.  I remember reading in May Sarton's,  " Journal of a Solitude" about how, as she was becoming something of an icon for feminism, she would get letters from young women begging her to tell them the secret to "having it all", which they perceived her to have achieved. She often would reply, "you can't dear, no one can."I want to write another post in the coming weeks about Sarton's influence on my own life. Her love of solitude, seeing it as an absolute necessity for her sanity. . . it resonated so strongly with me. Quotes like:

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.”

No one had described solitude's graces quite like that before and it allowed me to feel as though I wasn't just some oddball for wanting so much time to myself again, as I had when I was a child.

So. . . solitude, magic, openness to change of direction or to unorthodox means. Whatever it took.

Here we are then. Solid footing and seven years into this magical path and I am completely committed to whatever it takes to keep the magic flowing.

So what does 2017 hold?

Well, I'll just bullet point it for now with short descriptions as I am sure I'll address these all in detail in the coming weeks.

1. Continued growth of my Etsy shoppes. I think I finally get it when it comes to creative balance. I've needed for some time to be better about not overloading myself and trying to accommodate everything that is requested of me.  And I plan to further my dive into exploring new work and new skills each month.

2. Creating a dedicated Squarespace website for "The Bewildering Pine" — OK, I know this is confusing to some. The Etsy shoppe, "Bewilder and Pine" is "inspired" by the land of the "Bewildering Pine.". That's the world itself. Rooted in childhood.  The place where all the little houses, stories and ideas come from. I want the site to be for those stories, little vignettes and a blog just for that world and it's characters. Anything sold there would be directly related to the stories told within. Sets of fortune cards, special amulets, dream teas and "tinctures", who knows what could be created? But at it's core, it's to be a place to grow the magic of that paracosm without limits or without tying it to the varied expressions found in the Etsy shoppe.

3. "The Ledgerkeepers" book - Short stories from around and within that same world. A full color, detailed map and 24 or so small story "peeks" into the folk who live there and the reason the Bewildering Pine came to be. A limited run of hand-bound copies and possibly (hopefully) a full print edition by the summer of 2018. All of it, however, is to lay the groundwork for a novel in the following years. There is a certain ripple of darkness under the magic of the land itself and stories to be told that no one can begin to guess at their point of heading :)

4. The Bewildering Pine "Travel Guide"- Part of the extensive world building for writing "The Ledgerkeepers" has been taking each town, point of interest and the variety of elves and kind folk, myths and secrets of that world and writing about them. It's all backstory for the larger project but I thought it would be quite lovely to put together a collection of those descriptions, a map and some other details. Maybe a small bestiary, a lexicon? Perhaps more. . . also slated for late 2017 or early 2018 but we'll see.This would also be hand-bound.

5. The Bewildering Pine Podcast - Yes, a podcast. Though it likely won't be called that. I am quite taken with podcast radio dramas like "The Message", "Tannis", "The Black Tapes" and "Life After" but I wanted a place where I could begin to tell my own family stories (which are rather magical and unbelievable in many cases) yet keep it in the realm of "otherworld" magic. Well, a short synopsis would be: Reading so many folk tales about particular fae and elven spirits I found myself thinking, quite often, "Oh, that one reminds me so much of my Great aunt Kate who lived on an old houseboat or that meadow elf reminds me of this girl I knew when I was 10 who was bewitching!" In short, it's a podcast that's about my experiences, looking back and realizing that there may have been more magic in our world, in my childhood and extended family, than I ever realized. The journey into it is set off by the discovery of a diary of my great grandmothers, long lost until it turns up in another extended family members discarded things. The entries within it, the allusions in the details, to other worlds and other "folk". I am planning on two seasons of 6 episodes being blocked out before I get started with it all for recording and broadcast.

6. Ice Elf figurines - Well I have mentioned this before over the past two years. A series of 50 or so limited edition "Ice Elves" that would  feature a story that is told over 24 months. A new "chapter" is sent to the buyer each month. I'd like it to be an interactive story as well. So as those who bought the Ice Elf figure follow the "mission statement" of the Elves and, hopefully, engage with me thru a future website for the Ice Elf world, we can build the story together. and complete their mission. I imagine the Ice Elf packaging to be rather elaborate. A "chest" containing the small figurine and a series of extras. Ice Crystal gazing ball, scrolls and amulets, coded messages, magic ice dust. . . oh I have a long list of possibilities and am sourcing materials now. I'd want to be sure I could get at least 50 of each required supply I need to keep them consistent.

7. Music - OK, this is tied to the podcast. I wrote music for years. Worked with dance companies, commercial and film makers and produced songs for other songwriters. What I rarely did though, was create solely for the "magic " of it. There was always an end game, an ideal of success that I wanted within it and, I felt, that kept me from really getting into the heart of it and writing just in the service of finding that magic. So, creating music for the Podcast would allow me that opportunity.  A way of righting that part of my past too. Working with just limited world/ancient instruments and going more for atmosphere than pure song writing or music/CD release, I just want to indulge in the magical creation of it all again. I used to be so obsessed with music. I felt like I lived and breathed it but, looking back with the advantage of the years,  I see that I always wanted and expected it to be in service to me, instead of the other way around. I want to give that back. So it's time to dig out the old digital recorder and start reacquainting myself with it all again. we'll see. . .

Ok, that's it.  . . I think. :)

This really has been much longer than I anticipated so I am going to just leave you with a few pieces of new work from December. I may have to come back and edit any errors above as the New Year is calling me already.

And I've got my Sparrows and Crows and Starlings to feed.

Magic to make. . .

Make YOUR New Year magical too!!!

And thank you for reading, but more for believing. . .
xo
nicolas

Perhaps my favorite Sutekh/Set I have ever sculpted! 

I never tire of making Sekhmet pieces. She is, after all, the Lady of Light.

These two were part of a gargoyle "quarry" of nine!  I loved making both sweet and bratty gargoyles for this request!

A fine fellow in Ireland buys multiples of mini statues for his work team when they complete a major project,
which are always named after an Egyptian Deity so, these were for "Ma'at"

The Fairy House of Barberry, the village of Hobs and Grogochs.

And a pair of country Hermitage Fairy Houses. These have come a long way over these past 7 years so they
do still feel rather "new" to me. ;) 

Small Magic - It's NEVER Too Late

My dear blog friend Andrea, at Falling Ladies, has begun a monthly collection of stories and experiences of what she has termed as "Small Magic". You can find this month's post by Andrea by clicking HERE

And the original "Finding Small Magic" Post on her Falling Ladies blog is HERE:

I hope you will take a moment and check them out, add your own (even just a link to a picture or a sentence or two is PLENTY! It need not be as wordy as I tend to be. :)

<>oOo<> <>oOo<> <>oOo<>

So this month I have just been so busy that there has been little time to create the Small Magic post I really wanted to  which I will save for November. 

One of the major influences in my writing and future ideas for figures and such in my Bewilder and Pine shop is a gentleman named Monte Cook. A role playing gamer for 40 years and the owner of Monte Cook Games, he recently set a Kickstarter record for fundraising for his latest RPG creation, "Invisible Sun". He is taking gaming to new creative levels with this project and I'll talk more about that, and it's influence on my own work, in the coming months.

His weekly newsletter from his website links to some other articles and projects that he finds interesting and I was quite happy to come across this article about a 26 year old man who hosted a Dungeons and Dragons game for his 70 year old grandparents, a couple of their friends and his 50-ish year old mother and another couple who is in their 60's.

All were playing for the first time. . .and they LOVED IT! :)

You can read the article, called "70 Year-Olds Play D&D for the First Time and Love It" by clicking HERE

The "Small Magic" of this, to me, is that it shows that it is never too late to try something new and to engage the imagination in new ways. My favorite part of the article is how the grandfather now texts his grandson between weekly games to discuss his character and it's backstory. lol That's AWESOME!

I never was a gamer. Still am not. (but maybe by the time i am 70?) Still, I appreciate the people I've known who do play it . . . as well as the worlds that are built around it and the creativity it inspires down the line.

For another interesting take on the role of gaming in adult life, if you are a podcast lover, you might try the episode of "Imaginary Worlds" ( a podcast I HIGHLY recommend) called "Rolling the Twenty Sided Dice" found HERE:

There are some very interesting takes on the influence of gaming on kids from that 80's generation who are adults today. 

The Imaginary Worlds podcast covers a range of subjects that are all surprising peeks into the worlds we create and why. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy those and I'll be back as soon as time allows in this hectic holiday making schedule to share some more magic with you all. . .

No Dungeons around here, just Dragons. :)