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

First Friday - New Work - October 6th

First Friday - New Work

Hi all!

Welcome to the first post under my new blog format. First Fridays are reserved for giving you all a peek at some new work. This might be work in progress, truly new creations and/or a series of in progress pics of one or more pieces to give you all a little insight into the way things take shape around here on a daily basis.

It can take a week or two to complete a piece from it's beginning. Mostly this is due to working in batches thru the various processes and, with two completely different shoppes to stock, create for and manage, that can often stretch the time it takes for completing a piece even further. At any one time I can have between 2 and 3 dozen pieces going in some form. Yep, that's why my  actual "work area" can be as small as 4 or 5 inches square!

This week's post will give you all a little inside look at how I create some of the statues in Shadow of the Sphinx. I began this piece, a 9" tall standing statue of Nephthys, the Goddess of Mourning, about 10 days ago.  I get a few requests a year for Her in one form or another, the most popular being Her kneeling pose. Looking back, I am amazed at how this shoppe has become a bigger and bigger part of my creative world. The requests I get are so varied and not limited to Egyptian/Kemetic antiquity. I've done Mayan, Inuit, Greek, Roman, Norse and Celtic pieces too when requested and  always think how wonderful it would be to expand that in the shoppe itself but I can barely keep up as is most months without setting off down yet another road!

The most satisfying part of this work is that, for me, the ancient Egyptian pantheon has been a part of my life since I was 6 or 7. I've written before about how I painted hieroglyphs all over my bedroom closet walls at 12 hrs old, much to the chagrin of my mother when she found them, and how I used to make statues, crowns and amulets out of tin foil and my grandmothers endless craft supplies.  And I believe I have mentioned how I used to draw a few of the ancient deities, Anubis, Bast, Djehuty, Auset on the tops of my feet in pen or marker to protect me from nightmares and school bullies.

So it should be little surprise that when I came into working with polymer clay, the first thing I actually thought to try and make was a small Egyptian statue. And it was sooooooo bad. Those foil ones that I made when I was a kid were more realized (foil is a very underrated material! ) But something made me stick with it and keep trying. :)

Over the 7 or so years I have been doing this work, I've figured out a lot about how to make statues, faces, and all the little details that are involved. There are no tutorials, no instructions from the masters of old. . . just lots of antiquities and images to look at. I added in the making of amulets and, eventually, all sorts of non-traditional polymer pieces. I did have a little experience working in clay, but quickly found that it's nothing at all like working with polymer.

Of course, I am always going to be a rather undisciplined maker-of-things, which when it comes to statues means I cannot guarantee the height of a piece at the beginning. I use my eyes to tell me if the proportions are correct and I do not worry about perfect symmetry or balance (except in the faces).

Now, here are some images and short descriptions of the process along the way from start to finish on making the Nephthys statue I completed this week:

Every statue starts as lumps of raw clay. Basic proportions are made for the body, head and base or plinth the statue will eventually stand on. I'm not exact here since so much will be added and cut away but, over the years, I've become pretty adept at starting with the right amounts. Basic body shaping helps to get that where I want it. 

Quick form of the body allows me to gauge the finished height a bit better. Once I have that form, I'll make the head to size and then put feet right on the base, this is to allow me to preserve the tiny details like toenails etc because the body will still be handled quite a bit. Arms are added to the body and ears to the head and posture starts to take shape. After an overnight rest so the clay firms up again, I sculpt a little tighter to the the finished form and add the neck plate/aegis, sculpt the hands to the body and insert the tiny Ankh charm in the right hand. At this point, the statue is fired in the oven for the first time. 

Once the statue is fired, I'll add the headdress and start some of the clothing details.  The tall headpiece is a rendering of Nephthys hieroglyph, thought to be a house/building/column with a basket balanced on top. When the statue is fired a second time, painting begins. First a layer of acrylic matte as seen in the second image and then, when dry, the first layer of the metallic pigment, bronze in this case. 

A second layer is added after another overnight drying. Then the final coat of pigment and the reactive patina are applied. In the middle image you can see how quickly the changes begin to appear. I began at the top, working down the statue and you can see the greener coloring coming through on the headdress even though it was only done a few minutes prior to the rest of the statue. The final image shows the patina about two hours in. It's pretty close to done but I'll give it the rest of the day to sit and develop. Then a final sponging of the metallic pigment back overtop creates 
the final look of the piece. 

And there She is!!! Nephthys in her final form. Over time, the pigment will fade in luster and look truly aged. The headdress is removable for shipping, easily inserted into the head on a guide wire.  

So that's a peek into the making of one of my statues. In future first Friday posts, I'll focus in on smaller parts of the process like making heads, clothing etc. I never make two the same, always trying to give each customer a slightly unique look to their statue. In this case, I combined aspects of two traditional renderings of Nephthys from antiquity to create this one. 

And here are a few more pieces of New Work as well!

Hope you enjoyed this peek into the making of some of my things! Thank you for reading and for inspiring me as well! 

nicolas

New Fairy Houses with Patina rooftops!

Reliquary gargoyles. . . finished a few weeks ago but they still need their story! :)

New Clara Voyant mini tombstone for Halloween!

A new blue reactive patina to simulate the look of ancient faience work! Totally maddening and hard to control but soooo worth it as this little Taweret/Hippo shows. . . She is is just under 3" tall!

<>oOo<> Nephthys <>oOo<>

Nephthys is a member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology.

Nephthys was known as the goddess of mourning. She was the goddess of night, rivers, sleep, and nature as well. When Nephthys became the goddess of mourning she also became a guide and protector of the dead. When people died their ''Ba'' would be tested by 40 gods, many of whom met up with Nephthys.

Nephthys had many siblings. Her parents were Geb the god of the earth (a goose) and Nut the goddess of the sky ( a female form arched over the land with stars over her body) . She was the sister of Auset/Isis, Osiris and a twin of Sutekh. 



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


Beginning in October of 2017 I started to follow the following format for my blog, posting every Friday and under the following headings:

1st Friday of Each Month - New work ( New to the shops and a look at the making of one item each month)

2nd Fridays - Inspirations and Oddities (Links and thoughts about what inspires me) 

3rd Fridays - The Making of a Maker (advice and shared experiences of how I got "here" to where being a "maker-of-things" is my full time job.)

4th Fridays - The World of Bewilder and Pine ( peeks into the world of the Bewildering Pine, the stories and books to follow and all around fantasy world making)

New Work - October 1st

Ahhh, it is my season! Autumn is in it's full, brilliant glory right now. Leaves are falling, days in the low 60's, nights cool and crisp. And today, finally, rain is falling!

I'm so ready for the holiday season and having pushed a whole slew of custom work out in September I get to begin the month with a few days of just happy-making work!  Letting my mind wander and take me wherever it wishes to lead me.

The "Ledgerkeepers" writing project is going well too.  I upped the daily word count to 1000 and hit it all but once in the last few weeks. Some days nearing 2000 words! Stories are taking shape, the "history" of the Bewildering Pine is rounding into shape and I've been exploring mythologies, folk tales and geography so much more too. I had hoped to have some digital sketches to show but would rather wait until I have a few completed so I can keep them coming at a regular interval.

For now, here are a few of the September creations that came and went thru the shops.

I hope the Autumn season finds you enjoying all it offers in your "neck of the woods". :) And I hope to catch up on blog commenting soon too. This time of year is always so terribly busy in preparation for the holiday rush and with the writing project added, it seems I have so little time for anything but my work these days. . .

Enjoy and, as always, thank you so much for stopping by!

nicolas

A requested ankh amulet that, once completed, I liked so much that I am going to be offering it in the shop this winter. :)

I adore making these Hecate statues! Just one or two requests a year but I never turn them down. :)

It took me awhile to realize that my gargoyles have been looking more familiar lately. . . then it hit me it is because that face, that smile, is totally JOXER from Xena, Warrior Princess. Oh subconscious, how do you do it?

And I think my Foxgoyles have been coming into their own recently too. Abstracting animals is really a challenge!  Simple lines, less fuss. . . better results I think!

A simple place for relaxing and day dreaming!

I'm no classic ancient world sculptor . . .  but I loved taking on this Artemis request! Her  mighty bow is actually strung with fishing line!

Found these lovely little Patina-glazed tealight holders recently and they are perfect for making little "castle "cupcakes! :)

Fairy Houses Upon Stars abound again this year, of course!

And the newest of the "Little People", a Domovoi Elf (with friends in the background)

I'll be posting an update in a few days about "Alexandra the Great" ( and some great pics of her next to a snail that was her size when we first rescued her from a lake of vinaigrette dressing) but, as you can see, she is thriving and BIG and living in a lovely glass coffee pot these days!!  :)

The Genesis of an Idea - Taoist Stones

It would be easy to miss the Taoist Stones  I sell in my shop.

Amid the colorful and whimsical and the detail lush creations, these seem to be an odd-one-out you could say. But they have actually been around almost as long as Bewilder and Pine.

They began as an idea to combine simple symbols with a mini-monolith form.  The stone titles all came from one of my favorite Taoist books, "365 Tao" which I also pulled from for inspiration about 20 years ago for a series of multimedia art shows where I invited 30 artists and dancers to interpret the one word titles from the book that I used in the show thru their own creative medium. It included, video, dance, painting, textile art, sculpture,  poetry, spoken word and improvised movement . The music I wrote back then for the shows was also inspired by the one word titles out of this book.

So it is no surprise I turned to the book again to create something new.

The main thing I want to say here is that it has taken four years to really perfect these stones.  I've tinkered with the symbols and even the words used for the set have changed a bit over time.

But last week I sold a set of all 11 and decided that they are, for now, "done"

So this is really the first time I've written about them. They quietly move thru the shop at a pretty good pace and often will sell in bunches with some people ordering one and some two or even three for their altars or for friends.  Often I did not have the entire set available when I first introduced them as finding the time to remake them among all of my other projects was iffy at best. Now I just list them as in stock and make them to order as it only takes a day from start to finish do do them and I really feel I have them down.

I've also had people request custom stones for words of their choosing which I am always happy to dwell on and create. . . even one that was inspired by a symbol from the "Legend of Zelda" for a very sweet UK customer! :)  

But it was just this week, after making the complete set and photographing them all together, that I realized they are indeed, "something".  SO here they are, my own set of Taoist Meditation Stones. Inspired by many things but all my own. :)

nicolas

The entire set of 11 Taoist Stones

The Taoist stone for "Flow" and you just have to love an item that photographs so well in sunlight! :) 

Simple, clean packaging for a simple product.

Recent Commissions in Shadow of the Sphinx

A trio of statues from Shadow the Sphinx that were all custom requests. always a favorite of mine as I get to make pieces that are not normally in my shop but then, as it turns out, end up getting seen and requested again!

I hope you enjoy the peek at these custom pieces!!

XO
nicolas

The Set Animal,  also known as Sutekh and Seth.  . The God of the Desert, Storms and Chaos

Hecate - I DO venture outside of the Egyptian pantheon work quite often actually. This Hecate was one of my favorites to create this summer.

An Anubis Sphinx - no actual record of one ever having existed in Ancient Egyptian iconography but, in my mind, the two are perfect together. Guardians of mystery and time. When this was requested, I jumped at the opportunity to make it! Plus it is just SO darned cute!!!

Nefertem - "The One Who Never Closes" - A Solar Deity often associated with the blue lotus and with the creation of the sun in earlier dynasties.  The headdress represents a lotus blossom.