First Craft Show

Well, Saturday was my first craft show, at Liberty Square Festival here in Sparta. Not bad for a first run, really. The item above sold (although it's on my custom item catalog and can be reproduced), along with MANY stretchy bracelets and keychains, and distributed many of our custom item brochures. I'm pretty happy with the results. Our Renaissance group, LLORE, also performed, with a few glitches :)

In other news, our website is live! Check it out: http://www.youvegotmaille.net It's mainly for creating custom items, with galleries of our one of a kind items, too.

We'll be at Sandbar Arts Craft Festival at Rock Island State Park this weekend Saturday and Sunday (if I survive till Sunday!) sharing a booth with Delavande, so if you're in Tennessee come on by! LLORE will be there, as well.

Faery Tales: Etsy Finds Week of 8/4/08

This week we're going to visit a few artifacts from the fairy realm, where time has no meaning and imagination is everything. Think happy thoughts and come with me.

Amber Gemstone and Pewter Fairy Hair Stick by Night Blooming

When a friend of mine showed me how to use hair sticks I fell in love with them. Such an easy and elegant updo. Basically you just take your long hair and twist it tightly where a ponytail would be, tuck in at the end, then weave your hair stick through the bun, making sure to catch some of the hair that's close to your head. It takes a little practice but it's worth it. Night Blooming has some gorgeous ones you can practice with and I really loved this one. Behind the fairy is an amber gemstone.

The Offering by The Midnight Orange

You won't see what an incredible work of art this is until you go to the listing and sort out what you're looking at with each of the pictures . The top of this dollhouse sized dresser is a gorgeous fairy print, and each of the drawers is lined with another from a Brian Froud book. The wire legs are twisted around things that I imagine any fairy would want in her bedroom, including a vial of glass beads. Really, go look, or you are missing a work of art. And you can have it for $20!

Forest Green MIRIAM Enchanted Fairy Wings by EPS Studios

I couldn't do a feature on fairies without putting in fairy wings, but this shop made it really hard to choose one. If you're the type that prefers to go to the Renfaire winged, or you're planning any Halloween costume that involves wings, you owe it to yourself to visit this seller. I adore the pheasant feather wings but I thought these were a little more fairy-ish.

Lothlorien Spring Forest Ear wrap Earcuff by Thyme 2 Dream

Most of the items from my fellow FAE team artist Thyme 2 Dream would've been right at home in this article as well. She says in her profile: "I create jewelry for discerning Faerys & Elven Folk and have recently discovered that mortals like it too." Well, this one does for certain. I've always loved ear cuffs and hers are stunning. I hope she'll forgive me for taking a page from her style book as I try creating them, but I think there's probably no matching something like the one here. If elf or fairy is your style, I'm sure there'll be something in her shop that you'll adore.

Green Ocean Jasper Celtic Circlet by Pern Circlets

While I'm at it I'm going to plug another FAE team member and Thyme 2 Dream's other half, because his work is something I'd stand at a Renfaire booth and drool over too. Each item conjures images of Lothlorien, stately mallorn trees and pointy-eared people. A couple of items for guys here, too, including, I think, this one. I also wish I'd been aware of these two shops when I was having my Renaissance wedding, I'd have requested custom work from both of them.

Fact of the Day :)

lthough they now serve many useful purposes, screwdrivers were originally invented to help knights put on armor.

So the next time you need one to work on your computer, or fix a faucet, or put an armoire together, or tighten up your glasses, just thing... what if you had to get dressed with one of these!?

Got some new goodies in my shop so you might want to take a look. No screwdriver required!

The LLORE

It will probably eventually have its own blog, but our Renaissance group got a name yesterday: The LLORE. It stands for Lords and Ladies of Renaissance Entertainment. We'll be performing Renaissance dancing, skits (which will probably include live steel swordplay) and a Human Chess Match at events local to the Upper Cumberland Tennessee area. We'll also be running a food booth (staple: funnel cakes) at several events, and we decided last night that we may spontaneously break into song: The Singing Fryers. The dance troupe (formed last year with White County Middle School Renaissance Club) will still be known as Two Left Feet, and this year will be incorporating some script and comedy into its repertoire (wish me luck writing it!). This is my baby -- I get to teach the dances, choose the dances, write the dialogue. Last year we did a questionably authentic renaissance dance, Korabushka, to Flogging Molly's Devil's Dance Floor in practice. We may make that a public spectacle this year.

Stay tuned for the LLORE blog, because I suddenly like flinging my life before the world in blog form :)

Celtic Magic: Etsy Finds Week of 7/7/08

This week I chose a love of mine as a feature theme for our Etsy Finds of the Week: Celtic items, especially knotwork. Knotwork is incredibly fun to look at and much more difficult to draw than it looks. On to our finds...

Celtic Knot Cross Pendant by Tara Greer at 3Rexes Jewelry

There was a whole lot of jewelry that had knotwork on it to be found on Etsy. I chose this one because it's beautiful, and because the seller designed, carved and cast it herself. That's impressive. Not only that, but the photography on this piece is outstanding. That makes me think I need to do some info on photography at some point.....

Stone Celtic King miniature carving by CarltonARTfactory

The Celts were amazing craftsman. When the vikings raided Ireland, they loved to plunder the monasteries for their silverwork and stonework. Stone being rather durable, many examples of Celtic stonework exist still. This fellow does a great job of conjuring up such master craftsmanship and looks like he could be an artifact out of an ancient site, but in fact he's been carved out of a river rock rather recently.

Celtic Knots Woodburned Book Box by Sixth and Elm

The choice of beautiful silvery wood on this box is fabulous. It looks like a book but when opened is a box. The knotwork, too, is great. Five stars :)

The White Horse by Emily Balivet

If, like me, you're a fan of the Renaissance, fantasy art, or mythology, you must visit this shop. The prints are reasonably priced. My walls are filling up with tapestries, swords, iron sconces and woodcut knights, and one of her prints would look right at home. They evoke Renaissance painters, and the colors are so vibrant. I had a hard time picking one to feature, but I thought this one fit my "Celtic" theme rather well.

Miniature Sword Pendant Necklace by Knights' Swords

This piece is the reason I chose the theme, although originally I was going to go with a Renaissance theme. Visit the shop; they have a couple of sword pendants, and some shields, all insanely cool. Most of the sword pendants I've seen have had a cast, "fantasy" look about them, not like you could pick it up and charge into battle if you were six inches tall. I'd love to make this the centerpiece of a chainmaille jewelry design for myself. Maybe someday :)

Armor anyone?

I'm honestly sort of amazed that chainmaille has more or less gone mainstream. Once decking only knights and footmen (as recently as World War I, as in the mask above) on their way to battle, and until only recently seen more or less on nerds and geeks on their way to the Renaissance Faire, and here we are with tutorials on how to do it in major craft stores, and perfectly respectable jewelers including it in the repertoire, and you can get an aluminum maille shirt on Think Geek that you're apparently supposed to wear to work. In case your boss brings his bastard sword.

I'm curious as to how it made this journey, so I'm planning on doing a few blog posts on the history of Maille. Stay tuned.

Long Distance Chainmaille

I thought I'd introduce my partner in crime tonight. My son Brandon is 15. Two years ago for Christmas I bought him a chainmaille dice bag kit, and it's been sitting in his room unassembled since. When I decided to do chainmaille jewelry several months ago, I had Dylon White's chainmaille book sitting on the kitchen table and while Bran was eating his cereal he suddenly went "Oh!" You could almost see the light bulb go on over his head.

So he started weaving (and taking over my rings...). He is currently staying with his dad for the summer, where he is also creating a variety of maille items, many of which I will likely list in the shop when he comes home in a few weeks. He has a terrific eye for patterns and I'm sorry to say he tends to pick up most weaves more quickly than I do (and can still do a few that I can't).

The picture at right is from White County Middle School's Renaissance Festival, the first year we moved to Tennessee. We thought that this was the coolest thing ever, and still do. Bran has been in the Human Chess Match three years running, and just this past year I started teaching the kids Renaissance dances that I learned for my Renaissance wedding in '06. We're proud to be a part of the Ren club, and learning to weave chainmaille is just another part of our love affair with the Renaissance.