Elysian Field Originals

Saints Rule, Colts drool!!

In celebration of Super Bowl Sunday, I’m doing a fun giveaway to anyone who subscribes to my blog and leaves a comment! So tell me who you are rooting for this weekend and make sure to subscribe by clicking on the red email envelope. I will randomly select two people that will receive a hand crafted piece from me. Here’s a peek at one of the pieces!!

Good luck and love to all!

Piece is a hand sculpted polymer clay heart colored with mica powders, 16″ sterling plated chain accented with assorted Czech beads, pewter charms, raw silk interwoven through the chain , and sterling silver spirals. One of a kind.

It’s a new year with many new things happening here at Elysian Field Originals.  I took a break from figurative sculpture in 2009 and started a line of wearable art pieces I call Nature Spirits, based on flora and fauna.  I am having so much fun with them and they are traveling all over the globe to new homes, but I miss sculpting those crazy quirky characters you all love.  So this year I will be doing a few sculptures along with my jewelry, and wearable art pieces.

I will also be doing a giveaway each month on my blog , posting some tutorials, and I will…drumroll please…blog more frequently.  It is definitely a habit that I have to learn.  Those who know me, know I am never at a lack of anything to say but writing it down is another story.

The FAE magazine article was a wonderful jumpstart for the new year and new friends and contacts.  If you’ve not seen it you can pick it up on their website or in Borders, Barnes & Nobles, Books A Million, Hastings, & Indigo/Chapter bookstores.

For fun I’ve been creating some whimsical character earrings that are super lightweight and are accented with precious and semi precious gemstones for a bit of pizazz… here’s a peek!

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably…
Never regret anything that made you smile. “

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted to my blog!  Things have been busy here on my end, getting ready for the holidays, sculpting new pieces, and creating some neat jewelry.  Instead of a bunch of posts I created a collage to show a few pieces I’ve recently completed.

I’ll be posting more in a day or so when I finish up a commission and my thumb recuperates!  Nothing like slamming it in a car door and having it rendered useless for a few days to really put you behind the eight ball!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your loved ones and are having fun getting ready for the holidays!

Love ya.

Yes, I know, dear reader, I am a bad blogger, and as many of my artist friends would say, “Valerie stand in the corner!”

Ok…now that my stint in the corner is over, I’ve trudged back over to my laptop in tutu and combat boots to write to you.  (I am very unorthodox fey you see in dress and deed)

For those of you who are newly come to my art…WELCOME!  For my regular readers and friends, I’m glad to see your lovely shining faces once again.

Things have been crazy busy at Elysian Fields, many new techniques to try out and I’ve been working on stretching the boundaries in my work with polymer clay.  I’m also thrilled that the medium is enjoying new kudos and has begun to be taken more seriously as “fine art”. Many amazing artists have pioneered and paved the way to make it easier for the rest of us to focus on creating, and for that I am truly grateful and inspired.

I also want to give a very special Thank You to Karen Kay, editor of FAE Magazine in the UK, for launching my first exclusive feature as an emerging fantasy artist.  She is a truly amazing lady and I’m looking forward to the day I can fly over to give her a hug in person.  Thank you also to the many emails I’ve received from all of you on my art as well, it really is great to hear from people and connect with you all…it is inspiring and always a welcome surprise when I open my mail.

So, now the seasons are changing and we’re heading into Winter, and that means all ten fingers and toes will be very busy creating new and unusual Nature Spirits, as well as a return to some

of my popular miniature sculpts.  If nothing else that will silence, Silas, my house Brownie, who loves to sit amongst them like he is High King of it all and they his court paying homage.  I don’t dare correct him for fear I’ll lose another necklace to his mini rampages.  In the past if I forget to leave him his milk and honey he wreaks havoc around here and scowls most ferociously at me.  I act duly chastened but really love the scolding he gives me, he sounds like a squirrel chattering away.

That’s it for the moment…I’m busy today finishing up on some new pieces to add to my Etsy shop.  For those unfamiliar with Etsy it is a venue for all things hand made and a neat place to show and sell my art.  Stop in, take a peek around and let me know if I can help you with anything, if I’m busy I’m sure Silas would love to help, although I’d keep a close eye on any sparklies you may be wearing…

Valerie & Silas

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

Winter’s here and tree spirits are slumbering. Here is a quick peek at a dryad as she sleeps in her Maple leaf.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This has always been a favorite poem of mine, where Robert Frost speaks to the value of independence and personal freedom. I have always wished for a simpler time in which to live, and, as I grow older find myself creating just that.
This picture is in Brownfield, Maine where I go each year to relax, watch birds and sculpt.

I first heard about Type O Negative a two years ago when my son introduced me to their music. He was right. I loved the sound, lyrics and most of all the voice of lead singer, Peter Steele. When listening to music there are those far and few between times when a song really touches something deep inside that you can really relate to. I’d never seen the band, never heard of them before but the music on some level really spoke to me. (Then again at my age it could be dementia but I prefer to think of it as inspiration.)

I saw them for the first time this past year and was mesmerized by the show they put on. As a group they were amazing and I became an instant fan (can I say that without sounding cheesy?).  Steele puts his soul out there for all of us to hear and feel. It’s both a joy to hear and painful at the same time because you can sense that this is a guy who’s gone through some tough times, albeit self inflicted, and still is.  I’m glad to hear he’s come through the fire recently and am interested to hear how it plays out in his music.

One of his songs called “Greenman“, is one I really like. This past week while it was raining I was working on some of my leaf pendants and after I heard this song decided to put a likeness of Peter’s face to an Oak leaf. I think he’d like it. Here’s the result and the lyrics to Type O Negative’s   Greenman:

GREENMAN
Spring won’t come, the need of strife
To struggle to be freed from hard ground
The evening mists that creep and crawl
Will drench in the dew and so drownI’m the green man
The green man

Sol in prime sweet summertime
Cast shadows of doubt on my face
A midday sun, it’s caustic hues
Refracting within the still lake

Autumn in her flaming dress
Of orange, brown, gold fallen leaves
My mistress of the frigid night
I worship pray to on my knees

Winter’s breath of filthy snow
Befrosted paths to the unknown
Have my lips turned true purple
Life is coming to an end
So says me, me wiccan friend
Nature coming full circle

I’m the green man
The green man

October Rust, 1996

This is a commissioned piece that I just completed for a client in Arizona. She requested a Red Maple leaf with a 14 kt gold bail. I almost want to keep her for myself, lol.

A unique blend of Nouveau and Nature!

This tiny art nouveau style bas relief of a tree nymph is set into an imprint of a 2″ Norway Maple leaf from Rhode Island. Both are sculpted using Kato clay. The leaf has been colored with inks and mica powders and the fairy nymph is colored using watercolors then sealed.
The brown leather necklace is 20″ with amber glass beads, silver beads, sterling silver bail and a hand crafted sterling silver clasp.