Happy Faerie Day!!! It’s a day of celebrating nature
and everything to do with fairies!!!

The celebration of Midsummer’s Eve was from ancient times linked to the summer solstice. People believed that mid-summer plants, especially Calendula, had miraculous healing powers and they therefore picked them on this night. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southwards again.

The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. The concentration of the observance is not on the day as we reckon it, commencing at midnight or at dawn, as it is customary for cultures following lunar calendars tend place the beginning of the day on the previous eve at dusk at the moment when the Sun has set. In Sweden, Finland and Estonia, Midsummer’s Eve is considered the greatest festival of the year.

While observance is relatively low in the states, I am encouraging everyone to celebrate! Let us honour and thank Mother Earth for her generosity and bounty. It  is a time to count our blessings, celebrate our achievements and honour our creative and expressive selves. Indulge in some sun-worshipping, moon and star gazing; head for the beach, lake, garden, or favorite hiking trail. Gather with friends over some refreshing drinks and bask in the Moonlight!

Whatever is dreamed on this night, will come to pass.

~William Shakespeare on Summer Solstice~

I love wolves and couldn’t resist creating a bas relief of a wolf’s head on an Oak leaf. The ornament hangs from  annealed steel formed in the shape of a branch, wire wrapped with sterling silver and accented with superb Moonstone briolettes. The stones really flash in the light and add to the mystical power of the wolf.  Contact me for availability.

Here are two faerie pieces that were custom made for a gal in California.

Thanks for stopping by!

When life gets in the way (and head) of an artist, that finely tuned thing we refer to as creativity, muse, or inspiration will often grind to a screeching halt.  “Things” had gotten into the way of my “flow” as I like to call it. Family responsibilities, employment woes, you name it, I allowed it all to overwhelm me and each time I sat down to work all I could see were my problems.

Fortunate to have a place to retreat to away from everything, I packed up some clothes, clay, sundry crafty bits, and high tailed it to the mountains of Maine

For two days I sat on the screened porch that overlook the mountains and listened to nothing more than the whisper of wind through the trees and birds who were ever busy at the feeders in the yard. I was an observer to the busy forest life that went on around me as if I were invisible. There are so few places nowadays where you can witness the rhythm of nature uninterrupted like this, and here it’s a magical thing.

Birds tending to their young, deer coming to the lake to drink, the whimsical otter that busily swims back and forth searching for a tasty mussel, the whippoorwill who sings as the last light of day disappears.

Mountain storms blow throw with a fierceness that is scary at times, and the wind howls like a freight train through the forest, and yet if I were not here it would still go on. I am just honored to share the experience, an observer.

I thought about the birds particularly after a fierce mountain storm the other night. All during the day they were at the feeders with their young, back and forth and as the storm approached they slowly disappeared to take shelter. The forest became quiet and as the wind came through, and then the rain, I wondered how they fared. When the storm had passed and the rain subsided slowly, you could hear the symphony start up again and within minutes they were back at the feeders as if it had never rained at all. And I realized that to the birds the storm was an inconvenience, nothing more, and they stayed right on track with what they had been doing before.

So I sat down to my table I have set up here and began to create once again. My muse was back. This time taking it in stride that I’ll run into a metaphoric mountain storm now and then, but maybe this time I’ll view it as an inconvenience and continue down the path I’m traveling in Nature’s stride.

Thanks for visiting!

I do hope you are all well and enjoying the “roller coaster” weather patterns that Mother Nature has had us on.

It’s obvious that I love being near the woods and all things that have to do with trees, nature and fantasy. Here are a few pieces I’ve created that are currently in my Etsy shop. Enjoy and Brightest Blessings.

Woodland Frolic is a whimsical walk in the woods!  Sculpted toadstools, whimsical owls, chunks of turquoise, a fairy leaf focal pendant.

Another nature spirit ornament. This is a sugar maple leaf and the dryad’s face is done in a slight bas relief.

A better asked question might be, “who wouldn’t want to believe in times like these?”

Recent weather catastrophes, war, financial crisis’s, drugs, violence, and the downfall of the “hero” in our society has left us bereft and adrift in a sea of disillusion and uncertainty.  As children we looked up to sports legends, movie stars, and presidents until it become glaringly obvious that they missed the mark, fell or were toppled off their pedestals by their actions or misdeeds.  After all they’re only human, right?

Faeries on the other hand are known to be duplicitous, tricks-y, pranksters, who depending on their type are pretty straight forward.  Most  fairy fall into one of three categories, Neutral, the Seelie, and the Unseelie. The neutral fairies are just that, neither aligned with the good or bad, and the Seelie are generally considered to be light (mainly positive) fairies while the Unseelie are quite the opposite.  With faerie you know where you stand.

We were brought up believing in the Tooth fairy, Santa Claus,  Easter Bunny, and faeries.  Early memories of scouting fields behind our home for dew covered spider webs on the ground with the hope of discovering  fairy balls still going on.  Mushroom rings, dark hidey holes in trees, fallen logs, dense underbrush were inspected for wee folk.  My mom and grandmother would read to us each night of wee folk, goblins, and brownies who regularly stole our toys if we were bad.

My favorite poem is still William Allingham’s “The Faeries”.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren ‘t go a-hunting    
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!

Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.

While we were not rich in coin we were rich in imagination and we believed!

Fast forward some forty years and I still believe. I believe in a world of imagination, of art, of music.  Nature has become my muse, my comfort, and my friend.  I turn off the TV and go for walks in the woods.

The air is clean and sweet, vernal pools are now teeming with life, trees are waking and showing forth their finest buds and blooms.

I believe.

My grandsons are now of an age where Santa, the Easter Bunny, and fairy folk are real.  I will pass on the tales, poems, and stories that were told to me.  The seeds will be planted, nurtured, and if they are lucky, they will have the chance to experience the imagination of a magical world,  something that is slowly dissappearing from their daily life.

So, the next time you lose your keys,  the lights go out, or toys go missing,  blame it on the faeries… you’ll feel better and your children will love the stories.  Use your imagination!  

Fantasy artists do it every day.  We live our lives immersed in music, art, folk tales, traditions,  and when the world around us is in chaos, we find the quiet place that faerie provides.  Our own oasis in a desert of disillusioned humanity.

I ask again…do you believe?

]]> http://elysianfieldoriginals.com/2010/04/03/do-you-believe/feed/ 6 http://elysianfieldoriginals.com/2010/03/26/the-magical-times-contest/ http://elysianfieldoriginals.com/2010/03/26/the-magical-times-contest/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:03:16 +0000 vashley http://elysianfieldoriginals.com/?p=1137 For those of you who love contests, head on over to The Magical Times, a fantasy and pagan magazine out of the UK. I’ve donated a piece this month for their current issue #5. So for those who follow my art, grab a copy and enter!

The Nature Spirit I’ve donated is a gorgeous sugar maple leaf accented with faceted garnets, magical rock crystals, and a hand forged sterling silver spiral bail. A sixteen inch buna cord with sterling clasps finish the piece. Smudged with sage this faerie nymph is a definite conversation starter and a perfect accessory for faerie festivals and pagan times.

The Magical Times is now available in chain stores throughout the U.S & Canada too!!

I miss sculpting these miniature fantasy pieces and will add her into my Etsy shop along with more wearable art pieces.

I’m also working on a pair of Nature Spirit earrings for my April giveaway coming up soon. I’ve not done earrings with the faerie faces before so these should be a treat. Add to that they are Birch leaves and very sacred leaves to faerie and pagan culture, and with Beltane coming up will be a wonderful addition to someone’s wardrobe. Here’s a sneak peak of them in progress!

Thanks to all who entered my giveaway this month. Please bookmark my blog as I will be doing a giveaway once a month.  The next giveaway will be listed soon!!!