Back in the Saddle Again

Well, I'm back in Ontario, having spent the last two weeks at Pennsic. I'm spending the next day or so here, and then Virginia and I are driving back to West Virginia for some serious prep work for The Maryland Rennaisance Festival.

At this point, the plan is for me to be in town and at faire for Labour Day Weekend. On that Friday, my friend Terri is performing, and on that Sunday is DC Tribal Cafe, which I am very much looking forward to attending. Please contact me if you want to plan something. In fact, if you are available or interested in...conveyance...to or from events, also please contact me. :)

Back to watching Virginia watch the Olympics for me. Cheers, all.

"A night's unbroken sleep might aid my welfare..."

Happy April!

It's been an interesting few days here at Mydwynter Studios.

The work on my apartment above the pottery studios is progressing. Soon, the ceiling will be finished, and after that work can continue more easily. I have completely moved in nonetheless, which has been fantastic...especially for Rigel the studio cat, who has decided now that there is a dog-free zone, he's going to sleep off the last year. (He's been an almost-exclusively an outdoor cat for that time due to some "dog issues".) His greatest ambition thus far seems to be to shed as much as possible onto my bedcover. Congratulations, Rigel. You're doing well.



Last night was a bit stressful, for various personal reasons. I decided to take a page from my freshman year at university and stay up all night, doing some sort of artwork which I seldom get to do. The whole thing is an exercise in freedom; freedom from the usual constraints of time, and freedom from my usual constraints of media.

I was inspired to pull out my old pastels and a beautiful blue piece of pastel paper I had bought on a whim this past fall. I let fly, to this effect:



I've been calling it "study of a celt in lapiz and copper" for lack of a better title. If you have any suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them.

I won't editorialize here, only to say that it was an interesting ride getting back on that horse. I haven't worked with pastels for so long that I can't even remember when I last used them. I had a blast though, and hope to do that more often. "A fresh palatte of pastels" go onto the list of art supplies I need to order; I suspect that this set is nearly as old as I.

The spring winds outside are gusting, and changes are afoot indeed.
Be well,
Bran

Back on the Horse

Well folks, it's been a long ~3 months. Here's what I've been working on:

In December, the last time I checked in, I had just finished making my various-winter-holiday cards. I also teased that I had photos of a commissioned project, but I couldn't post them in case they made it back to the person for whom it was being created.

Well, the present was sneakily transferred to the wife of the recipient, and given as a Christmas gift, and (so I was told) much enjoyed. Here it is:



This was a blast to work on. I particularly enjoyed playing with the way the spirals didn't just have to echo the form in two dimensions, but could flow in and out of the pockets and holes within the skull. Great fun.

After that, I headed out on a long, long trip hither and yon.

I flew out to Seattle, where I spent a month making many lists and weaving lots of trim on a mini inkle loom. As usual, I spent my time hanging out with all my friends out there and being inspired by Seattle's particular mix of health, hipness, and love of originality. I finally made it to a yoga class taught by one of the guys out there, ate at one of my favorite vegan soul food restaurants, and attempted to play a game of frisbee golf. (Which is, as was clear to those who were playing with me, not my favorite past time. As sports go, I would much rather be playing baseball, or football, or a wicked game of badminton.) In spite of the latter, I had quite a nice time there.

Then I moved on to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where I proceeded to be knocked upside the head by a major respiratory flu. Being ill for a week seriously threw off our plans for the month, which were to make what I am calling "Yurt: The New Class"; where I camp at Pennsic, we Celts often use yurts as our temporary round houses. One of my friends who lives up there is basically our "yurt guru", so it only made sense that if I wanted a yurt which a)would break down small enough to be conveyed in a car, and b)was more efficient than our current versions, I would go to her. The three of us up there worked our tails off (especially our yurt guru, to whom I owe a big pile o' thanks and many, many presents). One thing I learned? When working with hickory, you get some serious tear-out which might not only be irreparable with a belt sander, but also irreparable with a nicely-sharpened hand planer. Yikes.

In any event, the delay due to illness cost us the deadline, so I'll be heading back up in July. In the meantime, one of the things we did finish completely was the cherry wood door frame, which I'll be carving (intricately, it seems, according to my sketches) and fitting with a door. Photos on that will be posted once it has been completed.

This month I went down to the last weekend of the Florida Renaissance Festival and over to Mississippi for the SCA's Gulf Wars. I was much inspired by these two events, and more on the results of that inspiration are to come.

Here's hoping the nascent Spring finds you well, and the new-green buds bring you some growth of your own.

Cheers,
Bran

...and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.

The past week was a but nutty, but full of a whole lot of accomplishment. I can post some pictures after Christmas, so as not to ruin a few surprises. However, I did also manage to create and produce my own Winter/Yule/Christmas/Hanukkah, etc., cards.



I hope you all are having a safe, warm, and lovely holiday season.

And it all began...

In the interest of photodocumentation, I offer pictures of the first skull (in fact, object) I ever decorated iron-age celtic style, in 2004. Please note my attempt to be a bad-ass by working in a spiderweb. Ah, youth. ;)



In any event, that was only the beginning. I soon learned that there are many different styles of spiralwork, coming out of the myriad time periods and places that are considered as being, in that age, Celtic. More examples to come.

Well, it's about d*%n time.

At long last, when someone points their browser to www.mydwynterstudios.com, they will achieve my own very special brand of enlightenment: this blog.

I'm assuming that the automatic redirects apply to feeds as well, (I'm testing that at the mo,) but if you have any problems, please just send me an email at help at mydwynterstudios dot com.

"...ain't it a blessing to do what you want to do?"

Ahoy-hoy...

I'm in MD this weekend for the Holiday Sale/Open House at Art of Fire. Va and Darrell and Mary and I have converged upon Va's parental homestead for the evening, and at the moment are still striving to regain the feeling in our extremities from such a very, very cold day in the Celtic Annex (read: un-insulated garage). We are looking forward to seeing some great people this weekend. Will any of them be you? We've got all the usual suspects, and some new ones, including "Crow" cookies jars and "Ceilidh" cassarole dishes. More info is up at the Dancing Pig website.

Anyway, that's what's going on on the pottery front. This show was last weekend and this, and it will be followed by two weeks of stock building before Va and I take off for Hamilton, ON, where we are planning to spend the holidays. (Darrell is staying home to make stock and host the indians. No, really.)


But wait, there's more:

-In addition to making stock these next two weeks, we are working pretty steadily on renovating my apartment above the pottery studio. The decorating scheme so far is a melange of Celtic, Roman, and Halloween chic. Kinda. Hell, it'll be eclectic but tasteful. Not unlike myself.

-Over the past few weeks, I've started work on the leather jacket back piece. It's a Hanuman design, with Buddhist art influences and some crows thrown in. (Would you honestly expect me not to involve a crow or two in this project? Really, with me you can almost count on it.)

-Also, I've been researching representations of both Hermes and dogs on Archaic Greek pottery for two new tattoo designs, but I've post more on the subject when I have some more research under my belt.

-In DC just before Thanksgiving, I was inspired to start tap dancing again. "To what end?" you (probably didn't) ask quizzically. My answer? To try to revive the tradition of tap dancing as an integral part of burlesque performance, in the DC area. I find it almost impossible to believe that no one has done it yet; it seems like such an obvious thing. Am I wrong?

-Does anyone out there have any books to spare related to Buddhist art and iconography? I find that there's a disturbing hole in my collection.

Hope all is well with you, and in these crazy December weeks, please try to find some time to enjoy the way winter can bring a little clarity along with the cold. I continually find it...useful, even what I see wasn't what I was expecting.

Cheers, all.