Folk and Fairy

Illustrations from Drawer Geeks

2008-07-20T22:52:00.005-05:00

I have been obsessed with the galleries over at Drawer Geeks this weekend and I had to pass along the link so that everyone can waste as much time as I have.

Every other Friday, illustrators answer a challenge to give their own take on fictional characters from mermaids (my favorite) to the Lone Ranger to Cinderella to Rednecks (though that hardly seems fictional to me, living in Pittsburgh as I do.)

Of my many talents, drawing is not one of them and I am deeply impressed by anyone who can do this kind of thing off the cuff. It's such a fun exercise, and lots of them are mythological in nature. I thought you all might want to have a looksee:

Cinderella
Snow White
Titans
Cyclops
Werewolves
Alice in Wonderland
Mermaids
Tinkerbell
Hansel & Gretel
Arthurian Legend
Pinnochio
Medusa
Red Riding Hood

And that's just a handful.

Mea culpa

2008-07-06T14:40:00.004-05:00

When I saw that I hadn't posted since May 30, I believed it. Many times over, I'm sorry. Life was so life-like in the month of June: 2 weddings + 1 cat hospitalization + 2 new jobs = not so much F&F time. But look at what I offer in penance!

Are these not direct from a woodland cottage? I found them on Rare Device, the website for the San Fransisco store of the same name. You can choose to have one or two horns per cup. Mea cupa.

Faerie Pockets

2008-05-30T12:36:00.002-05:00

I've been hanging out a bit on the faeriefashion Live Journal community, where it seems creativity and imagination are a prerequisite for joining. It's there that I found psilobabe whose faerie pockets are taking the community by storm.

You can see her original post about the pockets here. I believe the going rate is £14GPB (plus shipping and handling) which comes to about $28 US. Totally worth it for that pretty leaf embroidery and soft suede!

Birds and Twigs

2008-05-19T15:48:00.004-05:00

I love it when my searches for mundane items (this time: an organic cotton shower curtain) lead me to find fairytale furnishings in the far corners of the internet. I ordered my shower curtain from are|naturals, a company that carries these cute Bird Measuring Spoons and this Twig Table Runner. Some good fixings for a forest party, wouldn't you say?

As an aside: my shower curtain arrived quickly and it is just as promised, so I can happily attest to their great service.

Ooh!

2008-05-17T22:40:00.002-05:00

Faery Wine Gourd
Originally uploaded by plumevine

Look at this faery wine gourd from Plumvine! I'll post more about this lovely jeweled artistry in the future, but this caught my attention tonight on my Flickr photostream. What do you think is inside?

The Game at The Hermitage

2008-05-12T11:39:00.003-05:00

Rima Staines is an artist whose blog, The Hermitage has become one of my recent favorites. She clearly embraces the strange and grotesque, but there is a lot of history and charm in her work as well. Rima sells her prints in her etsy shop, at very good prices.

She posted today about a game she created for her Book Arts and Crafts degree. The game's inspiration came from so many sources - her fascination with old world beliefs and truths, the balance between seasons and time and life and death, her love for the earth and the pre-industrial eras - all contained in this little trove.

It would be easy to get lost in Rima's world...

Alienskin Clothing

2008-05-07T11:57:00.007-05:00

It's difficult to find fairy clothing these days that doesn't look like some hippie knock-off or a Disney fairy princess. Frustrating, isn't it? Me, I usually compile my costumes from the thrift store. If I had a bigger fairy budget, however...

I'd go for Alienskin's Faery Clothing line. The pieces are reasonably priced, which is a lovely surprise. Custom made in the UK, from sizes 6 to 26! I, personally, am swooning over the top in the last picture...the lines of these clothes are just so pretty!

Les Bonnes Fees - New Zine!

2008-04-23T12:31:00.003-05:00

This is super exciting. Peta Anderson has decided to start up a brand new fairy tale web zine! Les Bonnes Fees is now accepting submissions of poetry, prose, reviews, commentaries and art, so this is the time to get in on the ground floor. This will, I think, be a welcome addition to Goblin Fruit and Cabinet des Fees, and will fit nicely in a niche between them with a really different feel.

From their about page:

"Les Bonnes Fees is a project that has grown out of our love of fairy tales, starting as a personal page filled with fairy tales and fairy tale commentaries. After some time, though, it became apparent that that there are few fairy tale sites and magazines for the casual reader; Les Bonnes Fees is our attempt to help fill this gap.We are not folklorists, but rather interested persons with a love of fairy tales."

So what are you waiting for? I know you're an artist, deep down. Take the plunge and submit!

(Image: the fairest of all yarrow from jude on Flickr.)

Gathering of Rings

2008-04-22T16:50:00.011-05:00

In two days - April 24 - I will have been married for four years. I had known Hans for just over four years when he proposed to me (on our four year anniversary). We got married in the fourth month of 2004. I never really realized how many fours there were around us until now! But I diverge.

You can read about my feelings for Hans in this post from my personal blog. I love him very much, but now is the time to talk of other things.

In four years, I've never found a ring I love so much as the one he gave me when we were engaged. It's from an estate sale, which makes the environmentalist in me happy; it's flowery and filigreed, which pleases the romantic in me. Since rings seem to be on my mind these days, I thought I'd share some of the pretty things I've been coming across online. There will be more than four, though - I can't choose!

After the Rain by Morning Glory Designs on Etsy

Black Sheep by Soop on Etsy (you can buy multiple rings to make vignettes!)

Silver Folded Wings Ring by ragtrader on Etsy

Forget Me Knot by Kiel Mead on Elsewares

The Disney Treasure Chest Ring on Fredflare (I know how fairy tale enthusiasts feel about Disney, but still! Look at this thing!)

Absinthe Fairy Spirit Crystal Ring on Anime Cubed (a little indulgent as far as dorkiness, but still pretty!)

Tortise and Hare by Marty Magic

Finally, in honor of Earth Day, this cute cute plant ring by cbijoux

Every day a holiday

2008-04-17T19:08:00.002-05:00

Lately I've been checking out the April Holiday calendar at School of the Seasons. It's a website run by Waverly Fitzgerald, a lovely lady who is a teacher and author and philosopher. She's very much into living in harmony with the seasons, the moon, and nature, and her new self-published book Slow Time advises readers how to get the most out of living this way. Her calendar of holidays is really fun to look at - a bit of history and folklore in each day, whether it's about Passover or Cerealia (coming April 19).

My birthday, May 5, is of course a celebration of Cinco de Mayo, but it is also the day that Koreans play outside on swings and the Japanese celebrate boys. Does anyone have any really great holidays on your birthday?

Goblin Fruit: Spring 2008

2008-04-16T19:26:00.003-05:00

I know, I know; I'm late to the party. But for posterity, Goblin Fruit's spring issue is out and it is bewitching as always. I haven't read the whole way through it yet (internet hiatus is both a blessing and a curse) but here is what one of the editors, Amal, has to say about this issue:

It's our second anniversary! Goblin Fruit has entered the Terrible Twos and fully intends to stomp its way wrathfully into another year. In the grand tradition of launching from new and exciting locales, this Spring issue is brought to you from the Levant with cedar twigs and a handful of Damascene dust. These poems are wet, deep and sea-salted, sure to leave you breathless as a mermaid's kiss and just as doomed and desperate. Read them with caution, and make sure you know how to swim, first -- or don't, and see what dreams may come.

Come buy, come buy!

Fairy's Bath Day

2008-04-16T19:12:00.002-05:00

I took this picture the other day, thinking it would just be a simple laundry day shot. Of course, the fairies are everywhere so they found a way to make magic with my photo. There's this bush at the end of our driveway - does anyone know what it is? It's just so yellow. I love it.

I've been thinking about blogging lately, and I have come to the conclusion that my lack of updates is due to the fact that I had higher expectations of myself when this began. Expectations that, like many bloggers, I would be able to write and write about the stuff I've found. I also do write a lot on my personal blog, and to be frank it's easier to write at length about myself than about fairytale art! I'm one of those visual people; I feel like a picture and a bit of "ooh! Look!" is sometimes better than several paragraphs.

I hope that's okay with everyone. I love Folk and Fairy and I really want it to be enjoyable for me. If you'd like to read about my more everyday kind of magic, you can find me at http://elva-undine.livejournal.com. I chose the name after two of my favorite things - elves and mermaids. Undine, is of course, the creature of the popular fairy tale and a more general term for sea maids, while Elva is a specific character from a tale that I love called Elf Trap by Francis Stevens. Set aside some time to read it this week - it's worth every enchanted minute.

The Air Hung Shiny as Candy

2008-03-25T18:42:00.002-05:00

This is an essay I wrote for an early entry in Livejournal Idol. The topic was My Favorite Childhood Memory. I'm still in the competition; it's down to 36 from 154. My personal blog has been taking up a lot of my blog time, and I don't like it; I think I'd like to incorporate some more personal but fairytale-ish things on here, but I'm still not sure how to do it. F&F's only a year old, I know. I'll have to think some more.

-----
My parents may have taken me to church each Sunday, but I worshiped at the church of unicorns. It began with My Little Pony, and during this phase I collected my share of bright-haired mares. I dressed them in their impossible clothes and shoes, and I watched them on television. When it was no longer cool to play with My Little Pony, I collected unicorn figurines, stickers, and posters. I knew there was nothing I loved better than this candy-colored world of fantasy.

It had been a strange summer and it led into a lonely autumn, unicorns and all. I was eight, and I was not cool anymore. My best friend had left me for the cool girls at school, and I was on my own for the first time since kindergarten. I was too young to be jaded, but I was hurt. Also, I was bored. In an act of tiny rebellion, I went with some neighborhood kids into a place I had always wanted to go but had never been allowed: the woods.

They were specific woods: a dark, dank, seemingly forbidden patch, as the actual owners had no children. We cut through their backyard with its sharp grass and plunged into the trees. Downhill we went, picking up the blue glass bottles (that for some reason littered the woods) and wondering if we could sell them. It was the 80s, after all, and we were a very materialistic group. Any ambition I had disappeared as I suddenly stumbled out of the trees. My friends may have disappeared at this point; in my memory, I am alone. I dropped my blue glass bottle.

It was not the soft peridot-colored grass of the field, nor was it the perfect willow that rose from its center. It was the stream - the stream! It cut behind the tree, clear and silver and too wide to jump. A tree I could conquer, but this - this water?

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god - sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognized as a frontier...
- T.S. Eliot "The Dry Salvages"

I leaned over and plunged my arms in. I smiled into the ice cold water, and I knew there was nothing I loved better than my small silver god. Upon looking up I saw that a beaten brown path ran parallel to the stream and out of sight to the north. And just yards upstream, there was the simple machine that would allow me to disregard the water and follow the call to adventure: a wood plank bridge.

In this moment, encompassed by forest and sky and God and time, a life-link was hammered into place. When we left, we climbed a different path, one that twisted up through bushes, twigs, and thistles. That night I sat on the living room floor, flushed and cooling. My mom combed through my thick hair, looking for ticks and wondering what had gotten into her little girl. It was this: I knew my formerly plastic and opalescent world of fantasy was no longer bright enough. It was weeks before I got the courage to follow the dirt path on the other side of the river. Then one day, I did.

The Blue Flax

2008-03-17T18:40:00.003-05:00

The Blue Flax - from Celtic Spiritual Verse: Poems of the Western Highlanders

The fairy-queen's flax, the blue-eyed flower
Be to shield me and keep me still
From hosts of the air and faery power,
From evil deed and from ill-will.

Happy St. Patricks' Day - and is that Easter just around the corner? How did that happen? Does anyone know? Oy. Busy week coming up.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-16T15:45:00.012-05:00

(image by Dizzy Girl on Flickr)

Good morning! Most of the world celebrated St. Patrick's Day over the weekend, but there is still the (un)official holiday to be had. Are you wearing green and/or orange?

Pittsburgh observes St. Patrick's Day with a devotion and intensity that few communities can rival; I have yet to actually see it in person (why do I always miss the parade?) but according to Marianne (who has a lovely garden by the way) it resembles Ragnarok, but with an alcoholic stupor. Maybe I will get up the courage to observe it in public next year, but for now my celebration includes quiet things like having red hair (but not being Irish) and wearing some green.

If I can find the time between reading Very Bad manuscripts for work, I might just read a few selections from this volume of Irish Fairy Tales I picked up at a pittance from Half-Price Books. There were so many Arthur Rackham illustrations I hadn't seen before inside this pretty pretty book (forgive me for my lack of illustration-picturing skills):

The cover image is from Becuma of the White Skin

Fionn from The Boyhood of Fionn

Fianna from Oisin's Mother

Iloaan and Tuiren - The Birth of Bran

I especially love the image of Iollan and Tuiren. Probably because I wish that Pittsburgh was green and lush right now instead of brown and bland. Soon though! Hans and I went for a walk the other day through the Nine Mile Run watershed and found just a bit of green:

I'll be back later with a poem or two - I found a book of beautiful poems called Celtic Spiritual Verse: Poems of the Western Highlanders that I want to share.

Fairie-ality and Green for St. Patrick

2008-03-10T11:12:00.001-05:00

Fairie-ality
Originally uploaded by Moranga

A bit of green for St. Patrick's Day week (I know it's next week, but still. You have to start celebrating early). I found these fairy frocks on Flickr, but they are from a Fairie-ality, which I believe is also a book? I think I've seen this book somewhere. But I love these little dresses, and would be quite happy to wear any of them. If I were, you know...a few inches tall.

My sister has been visiting me this past week for her spring break, and tonight is her last night with me *sniff* so we're heading to Mullaney's Harp and Fiddle to toast her farewell. It's going to be a good welcome for St. Patrick's Day week!

In the darkness before the dawn of spring

2008-03-07T13:55:00.005-05:00

Holy moly! Yesterday was my 1 year blogiversary and I didn't even think about it until today! Eesh. I need to be on top of these things.

Today I wanted to share the Midsummer Light from re:modern. Isn't it gorgeous? I love the paper-cut pattern, and how it looks like a drying bouquet. I also think it's the perfect thing to bridge the way to spring. It's icy and white, but the shapes are so organic and just bursting. Love it.

I've just picked up Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life by Joan Gould from the library, and so far I really like it. She's got a refreshing take on women's roles in traditional fairy tales, shuffling the prince in the background and celebrating the power of the mystery and change and life in a woman. Thus far I've read a bit about Snow White, which is one of my favorite tales but I always felt a bit shy about admitting that I loved a tale with so much domesticity and seeming naivety; now I see it in a different light.

This has been a black and white post, and if I am going to admit my love for Snow White, then in my next post I need something red as blood, don't you think?

Dale Chihuly at Phipps Conservatory

2008-02-23T19:19:00.004-05:00

One of the reasons I love living in Pittsburgh is that I can use nearly every special event at Phipps Conservatory as blog fodder. I wrote about their mythological topiary display awhile ago, remember? This is an entirely different shebang.

Dale Chihuly is a world-class glass artist, and Pittsburgh has been lucky enough to host his show for the past year or so. It was the second-to-last day when I remembered that I really wanted to see it, and I spent the afternoon hitting the refresh button to order tickets; the server was so busy, we almost didn't make it.

The two above pictures were taken in the room that hosts the plants of Thailand. It didn't matter what room we were in; it felt like another universe, with these shining plants sprouting up everywhere, having their own little parties.

This chandelier was one of my favorites. The water in the pond is really jet black, and the red lilies looked like they had just fallen on the water, so naturally. The colors are so bold, I couldn't help but love the whole room. Here are some more shots of those lovely hues:

I thought the multicolored installments were especially pretty:

But I have to be honest; the muted colors, as always, were my favorites. It's the Arthur Rackham-lover in me. What can I say? I say: I think this sculptor is more than a sculptor. I think he knows magic.

Obviously Dale Chihuly is inspired by organic shapes (like all of the artists I love) and after seeing all of these sculptures and being around real, growing things and walking on dirt, I am so ready for spring! The last thing I saw was this chandelier that was hung in the main lobby, and it's tropical colors stood out so bright against the white smudge of winter that I couldn't help but get hopeful that spring is, indeed, coming.

There are several more pictures in my flickr set, and if you simply type "Chihuly" into the search box, lots of very wonderful (and I admit, much more professional-looking) photos come up.

Shoes for the Sylvan (and Eco-Savvy)

2008-02-12T20:56:00.001-05:00

Think spring. Think it. And send it my way!

Found at Planet Shoes, these elfin sandals come in green, brown, orange, and (strangely) pink. US $120

Goblin Fruit: Winter 2008

2008-02-12T20:38:00.002-05:00

I know it's been up for awhile, but I just got around to reading it and I am just astounded at the talent in this winter's issue of Goblin Fruit. Go take a read if you haven't yet; it's well worth an hour. If you don't have an hour, I have three recommendations for you.

Jennifer Crow's Twelve Swans is told from the point of view of the princess in the tale of the same name. Ms. Crow's versatility amazes me in this selection; she picks the right words every time, and each section's form changes with the part of the tale; I love section 5: Pyre, in which an intense rhythm reflects the desperation with which the princess is weaving the last nettle coat.

Step (and Turn) by J.C. Runolfson makes the heroine from The Twelve Dancing Princesses into the villainous stepmother from any number of Grimm tales in which the queen is made to dance herself to cinders in shoes of hot iron. She tells her story as the shoes are being heated, and blesses and curses.

My very favorite is Revisiting the Maiden's Tower by Stacey Cowley, in which Rapunzel expresses her only wish: to be left alone at the top of her tower. The witch, the prince (whom she calls a monster) and all others are spurned for the silence and stories of her own company, and Ms. Cowley paints a violent figure who has no regret for those she has sent to their doom and death in the moat below.

Several of the poems can be listened to, as read aloud by their poets; I suggest To the Royal Society of Cryptozoologists by Caitlyn Paxon.

Faery Knitting: A Fairy Tale podcast!

2008-02-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Long have I searched for a really good fairytale podcast. So long! I love podcasts, and I listen to podcasts about everything from knitting to medieval history to science. What about my love for fairy tales? There were none to fill this niche. Luckily, when I posted about this sad fact on the Ravelry group that I moderate, called (guess what) Folklore and Fairy Tales, one responder said that she had indeed just begun a podcast called Faery Knitting.

Now, lest those of who you do not knit be put off by the name, rest assured that Erin (known online as Spinnerin) does not spend most of the podcast talking about knitting. In fact, knitting blends into the myriad of folky arts that she enjoys. The woman is living in a fairy tale, I tell you: she makes cheese, keeps goats and rabbits, spins, and knits - and did I mention that she is a wonderful reader? She really is. And her occasional in-story personal commentary makes me laugh.

So far, she's got four episodes out: Kate Crackernuts, Donkeyskin, The Happy Family, and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. As I said, she has a great reading voice and is a pleasure to listen to. She plans on putting out another episode soon, so start subscribing and show your support for a folky, fairy podcast. You can listen at the Faery Knitting blog or subscribe on iTunes.

A Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading - Briar Rose

2008-02-02T20:50:00.000-05:00

In honor of St. Brigid's Day, A Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading:

Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)

Consider
a girl who keeps slipping off,
arms limp as old carrots,
into the hypnotist's trance,
into a spirit world
speaking with the gift of tongues.
She is stuck in the time machine,
suddenly two years old sucking her thumb,
as inward as a snail,
learning to talk again.
She's on a voyage.
She is swimming further and further back,
up like a salmon,
struggling into her mother's pocketbook.
Little doll child,
come here to Papa.
Sit on my knee.
I have kisses for the back of your neck.
A penny for your thoughts, Princess.
I will hunt them like an emerald.
Come be my snooky
and I will give you a root.
That kind of voyage,
rank as honeysuckle.

Once
a king had a christening
for his daughter Briar Rose
and because he had only twelve gold plates
he asked only twelve fairies
to the grand event.
The thirteenth fairy,
her fingers as long and thin as straws,
her eyes burnt by cigarettes,
her uterus an empty teacup,
arrived with an evil gift.
She made this prophecy:
The princess shall prick herself
on a spinning wheel in her fifteenth year
and then fall down dead.
Kaputt!
The court fell silent.
The king looked like Munch's Scream.
Fairies' prophecies,
in times like those,
held water.
However the twelfth fairy
had a certain kind of eraser
and thus she mitigated the curse
changing that death
into a hundred-year sleep
The king ordered every spinning wheel
exterminated and exorcized.
Briar Rose grew to be a goddess
and each night the king
bit the hem of her gown
to keep her safe.
He fastened the moon up
with a safety pin
to give her perpetual light
He forced every male in the court
to scour his tongue with Bab-o
lest they poison the air she dwelt in.
Thus she dwelt in his odor.
Rank as honeysuckle.

On her fifteenth birthday
she pricked her finger
on a charred spinning wheel
and clocks stopped.
Yes indeed. She went to sleep.
The king and queen went to sleep,
the courtiers, the flies on the wall
The fire in the hearth grew still
and the roast meat stopped crackling.
The trees turned into metal
and the dog became china.
They all lay in a trance,
each a catatonic
stuck in the time machine.
Even the frogs were zombies.
Only a bunch of briar roses grew
forming a great wall of tacks
around the castle.
Many princes
tried to get through the brambles
for they had heard much of Briar Rose
but they had not scoured their tongues
so they were held by the thorns
and thus were crucified.
In due time
a hundred years passed
and a prince got through.
The briars parted as if for Moses
and the prince found the tableau intact.
He kissed Briar Rose
and she woke up crying:
Daddy! Daddy!
Presto! She's out of prison!
She married the prince
and all went well
except for the fear -
the fear of sleep.

Briar Rose
was an insomniac . . .
She could not nap
or lie in sleep
without the court chemist
mixing her some knock-out drops
and never in the prince's presence.
If it is to come, she said,
sleep must take me unawares
while I am laughing or dancing
so that I do not know that brutal place
where I lie down with cattle prods,
the hole in my cheek open.
Further, I must not dream
for when I do I see the table set
and a faltering crone at my place,
her eyes burnt by cigarettes
as she eats betrayal like a slice of meat.

I must not sleep
for while asleep I'm ninety
and think I'm dying.
Death rattles in my throat
like a marble.
I wear tubes like earrings.
I lie as still as a bar of iron.
You can stick a needle
through my kneecap and I won't flinch.
I'm all shot up with Novocain.
This trance girl
is yours to do with.
You could lay her in a grave,
an awful package,
and shovel dirt on her face
and she'd never call back: Hello there!
But if you kissed her on the mouth
her eyes would spring open
and she'd call out: Daddy! Daddy!
Presto!
She's out of prison.

There was a theft.
That much I am told.
I was abandoned.
That much I know.
I was forced backward.
I was forced forward.
I was passed hand to hand
like a bowl of fruit.
Each night I am nailed into place
and I forget who I am.
Daddy?
That's another kind of prison.
It's not the prince at all,
but my father
drunkely bent over my bed,
circling the abyss like a shark,
my father thick upon me
like some sleeping jellyfish.

What voyage this, little girl?
This coming out of prison?
God help -
this life after death?

by Anne Sexton
from the book - Tranformations

Adventure!

2008-01-31T17:52:00.000-05:00

I'm procrastinating (again) in writing my entry for The Real Live Journal Idol and in my procrastination I have been looking at beautiful blogs, where I have found beautiful art! Via decor8 comes London artist Rob Ryan, who puts out some pretty prints that have an almost paper-cut quality. This one in particular gives me nothing but courage to meet the upcoming year!

What are those little guys up to?

Phoe thinks F&F is awesome!

2008-01-29T17:47:00.001-05:00

Phoe from Phoeknits listed Folk and Fairy along with nine other astounding blogs that maker her day! Hooray hooray! Thank you Phoe!

Phoe is an American writer / photographer / knitter / geek / everything living in South England and her blog is chock full of pretty things like food, art, knitting, nature, and books - go take a look! Phoe, I would list you in my top ten if I a)had the time and b)wouldn't be cheating. Is it cheating to award the awarder? I don't care. It's my first blog award!

Goddess Jewels

2008-01-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

Just in case you have never had the opportunity to look over 1ofmykind Goddess Jewels, I wanted to show you some of her very romantic, very filigreed offerings for the upcoming holiday, or really for any day. Like Friday!

Key to My Heart Necklace

Vining My Own Path Earrings

Madame Butterfly Art Nouveau Necklace

I don't think I will ever be done sighing over art nouveau. The best thing about these pieces is that many of the prices are so reasonable. Prices range from $29 - $250, with top sellers coming out around $50. Not too shabby for fairy craftsmanship - usually they want your soul or your child, you know.