Midsummer Dream Fair with J.L. Bryan

I'm so excited for my new bag labels! Design courtesy of DigitalDoodlebug on etsy.com!

I've been so busy with shows every single, smacking weekend that I've not been able to even get pictures of new creations to share! And I'm in the process of collecting furniture and planning for my new brick and mortar shop/studio! I'm so excited!

But I couldn't let the opportunity slip by to promote an almost month long event of which I have a day in the lime light. :)

This is a shout out to the online Midsummer Dream Fair, organized by author J.L. Bryan. It runs every day until June 24th and is filled with daily interviews with authors and other artists - like me! I'm featured on Tuesday, June 11th, so check it out and maybe you'll win something cool!

J.L. Bryan has written quite a few novels including a paranormal horror series, a magic series for younger readers. Check out his website here.

I'll update with new photos from my shows, new creations and whatnot soon!

NH Renaissance Faire

The Silver Branch table at NH Ren Faire

This past weekend was The Silver Branch's debut at a Ren Faire! And aside a touch of heat exhaustion on Sunday, this little sculptor had a blast! The Faire is held in Kingston, NH and it's site can be found here; www.nhrenfaire.com . The faire is for charity, which is always wonderful. This year, they supported NH Food Bank and First Star Tonight, an organization for terminally ill children and their families in NH. The knights also collected for an animal shelter up in Maine that cares for big cats and much more.

My father and I

 I wanted to share with you some pictures from the faire! My favorite has to be my photogenic sister with the zombie pirates;

Kayla with her real biological parents?

The awesome artist behind all the cool leather masks at the faire. Check out Legendary Leathercrafts at www.legendaryleathercrafts.com (and she has an etsy shop!!). ... and my sister.

This faire patron is sporting one of my Dragon Key Guardians. Love his mail? It's super light because its made entirely of soda tabs!

Rufus the Beggar just before the gypsies steal his sticks and his money. He was hysterical... just don't let him pat your back.

The knights and a few men at arms. At the demonstrations, they really didn't hold back. It was informative and wince-inducing to watch them spar. They're not play actors.

I stopped to breath in the shade and found a harpist! All the musicians at the faire were amazing!

Maypole

I just love the little girls dancing to all the musicians!

One of the gypsies balancing a scimitar while dancing

TSB's biggest fans drove out an hour to see us! :D HI ISABEL!!!

The Masquerade Faery

Brand new as of 10 minutes ago! Meet my newest one of a kind creation. And like all my creations, the name usually doesn't happen for at least 24 to 48 hours after I'm done with the sculpture. Until that time, let's just call her the Masquerade Faery. She's all set for any goblin king hosted ball!

Like most of my faeries and mermaids, she was created around an idea from a found object. In this case, a clearance priced bunch of feathers from the craft store. I flipped them upside down and immediately thought up this dress! Despite the grand garb, I took special pains to sculpt her figure. I timed myself. With the distraction of occasional snacking, she took 9 and a half hours to sculpt. That was just her figure. It took me about 7 hours to get her costume, hair, coloring, mask and wings done today. That was record timing for me.

I'm hoping to figure out a way to put her up on etsy, but like all my faeries, I'm terrified of shipping her.She's pretty strong, but the thought of her tumbling about in a box across country or the ocean, no matter how tightly packed, scares the jitterbugs outta me! I wonder how other art doll creators do it....

So busy I forgot to notice!

"Ilyana and the Enchanted Koi" - Hand sculpted without molds - January 2012

Things have been insane lately. I expected that after the holiday season, I'd have a dead spell and wonder what to do with myself. I certainly wasn't looking forward to it financially, but I almost think I wanted it just so I could catch up with everything I sold in the shows and festivals I attended last season. Not happening!

"Goblin Chess" - January 2012

He's cheating!

I've been really busy prowling about looking for leads for shows, festivals and shops which would like my creations. This is a hard process when you're relatively solitary like I am. Social networking is key in this game and has never been my forte. I find myself in a muddle trying to remember names and locations and dates and applications. And who do I talk to in order to find out who I talk to? I'm sure it'll come to me... what's her name again? What's my name?? Let's start over.

Faery Baby #30! She's at The Garden Party

January marked the second year The Silver Branch has been in business! This second year I'm still looking to do shows and festivals, but I'm also going to focus a lot in the spring and summer on getting my faery babies, Green Girl boxes and jewelry into shops and boutiques. Today, I started selling my faery babies at two shops that I wouldn't have thought to sell at. One is called The Garden Party. It's a floral boutique located on the oval of Milford, NH (263 Union Square). Look them up on facebook! Eileen keeps a lovely shop with lots of amazing flowers and local artisan gifts. The other shop is Here Today Emporium - an antique shop (primarily, she also sells greeting cards, bath and body stuff and .... my babies!) located on Main St in Wilton NH.

I'm also trying to expand - a hard thing to do with my tiny little working studio (I'm grateful for it, don't misunderstand that for a moment!). I've been throwing children's birthday party workshops and classes on everything from how to sculpt dragons to how to make polymer clay sushi.

Happy Birthday Madeleine! The whole party made awesome gnomes!

The Atkins Family in gnome form

My gnomes are really expanding in variety. I get so many custom orders for these cute little guys! My favorite order was to a family in Australia who wanted themselves depicted in tiny garden gnome fashion.

Other creations from the past 2 months include....

I hand blended 3 colors of viscose to make Ilyana's braided hair.

"The Faery Tree" complete with door in roots, glass leaves and good listening skills.

Sushi Ring! Leftover from teaching sushi caning.

When Pigs Fly

"When Pigs Fly"

I was going to post about a new 'scene' I made with gnomes and a chalkboard and glowing clay, but in light of the unlikely things happening around here lately, I've decided to unveil my latest faery sculpture to the blog instead. If someone had suggested that NH might fall prey to a blizzard that dumps 20 inches of snow and knocks out power to thousands and thousands - all before Halloween - they might reply with the title of this sculpture. I certainly would have! :)

This sculpture is seriously much more impressive in person. There's just no decent way to show the perspective of the piece with my amateur camera know-how. But, be that as it may, I've done my best. A rather adorable pig with wings is being coaxed to fly by a flying fae boy. He is in mid-air with no apparently visible support. And the miracle is he's rather quite sturdy up there! Whew!


This all came about when I found some brass rods at the little country hardware store down the street. I've been dying to work on a more difficult armature, something that would wow people. I'm pretty happy with the result. Why the theme? I was working with the television on and there was a commercial involving a dog on a roof with some flying pigs... and some canned baked beans too. Not sure where that came into it, but the flying pigs stuck in my mind. I thought, wouldn't it be nice to show just how you could get one to fly? Hence the faery and a way to try out an out-of-the-ordinary armature design.

The pig completely supports the faery. To make this design, I started with a basic (and I mean stick figure) sketch in full scale of the piece I wanted to create. Then I bent the brass rod along the center of gravity for both the pig and the faery, and then I prayed to the sculpting gods that I guessed correctly on the angle of the faery. Too far forward and he would have tipped. I got it just right! The bar runs through the piggy, up his wing, up the faery's arm and down through his torso. From there, I constructed the armature of the pig and sculpted the basic body of the pig before finally tackling the faery. This took a long while. I was so worried about the balance and center of gravity, that I put the finished pig with the brass rod sticking out on my "to do" shelf at the mill and didn't touch it for at least a few weeks. >.<

Aerial shot

When I mustered up the courage and repeated my little "nothing to it but to do it" mantra a few hundred times, I started working on the armature of the faery itself and then the clay. I was relieved that the finished piece not only didn't tip, but it was highly sturdy. You could actually push on the faery's legs (within reason, of course) and it wouldn't tip.

So I will definitely try more interesting armatures after show season has slowed down a bit.

New Faery - Jasmine's Green Tea

Everyone knows that tea - especially green tea - is good for you. Full of antioxidants, rich in that lovely anxiety combating L-theanine, slimming, and quite yummy if you brew it correctly. However, have you bathed in it? No - nor have I. Jasmine certainly has. She swears by it! Look at her flawless comlexion. Perhaps there is something to it after all?

This is Jasmine - a bit of a narcissist?

Okay, all that aside, it's kind of been a personal goal of mine to make a new faery or mermaid for each venue I go to. My next show is at The Cozy Tea Cart in Brookline, NH, on November 5th and 6th. This is an event for NH Made's "Open Doors" event in which NH artisans of all kinds hold open studios, shows and tours.

the "green tea" is a special clear resin with hand mixed coloring

The Cozy Tea Cart is a lovely little shop connected to the home of it's proprietor (Danielle Beaudette). It's jam-packed with every sort of loose leaf tea imaginable and a few special herbal tisanes. It's enough to make your head spin, but Danielle is such a friendly, wonderfully patient and knowledgeable person that you'll soon fall in love with at least a dozen special teas in no time.

"Green Girl Box" Hand Sculpted face

I was lucky enough to be invited to this lovely place for the Open Doors event because of the faeries really. TCTC has a lovely little faery garden and Danielle likes to promote local artists when possible. What a perfect match! ^_^ So back to Jasmine! She is, as usual, hand sculpted without the use of any molds. Her tea cup and saucer are not, however - I got those from my own cupboard. The spoon she holds to admire her visage is an antique spoon I bought from Here Today Emporium in downtown Wilton, NH. Her hair is hand 'rooted' and her wings are hand made.

The tea, if you've read the caption above, you'll know the secret behind that. It was a special resin indeed. Some resins will just eat food coloring, so I was lucky this worked out. The bubbles are made of glass. For a finishing touch, I sewed little faery sized clothes and slung them around the saucer (with a stocking slung over the cup handle). Her shoes and belt are made of polymer clay.

Glass bubbles really give her tea a bath time look.

Milford Pumpkin Festival 2011

Creepy Cute Mushrooms made special for the festival. 2011 TSB

Tonight I celebrate (figuratively speaking) the end of my first larger show. I've been looking forward to the Milford NH Pumpkin Festival since I signed up in July. And I often thought today as I spent my last day at my booth in the town hall how I would have never thought as I browsed there as a customer last year that I would be selling only a short year later. It was a blast.

My table! Awww. It was so tiny and cute amidst all the veteran vendors.

The Milford Pumpkin Festival celebrated (not so figuratively) its 22nd year off with a bang with an Atlas Fireworks display. If that wasn't enough to draw attention, the insanely warm weather really brought the people outdoors. I couldn't believe all the snow cones I saw this weekend! In October! Snow cones! It just boggles the mind.

My Saturday Helper Elf - without her imaginary roly poly pumpkin costume.

 It was a very good time - I met a lot of vendors I didn't know (you know... I hate that word. "Vendors". Makes us all sound like soda and snack machines. Henceforth, I shall call us merchants. That sounds more elegant, and that, perhaps, we have a fleet of ships in the Spice Islands.) a lot of really nice festival goers, and I learned a few new things about the merchanting portion of my "trade". (see? vending would have been a tacky word to use!). I also got to spend more time with my sisters K and J, saw my grandparents who I haven't seen in ages and miss dearly, and had a few good friends stop by which always makes me think "awww" and mean it. My favorite part was all the smiles my work evoked. Whether it was out of sheer joy, amazement or ridicule, they were all smiles and that's worth something in this sort of world. To see so many eyes light up and smiles sneak onto the closed and stoic faces that speed by the booth is worth more to me than making my table fee back at a show.

My Sunday helper elf, Janna, earned this little mushroom for all her help. :) I can be seriously bossy.

Hangin' with my gnomies

One thing I already knew, but the idea solidified with this show, is to never have consuming expectations. What went wrong, you ask? Nothing! I made my table fee and expenses back that I spent on the show which makes any event a good one (this is the most expensive show I will do and have done this year at $160 for an 8 foot space.) However, I put an almost scary amount of energy and work into making earrings. I was so convinced they would be my best sellers as they were in past markets and smaller events. I stayed up until 3 am some nights just to finish a pair or two so I could stock up this imaginary demand I wished to supply. If the torch ate at the wings, I remade them because I wanted them all to be perfect. Well! Over 3 months and110 pairs later, I sold 15 pairs total for both days. It sort of felt like all those faeries that naturally shed those wings were laughing at me. Very funny guys. This is because I put little Adelaide in a bell jar, isn't it? Hrmm. That aside, the whole matter made me a little... well okay, very... disappointed. I let a little preconceived notion take over my mind and was mad at myself when it didn't come to fruition. What a silly thing to do. I don't know where I picked that up and I'm hoping to unlearn it quickly. :)

Tara and the Toad along with Ebony's Prince were the stars of the booth. I let a little girl hold Tara on Sunday and she was so amazed and happy - as if Tara would speak to her right then and there -  that it made my weekend.

What else did I learn from my first large show? Bed risers do indeed rock. There were so many little tiny hands reaching for the gnomes and faery doors. Lots of candy apple covered hands. Next lesson. Reading is purely optional on the part of the viewer. My larger faery doors open to show you the realm of the fae. My tiny 3 inch ones only open for little faeries, not for humans. I just can't find hinges small enough and strong enough to function within my standards of work. There was a sign saying as such dead center of the mini door area. I can't tell you how many adults (the children didn't count here obviously) read aloud "mini faery doors", ignored the next line saying the doors do not open for human hands, and then tried actually prying at those tiny clay door knobs! Good thing I make my sculptures strong! I sounded like a broken record "Oh! The tiny ones only open for the faeries." I would say again and again. hehehe

All in all I'd say this was a great event and I'll probably go back next year if I'm still traveling along this path. Who knows? I certainly didn't know I'd be here last year. :)

Blues Vs Reds - Another gnome chess set!

They're so cute when they get along with each other.

I've been trying to play catch up after my ordeals with sick birds, spontaneous farmers market and apple picking excursions (can't miss that now, can I? mmm... apple crisp...) One thing I've been meaning to make for about 6 months now is another gnome chess set.

I made one of these back in spring and it was adorable! I didn't have a board for them then, but sold the pieces alone. It was a hit, even without the board, so I've been meaning to make another. Well, I finally did. Each gnome is either from my original basic gnome design or a spin off of the basic gnome so they fit the character they're meant to protray.

My favorite piece is the Knight - a gnome with a toothpick hobby horse.

No one aside myself, and maybe my sister Kayla, has any real idea how much work goes into each gnome. Sculpting them to be whimsical and yet durable comes with practice. As of today, I've sculpted over 105 gnomes since spring! The head-against-a-brick-wall part comes with the painting. I could use colored clay, but the colors just never come out as vibrant. Polymer clay usually dulls and darkens slightly once cured. This can be corrected with a good sanding, buffing and polish. Imagine doing that to 32 2 inch gnomes complete with tiny noses, arms, hands and feet! No thank you. I use a good quality acrylic to paint each and every piece one by one.

The painting takes forever. Even with high quality artist paints, each color needs to be painted at least twice. It's tedious and attention to detail is tough to keep as you avoid getting paint on the flesh toned areas or finger prints on the hats. I made 3 gnomes separate from this chess set to have my sister paint. She's always looking for ways to help me out. :) I think she had enough of painting gnomes after the first one took her a couple of hours to complete. They look so harmless!

The board for this particular chess set also took quite a few layers of paint. I wanted it to be garden themed, so I painted green and brown "grass and dirt" squares. I separated the squares with vines and dotted the board with tiny mutlicolored flowers.

Ebony's Prince

Ok, I know we have ... 1, 2... 43 days until Halloween, but a gal getting ready for a pumpkin festival craft fair has to be prepared early. So, with that in mind, I went to work on another faery sculpture to entertain the tiny masses that stalk my work and those who just happen to pass my booth at the festival.

Her name is Ebony and the piece is called "Ebony's Prince". Now, this sculpture has told me a lot about those around me. Almost like a glimpse into a small portion of a person's psyche. For, you see, there is a story in this sculpture. And how you see it can really show your demeanor in that moment of time. Take a look. Ebony is obviously going to kiss the frog prince.... What story do you see behind it?

The bubbles are glass!

If you said "Well she's kissing him as he comes out of the cauldron" or "she wants to turn him into a human/faery prince", then you're probably a perfectly balanced individual and I envy you that in those moments when customers stare at me a little too long. (Am I the only one that happens to?) That sort of thinking makes it a cute, faerytale, picture book sort of sculpture, doesn't it? Only one other person saw what I saw after I finished making it. "She's kissing the frog goodbye?" they suggested. Wow! Dark and twisted mind I think! But, I'm abashed to say, I thought that too when all was said and done. It wasn't my starting intention, I assure you. So maybe I'm not all bad. lol

Ebony's wings are made from twisting antique brass colored copper wire into a bat wing shape. I made a candy corn of polymer clay and tiny skulls out of ceramic to adorn the back of her belt line instead of a bow.

Her nails are black with orange polkadots. The lace on her left sleeve is vintage lace off a really old valentines day chocolate box.