Oooo Pretty!

Occasionally, I run across an artisan whose work makes my jaw drop. Had to share this amazing, life size, intricately needle felted doll, hand crafted by Enchanted Gypsy on Etsy. Check out close ups of the Banshee Fae, it's pretty spectacular and inspiring.

Sea Horse of Doom!!! and erm, other things

It needs to feeeed, precious!

Ac has officially adopted the sea-horse-dragon-fetus-demon thing, and promises that it will felt well. I've never felted bamboo before, so the results should be interesting. It tends to take eons to dry after blocking though.

Currently working on other projects. I miss dressmaking (I say that now) and am designing attractive, non-velvet (tired of seeing acres of purple velvet at every Open Sabbat, lol) ritual attire for the shop... not sure when it will be released, perhaps not until early Spring. Made for all body types, stuff that will make you look and feel more like a Goddess and less like a highly flammable Ren Faire reject or a hooker- ever notice that those seems to be the only 2 choices we get in "Pagan Wear"?

Robes you can dance around the bonfire in, mildly drunk, and not go up in flames...Spiral dancing without tripping and falling face first into the Cakes and Wine... speaking from bad personal experiences, lol ;) Pardon if I seem mildly obsessive.
Stuff for guys, too. Oh, you'll see, but I'm very excited about breaking out the needle and thread once again.

A project closer at hand is the Wearable Potions. Made in the true potion tradition with attention to detail; solid perfumes crafted from beeswax, fine oils, organic herbs and essential oils, stones and crystals; made according to Moon phase, day of the week, planetary hour, and astrological conditions.

The first in the series "Aphrodesia" is in the Etsy shop, and we will be adding more in time. :)

-Carmin

Sunday Hike, Random Stuff

A quick heads up: The hike for tomorrow is canceled. Ac is sick as a dog and desperately needs the recovery time. I may still be up for exploring Williams Canyon, although the word is that it is going to be excruciatingly hot. If you guys just want to turn it into a Witch n' Bitch at the Nile Cafe, bring your knitting needles, crochet hooks and yarn-y goodness :)

On that note, a few of you lovelies liked the description of the intarsia monstrosity from the last post, so I'll be grabbing and posting a picture of it tomorrow, as soon as the sun is out. ;)

As soon as the major snowstorms start, the outdoor classes will be suspended. The mountains can be dangerous in the best of times. Anyway, it will be replaced with an official Witch n' Bitch, on the same schedule. Maybe more frequently if there is enough interest.

Take care, and I hope to see you tomorrow!

-Carmin

A Walk in Williams Canyon, This Weekend!

We're hitting Williams Canyon, again, tomorrow!
We'll be meeting at The Nile Cafe, for coffee & paperwork, so we can keep this all legal. There are free permission slips for canyon access that need to be filled out, so if you haven't filed one with them already, show up a bit before 10am, so we can get those filed before the hike!
The forms are free, but coffee is about $2 a cup.

Treasuring your Mistakes

Right now, as we speak, I am attempting to knit a new charm bag, with a little intarsia crescent moon knit into the middle. It's my first attempt at intarsia, and I'm going without a pattern. I'm about half way through and can already tell that it's going to be butt ugly.Not even country-charming-butt ugly, more like the kind that makes the little old ladies at the yarn store weep and pray for your soul.

Spiritual lesson? I've met a great many practitioners that refuse to fess up to magical misdeeds, misfired rituals... or burning their fingers in general, even reading the "wrong" books. Some are afraid of losing face within the community, having students question their abilities, or simply disappointing people that have a certain image of them. I get it.
But when I was still teaching in a coven oriented group, I found that nothing breaks the ice like setting your sleeves on fire during the middle of a ritual. That students learn more from the mistakes I made as a cocky little spell caster than from any trite admonitions to avoid trying something because of "karma". What happens when you mix strong emotions, desperation, and blood into a love spell. Why the biggest tarot spread in the world is a dumb idea. That cursings and bindings don't automatically invoke the Law of Three. Why healing spells aren't necessarily 'positive'.

As most magical traditions are experiential ones, you can get so much more out of them by trying and failing, rather than going by the book, or never putting the book down and getting off the couch.

Ok, so the image on the bag is nearly done, and it looks less like a Moon, and more like an angry seahorse, or possibly a genetic experiment between a parsnip and a whale, gone horribly wrong. I love it. So anyway, yeah. Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile ^ - ^