Take this silver lining, keep it in your own sweet head...
Today I will show you the silver treasures I got at Faerie Con. I had read the show list and was excited to learn that NeoMythica was going to be there! I had seen the ads in the bead magazines before and their website, so I was excited to see these great items in person! And I was pleased to meet Margaret, the artist behind the designs. The booth was filled with jewelry, very beautiful and elaborate jewelry, which was a sight to behold. But I came for the exquisite clasps. I have a thing for artist findings, what can I say? So I saw the collection, and carefully chose these four clasp designs below. I made a very serious attempt to think of the bead/componenet from my line that would work well with them, so I have paired them up here to show you my thought process. I stole the great pics from the NeoMythica site , hope they don't mind! By the way, they have an incredibly beautiful website! Go there NOW! ooh, there are things that I didn't even see at the show that I want now, like the bails and some of the charms and the cones! I could get in real trouble...
One of my friends has put dragons in my head recently, so this clasp was probably the first to grab me. I am thinking of pairing it with my goth and vamp wings, which I will likely make into links. Or maybe keep them as charms, I don't know. Maybe I need to do a bat...
I love this fairy clasp. I can see a tassel making up a skirt below her upper torso. I figured I could pick up some colors of one of my fairies. Check out my new fairy color: Poppy! More on that later next week. I have gone Poppy mad!
Oh, I love this one! A flying heart. I think it will go great with reds and silver and my big flying heart pendant. I hope to add these big pendants to the website soon.
This is just a really nicely designed viney clasp with leaves. I don't think I have shown my newest colors of acorns and pinecones here on the blog, so here they are. I added them to the website a couple of weeks ago...
So the thing about Faerie Con that i really noticed was that, while there were many really great independent artists, like Green Girl and NeoMythica, there were also some larger companies that were not so indie. It seems in the commercial fairy world (as well as the fantasy/sci-fi world I guess too) the big thing seems to be licencing. I am really torn about this. Probably because it crosses the art/craft line in a way. I mean, there are all these great illustrators and they are getting licencing deals. And good for them! It allows them to make a living. But often those licences start to infringe on the craftsmen, and that starts to become problematic for me as a craftsperson myself. I guess because the licences put great art on products that can be made overseas...gift objects, jewelry, miniatures, dolls...these sorts of things. So then you have this influx of items that are made overseas, in more factory situations, and this competes with the artisans who handcraft their own items. So they have to compete with not only a cheaper product, but one that is licenced with the imagery from a well known artist. Many times the quality of the items produced is poor, so it is just a crappy item made with good art on it. But sometimes the items are well made, and that really troubles me. One example was the variety of fairy art pendants that I saw from the Peter Stone company. They had artists like Amy Brown and Jessica Galbreth and their beautiful designs made into jewelry. Like I said, I am conflicted by this, and I can't really fault the artists who enter into these deals. Who knows, I might even encourage Chuck to do something like this with his illustrations. But it just becomes problematic for my friends and I who design and cast their own items, who craft their own beads and jewelry designs. I just have a hard time justifying the discrepancies. I suppose we all just have to adapt as best we can, and educate about what makes up the differences, and make the best work we can make, no matter what we do.
Well, enough of all of that! It makes my head hurt! It is a big work weekend, there is much glazing to be done. I think I will watch some movies and make beads later. I have the Dark Crystal and Serenity in my weekend plans. For now, it is a David Grey morning. Sort of lazy and quiet. Here is the song and concert footage for "Silver Lining"
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