Mice and Men.

a finished brooch sits on the lid of a Regency period writing box found on ebay last week

Sometimes in order to keep my brain in the swing and not on overdrive, I make lists for myself- I call them battleplans, make detailed run-downs of what needs to be done, and set dates by which I mean to get things done. On the matter of Sparrow Salvage I have told myself (rather neatly) that I will start it up in the winter and in the meantime I will continue to plod away on Little Brown Sparrow.

'Plod' is the word I should've headed as the warning. It's not a word one uses when one enjoys something. Might I have said 'potter' or even 'merrily amble' I might have been safe. But plod came out instead, and this shows a very important thing.

I've stopped identifying with Little Brown Sparrow.

last years leaves in the backyard

I mentioned some time I ago that I've ceased to think of it in terms of a business name, but I didn't realise until the other night how much that has affected the larger whole. I don't put much energy into it, from the practical like listing items to the ethereal like thinking of it often, visualising it being successful etc. (I am a big believer in magic and energy control/visualisation, part of my paganism -which can wait for it's own entry!)

I am now preoccupied at my desk with either the Faery shop or the 'new' developments in my proper work, that is the Sparrow Salvage stuff.

I'm finding myself turning to the faery shop as a point of production rather than a therapeutic break. I keep thinking of things I could do for the shop, like watercolour prints (I draw as well, did I forget to tell you?) or shadow boxes or faery photography. The faery shop was initially supposed to be a sideline, something updated every now and then and not to put too much focus on. That's how it went on the battleplan.

Inspirational pile of ingredients on the studio table

Merle and I were talking recently about the path of art, and that sometimes we may think we're in charge but in actual fact -the art is! The way you see things, hear things, notice things...all that is in charge, you're just pulled along for the ride. I can't predict (or control) what art I make, when it will come to me, how it will express itself. All I can do is make it.

A bowl of unfinished 'proper' wrist cuffs sits in the corner of my desk and I have no interest in them. They've stopped becoming something I want to work on and instead are mouldering leftovers of an old skin, already shed and cast away. Most likely they'll be pulled apart and their elements used in other things, but for now I use their presence to remind me; what is left behind in our journey only serves to make our burdens lighter. The more you leave behind, the lighter your walk.

All this means, more importantly, that a shifting of shops is in motion, and Sparrow Salvage will commence to operate by the end of the week. I have already began to make pieces that are stripped back and more pure -some of them seen in my last post as works in progress; a finished brooch seen here. I'm looking forward to getting them out there in the world. Why let them sit sleeping in a box till winter, just because my plan said I would?