Posted in Everyday Life on December 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
My best wishes to all my Flickr friends for a magickal 2009 – may all your dreams come true in the next year. As we leave 2008 behind, take a minute to count this year’s blessings!
Me, I am enjoying holidays with my husband, opening The Digital Rose at Dawanda, working on jewelry orders for January 6 and having tons of fun playing with Photoshop! Thanks for all your xmas greetings – you are the best readers a blogger can have!
Posted in Uncategorized on December 19, 2008 | 3 Comments »
From today onto January 7 (spanish xmas finish on Jan 6), this blog will be on holidays. The shop will be open though, so don’t worry about purchasing, I’ll be here serving orders as usual. My ahijada (goddaughter) and I will be preparing a jewelry trunk show for the first days of January, so I won’t be on holidays. I will be beading, making cards and preparing promo kits for our customers – I haven’t done a trunk show for a while and I’m really happy about this project.
Before I leave, I wanted to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND A WONDERFUL AND MAGICKAL START FOR 2009! A year that sums 11 (2+9) is very promising, as 11 is considered a Master Number in numerology. Remember to pray for those gone, to help those in need, and to bring comfort and hope to those around you :) .
Posted in Paintings on December 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Portrait of the awesome Frida Kahlo, ATC size (that’s 2,5 x 3,5 inches). Acrylic on untreated canvas – that is, canvas that has not been primed, with its natural texture.
No prints will be made EVER, so this is a completely unique work.
The scan of the ACEO is actually bigger than the piece, so I took this pic in a stand so you get a better idea of the sharpness of the painting. The piece is backed with fine arts cardboard, dated, signed and numberes (as ooak).
As all female artists in my generation, Frida Kahlo’s work and persona have been constant influences in my art. Though my way of painting is not similar to hers, her art impressed me deeply since I was maybe 10, when I saw images of her paintings at a magazine article promoting an exhibition of her work in Madrid in the 80′s. I was lucky to be grown in an environment where art books where available – my grandfather brought a lot of art encyclopedias from Venezuela and I went over them again and again, but I had never seen paintings like hers, so sincere and penetrating.
Many years later, I had a Tarot consultant who was crazy about Frida, and gave me a facsimile edition of her diary as a birthday gift. The pages were disturbing, full of love and again, showing a sincerity that is hard to find in this hypocrite world of art we’re living. In return, I made a Frida portrait for her, the first of a few I’ve made in my life. My best friend came yesterday while I was painting it and said “You know her face by memory, don’t you?” – well, yes :) .
If there is something that makes me feel connected to her, it is the fact that she gave little importance to what she was doing, and painted for herself most of the time, as a way to express what was inside her. Maybe that’s because we’re both daughters of July, that we paint to heal ourselves, not to heal the world. It makes me sad to think that, with time, her myth has become just that, a myth, and that the icon of Frida is becoming bigger than the real person, and even worse, that the icon is becoming bigger than the work she made. Everyone loves Frida, but I’m not sure that all those who say that love her really understand the depth of her painting. Oh well, that’s globalization.
Posted in Customized OOAK Dolls, tagged customized doll, doll for sale, fantasy doll, unique doll for sale on December 15, 2008 |
I made a whole new photoshoot and made some Photoshop sheets with all the pretty details as you can see!
I think the real colours of the doll look much better against this background, the other was too busy and dark. You can also see the stand I made for the doll, in an awesome snake skin print fabric that a friend graciously sent me :). Actually I like the stand so much that I’ll be making a tutorial about it for the next issue of the zine.
Today (hopefully) I will start a new doll – yes I can’t stop at one! It is another baby doll, very similar in shape and size to this one, but with light coloured skin. Last year one of my best jewelry customers gave me a box full of her childhood dolls, all of them in excellent condition- there are a few with awesome potential to become customized dolls.
This weekend I have also been indulging on sculpting – I had a little polymer clay and thought that the next doll would look awesome with some of my “Ctulhu-Style” sculpting. The ones that won’t be used in the doll will make great pendants and earrings for xmas customers. In Spain, the gift-giving is on January 6, on the Three Wizard Kings’ day, so that gives spanish crafters another week to build up some more inventory :) .
Posted in Customized OOAK Dolls on December 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Customized OOAK Doll, 27 cm/10,5 inches tall, made from a doll my ahijada (goddaughter) gave to me as a gift. Finding dark-skinned dolls in Tenerife is harder than you think, considering we’re just beside the northwest coast of Africa! My ahijada, though, is a very tenacious woman and found this one (and another one she kept for herself) at a toy store in Santa Cruz, after going to a dozen toy shops all over the zone we live in.
I’ve been making customized dolls for about six years, and it’s really an experience I’d like to do more often as I only make a couple every year. This year, with so much crazy quilting and beading, my sewing skills have improved a lot and I’m getting closer to get what I want from them. Also, this is the first time I work with a new doll, as all my previous customized dolls were made using old and discarded dolls that were “abandoned”.
Customizing doll is really hard work, and it has taken me long hours and many days to make this one – which is not finished yet I have to say, but I wanted to show some pics along the way. I was talking to my husband about the stand I wanted to make for the doll (it has a cloth body so it doesn’t stand by itself) and he suggested making a cloth paradise bird that the Krishna child would be riding. That was another awesome idea from Mr. Hubby! I have never made anything like that, so by now I’m only sketching ideas to make a lightweight but secure structure for the bird, but I already have wild visions of a sequined golden bird with a fortune spent on feathers on its tail.
The only face work I made this time was erasing the eyebrows and painting the kohl lines around the eyes. The bindhi is a real one from India (I love to wear them myself so I have a few) and the clothes were all handsewn – painstakingly handsewn LOL! I didn’t count them, but there are quite a few hundreds of beads already sewn, and probably I will add a few more in the next days.
I have been in love with Hinduism since I was in my late teenage years. In my personal cosmology, Krishna, Ganesh and Hanuman are words that taste sweet when I say them, and friends that have been with me as I grew into an adult. Krishna is pure joy and love, Ganesh is patience and hope (and in my opinion, the hindu personification of Eleggua), and Hanuman is sacrifice and generosity. The image of a child Krishna has always been very appealing to me, as the idea of a child god, pure and joyful, really awakes love and reverence inside me. The readings of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Ramayana are more than recommended! Here are some beautiful words from Krishna:
“I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.” —Sri Krishna, Bhagavad-gita 9.29
Posted in Santeria, Witchcraft Articles, Witchy Business Articles on December 9, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Handmade candles, made recycling wax leftovers from my altar and food jars.
I have a very witchy week ahead. Though usually my Tarot consultants only want to know about everyday things, last Friday I got an order for a trabajo- that is, a complex spell that will need an amulet, bath herbs, magically charged candles and such. That will keep me busy for sure!
To be honest, it’s my favourite kind of witch job. Reading Tarot is fun, but after 19 years you can imagine the thrill is almost gone, mostly when everyone have more or less the same questions and worries – love, job, family. I agree, there’s nothing more important, but with time it gets repetitive just as any other job.
But trabajos are never boring, as there are not two alike. Every person is a world within him/herself and my spirit guides sent me always through different directions and tools for every person, which means a lot of work as everything must be made from scratch, but the trip through healing is always an amazing experience.
I don’t make trabajos when people ask me, I make them when I consider they have to be made. Making them by order would be as stupid as if the doctor let the patient decide if they need an operation or not. 9 out of 10 times, the commands people have for spell works are absurd and born from negative feelings. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been asked to make damaging spell work to another person, or to separate or bind a couple without their consent. I am very strict in what comes to this, and once I even left a very profitable job at an occult shop because the owner was selling magical products to someone who said that wanted to bury someone else. In case you were wondering – yes, it is possible to end a life with magic.
So, when a consultant asks for spellwork, I ask the Orishas, using different oracles, but mainly the buzio (cowrie shell) oracle, which I’m not allowed to use in public (Eleggua’s commands) and that I only use as my last choice because it needs a very special environment and state of mind. If the Orishas say yes, I go ahead, but if they say no, there’s nothing more to ask.
It also happens that the Orishas tell me that someone needs spellwork before they even ask, as has been the case this time. It’s long and complex to explain, but there are many signs that come up along a consultation that show me that need – it can be in the reading, or sometimes the “companion spirits” that everyone brings with them just show up and tell me, or they come to me later when I’m doing my meditation and tell me what they want. Sometimes simply I just feel what I call “the black aura”, which usually means that someone has made a conjure work against my consultant.
Though this time I did not have to convince my consultant, sometimes I have to deal with people’s scepticism; for some strange reason, many people believe in Tarot readings, but less and less people believe in Witchcraft. I don’t think it is a matter of belief – sadly, the truth is that there are so many fakes in this business that people are always afraid that you want to take money from them.
Money. That is ALWAYS the problem! People spend fortunes on useless things like make-up, clothes, flat tv’s and such, but they do not want to pay for having a good spiritual life. Not that I care! If they don’t want to pay, that’s their problem, not mine. And, to be honest, they always come back and pay when the problem they have becomes desperate.
I’ve read a lot about witches feeling guilty for being paid. I don’t have that problem. I have been studying this all my life and I know very well what my worth is. I do a lot of work for free – actually, this week’s spellwork is free of charge. As with spellwork, I let the Orishas decide. If they don’t want me to get paid, 10 out of 10 times my consultant will give me back something bigger in return, when its time comes, so I don’t feel bad about working for free. When the Orishas say “get paid”, I set a fee that I’m comfortable with and that’s all. What people do not understand is the amount of work AND preparation that making good spellwork needs, and the constant work that a Witch has to do to keep her channels working properly. But again, that’s their ignorance, not mine.
I am not complaining! Actually, being so strict about respecting myself have only brought me good clients, that appreciate me and my work, and that never question my requirements. I am sure that when Witches complain that they don’t get good clients, they’re disrespecting themselves and their work in some way or another, and thus bringing bad energies around them.
Also, simply they feel guilty because they know they are not ready to be “out” and working – again they bring bad consultants to them and have to bargain for every penny they get paid. Why do I know that? Because, as every Witch, I was too young and unexperienced when I started working. Maybe I could see this more clearly because I was doing it to help my family, which was completely broke, and not because of my own vanity or desire to impersonate a Witch that I was not (not yet). I worked for “the will”, which is how we say it in Spanish when people pay you what they want, and was humiliated many times by abusive people that paid me next to nothing. I once get paid 50 pesetas – that is like half a dollar. That was about 12 years ago. I was 20, and I had alread been reading Tarot for 7 years.
There came a time when reading Tarot seemed more like serving a sentence than like a gift, so I “retired” and studied like a madwoman…and practised, practised and practised even more. And then studied more. A few years later Santeria found me, and everything that I had studied started to fall into place and good consultants started to call me, people who wanted my guidance in a regular schedule and that -may Eleggua bless them – helped me pay expired bills many times.
I do not see it like a closed cycle. I learn everyday, and study as much as time permits. Being 32 is quite a young age for a Witch really. The last ten years, since I found my husband, have been much easier because of his support and belief in my work, both as a Witch and an artist. The road has no finish line; it is a life.
