Satyrs

The sky has turned pink by the setting sun. A cool breeze ruffles the tall grass in the meadow. The nymphs giggle as they are chased by the horned and antlered satyr, their hooves leaving deep imprints in the soft soil. They've been running and chasing for many hours, but they do not tire. They know they have a long and steamy night ahead. If they can just catch those nymphs that is......

Nymphs and Satyr,
by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905),
French Academic painter

That is the image that pops into my head at the word 'satyr'. It's also the way I had been taught in high-school and through fantasy books and movies. However, one little google search left me doubting all of this...

When I got the idea of doing articles on mythological and 'faerie' creatures, I know I had to do one on satyrs, creatures that I'd been fascinated with ever since I was little. One google search burst my little fantasy bubble. The horned and hoofed creatures I had loved were actually faun, not satyr. Satyr look like regular men, well, regular except for those donkey ears and tail.

Greek Vase

In the beginning we see vases depicted with these horse/donkey eared men. They are still seen chasing the nymphs around, just in a slightly different form. Much later the writers of old stated that the faun (who were part man, part goat) and the satyr were the same, and that image stuck with us ever since.

The satyr are attributed to be both companions of Pan and of Dionysus. They were a prominent part of the Dionysus cult. The satyr were the male followers, while the maenads were the female. Satyr were often depicted carrying a thyrsus, a staff topped with a cone, which is sacred to Dionysus. Other attributes they carry are flutes, bags or cups of wine and a shepherds staff. They are clad in animal skins and have wreaths of ivy in their hair. In the early greek days they satyr were depicted as being old, with big bellies and receding hairlines. Later on they became younger and more elegant, more like the images we are familiar with today.

Satyros

The satyr were not always kind spirited. The ancient Greeks actually feared the satyr, as well as other forest spirits. Not much of their myths survived, but they are seen as "subversive and dangerous, yet shy and cowardly" (wikipedia).

In the Roman period, poets depicted the satyr as goat horned and hoofed, with furry legs and tails and the horns of a goat growing out of their heads. Exactly the same as the faun, forest creatures from Roman myths. And this is where it gets complicated. Looking at a lot of different sites and several books, I just don't know anymore. It appears to be that the terms 'satyr' and 'faun' are now interchangable. Just google 'satyr' on google images and almost all you see are half men, half goats. So what is a satyr, really? I guess we have forgotten...

The Art of Ian Daniels

Happy belated Fairy Day!!! I know, I know, shame on me for not posting anything for 10 days, but I'll make it up to you by posting two things tonight! I did have something planned for the 24th (Fairy Day), but since I had to work until midnight on the 23rd, I had other priorities, namely sleeping! But here is a beautiful Faerie Art Feature with the art of Ian Daniels.

I just started in the book 'Dark Fairies' by Dr. Bob Curran. I immediately fell in love with Ian's beautiful drawings that are featured in the book. So, I looked up his website and was happy to find that he not only makes beautiful (dark) faerie drawings and paintings, but also pagan themed art and images of myth and legend. So to honour Fairy Day here are some of my favourites from his gallery!

Dreamsleep

Greenman

Ur-Nanna

Mathonwy

Summerqueen

Ace of Skulls

5 questions for...... Doe Deere!

"Once upon a time in a beautiful city of Los Angeles, there lived a girl named Doe Deere. One day she proclaimed herself the Unicorn Queen and launched Lime Crime Makeup to realize a dream."

Doe Deere is an entrepreneur, makeup artist, model, makeup manufacturer and blogger extraordinaire! She turned thirty yesterday (Happy Birthday Doe!) and has been featured on the covers of Young Entrepreneur, Fae, Auxiliary and Lipstick Royalty. She's done features for MTV Buzzworthy and NYLON, among others. Recently she's been featured as one of the '50 women entrepreneurs who inspire us' by Self-Made Magazine, and I agree wholeheartedly!

I've been a big fan of Doe for many years now, she is one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to makeup and fashion. I'm a total deerling (i.e. a follower of her blog) and when I got the idea for doing these short interviews, she was one of the first people that I thought of. I'm very glad she has found the time to answer our five questions. Ready? Here we go!

1. Where do you get your inspiration to create such unique looks?

Ever since I was little, I loved fairytales -- both reading and telling. Anything whimsical and fantastical gets me going, and I love to translate that into makeup looks.

2. What colours do you love to work with?

I'm a big fan of pastels such as mint green and robin's egg blue, accentuated by glittery golds! That, to me, is the most magical combination.

3. What are your 'tools of the trade'?

Pigments and makeup brushes -- whether I'm at the lab creating new products or simply experimenting on my face!

4. Who do you admire? 

I'm a big fan of Lady Gaga. Anyone strong, female, with a big vision.

5. Last but not least: Do you believe in faeries?

In my ideal world, fairies would be very much real -- and I would be one of them. I'd build a house out of a leaf, drink flower nectar and bathe in morning dew. Until that happens, I shall continue creating real-life fantasy with makeup! ;)

 Find Doe Deere on her blogazine, where she posts weekly glee's, makeup tutorials, inspirational style diaries and much, much more!

Find her wonderfully colourful cosmetics line at the Lime Crime Makeup website!

Pagan Arts Journal - Week 2

Week 2's prompt was; Love!

This is what I made of it:

I had this idea in my head of two people embracing a certain way, so that they would have a heart in the middle. After a few sketches I decided that this worked much better :) I made a big heart with the couple in its centre, holding another heart. On the background I wrote a lot of keywords connected to love. They are not all individual words, most are used twice, some even three times. Not all of the keywords were related to a relationship, like 'marriage' or 'romance', but also words like 'family', 'friends', 'clan', 'Goddess' and 'God'. Just anything I could think of that was related to Love! I am quite pleased with the end result, it just screams 'love' to me, which was exactly what I wanted!

If I ever get pregnant...

...I want this for my little faeriebaby!

This design was made and handbuilt by Kidtropolis. It took 4 months to make and place this wonderful faerie bedroom! Isn't it all amazing?!

Faerie Makeup - Coloured Lips

Welcome to the first (hopefully of many) Faerie Makeup features! The point of these features is to inspire people to use makeup as an expression of themselves. It is one of the things why I love makeup so much. It helps me show my inner me, it brings a smile on people's faces and it makes me feel pretty! What more could a girl want? Anyway, our first feature is about coloured lips. And then I don't mean the colours that you can just buy from any makeup brand, no, I mean the colours that are sure to turn heads. Colours the faeries themselves would be jealous of ;)

Doe Deere

I am a huge fan of Doe Deere and her makeup brand Lime Crime Makeup! They have so many fun coloured lipsticks, it hard which one to choose! And with names as 'Mint to be' (the one Doe is wearing in the picture), 'Airborne Unicorn' (purple) and 'No she didn't' (blue) who can resist?

Six pastel lipsticks from Lime Crime.

Now, I do realize that not everyone (including me) has the funds to buy all these amazing colours... But don't fret, we've found just the thing: a tutorial on how to colour your lips, using eyeshadow pencils. Yes, you've read it right; eyeshadow pencils. Click on the picture to get to the full sized version!

How to Tutorial - Cold Touch
By Dead-Rose-16

With this tutorial you now know how to paint your lips using eyeshadow pencils. (You can also use body paint, but eyeshadow pencils are easier to come by) Now it's time to take it one step further; blending and mixing.

Peacock by Wickedweb

Blueberry Smoothie by Katsu-Chicken

Remember; when you have bright, colourful lips, it is best to keep your eye makeup simple and natural. Usually just a touch of eyeliner is all you need when you rock your colourful lips!

So have fun experimenting and show me the photo's of your luscious lips! :D



Keltfest 2011

Yesterday the day had finally arrived, time for Keltfest! It was our first Keltfest and we had a blast! The atmosphere was joyous and pagan and hippie. The weather was so good we actually had to buy less warm clothing. (I got a pretty blue tiered skirt with flowers on it) It really is a miniature Castlefest. We will most definately go again next year!

Lots and lots of fun stands with Celtic, Scottish, Medieval and Pagan wares. My friend Aswulf got a spindle and some wool so she can spin her own yarn, something she has wanted to do for a long time now. We saw a lot of beautiful jewellery, yummy foods, gorgeous figurines and mean looking swords and knives. I fell in love with the wood carvings of Drachenheim, especially this beautiful walking cane. I didn't buy it, but maybe... just maybe at Castlefest.... I will...

Furthermore there was a labyrinth laid out in chalk. You could walk the labyrinth and take a 'wishing shell' with you. I had wanted to walk a labyrinth for a long time now, so that was definately something that was on my 'to do list'. It was a real strange sensation. When I walked towards the centre of the labyrinth I was really focused on the path that I was walking. The only thing I could really concentrate on was putting one foot in front of the other. Then, on the way out again, it was like it was easier. More careless and free. Aswulf had the same experience. The downside was that all the noises from the festival and the people were really distracting. But we have dicided to make our own labyrinth soon so that we can do it again, but then without the distractions :).

Then of course came the moment we'd all been waiting for; the concert of our favourite band Scrum. For those of you who don't know Scrum, they are a local (Dutch) powerfolk band with amazing, happy songs, lots of humour and are just all-round good fun!  Here is their first music video from their new album Killing Time. The song; Killing time!

So all in all we had an amazing day and it was the perfect start of the Festival season. Next up; Midzomer (Midsummer) fair at Archeon in Alphen a/d Rijn!










Ps: new signature! I like this one a lot more, how 'bout you?

Pps: I got thé best compliment from someone at work this week. She said that the way I always do my makeup, she always thought I looked like a faerie! Seriously, how could a compliment be any better? :D