Hickory Dickory Dock and the Mushroom Chronicles

Today Joey and I took Gypsy to the Prince William Forest Park for a nice long walk. We are so lucky to live within 10 minutes of a glorious National park filled with many trails and wildlife and magic. It's beautiful and I've hiked through about it several times. When I was a child my parents took me to marvel at wonders built by man. I will take my children to marvel at wonders crafted by nature.

We haven't had much rain this summer and all the rivers and streams are low. But since the air has cooled off many mushrooms have burst forth from the ground. We spotted nearly 14 different varieties the one trail we followed. I am poor at best when it comes to mushroom identification, except for Morels, Stinkhorns, and a few Amanitas. All of the mushrooms we saw were lovely and I plan on harvesting those I can properly identify next time.













I gathered a few Hickory nuts, some acorns, and happened upon these Cicada wings just resting on a small table guarded by the most peculiar caterpillar. We also found two fauns resting among the trees and they begged us to follow. Gypsy's nose wiggled and ears spun. They stood waist high and still had their spots and let us get strangely close before bounding off into the trees. We followed for a while before becoming tangled in spiderwebs and decided to stick to the trail.

Hecate

Anyone remember the Hecate sketch I posted here? Well I felt her tugging at me to finish it so I've worked on it a little bit for the past few days and completed it. I'm such an advocate for watercolors, I love their flow and movement and translucency.

Hecate; Watercolor on cold press watercolor paper; 2010
My scanner isn't high enough quality to do this piece any justice, even my 12mpx camera doesn't quite get it, so I'll be taking it to get professionally scanned this week. Often personal pieces such as this turn into shop items so I will be offering prints so you can adorn your altar or home.

Step by step (or when I remembered to take pictures). You can see my process here but it's mostly wash after wash to tone up the colors and then detail work. I also struggled with wanting to ink an outline which is something I've drifted away from, finding more of a heartiness without it.

Hecate is my matron and the Goddess I communicate with most frequently. I try to do little things for her everyday even if I don't need her for a spell or ritual. I draw something related to her aspects, give her small gifts, or read a book about her or that has her as a heavy feature. We cannot ever expect spirits or deities to aid us outright without signs and offerings of our devotion. With the darkening of the Earth steadily and swiftly approaching the Fleeting One will feel most at home, and so will I.

I'd love to paint your favorite deity! I will take commissions of this size, 6"x12" (15.2x30.5cm) or smaller of your deity. Email me (anathemum(at)gmail(dot)com) if you are interested!

Giveaway Winner!

To all those who participated or reblogged my post, many thanks and blessings to you all. This was fun and I'll be sure to have another giveaway soon.

The winner is...

Wait for it...

Blue Druid! Please email me at anathemum(at)gmail(dot)com so I can get your contact information. Thanks again and blessings to everyone!

Giveaway

So as a thank you to all my readers, as quiet as some of you may be, and in honor of the upcoming spirit season (I've got it on the brain really bad!) I have a small giveaway for you! A red wool spirit necklace.

Featured here is a rustic and simple necklace that will protect you during spirit travel and connect you to your spirits. It will aid you in opening those cosmic doors. Red wool is adorned with a carved wooden skull bead and an old iron key. Red thread has long been an aid in capturing negative spirits, protection, or as a spirit line. Anoint the old iron key with your favorite psychopomp oil and cleanse this piece often to remove anything unwanted picked up during travel. Wear during ritual or everyday. This necklace is about 18 inches (45-46 cm) long.

To enter my giveaway, please leave a comment in this post. The winner will be chosen on Saturday August 14th at 5pm so get your comments in before then! If you reblog this post once please link to it in your comment and you will get one additional entry, reblogged twice you get two additional entries, you get the idea :) Have fun and thanks again!

Barn Owl Mask

Cut, punched, and wet formed ash gray suede leather Barn Owl mask. Another ritual mask you can expect for Samhain.

Corvid Mask

Cut, punched, and sculpted leather Corvid mask. First in a series of many simple ritual masks that will be available for Samhain. Any requests?

This leather is as soft as butter and feels so good. Is anyone else as PUMPED as I am for Samhain this year? Cause I’m goin’ all out. Just you wait...

Luray

Last week Joey and I spent time in the mountains of Luray, Virginia. The mountain air is so sweet and fresh, I'd love to live out there. But our desperate need for internet and stuff to do outweighs our love for nature (so he says) so we will stay closer to the coast.





We took a tour of Luray Caverns which we both haven't been to in over 10 years. It was stunning and immense and would you believe people get hitched down there? They've got that stalagpipe organ and a ballroom. "Kids these are our wedding pictures, from the UNDERWORLD."




They also have a hedge maze which we conquered!