Errant Knight Winter Solstice Quest for Freya's Kiss

Snow Goddess by 3ddream

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(¸.•´ (¸A knight-errant is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. "Errant," meaning wandering or roving, indicating how the knight-errant would typically wander the land in search of adventures. NightBlooming has a quest for those that would dare to take it. Though a challenge, the reward is great!

As NightBlooming's signature style is well known to our customers, we're offering up this sprig of mistletoe as a reward for the one who can unravel this riddle! The answer lies within one of my sold items, so the better you know NightBlooming’s work, the easier this may be.

The strongest connection between mistletoe and the Yule season comes from Norse mythology. Freya was the goddess of beauty, love, and marriage as well as mother of Baldur, the best loved of all the Norse gods. Freya foresaw his death. Knowing that there was nothing she could do to avert his fate, the hapless goddess extracted a promise from all things that they would play no part in his death. Unfortunately, thinking the mistletoe was too insignificant to bother with, she neglected to secure its pledge.

And when the malevolent prankster Loki discovered her oversight, he crafted a dart made of the poisonous plant. Devious and evil, he brought it to Baldur's brother who was blind, suggesting a game of darts and agreeing to guide his hand. And this he did, directing the dart directly at Baldur's heart.

The mistletoe's white berries were formed from Freya's tears of mourning. Some versions of the story of Baldur's death end happily. Baldur is restored to life, and the goddess Freya is so grateful that she reverses the reputation of the baleful plant, making it a symbol of peace and love and promising a kiss to all who pass under it.

The winner of this quest will be awarded Freya's Kiss! Built upon maple wood, this stick is first topped with silver peter and green glass. From a vase of intricate silver emerges a trio of silver leaves and then spill of green glass and crystal in mimic of mistletoe.

Freya's Kiss has a usable length of 5 inches and an overall length of 6.5 inches.

We'll do another quest for the Spring Solstice! So even if you don't win please try again then :)


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(¸.•´ (¸Rules:
Use the clue to find the right listing, then look in the item description or photos to answer the question. The contest will run for a bit more than a week (closing at 12am on Wednesday the 15th of December), and a winner will be randomly drawn from all those that submitted the right answer. (We're running this a bit early in hopes that the stick might get to the Knight who discovers before the holidays!)

You are allowed only ONE GUESS (submitted by Etsy Convo) and cannot amend your answer, so make your submission count! The winner will have the sticks shipped to them for free++ anywhere in the world!

Once the winner is announced they may check out with the sticks. Best of luck to you all!

You can see all the sold items here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/NightBlooming/sold


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(¸.•´ (¸The Quest

Your Hint:
In ancient Greek mythology, ambrosia and nectar are the food and drink of the gods, and both confer immortality on whoever consumes it. Both are fragrant, and may be used as perfume. This set, wrought in liquid ambers and flashing golds is warm and languid, like a taste of divine immortality.


The Question:
Praytell, how many amber teardrops hang from the necklace in this set?


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++Free shipping is via First Class USPS. If you would like a different shipping method or insurance, a small charge will apply.

Though the listing is for $0.20 as that is the lowest amount that Etsy will allow an item to be listed for, these fees will be covered by NightBlooming for the winner.

Introducing Winter Hair Salve

With winter comes harsh weather that can leave hair dry, brittle and lank.  Winter Panacea Hair Salve is a special blend that's perfect for the winter months!

Winter Panacea is light and creamy, closer in texture and consistency to the Vegan hair salve.  It's scent is unisex- a clean crisp scent that's reminiscent of fresh-fallen snow in a still forest.

Ingredients: Certified Organic Shea Butter, Pure Refined Coconut Oil, Herbal infusion (Licorice Root, Coltsfoot Leaf, Yarrow, Willow, Pau díarco, Burdock Root, Mahonia, Calendula, Horsetail, Nettles), Cetearyl Alcohol, Jojoba Seed Oil, Aloe Gel, Vitamin B5, Evening Primrose, Neem, Macadamia Seed Oil, Essential Oils (Tea tree, Lemon tea tree, Lavender, Geranium, Rosemary), Rice extract, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Anisate, Vitamin C, Vitamin E).

We've had many requests for a protien-free salve, and our Winter salve is both vegan and protien-free!  It is also wonderfully natural:

• 100% Plant Origin
•  Protien-Free
• Vegan
• Petrochemical-free
• Sodium Laurl/Laureth Sulfate-Free
• Paraben-Free
• Lanolin-Free
• Cruelty-Free

Winter Salve is only here for the season, so get this limited time product now, because like the snow it cannot stay forever!

Waning Autumn Treasuries

Customer VIdeo Review- Autumn Magic

One of our customers was kind enough to do a fantastic YouTube review of some of our products and talks about the fantastic support of the Long Hair Community. Check out her YouTube channel here!





Do you have a review of one of our products, or perhaps a how-to updo tutorial using one of our sticks? Let us know, we'd LOVE to hear from you!

Two Weeks of Treasuries!

Autumn Magic by DarkWyst

With the leaves fading and the chill in the air reminding us that the Winter Court will soon hold sway, being featured in these lovely treasuries warmed me up a bit.

 

Responses to Readers Questions

I had quite a lot of fun with this!  Many thanks to those of you that responded- enjoy free shipping on your next order!

"How are you designing a new piece of jewelery/hair accessory: are you first looking at your "raw materials" to get inspired on what you can create with them - or is there first a specific idea of how the masterpiece should look and then you get materials for it together?"

I hate to lead off with this answer, but, it depends!  There are times where I'll see something (usually a focal piece for the very top of a stick) and then I make the connection between that and a theme, then build out the rest of the stick to suit the idea.  A good example of this would be my Moss Terrarium hair sticks.  I loved the idea of a living hair stick and then had to work out a way to make that happen!

Other times there will be a theme or idea that I want to create something to follow, so in that case I have an idea of what I want, but then have to go looking for specific components to make the vision happen.  The Painting the Roses Red Hair Sticks are a great example of this!



If I had to guess, though, I would say that the first method, of seeing a focal piece and then having the connection to a theme happens most.

What is the main difference between the vegan panacea and the regular offering?

Each has their differences and  benefits, outside of one obviously being free of all animal products.

The Traditional Panacea's Hair Salve is slightly darker in color than the vegan, more of a warm cream color than pure white.  It works well on all hair types, but seems to be preferred by customers who have medium to thick strands of hair that tends to be prone to dryness. The scent of this salve is a bit more incense-like than the vegan blend, more subtle and dusky. The only non-vegan ingredient in this salve is honey, so some vegans whose beliefs permit the use of it can also enjoy this blend!

The Vegan Salve also works well on all hair types, but customer feedback indicates that it is most preferred by those with very fine strands of hair that is prone to splitting.  This salve is bright white in color and the citrus notes in the scent seem brighter and clearer than in the traditional salve.

 

Really, though, the best way is to try each!  NightBlooming offers sample sizes so you don't have to invest in a whole tub.  Try them one at a time or even blended together to see what you like best!  The sample tubs are also great for tossing in a bag for when you travel.

What made you want to start making your own hairtoys, were you inspired by someone, in need of something that didnt exist yet or just like to make people happy? Tell us the story!

I've always been artistically inclined and have had a tendency to look at something and say, "I can do that!"  In the past it had been sewing clothing, learning to weld, or even cooking!  So when I saw some of the beaded hair sticks being sold I had the same, "I can do that!" reaction.  It took a bit of figuring to come up with the right components and methodology to make sticks that are as robust as they are pretty, and there were some failed attempts along the way.


Other than the enjoyable challenge of just seeing if I could make hair sticks was the notion that while other hair sticks were pretty that's really all they were, just decoration.  There seemed little story, inspiration or thought beyond simple color-matching and adding sparkle. Anything is made more beautiful and more powerful when there is a meaning an an intent attached to it, and I know that my customers value the story and thought behind my pieces as much as I do.

The best thing about having a store is I get to share my ideas with others!  I have so many ideas that there's no way I could possibly keep everything I make for myself, and it also lets me explore ideas that are outside of my own personal tastes.

Do you work in silence, listening to the sound of nature around you or do you like to be inspired by music?

If the day (or night in my case, as that's when I do most of my work) is nice, I'll open the window and listen to the sounds of our garden.  I can hear the night-singing birds, the splash and gurgle of the waterfall in our koi pond, and the singing of insects.  It's extremely lovely and very relaxing.Often times, though, I listen to music.  My taste vary wildly, from Celtic World Music, to what I lovingly call Angry Chick Music (Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, etc.), to Trance, to industrial, to those LifeScapes music and nature sounds CDs you often see at the kiosk in stores.  Most often, though, I want something I can sing to and that tells a story.  I've included a few of my favorites below for your listening enjoyment!

The story of Eurydice as told by Sleeptheif.


Sarah McLachlan's Ice

Which items are your favorite to make and why?

This one I actually had to think about for awhile as I truly love what I do.  I think that my favorite items are asymmetrical pairs, where two sticks go together but aren't exactly the same.  One may have a dangle, or a slightly different topper, but they balance and harmonize in a way that even an exactly matching pair cannot.  I've included a few photos of my favorite asymmetrical pairs below!

Dragon Slayer's Wyrm and Sword Set

Blood from a Stone Set

Seelie and Unseelie Faerie Courts Sticks

I notice you (and several other etsy jewelry makers) do seasonal themed hair toys. Which is your favourite season to create in?


This is a secret, double sided question:
a) in which season do you feel most inspired
b) which season's hair toys do you enjoy making the most?

 
 This will probably come as no great surprise, but I would have to say Autumn is my favorite season to create in.  Something about the muted colors, the warm metals and the ability to accent with leaves to my heart's content makes it easiest and most enjoyable.  I would say winter is a close second, however, something about the cold blues and whites accented with silver really captures the feeling of the season.  Just for fun I picked an item for each season!

Spring- Errant Knight Quest for the Spring Bouquet

Summer- Drape Hair Sticks of the Faerie Queen Titania

Fall- To Autumn Hair Sticks

Winter- Prayer to the Winter Goddess Hair Sticks

An Autumn Offer for my Readers & This Week's Treasuries

Faerie Guardians by Howard David Johnson

An Autumn Offer for my Readers

Since this blog is so new, I'd like to cater to my readers a bit!  Please pass this along to anyone else you might think is interested in the offer, the more the merrier!

In a future blog post I'd like to do a NightBlooming Q & A session.  What have you always wanted to know about our store, our products, how we operate?  Ask a question in the comments and sign with your Etsy name; ***if your question is chosen to be featured***  I'll give free shipping on your next order (including our international members!)

Some guidelines for questions:

• One question per person, please
• No personal questions, keep it strictly about the store and its products (for instance a question about my workshop would be just fine, asking what I had for dinner last night is not)
•  No trade secrets
• Questions must be submitted by next Friday (10/15/2010)
  

 I look forward to your questions!

 

This Week's Treasuries 

The leaves here make the trees look as though they're on fire- flaming reds and golds and oranges.  It's a stunning display, natures fireworks, and while I enjoy them I know that only too soon they'll fade and it's on to the coldest, darkest part of the year.

Both the treasuries I was featured in this week help me keep my thoughts nice and warm.

 

Spring Færie Sample Sachets are Here!

Scene from a narration of Master Tribell's "The Spring Fairy": A young woodelf on a romp, spreading magical petals from her bottomless bag. Image by Eratin.

 
There is a tale of a Spring Færie who finds a bottomless sachet with magical petals. The petals made the ground they touched flourish and people happy- and so the spring faerie spread the petals as far as she could.

But the bag was stolen by a thief who thought to make money by spreading happiness, only to discover that the contents of the bag withered in his hands, and that the bottomless bag reverted to a normal one. Disgusted, he tossed it aside.

The spring færie found the ruined sachet, but had found that she didn't need a magical bag to make people happy...

Not wanting to throw the bag away, instead she tucked inside a few of her mystical beauty sundries.

Her bag has found its way to you... perhaps there’s magic left in it after all.

Introducing Spring Færie Sample Sachets

Inside you will find samples of several of the herbal treatments available from NightBlooming! This little bag makes it easy to get several samples at once and is also perfect for a gift or for a travel set!

The organic burlap bag contains:

- 1 Normal Panacea Salve Sample
- 1 Vegan Panacea Salve Sample
- 1 Triple Moon Oil Sample w/ Dropper
- 1 Herbal Hair Rinse Tea Bag (for either light or dark hair, please leave a note to the seller with your choice. If none is chosen I will send the light hair)

Also included is a scroll that gives abbreviated directions for each of the products. For complete ingredients and directions, please see the individual listing for each product!

3,000 Sales and Fall Reading

 

3,000 Sales!

Thank you so much to my cherished customers for helping me reach such a stunning goal!  My shop has surpassed my wildest expectations and I look forward to offering you more items for you to chrish.

Fall Reading

There are few things that embody fall for me so much as sitting outside under changing leaves with a good book and a steaming cup of tea.  I treasure my books, as I know many do, and there are simply some of them that are no longer books, but have become teachers and friends.  These most cherished books I like to give the gift of more special bookmark, something a bit nicer than either a scrap of paper of a cardboard rectangle with a tassel on it. 

All of the bookmarks were made by the talented and creative Chloris’s Conservatory:

 Her work is inspired and her craftsmanship excellent.  These are just my favorites, but she also does custom work, and I've no doubt could make a special marker for a beloved book in your collection.

Snowdrop from Niel Gaiman's Stardust

A fantastical tale of adventure and love told by one of my favorite authors, this  tiny flower held powerful magics.  Delicate and stunning, this bookmark adds a bit of magic to the shelf.

 Dina Angel of Learning Multi-Strand Bookmark

Few things seem to convey the sense of a proper tome as a multi-strand bookmark.  I do research on angels and this bookmark has served me well to mark several important passage before they can be transcribed properly to my notes.

Sevenwaters 

The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliet Marillier is a stunning retelling and elaboration of the færie tale The Swan Princes.  Sweeping in scope and told in a voice you want to hear forever, this bookmark could have been taken from the magical forests around Sevenwaters.  

Black Rose of Phedre no Delaunay

Phèdre nó Delaunay is the main character in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series and has inspired millions of women, and perhaps as many rose tattoos.  An anguissette, Phedre is destined to always find pleasure in pain and the rose of her marque and a black lash balance this bookmark well. It has a hearbreaking counterpart, the Melisande diamond bookmark.

Lothlorien Leaf Lord of the Rings

A centerpiece of my bookshelves is my, some may call it a shrine, to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books.  This delicate and beautiful leaf is a special accent to the books there, seeming almost fitting for a library in Rivendell.

Congratulations to Our Quest Winner and Treasury Feature

Travel Companions by FrozenStarRo


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(¸.•´ (¸Congratulations to our Quest Winner: KritKatten! 

Her name was drawn from a total of 46 entries in the Autumn Errant Knight Quest!  Many thanks to those that participated, we look forward to seeing you again for the Winter Solstice Quest!


Featured!
It's always so flattering to be in a Treasury!  This one was my first that had not one, but two of my items at the same time!

Autumn Quest Closing Tomorrow & What's in NightBlooming's Stash

The autumn lagoon by =FrozenStarRo on deviantART

Our Errant Knight Quest for the Autumn Veil closes tomorrow, the 22nd, at Midnight!   There's still time to enter to win this lovely set so get your entry in soon.  Right now we have just over 40 Errant Knights who have found the correct answer and have their name in the drawing!

One of the things that amuses me is when I occasionally hear, "Wow, I can't imagine all the sticks you have for yourself!"  I can just imagine what they picture, huge troves of hair sticks, forks, barrettes and pins, perhaps one of everything I've ever made. The reality is quite a bit different than that.

I suffer from a terrible habit of letting to all the pretty things I make, forever promising myself that I can always remake one for myself later.  Later, it seems, rarely happens.  But, on occasion, it does.  Below are a few of the handful of the things that I've made for myself.


Feather Wreath Hair Sticks

These sticks were inspired by feather wreaths, tiny gatherings of feathers into a halo-shape inside someone's pillow.  It was thought that after someone died that if they had attained entrance into heaven that the fathers would ring together.  This pair is built on bird's eye maple Ketylo sticks and the lower orbs are white fossil.  The topmost spheres are pressed shells that look like balls of white feathers, and the dangle is silver pewter, shell and daggers of white pressed glass.


Watch Movement Hair Stick

 Ive been doing watch movement hair sticks for a few years now, but this was the first one.  The tiny watch movement has a unique shape and though you can't see it in this picture I was able to right part of the case on the back so it has a nice smooth finish.  One of my favorite things about this movement is that is has "Gotham" stamped on it.


Dragon's Blood Hair Stick

 
 There are some things that just come together in such a stunning way that when I'm done all I can do is sit back and stare.  In these cases I feel much less like a creator, but more as a conduit for assembling that was simply intended to be.  This stick is made of snakewood I notched the top to fit in that heavenly fan of Dragon's Blood stone.   There's also a matching necklace and I'll try to add a picture of that in the future.


There's more where this came from, but since there aren't too many more we'll save some for another rainy day.

Autumn Features

It's always flattering to be featured in an Etsy Treasury!  This past week I was in a few autumn-themed ones, which tickled me as it's my favorite season!  Enjoy!