NOTES FROM A "GREEN" FAERIE

Here's a great review of Winter Celebration from a first time Exhibitor, Melissa Barton:

I write you this as a first time Faerieworld participant, damp behind the ears and wings covered in dew:
I never fancied myself a Fae Folk, but with a little gentle prodding from Robert, I found myself in the lush, green late Winter of Eugene with my spinning wheel. Sure, I had all kinds of worries of the right thing to wear and what would it be like, but as soon as I sat down at my spinning wheel, that all spun away.

I spent the Winter Celebration weekend doing a fiber arts demo at the festival along with my business cohort, Laura, of Krafti-Kit. With wheels and spindles and "sheepiness" in tow, I spent the weekend showing folks what I love most to do, play with fiber. There's a close relationship that is just now being unveiled to us both, the Fae and Fiber worlds. It's about tradition, storytelling, the passing down of craft and the love of creating the clothes we dream of wearing. To "tell a good yarn" is now synonymous with the telling of a good story when in fact it's roots take place in the woman's work of actually making yarn and telling stories to pass the time.

I normally have a lot of kids who drag their parents to see what I'm doing. In this environment, where the children often roamed freely, the little girls were all in their faerie costumes, whooping it up. That left the boys to...find other things to occupy themselves: A fast turning wheel and some fiber magic. It was a joy to see the fascination of these children as it always reminds me of my own as a child. I've carried it with me all my life, and here I am, bringing that tradition forward.

Bringing tradition forward is very much what Krafti-Kit is all about. Through simple (and some not-so-simple) needlearts kits, we bring all these traditions forward.

I spent my time at the festival teaching from our drop spindle kit and Laura was doing a great job teaching first-time knitters. With every purchase we gave away a little needlepoint kit. The most common exclamation being "That's so cool, it looks nothing like what my mom did!" And that's what it's about for us. We call it "cross training in fiber-arts." Once you learn to sew or knit, give crochet, spinning or needlepoint a try! With a kit, you can try on these new skills with everything you need to get started and some pretty immediate gratification.

I'm so pleased to feel more comfortable in my new wings. Next time around I hope to have crocheted something quite wonderful for my "literal" wings. My creative inspiration is at "10" right now after eying all the amazing faeriewear. But, I'll just wait a bit to start those new projects, because right now I'm just enjoying the Faerieworlds afterglow...

WINTER CELEBRATION INSPIRES AMY BROWN

We were honored to have Amy Brown join us for the first time at Winter Celebration, she even attended the Masquerade Balls for the first time. Here are her thoughts about the event and how it ignited her creative energies when she returned to her studio. It's wonderful and heartening for us to know that our events can inspire people's lives in so many ways. Here's Amy:

"Returning home from the Faerieworlds Winter Celebration, I was feverish with a need to paint. For months I've felt stagnant when

I thought of my art, and suddenly I was inspired. Inspired! The costumes and atmosphere at Faerieworlds always leave me feeling super charged-my mind churning with new ideas and a raw desire to create. Normally, I spend no more than a day or two on a painting, my attention span being ridiculously short. But suddenly, I had something I felt was worth spending time on. Nearly a week later, I completed "Goblin Mask". It feels as though I am stepping up to the next level of my work. I've broken through a barrier that has always kept me in check-not brave enough, or confident enough, to paint from the depths of my true heart.

At Faerieworlds, there are no barriers. Everyone is allowed and encouraged to express their creativity without fear of judgment. To take a piece of that home, is a rare gift."

Winter Celebration Reflections

Faerieworlds Winter Celebration was a wonderful weekend that was a revelation in many ways. As last year, both Masquerade Balls were packed to near sellout capacity. On Good Faeries Night, Woodland delivered an amazing, rocking set that showcased their new members and song production. Abney Park brought the drama and power of steampunk that made a surprisingly successful mash up with the faerie realm. Bad Faeries Night totally lived up to its outrageous reputation. Delhi 2 Dublin threw down the most outrageously excellent, on-fire set, unquestionably the musical high point of the weekend. Beats Antique kept the dance floor pumping while Zoe Jakes entranced the crowd with her exotic tribal belly dance moves. Kelly and Emilio Miller Lopez produced a lovely ritual performance in celebration of the full moon. And Adam Hurst's intoxicating cello mesmerized the crowd each night. My biggest surprise was to see how many people joined us at the Lane Events Center for a two magical days of music, workshops and shopping at the Faerieworlds Marketplace for this first time event. It was such a pleasure to see so many happy faces enjoying our amazing vendors and fine musicians. In reflecting about the weekend now, it is so gratifying to see so many of our friends and guests in the Faerieworlds family joyfully come together in the heart of winter, exactly six months from our summer event. Our thanks to everyone and especiallt to our Faerieworlds team who makes our events possible; we'll see you next year and this summer at Faerieworlds! - Robert

By Moon and Sun

Here we are again at the threshold of the seasons; at the doorway between the coldest and darkest hours of winter and the first light of the coming spring. This weekend we will gather at the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, a time of festivals throughout Europe known as Imbolc. At this time communities would gather by the hearth and light candles and celebrate the first stirrings of spring, and the coming return of the Sun, and the end of the dark night of the winter.

This year Imbolc also falls on a most auspicious Full Moon weekend. At 10:18 on Friday night while Woodland is on stage at the McDonald Theatre, the Full Wolf Moon will take place. It was called the Wolf Moon in old times here in North America because amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. And to add the magic of the moon energy, this Full Moon will also arrive at perigee (it's closest point to Earth on its non-circular orbit) less than three hours later, at 4:04 a.m. EST at a distance of 221,577 mi. (356,593 km.) from Earth. It will be the biggest full moon of 2010. Very high ocean tides can be expected during the next two or three days, a very potent time indeed to gather, and dance with the Fae....

We look forward seeing seeing so many of you in Oregon in the coming days, and howling with you at the Faerieworlds Winter Celebration!

Why Renaissance?

by Emilio Miller-Lopez

I am starting this post with the Webster Dictionary definition of Renaissance, because to me it is an important element in the concept of RenCon 2010, our new east coast event which launches this April in Maryland:

RENAISSANCE (from Websters)

1. the transitional movement in Europe between medieval and modern times beginning in the 14th century in Italy, lasting into the 17th century, and marked by a humanistic revival of classical influence expressed in a flowering of the arts and literature and by the beginnings of modernscience 2. a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity

On April 9th-11th in Hunt Valley Maryland, Faerieworlds and Renaissance Magazine will launch RenCon, a gathering of music, art, lore, crafts and culture. The event will be a celebration of the current artistic, mythic and cultural "rebirth," and an intentional gathering of creativity, with influences from Medieval and Renaissance culture and art. RenCon will feature John and Caitlin Matthews, two of the world's foremost scholars of Celtic, Arthurian and Medieval lore, Brian and Wendy Froud, two of the most influential mythic and faerie artists of our time, and the German medieval influenced bands Qntal and Estampie. Our intention with RenCon is not to be a re-enactment of a time past, but to celebrate the visionary cultural and artistic movement it has inspired in the present, and to be part of a "rebirth" of the very meaning of Renaissance in this modern age.

FaerieCon Dreams Come True

Four years ago I awoke one morning from a rather strange dream. In the dream Faerieworlds had just ended and we were all packing up... and there was a great feeling of sadness and emptiness. I saw Brian Froud in the dream and asked him why it felt like this and he said with a chuckle, "Because you haven't done FaerieCon yet!"

The next day I called Robert and told him about the dream, and we contemplated the idea for a few minutes and decided we were too busy to take on an entire Faerie convention. But over a few short months the idea gestated in our minds and before long we took the leap of faith and launched FaerieCon in Philadelphia in 2007. Over two years we worked hard and made the best of the Convention Center in downtown Philly, but the concrete cube just never felt like the right place for the tribes of the Fae to gather for our annual convention.

Now in our third year, our dream of FaerieCon has come to life in a whole new way. Not only have all the rooms at the event hotel sold out a month in advance, but FaerieCon's new home is an ornate, lush and comfortable setting that feels like the perfect gathering place for annual east coast Faerie gathering. With a glorious group of international artists, authors, crafters, musicians, and thousands of guests adorned in full faerie regalia, 2009 is the Faeriecon we've all been dreaming of...see you there in November!

-Emilio

Come As You (Magically) Are

One of the most exciting things about our Faerieworlds events is to see the incredible imagination and creativity our guests bring to their costumes: so much style, beauty, sensuality, humor and downright craziness I like to say our guests don’t attend our events – they inhabit them. Each has a story, a reason for being, that is personal, an expression of their unique identity. They bring their extraordinary characters, personas and avatars into ours and we create one enchanted world together. At Faerieworlds, we love the fusion of the traditional with the visionary, the past mashed up with the future. Our bands at Winter Celebration are great examples of this: Woodland marries traditional Celtic themes with modern mythic music,Delhi 2 Dublin (amazingly) combines Celtic and Indian music, Beats Antique fuses a multiple of musical styles with circus performance and Zoe Jakes mesmerizing tribal belly dancing. And making their premiere performance at a Faerieworlds event, Abney Park brings the world of fantasy steampunk wildly, vibrantly alive in both sight and sound. All these amazing worlds and characters will meet, celebrate and dance the night away at the Good Faeries & Bad Faeries Masquerade Balls at Winter Celebration: I promise you this will be a whole new level of Faerieworlds, and personally - I just can’t wait!

– Robert