A real troll? (Part 3)

Sometime last year I got the opportunity to see a film called Troll Hunter, which is a fictional story shot documentary style about a man who secretly hunts trolls in modern-day Norway and the university students who find out about him. It got me thinking about the unsolved mystery we posted here a few years ago about the troll sighting in Finland.

Nils Hekkalinna had sent us an email and a blurry photograph he claimed to be of a troll. (The original post is here.) After getting some assistance from fairy-identification experts Reginald Bakeley and Professor Marcus White (see the post here), we didn't seem to be getting that much closer to making any sense of the photograph.

I got out my paints and tried to see whether I could find the Finnish roadside troll. Here is the result. (You can click any of these pictures to get a closer look.) Do you think I captured the troll the way Nils saw it? If you have your own artistic interpretation of the blurry photos, I'd love to see it.

Crepe Paper Roses on Green Wedding Shoes

Weblog Green Wedding Shoes has posted a gorgeous gallery of pictures from the wedding of Nata and Jess, as photographed by Studio Castillero. We love to see how the party incorporated giant roses made from our crepe paper. Nata made her own flowers and even posted a how-to article in case you want to try it yourself. Thank you!

Castle in the Air in Romantic Country

Many thanks to Shelly of Bungalow Bling who tipped us off to the fact that we're sharing a page in the new issue of Romantic Country magazine. The magazine reviews blogs as well as shops, and our reviewer very kindly mentioned that our blog "is a great way to connect with the vibe" of Castle in the Air for those who can't visit us in person.

We received our copy of the magazine in the mail today and were thrilled to see so many familiar faces in its pages. If you saw us in Romantic Country and do come by to visit the shop, classroom, and gallery at Castle in the Air, be sure to say so--we always love to find out how people have heard of us.

Aimee Baldwin in the San Francisco Chronicle

Longtime readers of our blog are familiar with the intricate, lifelike "vegan taxidermy" sculptures made by Aimée Baldwin, but this week her name is spreading far and wide, thanks to a feature article in the print and online editions of the San Francisco Chronicle. Writer Nancy Davis Kho and photographer Liz Hafalia have done an outstanding job of ushering people into Aimée's crepe paper wonderland. We're so proud of her and happy for all the press coverage she has attracted lately.

Pirate & Hoopoe Goes to Press

The dream that is Pirate & Hoopoe is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. Yesterday we went to the nearby city of Hayward to visit Folger Graphics, the press that is printing the book. When we walked in we were thrilled to see that two of the seventeen signatures were already printed, and the third was on press.
It was wonderful that one of the giant stacks of pages featured a picture of dear Hoopoe, the character who travels between the world of men and the story's magical valley. It was almost as though she was there to greet us.
If you've never had the opportunity to watch a giant printing press at work, I encourage you to find an excuse to do so. I'm sure that printing will never die out completely, but it is more and more rare to see these presses in action. The "Heidelberg Speedmaster" printing the pages of the book is a monster of a machine, but it's amazing what fine work it can turn out. We've put up a short video to give you a sense of it.

The End & The Beginning

All the talk of the end of the world coming in 2012 rang true over the past three days at Castle in the Air, where it looked like a sparkly paper apocalypse as we brought down all the holiday displays and upended the entire shop for our annual inventory.
Only a few hints at wintry festivities remain. The picture above is from our re-imagined miniatures cabinet -- it looks as though we didn't put away Santa so much as shrink him!
At times we didn't think the end was in sight, but just as sure as the sun always rises again, after three long days of toil we stepped back and looked at the rebirth of our little world.
We are waiting so very patiently for Pirate & Hoopoe to arrive -- it is currently undergoing the long process of printing and binding and we expect it to be here around the end of the month. There will be a grand announcement when it arrives.
It's put us in a literary frame of mind, and this is part of the reason Castle in the Air is positively bursting with luscious blank leather journals. If your new year's resolutions include keeping a diary, composing a novel, or writing more letters, know that we've brought out so many beautiful ways to get started.
And no matter your plans for 2012, we hope the year is off to an imaginative beginning and that by the end you've received all you've wished for. Come by and tell us all about it.

Greetings from Spring Valley

Pirate & Hoopoe is at press, and the rest of the items for our Kickstarter gift packs are coming together, including postcards featuring illustrations from the book. If you want a sneak peek at the postcards, or if you want to order some for yourself, check out the selection at the Online Shoppe or at the Dromedary Press website. See you in Spring Valley!

Professor Asperity's Alchemy Workshop

The enigmatic, irrepressible Professor Asperity usually sends his news on paper, using ink he brews himself, but this morning he sent us a message by the more ephemeral means of email, notifying us of his new "Alchemy Workshop" website. The Professor lends a bit of his marvelous mystique to everything he touches, so we expect his online home will be no different. We especially love his quote, "To be an artist is to be an alchemist."

A Sneak Peek at How the Magic Happens

Holiday Happenings on Fourth Street

There are a lot of wonderful events planned for Fourth Street this season. Be sure to pop in and say hello if you are on the street taking in the spectacle!

Santa
Come visit Santa on Fourth Street -- he will be posing for FREE Pictures with his Sleigh from 12 to 4pm on the weekends of December 10, 11, 17, and 18.

Live Music and Entertainment
Local artists will keep your spirits bright with live music and entertainment all along Fourth Street each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and December 21 through 24. The full schedule is posted here.

Holiday Lights
Santa's reindeer won't have any trouble finding Fourth Street. Thousands and thousands of bright and colorful lights adorn the trees and lampposts, bringing holiday sparkle to the shopfronts and restaurants.

Children's Book Drive
Now an annual tradition! Every year we collect hundreds of books for children. This year, all books will be donated to B.O.S.S. (Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency) and their Children's Learning Center which provides literacy programs for homeless children in Alameda County. Bring new or gently used books to The Ark (1812 Fourth St.), Books Inc (1760 Fourth St.), Builders Booksource (1817 Fourth St.), Crate & Barrel (1785 Fourth St.), or Sur La Table (1806 Fourth St.).

Parties!
Many of the shops and restuarants are hosting classes, trunk shows, and parties all season long. Last year's New Year's Eve party at Zut! was a magical night of dinner and dancing and this year's promises to be an equal success. For a full list of the shops and links to all their websites, please visit the Fourth Street Shops website or follow them on Facebook.

Extended Hours
Castle in the Air and most of the shops on the street will be open late during the holiday shopping season. Through Christmas Eve, our hours will be:
10:00 am - 6:00 pm Monday through Wednesday
10:00 am - 7:00 pm Thursday through Saturday
10:00 am - 6:00 pm Sunday
We will also be open late December 21, 22, and 23 for all the last minute shoppers. On Christmas Eve, the store will close at 4:30 pm.

The Crimson Poppy turns Golden

Over the past few years we've been so impressed as Jenny Jafek-Jones' business -- The Crimson Poppy -- has grown and bloomed just like the magical crepe-paper flowers she makes. Jenny's eye for arrangement and meticulous blossoms have caught the attention of magazines and wedding planners across the country.

And now we've heard of what might be her greatest success to date: placement at two of Hollywood's most prestigious evenings. Crimson Poppy arrangements will be on display in the luxury gift lounges at the Golden Globe Awards in January and at the Academy Awards in February. Way to go, Jenny!

Spring Classes Are Here!

Even though it's difficult to picture springtime just as we go into the holiday season, the spring 2012 schedule of classes has been on our minds at Castle in the Air. Our industrious and inventive instructors have dreamed up 43 classes they're ready to share with you.

Visit the Online Shoppe to read all about the classes, see pictures, and download the PDF version of the paper schedule (1.1 MB), which also includes a special preview of the prologue of Pirate & Hoopoe.

Saved!

We've got so many things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. We are especially grateful for all our friends. Happy Thanksgiving!!

We found this image for you to download from our collection of vintage cards. Enjoy.

Help Pirate & Hoopoe Take Flight

Pirate & Hoopoe
A Grand Illustrated Adventure Novel
by Diarmid Cammell
Illustrated by Karima Cammell

“Wall Street meets The Jungle Book”

I’m very proud to announce that a long-held dream of mine is on the verge of becoming reality! Pirate & Hoopoe is a grand illustrated novel in the tradition of the best of them. It’s going to press very soon, and we want to invite you to join the adventure!

My desire to publish Pirate & Hoopoe was what drove me, ten years ago, to open Castle in the Air, a haven where artists and dreamers could come together to create, learn, and follow their passions. Every day I hear from people who’ve moved closer to their artistic goals thanks to our shop and classroom, and each story fills me with joy.

If you've been inspired by Castle in the Air and want to show your appreciation, now is a great time! I've teamed up with Kickstarter.com, an "all-or-nothing" fundraising website, to help with this deluxe hardcover's massive printing bill and pre-sell copies of Pirate & Hoopoe to the people who want it most.

In return for your generosity, you'll receive one of a number of gift packs I've put together based on the story and artwork of Pirate & Hoopoe. All pledges of $50 or more will be rewarded with a copy of the book itself.

Kickstarter makes it easy to donate any amount, but there's a catch: we won't see a cent unless we raise our goal before time runs out!

The making of Pirate & Hoopoe has been one of the most transformative projects of my life. I would be grateful beyond words to have your support at any level as I make my dream a reality.

Click this link to go to the Kickstarter page and watch our video about Pirate & Hoopoe.

Dream big!

Spooks All!

Light your lanterns, don a mask, and go wandering with the spirits tonight. Halloween is here!

Occupy Fairyland

My girls are making their Halloween costumes this week. They’ve fallen in love with D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths, a book we’re reading as part of our home schooling. My older daughter is putting together a costume for Freya, the goddess of love and beauty, and my younger daughter is assembling one for the thunder-god Thor.

They sketched their costumes based on what they got from the D’Aulaire illustrations and from the other Norse stories we’ve read this fall. The girls were full of questions while they dreamed up the details: What kind of pattern would be best for Freya’s dress? How should we make her golden tears? What do her shoes look like? Could Thor have the teeth of giants he’s defeated sewn onto his boots? Should we have lightning bolts coming out of his magical hammer Mjolnir, and if so, how? And how do I get my hair to bunch up into the wild red spiky style he’s got?

These questions took us down a crazy rabbit hole of ancient Viking lore and mystery. The process of answering them just added to the imagination that goes into our preparations, and none of the questions take away at all from Halloween’s wonder.

The questions which threaten to do that, however, are the ones the girls will be asked on the big night: “Who are you supposed to be?” is a question most children have to answer as they go from door to door. But to this I expect Freya will also have to answer the question “Who is that?” and Thor will hear “Then why don’t you have blond hair like in the movie?”

Our family loves folklore, but these sorts of questions, and Halloween in general, show that folklore isn’t necessarily “of the folk” any longer. There’s absolutely no external pressure to agonize over the details in getting our costumes ready, and plenty of reason not to. After all, for $29.99 I can buy my girl an instantly recognizable Thor costume. (“Screen-accurate” is the term.) My daughter who likes Freya is out of luck, though, as her favorite Norse god didn’t make the Hollywood cut. Not that I think the girls will mind the confusion, as long as they know that they’ve made costumes themselves and put as much of their own spirit into the process as they do everything else.

Of course, no one of any age needs an excuse like Halloween to take on aspects of our favorite characters and archetypes. We actually do it all the time without even thinking. But any time of year is a good time to stop and consider what mythological or fairy tale characters have shaped your heart.

Who is it from stories and legends that has made you who you are? How intentionally are you bringing those characters into the world? What do you bring to them that is all your own? I could have guessed that each of my girls would have been drawn to the characters they chose for their Halloween costumes. But the joy and genuine surprise has come in watching them tell me a little bit more about who they truly are.

Proclamation!

As a writer and illustrator of children's books I am adding my name to this proclamation!

Castle in the News

It's a banner month for us at the news-stand, with Aimee Baldwin's crepe paper birds featured in O Magazine, and a favor bag craft in Brides Magazine using our very own crepe paper. Hooray!

Old Magic

A conundrum I’ve struggled with my entire life has been that eternal set of questions—“What is Art?” “What is Craft?” “How are the two related?”

It’s always worth an evening to engage friends in conversation about these things. We can talk all night, but what has eluded us every time is a concise set of answers, some commonplaces about Art and Craft. Until now.

While I’ve got a sense that the mere act of putting forth my revelations about Craft and Art will reveal their flaws, will show the cracks in their reasoning, it’s much better to share them with you than to hide them away. Besides, I want to hear what you think about these ideas.

I’ll start with Craft. Put in its simplest terms, I believe Craft is the power of transformation. There is something materially alchemical in the taking of raw materials—paper, wool, apples are the examples I’ll use here—and through skill and work turning them into something else, something useful. Through Craft we can create something that didn’t exist before—paper becomes a book, wool a sweater, apples applesauce.

Art, as an activity, cannot exist without Craft, because at its core Art is also the power of transformation. But Art adds something more. In Art, transformation is enhanced by imagination. A blank book becomes something greater once a story is printed in it. A sweater takes on meaning if it is made as a gift by a loved one who is thinking of the recipient. And anyone who has spent time around the artisan food scene (in Berkeley or elsewhere) knows that homemade applesauce is rarely mere applesauce.

There are a few theories as to why the D.I.Y. movement—people making more of the things they use everyday—is making a comeback. Some point to the alienation brought about by technology that discourages us from meeting face-to-face. Others say the terrible economy is leading people to stay at home and take up productive hobbies. Both these reasons are valid, but there is something greater, more basic and ancient, at work here.

Craft and Art are activities that have always been with us, as I was reminded by Werner Herzog’s footage of Paleolithic cave paintings in his new film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. I believe that our taking hold of these powers of transformation is a response to a feeling of awe or powerlessness in the face of larger forces.

We pick up raw materials, we work with them, sharpen our skills. Each of us adds touches that only we can. We share the results with others. In doing so, we transform our environment. We shape our world so it makes more sense to us. Craft is the power of transformation. Art is the power of transformation imbued with imagination. They are acts of old magic. In fact, they may be the defining features of what it means to be human.

Standing at the Gates

I haven’t shared anything with you lately about Commonplace Birthday, my follow-up to Commonplace Mouse, so here is a peek at one of the paintings I’ve recently completed for it.

The trickiest part about painting this picture was capturing the light. I paint with minerals dissolved in water. Mud, basically. Can you imagine how to use mud to make light, which is—to put it one way—the absence of mud?

As I confronted this problem, I was reminded of a moment described to me years ago by my younger girl’s preschool teacher. The class was painting with watercolors, and as my daughter was putting the color onto the paper she sighed and announced that she felt as though she were “standing at the gates of heaven.”

The story was a beautiful one for me then as a mother, but while I was working on this picture it resurfaced in my mind as an artist. Isn’t that feeling of transcendence what we all strive for in our artistic work?

Of course, I was a ways off from that feeling as I sat, brush in hand, trying to figure out how to transform mud into light. Eventually I realized I just had to go for it. I had to make a leap of faith and trust that my ability and my materials wouldn’t fail me.

What became clear to me at that moment, though, was that the way to succeed wasn’t to try so much as it was to just “stand at the gates,” to leap and hope that the light would be there. It seems to have worked, but of course my preschooler could have told me it would.

Have you ever had a moment like this in your own art?

Autumn Classes

Autumn classes at Castle in the Air begin September 10, and seats are already starting to fill. Here are samples from seven classes in the autumn lineup. Pictured top to bottom: Dresden Wearable Jewelry, Best of Altered Books, Black Letter Variation, Vintage Botanical Plate, Designing Your Own Font, Miniature Food, and Needlefelted Book.

Origins of Copperplate

Castle in the Air calligraphers are familiar with Copperplate, the script most widely recognized for its use in 18th-century documents as varied as personal correspondence and the Declaration of Independence.

What isn't as well known is how this iconic script was developed. Most histories of calligraphy leap over nearly a century of artistic development leading up to Copperplate's era.

In this evening seminar, calligraphic historian Dave Goggin, founder of the San Francisco Pointed Pen Calligraphy Club, will reveal some of the rich variety and beauty of writing styles and flourishing of the "proto-Copperplate" era, circa 1620-1710. His illustrated lecture will include a number of "lost" variations on Copperplate, Blackletter, Dutch, and Italic, and will also show examples of single-line flourishing and the artistry and precision of "spring'd letters." Methods for rejuvenating these long-lost scripts into present-day practice will also be discussed.

Scheduled to complement master calligrapher Bill Kemp's two-day Copperplate workshop at Castle in the Air--the Bay Area's premier supplier of pointed pen books and supplies--this presentation will be held in the shop's upstairs gallery.

Origins of Copperplate
An Illustrated Presentation by Dave Goggin

Saturday, August 13
6:30 p.m.

Castle in the Air
1805 Fourth Street
Berkeley, Calif. 94710

This event is free and open to the public.
For further information, please call Clint Marsh at (510)204-9801.
Facebook Event Page

The Balloon Seller

"Who will buy this wonderful morning?
Such a sky you never did see!
Who will tie it up with a ribbon,
and put it in a box for me?"

We've often written of the beautiful work that paper artist Anandamayi Arnold does for others--the classes she teaches at Castle in the Air or the surprise balls she makes for The Tail of the Yak--but last month she unveiled a project she'd done solely for herself.

Anandamayi was part of The Cries of San Francisco, an event which brought more than sixty artists out from their studios and into the streets of San Francisco, where each of them took on the role of a historic street vendor. Of course, everyone who participated did so with a great deal of artistic license, and the result was a madcap spectacle. We met an insect-antennae headdress seller, a composer of love poems and letters of recommendation, a weaver giving away crowns made from gleaned olive branches, and dozens of other wonder-workers.

For her part, Anandamayi portrayed The Balloon Seller, dressing herself in 18th century garb made entirely of crepe paper, from the top of her bonnet to the tips of her shoes. She sold miniature flying balloons inflated from a helium-tank goat of her own design, and also offered paper aeronauts to pilot the balloons and pamphlets on the French ballooning craze of 1783.

It's not in Anandamayi's nature to make anything that doesn't raise everyone's spirits with its beauty and simple perfection, but The Balloon Seller really made our spirit soar because out of all of Anandamayi's art, this project was so joyous and over the top. Three cheers for flights of fancy come to life!

"The Paper Conservatory" on Berkeley Patch

Tremendous thanks goes out to photographer J.J. Barrow for her album of photographs from The Paper Conservatory. Visit the Berkeley Patch website to see them all!

A Visitor from the Green Vase

We had a special surprise visitor this morning at the shop--stylist Jo Donohoe of The Green Vase. When we'd last spoken with Jo a few months ago, she was swimming in a sea of Castle in the Air crepe paper, working with her dedicated team to create hundreds of paper hibiscus flowers for display in Ann Taylor windows across the country. We're so happy watching all the success Jo and friends are having. Here are a few pictures of the project, courtesy of The Green Vase blog.

Windows

We were charmed to receive recently a virtual album of photographs from longtime Castle in the Air visitor Philip H. Over the ten years we've been in business, Philip has lovingly documented our displays with his digital camera, then worked his computer magic on the photos in the most artistic ways. Browsing through the collection of pictures he gave us took me on a trip down memory lane (one of my favorite journeys).

"A Suitable Chimera" Postcards Available

Whether or not you were able to come in earlier this year and see Sharon Eisley's A Suitable Chimera in our gallery, you can now browse 17 images from the exhibit in the postcard section of our Online Shoppe.

Each of Sharon's portraits is represented in full, without cropping. I can imagine some crafty person recreating a miniature Castle in the Air gallery at home, hung with all these exquisite creatures!