Etsy Wedding Team Giveaway: Win a Thyme2dream Tiara

Im excited to be doing my first giveaway over on the #EtsyWeddingTeam blog! Im giving away a piece from my very popular Withywindle Wedding Collection, named in honor of one of my favorite characters in this first Lord of the Rings book.

Thyme2dream Withywindle Wedding Tiara~ the prize in this week's EWT giveaway

To enter the contest, please follow this link and complete the entries on the Rafflecopter widget (its easy, just follow the directions;) For more about this collection, read on.

"Down along under Hill, shining in the sunlight,

Waiting on the doorstep for the cold starlight,

There my pretty lady is, River-woman's daughter,

Slender as the willow-wand, clearer than the water."

~J.R.R Tolkien

Tom Bombadil appears toward the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring is one of my favorite characters from the Lord of the Rings. Athough I understood they needed to do something to keep the first film from being way too long, I was sad to see him left out of the films. Tom's wife Goldberry was a river daughter who he met one summer's day when he was dangling his beard in the River Withywindle where she lived with her mother. She pulled him in and apparently stole his heart, for he eventually took her home to be his bride.

A few pieces from the  Thyme2dream Withywindle Wedding Collection available in my ArtFire & Etsy Shops

Is it Christmas Yet?

Im having fun getting ready for Christmas!
Here is my first tiara for the yuletide season-
The Holly Wreath Circlet.

Art Nouveau Elven Headdress

I'm so excited about how this Arwen inspired Elven Headdress turned out..My sister took some in a big hurry photos tonight (wish my in a hurry photos looked THAT good!) and I just couldn't wait to post them.

This piece is truly a collaboration- I came up with an idea based on a request from a customer...Ian designed the gorgeous celtic weave base, my niece Alicia designed the bead strands (and is the model in these photos;), and I added my crystal flower arrangements and put it all together. My sister did the photos- she is so good she made even these rushed ones look great!

Tomorrow we will try to get some daylight shots- the bead strands are full of swarovski crystals and we really want to get some of the amazing sparkle in the photos.

UPDATE: These are now made to order!! I can even customize the colours for you if you like. Now available in the Nouveau Wedding collection in my ArtFire Shop

Just in Time for Halloween...

...Or anytime you need to feel like a fairy princess!

I am introducing a new range of simple tiaras and circlets with a much more everyday price...so now you can buy one for each of your children, or for 'I dont know when I'll wear it, but I LOVE tiaras', or buy one to go with each of your favorite faery costumes;-)

These will be available in each of my elven forest colour ranges~ this one coordinates with my Rivendell Spring and Fairy Bower collections...if you want a different colour combination and dont see the one you want listed yet, just contact me!

Autumn Flame Copper & Amethyst Set

October is a beautiful time of year in Kansas. The awful heat of summer has passed, we have deep blue skies, brilliant fiery leaves and crisp cool weather.




In the Flinthills, even our prairie grass changes colours, and we see vast expanses of deep golden-copper hue waving in the south wind. I created these pieces with our gorgeous autumn landscape in mind.


The tiara, necklace and earrings are available currently in my ArtFire Shop. Im thinking I will do an ear cuff and maybe a hair clip as well...if you have another request, feel free to contact me anytime:)

Lorriane's Wedding

Ian finally finished the tiara for his daughter, Lorraine. She is getting married in a Scottish Castle, complete with kilts, bagpipes and maybe even a ghost or two...

Lorraine wanted a sort of goth but not too goth look, and we were delighted to find these gorgeous ivy leaf charms at one of our favorite bead suppliers. Ian worked forever to modify the leaves so they would work in the design, but it was well worth the effort!!

This design also has an optional Celtic Weave band that can be added:



THIS IS NOW AVAILABLE IN MY ETSY SHOP:
Elven Forest Ivy Leaf Tiara

Tiara for A Fairy Bridesmaid

Here is the matching bridesmaid's tiara~ very similar, but with wee fairy flower clusters on the sides instead of matching sprays as in the bride's tiara.

Emergency Weddings

Ian & I are just finishing up an order for 22 tiaras (WOOSH!) for a wedding in California...this one was exciting because they sort of waited til the last minute to order, so we had 2 weeks to finish them all. Hey, we LOVE a challenge..and I love to make people happy, so it was a natural for us! ANYWAY, in the interest of another quick post today, here is a preview of the first tiara:



These are based loosely on my Lothorien Crystal Forest Hair Vine (really more of a spray, but I couldnt call it a hair spray now could I?) and will be available in my Etsy shop soon...we have lots of other tiara designs too, and are always open to custom orders...contact us any time, even in an emergency;)

Arthur Rackham's Faery World

  I used to have a big poster of this painting on my wall when I was 16 and all I knew about it then was the caption said "Queen Mab". Many years later when I found it on the web it was entitled "Feeling Very Undancey Indeed," and when I researched it a bit more I discovered it was actually from Arthur Rackham's illustrations for J M Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.



Ah, so that explains why I loved the painting so much! I love J. M. Barrie~the world has lost way too much of its innocence these days. I work very diligently to hang on to as much of mine as I can~reading Peter Pan every few years is one of my favorite ways to accomplish this.

Queen Mab Tiara by Thyme2dr

  According to our beloved Mr Barrie,
dancey is how the faeries say they are happy...so undancey is faerie-folk language for a wee bit dispirited or some such thing. It is Queen Mab, and the reason she is feeling undancey is too long to go into here, but Dover Publications is issuing a new edition of the with Arthur Rackham's original illustrations next month, so you can go and read the story for yourself if you are curious: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (Dover Children's Classics)

One of the things I love most about Arthur Rackham's illustrations of Queen Mab is the beautiful tones of ivory and burgundy that he used...it seemed only natural when I was asked to create a wedding set in these colours that they should be named after the undancey faery Queen.

When I finished the tiara, I went to find the Undancey picture again and was delighted to see how much it the tiara looked like it belonged to her:)! I also made a hair clip, earrings, two necklaces and am currently working on a bracelet as well. They are my new personal favorites. These are for sale in my Thyme2dream ArtFire .

Queen Mab Earrings by Thyme2dream

Dreams of Midsummer

I have had so much fun creating my Elven forest jewelry range! When I first discovered Czech glass leaf beads I knew I had stumbled upon something that would keep me enchanted for a long time. The ear cuff was my first ever attempt at "crystal flower arranging" as I have come to call it. The lovely gold topaz leaves reminded me of Tolkein's description of Galadriel's home in Lothlorien and from there a collection was born!! After the cuff was born, I decided to make a bracelet and necklace, and eventually added the tiara and the upper arm cuff (which doubles as an exotic ankle bracelet:-).

I was recently commissioned to create this set for a fantasy artist in Denmark who plans to use these in a portrait of Titania- quite fitting I thought, as these colours always remind me of the height of summer. I am very excited about this project and will be sharing more once her piece is finished!!

As always, this collection and more is available in my etsy shop:

www.thyme2dream.etsy.com

Once you are there, search "crystal forest" to find all the pieces...:-)