Moon Owls with Fire Dragons!
Now that we are half way through November. I can't help feeling that life is speeding up as we head towards Christmas. I'm not creating too much stock this year for my Etsy shop as I feel I would like to take some time away from jewellery making for a while and concentrate more on illustrating. I have a few secret projects on the go at the moment that I wish to put my heart into and since moving to the old farmhouse I have been inspired in a different direction, which is a nice change.

The collage above shows just a few new things that are currently listed in Etsy. There are two Owl and the Pussy-Cat pin brooches, some Owl Fairy greetings cards and a framed, original painting called the Garden Tiger Moth.
Fireworks and Fire Dragons... 
This autumn I was so pleased to get the chance to see a brilliant firework display. I have not been to a good party for ages. The display was held in a friends field within our village.

I only had my little camera with me, but I manged to take some decent photos. There were some wonderful lights and the fire flames created a shape of a dragon, which looks as though it's about to take flight into the night sky. 

Painting a Dragon.

In between moving house during the summer, I managed to start a commission for a good friend who I met through blogging. Michelle May from The Raspberry Rabbits, asked me to paint an illustration for her of a dragon, a monkey and a rat. She wanted the painting in time for the year of the dragon in 2012, so I had plenty of time to complete the picture for her. Also the illustration had to represent a celebration of her marriage to her husband, David. Shell is born in the year of the monkey and David is born in the year of the rat. I decided that both characters in the picture should wear gold wedding ring necklaces.

When Michelle first asked me to do the commission, I was a bit apprehensive as I have not painted very many dragons in the past and I have never painted a monkey before either. But I like a challenge and she had faith and believed that I could do a nice illustration for her.
In the end, it turned out to be such a fun image to create. I regularly kept in touch with Shell throughout the progress of the work and sent her emails with photos. I think the reason why it was an enjoyable commission was not just because it was different from my usual fairy paintings, but because Shell trusted me to create her vision with the freedom to use my imagination. Luckily, I did paint a picture that she was very happy with. It is a great feeling when someone really appreciates your work.

Michelle very kindly sent me this photo of the painting framed. It has a nice green card mount that matches the dragon and I love the natural wooden frame. The illustration is called, "Follow your Star in the Year of the Dragon".
If you have a moment, hop over to Shell's BLOG and see her lovely textile work. It is well worth a visit!