All Aboard! Gonna Take a Sentimental Journey (killercool & Dark Beauty team treasuries)

inthecrystalpalace is proud to be a member of the killercool and Dark Beauty teams on Etsy. Here's a look at our latest team treasuries:

sentimental journey curated by Kym Hepworth for inthecrystalpalace

Doris Day - Sentimental Journey

Round & Around curated by Robin Miller for inthecrystalpalace

drool (inthecrystalpalace's Etsy treasuries)

There's only a couple more days before Thanksgiving. Are you ready? Neither are we, but, we're looking forward to it. Until turkey day officially arrives, feast your eyes on these scrumptious beauties! Lots of gorgeous handmade and vintage items to drool over. Here's a look at the latest Etsy treasuries featuring items in our shop, inthecrystalpalace:

 

In A Blue Velvet Frame Of Mind curated by BlueMagpieDesign

(featuring hush now, an Emily Dickinson-inspired assemblage by Kym Hepworth)

Still Some Autumn Glow beneath the Snow curated by TableTopJewels

(featuring Robin Miller's unique kitchen art, Sunrise)

Do What You Love, Love What You Do (Gifts For Him) curated by VimVigorVintage

(featuring Robin's Mad Men collage pendant, Bachelor, His Faults Were Legion)

electric eclectic curated by paperandpast

(featuring Kym Hepworth's dark romantic assemblage, This Bird Had Flown)

Cornershop - Norwegian Wood

Etsy Parla L'Italiano curated by callmemimi

(featuring Oh Love, It's Ducky, romantic jewelry by Robin Miller)

Thank you, BlueMagpieDesign, TableTopJewels, VimVigorVintage, paperandpast, and callmemimi, for including us in your lovely and creative collections! 

weekend wrap-up (inthecrystalpalace's Etsy treasuries)

Over the weekend, inthecrystalpalace was featured in a bunch of gorgeous Etsy treasuries - take a look:

 Dreaming-flying-chilling-trying-feeling, seeing, blowing, going 

curated by Vorsichtglas

(featuring Robin's original framed collage, The Wounded Bird)

Blossoms Down Under curated by shavingkitsupplies

(featuring Birdsong, a fridge magnet by Robin Miller)

Let's Have Another Day Like Today curated by OneSmallStory

(featuring Robin's romantic jewelry pendant, Oh Love, It's Ducky)

Midnight blues curated by IslanderNL

(featuring hush now, an Emily Dickinson-inspired assemblage by Kym Hepworth)

My Woodland Studio curated by shavingkitsupplies

(featuring Robin's original collage magnet, Birdsong)

Something For Everyone curated by TheMarkoeHouse

(featuring Dirty Brats Yonder, Where's the Soap?, quirky jewelry by Robin Miller)

Mr Butterball goes into hiding curated by shyphotog

(featuring Kym Hepworth's Victorian mourning art-inspired assemblage, The Widow)

"Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola." curated by BoudreauCollection 

(featuring Robin's unique kitchen art, Mona Lisa)

Many thanks to the talented curators for including us in their beautiful collections!

be still my goth heart (inthecrystalpalace's Etsy treasuries)

inthecrystalpalace is featured in two gorgeously dark romantic treasuries today:

Gifts for a Goth Heart curated by PoleStar

(featuring The Widow, Kym Hepworth's Victorian mourning art-inspired assemblage AND The Wild Wizard-Work, Robin Miller's original collage magnet)

The Cure - Disintegration

Gifts for the Midnight Girl curated by PoleStar

(featuring The Castle at Night, a Grimm's fairy tale-inspired assemblage by Kym Hepworth)

Thank you, PoleStar, for including us in your beautiful collections!

sometimes I remember (to post inthecrystalpalace's Etsy treasuries)

Where was I before I was so rudely interupted? Oh, yes. I remember. Here's a look at the gorgeous Etsy treasuries that inthecrystalpalace has recently been featured in:

Mellow curated by CUTandTEAR

(featuring Oh, Love, It's Ducky, romantic art and/or jewelry by Robin Miller)

time change curated by betsybensen

(featuring The Widow, a Victorian mourning art-inspired assemblage by Kym Hepworth)

Panoramas curated by BlackDoveBotanicals

(featuring Robin's whimsical collage magnet, Balloons )

Romantic Prairie Style curated by LittleKittenVintage

(featuring Robin's original collage pendant, Oh Love, It's Ducky)

No pause. No rewind. curated by Huismus

(featuring Lines of Nature, unique kitchen art by Robin Miller)

December curated by oddprincess

(featuring Kym's Gothic Victorian assemblage, hush now)

IN MEMORY OF... curated by aamp1212

(featuring Kym's dark romantic assemblage, The Widow)

The Pernice Brothers - Sometimes I Remember

Marietta curated by NangijalaJewelry 

(featuring Wild Rose (Evelyn Nesbit), a beaded pillow by Kym Hepworth)

and

Pewter & Purple curated by ElmPlace

(featuring Kym's dark art assemblage, hush now)

Many thanks to the talented curators for including us!

This Bird Has Flown: a new assemblage at inthecrystalpalace

Kym Hepworth / red thread

Kym Hepworth / red beads

Over the summer, I bought a doily at an antiques store. When I looked at the shape of the doily - two circles joined at the middle - I immediately thought that I'd use it in a piece about lovers. With that in mind, I began embellishing the doily with red beads. 

Kym Hepworth / work in progress: doilies embellished with seed beads

Kym Hepworth / work in progress: beaded doilies

The piece remained generally about lovers until I looked at a Victorian brooch that I own and it provided me with a more specific inspiration about marriage. At first, I considered using found images of any anonymous man and woman and placing them in the center of the doilies. However, I decided that it was important to use portraits of an actual couple, and I ended up using the images from the brooch itself.

Kym Hepworth / Victorian brooch

The Unquiet Grave

The wind doth blow today, my love,
And a few small drops of rain;
 I never had but one true-love,
In cold grave she was lain.

"I'll do as much for my true-love
As any young man may;
I'll sit and mourn all at her grave
For a twelvemonth and a day."

The twelvemonth and a day being up,
The dead began to speak:
"Oh who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?"

"T is I, my love, sits on your grave,
And will not let you sleep;
For I crave one kiss of your clay-cold lips,
And that is all I seek."

"You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
But my breath smells earthy strong;
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
Your time will not be long.

"T is down in yonder garden green,
Love, where we used to walk,
The finest flower that e'ver was seen
Is withered to a stalk.

"The stalk is withered dry, my love,
So will our hearts decay;
So make yourself content, my love,
Till God calls you away."

- popular ballad collected by Francis James Child

 (source for ballad: The Norton Anthology of Poetry, third edition, edited by Alexander W. Allison, et al., published by W. W. Norton & Company, New York, © 1983)  

 

As I worked on the piece, my idea for it changed again and turned darker. The love birds on top of the brooch suggested mourning doves and then mourning. The lovers joined in marriage changed to lovers bound to each other beyond death. A narrative developed that the wife had died first and the husband was left in mourning for her. In order to convey or suggest this story, I covered the image of the woman with black netting, placed a feather between the couple, and positioned a bird - ready to take flight - directly over the image of the woman. I picked out a wooden rope trim for the frame and echoed it with green braided trim along the inside border. This small detail suggests - in a very abstract way - being joined together or union. The dominant color of the piece is dark, charcoal gray and, of course, refers to mourning. 

Kym Hepworth / This Bird Has Flown / 2011 / mixed media / 9 3/4 x 12 1/2 x 3 in.
© 2011 - Kym Hepworth. All Rights Reserved. 
Available at inthecrystalpalace 

Kym Hepworth / This Bird Has Flown / 2011 / mixed media / 9 3/4 x 12 1/2 x 3 in.

Kym Hepworth / This Bird Has Flown, detail 


That's what the work is about for me - for someone else, it could be about separation or divorce or simply an odd thing with a bird stuck on top for no particular reason at all. 

Wilco - Whole Love