The Kyphi is now ready and available in my Etsy shop. It looks pretty gross but smells wonderful.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/292627655/hand-blended-kyphi-kapet-ancient?ref=shop_home_active_4

Kyphi /Kapet incense

Kyphi or Kapet is an ancient Egyptian incense made with a variety of resins, herbs, wine, honey and fruit. It was burned in the temples and homes for rituals, healing and to usher in the night. The earliest recipe dates back to Circa 1500 BC but there have been many other recipes found over the centuries. Some of the ingredients listed are not used today as we do not know what they were.
I have researched into the recipes and come up with as authentic a recipe as I can. The incense takes several weeks to prepare and then several more weeks to dry. Once dried it is burnt on charcoal disks and produces a beautiful full-bodied, rich, multi-layered bouquet with a warm, relaxing, sweet, spicy and sensual aroma to cleanse and perfume the air. Excellent for use in a ritual or as an offering to a deity.
For my Kyphi I have hand ground all the herbs and resins in a pestle and mortar and have used home made wine.
Today was the last day of preparing the Kyphi and I spent the afternoon rolling it into pellets and moulding small bricks. They now need to dry for a few weeks and will then be listed in my Etsy shop.

List and do challenge

My first week of this challenge has not been a great success, I had forgotten that this was the week I was staying with my mum whilst my sister goes on holiday. I took a limited range of things to make and materials but I have still managed to complete several of the miniature animal in a bottle pendants.

Arctic fox

Badger

Fox

Baby penguin

View through the top of curled up hedgehog

Polar bear

My list for the next week is:

Finish the wand
Make 3 Goddess gem stone pendants
5 miniature animals in a bottle pendant
Get my new saw set up and cut the sticks to make Ogham staves

List and Do Challenge

Do you ever find that you have a list of good intentions but they never seem to get done?
Do you have a collection of half finished creations?
Do ideas pop into your head to fast for you to get them all done?
I am an expert at all of the above.
I need to find a way to become more focused and increase output so I am starting a new challenge. I am calling it the List and Do Challenge.  I will make a list each week of projects that I intend to WILL get done or will finish off and will then post the pictures to prove I have done them.
Anyone wanting to join in the challenge can sign up by adding a comment with your blog address and I will then add a link to you on the List and Do page. Once you have signed up just write your list on your blog or on the comments below and add the badge onto your blog page with a link to this address:  http://wisewomancrafts.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html
If you do not have a blog you can still take part by adding your name in the comments and a link to a site where you show your work or just add your name and your list then when the list is done add a comment to let us know how you got on.
The challenge will be running all year so you can join in at any time and set your own timescales. I am allowing myself a week for each list.
To see who is participating please click here.

So here is my first list:
4 pendants with tiny totem animals in glass jars 
1 wood wand
4 Goddess gemstone pendants

Poisonous Fungi Toadstool earrings

Blackening waxcap   Hygrocybe Conica

I have always enjoyed photographing the various fungi that I find when out walking and have now extended that interest by making realistic miniature toadstools out of polymer clay. I would like to say that I work from my own photos but as I am hopeless at identifying my finds that would rarely be possible.  I use several mushroom and fungi identifying books and the internet to get a good range of pictures of my chosen toadstool then sculpt them as realistically as possible in miniature.  With the addition of a wire loop and and a wire hook they become very unusual earrings.

Fly Agaric  Amanita muscaria

I have them for sale in my Etsy shop, please drop by and have a look.
Each pair of earrings come with a card stating the latin name and the common name as well as a few snippets of information about the fungi.

Liberty cap  Psilocybe semilanceata

I also take commissions so if there is a particular fungi you would like made just message me.

Satans mushroom  Boletus satanas

Creepy clocks for Halloween

I have been busy painting clocks for Halloween. My favourite is a large teapot shaped wall clock that I have painted with a raven sitting on a branch above ruins and trees against a sunset background.They are available in my Etsy shop.

Raven teapot clock

Haunted houses clock

Scaredy cat clock

Wands for witches

I have discovered the magic of wands and I don't just mean using a wand but creating them from pieces of wood found on my wanderings.
It gives me great pleasure to create something not only useful but beautiful as well. The wood for the wands is mostly gathered after storms and is all green when collected, I leave it for at least 4 months but usually a lot longer and then I spend time looking at the pieces to see which one suggests and idea. The selected piece then undergoes a magical transformation from plain old stick to beautiful wand. Some are stripped of bark,
some are carved, some have crystals added and some are pyrographed. All are sanded with many different grades of paper till smooth and silky and then are oiled or polished with beeswax. At the moment I am working on a cherry wand that is carved with a Goddess and a spiral, the wood came from a felled tree in my garden and has been drying for a couple of years in the garage. I wasn't sure what I was going to make with it when I collected the branches but now I am glad I did.
It is a wonderful wood to work with.
I find wand carving the most relaxing of all the crafts I engage in, it has a
very calming effect and always uplifts my mood, so anyone who wants a mood booster just have a go at making a wand, you may be suprised by the outcome both with the wand and the effect it has.
If you do not fancy making your own then take a look at my range on Etsy, I also take commissions so if there is something in particular you would like just message me on Etsy.