Show Your Face on Friday - Inspired by Kay Nielsen.

Hello and Welcome to Magpiehaven, Followers and Friends. Life is getting busy in the Magpies' Nest as I try not to let Christmas sneak up on me this year. It's still November, but I know that once we hit December, the days are going to fly by and it will be Christmas before we know where we are - with me feeling completely unprepared! I'm not ready this week to link up with Kim Dellow's great 'Show Your Face on Friday' blog when it actually goes live; but we do have the week to be inspired and to link up our faces so I hope by Saturday my WIP will be at a stage when I photograph it! For the whole of November Kim has been introducing us to artists who inspire her and providing links to where we can see their beautiful work and, of course, we can share artists who have inspired us too. 
If you haven't taken a look at Kim's inspiring blog, please click here and learn all about this great way to practise drawing faces and link up with other artists.

This week I was asked to make a brooch with a face, a bird and the word 'Heart' on it. I ended up making two! As I worked on these miniatures, I had Kay Nielson's incredible illustration for Scheherazade at the back of my mind so it is his work that has inspired me this week. If you click here you will find the Wikipedia entry for Nielson and the image that inspired me is here. Placing the two brooches side by side...

on this blue fabric, I was reminded of journeys through mysterious lands under starry skies. I wanted to create a canvas now with 3 little 'face' houses, each with a story to tell.

This is as far as I've got this morning! I have my 3 Scheherazades each with a bird of freedom and peace to release into the world. I now need to embellish their head-dresses a little, put them aside and start to create a world for them in the background. At the moment I'm not sure whether to place them in a desert oasis under diamond stars or on the shore of a turbulent sea or among the marble, mosaics and fountains of a grand palace.

I also created three more little brooches this week, which I will probably put in my Etsy shop over the weekend. I have so much fun creating these little characters who I can imagine inviting us in through the tiny doors of their miniature houses. They make quite a crowd when I put them all together!

Then I placed this little person here and another idea for Christmas tree decorations formed! The question is, will I ever find those tiny wings to add and will I have the time before Christmas to bring all these ideas to fruition?
If you have the time this week, do pop over to Kim's 'Show Your Face on Friday' and add a face maybe inspired by an artist who fires your imagination.