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Halo Quin

~ Author, storyteller, witch

Tag Archives: Art Craft and Beauty

Dancing Tribe!

27 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by Haloquin in Dancing, Reflections

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, gratitude, Journey, Living Life

Tribal Unity Wales having fun!

Tribal Unity Wales having fun!

I’ve written before about how much the Tribal Belly dancing means to me… and it continues to be a source of strength and joy.

At the Winter Solstice we danced for the Cellan Beer Festival, and then last weekend was a Hafla (a belly dance party) in Cardigan run by local dancers. It was so nice to see the other groups dancing and experience the atmosphere of a supportive dance party. One lady did her very first solo, to very summery music, with the happiest expression!

One of the things that has come home to me about dancing ATS(r) with Tribal Unity is how much of a group activity it is. We are all working together, all supporting each other. It is not a solo performance, we thrive when we dance in tune with each other. I’ve never really felt at home in all female groups, but there is something about this dance (and the people in our little family) that breaks down the competitiveness that I’ve seen elsewhere and encourages mutual support. We all look out for each other and are thinking of each other when we dance.

The Hafla was a couple of firsts for me, as well as for the group. It was the first time we’d performed to live drums and the first time I’d led in public. It was the first fast duet I’d done (and it was VERY fast) and our first hafla. Watching over the videos I can see how much we’ve improved since last summer, how much more in tune with each other we are, and how much we all enjoy it! You can also very definitely see how happy I am dancing.

So… our first dance:

Our second dance:

When we were invited up to dance to live drums:

The duet Wendy and I decided to have fun with:

Oracles and Completion

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Enchanted, Faery, Reflections

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, challenge, Completion, creativity, Faery, Faery Queen, Feyhearted path, Heart, Honesty, Imperfection, Journey, Magic, musings, oracle cards, process, project, Strangeness of Life, Tools

Not so long ago a parcel arrived in the post. It was addressed to A World Enchanted. I was so excited! I spent months putting together a deck of Oracle cards and for almost a year I’ve been using one I printed myself… now I have a professionally printed deck and three to sell!

My Oracle Deck!

The Completed Deck!

I’m really proud of my work and the printed cards are beautiful. It works perfectly for uncovering what is in your heart and the heart of the world and the simple readings I did for others were very well received.

And somehow I’ve completely avoided posting about them here. I haven’t put the 3 decks I have for sale in my shop, I haven’t told you about them properly, I haven’t done anything with them beyond using them for myself.

Why?

Despite how it may appear, I struggle with being visible. I struggle with putting my work out there and allowing it to be seen. I struggle with completing projects and releasing them into the world. Artworks contain such a part of the artist’s spirit that an entire deck of my art makes me very visible and so, sharing them, I feel very vulnerable.

This New Year I am considering ‘Wholeness’ as my word for 2013. A word that includes the concept of completion and of being whole in myself. A word that speaks of safety, strength and holiness. Sacred Completion. A guiding light to help me overcome this block and share more beauty with you.

And today I am posting my Oracle Decks in my shop. There is more to do to complete this project than put the information up, however. I need to spread the word. I need to share this beauty, be seen, be known. So here I write and contemplate where to share with others what I have done!

Oracle Deck Set for sale

The FeyHearted Oracle and Guidebook!

Here is the page on A World Enchanted for the FeyHearted Oracle Deck for your enjoyment. If you feel called I would love for you to share this page with your friends and anyone you think might enjoy the deck!

May you find it easy to complete the things you wish to do and share your gifts with the world!

Remembering – Faery Vision

09 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Enchanted, Faery

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Devotional, Faery, inspirations, Magic, process, Stories

(Originally posted April 2009)

On the Spring Equinox I walked up to the edge of the woods near my home town and sat on the moss there.

In this liminal space I sang to the Fey, left offerings and asked the Faery Queen to open my senses to the Faery World.

“How,” I asked her, “how can I open to the Faery World, open to beauty and joy and the heart of things, myself?”

And I had the image of the little bottle from Alice in Wonderland with a label saying ‘Drink Me.’

Words followed the image;
“Open, drink the world in, breathe deep and let yourself see.”

And so I did.

The Journey

The Empowerment Button

22 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Beads, Buttons, Empowerment, inspirations, Jewellery Making, process

Back in July I ran a jewellery making workshop. In the summer month following it one of the ladies who came began making jewellery herself. Boxes of it!

This month she returned for a new workshop, using buttons…

Not only did her presence affirm that the previous workshop had been enjoyable – for which I am relieved! – she brought pictures of her new venture.

It seems such a little thing to share a skill you love but, for her, my sharing opened a door. She has been unable to work for months now and will likely not be able to go back to her job due to a long-term illness and yet she has found something that can give her pleasure and perhaps offer her a way to work for herself.

Something as simple as a button or a bead with a little knowledge and wire can be so empowering and I am honoured to have had the chance to help her to change her life.

Thank you, Universe, for giving me that opportunity. I hope that my offerings can empower more people in the future. Even if they don’t, that one success made all I’ve done with AWE worthwhile and proved to me that creativity is healing, empowering and important.

I also remember the lady who came, doubting she would make anything, with the echoes in her ears of derisive laughter from her work colleagues at the thought… she left with a beautiful necklace which she wore with pride. We have so much in us that we don’t know about and creativity can allow that to come out in ways that heal us.

I suppose the question is, how else can I offer my talents to the world in such a way that might help people? I thought I was just making money to get by but running these classes not only supported me, it empowered another… so, what if we all chose work that supported us and empowered those around us?

Another way of putting it; how can our work become an empowerment button?

World Tree

10 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Festivals Series, Painting, process

World Tree painting in progress

The darkness takes shape…

The darkness between stars has form and function. It holds the worlds we move within in its branches, weaving time and matter into lives, holding wyrd in pace in the tapestry of space. In the darkness, light is born.

World Tree painting - photo

The light is born out of darkness, the stars are held in the black velvet of space.

Stargazing Winter Hare

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, cosmos, Hare, Magic, Painting, process, stars

A Stargazing Hare - painting

Winter Solstice

The cosmos opens above our heads, shining light in the darkness as we gaze at the possibilities and dream.

A Song of Autumn

24 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, creativity, inspirations, Journalling, Journey, Living Life, Magic, musings, Ocean, Painting, process, Whale

The song begins, calling the sun to leave.

I begin with blobs of colour, a canvas and a sense for the atmosphere I am searching for. My brush spreads the paint, thick and textured, across the woven surface. A space emerges, like an ocean from the pearl-white ground.

Sun on the waves…

As the sun sets in the distance, mimicking the turn to the darkness we know will come again, a song hums through the waves and carries our thoughts into the depths.

A song from the depths, returning to the deep…

John Barleycorn

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, inspirations, John Barleycorn, myth, Poetry, process

While painting this evening the piece I’m working on – four canvasses for the four festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain – revealed their story to me.

Until now three images had begun to take shape. The story behind Robert Burn’s poem began to wind through my thoughts and the final piece of the puzzle became clear.

John Barleycorn

There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

They took a plough and plough’d him down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.

But the cheerful Spring came kindly on,
And show’rs began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surpris’d them all.

The sultry suns of Summer came,
And he grew thick and strong;
His head weel arm’d wi’ pointed spears,
That no one should him wrong.

The sober Autumn enter’d mild,
When he grew wan and pale;
His bending joints and drooping head
Show’d he began to fail.

His colour sicken’d more and more,
He faded into age;
And then his enemies began
To show their deadly rage.

They’ve taen a weapon, long and sharp,
And cut him by the knee;
Then tied him fast upon a cart,
Like a rogue for forgerie.

They laid him down upon his back,
And cudgell’d him full sore;
They hung him up before the storm,
And turn’d him o’er and o’er.

They laid him out upon the floor,
To work him further woe;
And still, as signs of life appear’d,
They toss’d him to and fro.

They wasted, o’er a scorching flame,
The marrow of his bones;
But a miller us’d him worst of all,
For he crush’d him between two stones.

And they hae taen his very heart’s blood,
And drank it round and round;
And still the more and more they drank,
Their joy did more abound.

John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
Of noble enterprise;
For if you do but taste his blood,
‘Twill make your courage rise.

‘Twill make a man forget his woe;
‘Twill heighten all his joy;
‘Twill make the widow’s heart to sing,
Tho’ the tear were in her eye.

Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne’er fail in old Scotland!

~ Robert Burns

The layers built up as the story unfolded…

A sliver of three paintings show a peek of what they might become.

A peek at what is to come…

Summer Solstice – WIP

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Feyhearted path, Journey, process




The Honeybee, lover of flora, giver of life. Will she return, as she must if we are to live under the summer’s sun once more?

My Office in the Sunshine

14 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Commitment, creativity, Determination, gratitude, Imperfection, Living Life, musings, Strangeness of Life

My Office in the Sun

Ah! Life is Sweet!

Its a strange thing to find myself actually working from home. Taking my materials outside I craft in the sunshine and it is work. I am the owner of a business, fledgling as it is, a ‘Business-Woman’. This title I once felt I couldn’t claim for myself, I thought I was uncomfortable with the concept but I’ve realised this past month that the concept did not scare me, rather I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to accept the label for my own. As a registered, self-employed artist now I find the label fits comfortably and I’m excited to play with this new hat on!

Especially when it means I can justify sitting in the sunshine listening to the bees love the flowers!

A bumblebee loving a flower - picture

Why yes Mr. Bee, we can have a meeting now!

Strange how much it takes for us to feel justified doing the things we love…

Beading for a workshop - picture

The Tempest has snuck into every corner of my life… even my beading reflects a sea-theme.

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Meet Halo

Snow Pixie

Welcome to my world!

Halo Quin is an author, a storyteller, and a practicing witch with a lifelong relationship with the spirit realm (faeries, deities, and the primal powers of land, sea, and sky, specifically) who aims to share magic through experience. Halo lives in wild West Wales, right by the roiling sea, and loves to sing, dance, and otherwise enchant through performance. She also runs the local storytelling circle, and an ADHD resource centre, and ultimately encourages self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-healing, and self-enchantment through everything she does... leading to:

Beauty ~ Magic ~ Delight

Re-enchanting the world, one story, one song, one spell, at a time.

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I'd love to hear from you! Email me at haloquin@gmail.com Or find me on Twitter!www.twitter.com/haloquin

Recent Posts

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  • Book Review: Intuitive Magical Practice
  • Book Review: The Bird Atlas
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NSFW – Twisted

And for the over 18s… My alter-ego, Ms Quin, writes erotica, kinky poetry, on sacred sexuality and the like. You can explore some of Her writings and poetry readings, and find her sexy book of poetry via links at Twisted Ms Quin.

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