It's finally spooky season!!

I made this and I'm proud of it but I don't know how to tag anything so that anyone sees this

a nighttime visitor

Model, Catrina, and headpiece: me

📸: Linda Marias Photograph

Set by Studio Ethereal

Hello again ~

It's been awhile since I've posted (maybe even a year) and it wasn't on purpose. I was easily discouraged by the lack of interest, especially since I never really got a grasp on how to use the tags on this site. I'm still discouraged by social media, if I'm being honest, but today I had the urge to blog about my art rather than just post a thing with a short caption and hope someone would care. So, I came back.

My discouragement doesn't stem entirely from one source. This image features some, but not all of the headpieces and looks I created in 2022. I'm proud of the growth and variety. 2022 had felt full of stagnation and failure, and this is proof that this feeling wasn't true.

Still, sometimes I create and the lack of response feels like judgement. Friends and acquaintances are rarely your audience, but nowadays social media makes it hard to find the right people without paying. I'm not selling anything. I just want to share, and potentially collaborate one day. I want to learn and I want friends who are excited to learn and teach rather than gatekeeping technique for fear of losing customers. If one day I'm able to sell customs or rent crowns out, that would be great, but legally I can't do that anyway and the commodification of art shouldn't be my only reason to share anyway.

But people don't often interact on other sites, maybe I suppose because they can't get anything from me? Or maybe I'm just not "good enough" to respond to. Maybe I'm a threat to their business. I don't know, because they don't respond, and it's lonely out there when people in your niche don't want to talk to you.

So much of what I see on other sites is a series of advertisements and competition. I just want to share what I make, and maybe make stuff with others. I hope I can do that here, and not feel like I'm speaking into the void.

A bunch of my crowns being used for my Catrinas since moving to Canada in 2019 :) 💖

This is my winter crown - my first one, rather, as I have an idea for a second. This one is inspired by the icy, glittering snow that flashes all the colors of the rainbow on a bright day.

Lessons learned from this crown:

❄️ Balancing big halos is super important and more difficult than I realized

❄️ Experimenting with glues

❄️ Learning techniques for applying really tiny stones

❄️ First crown with a really solid base as a foundation

Big fan of how this one turned out 🥰 it's sturdy but light, and catches the light beautifully.

This ended up being my Spring crown, made out of materials I was lucky enough to be gifted for free. The moment I saw the materials I knew what I wanted to do with them 😍 I had wanted to add chains to this, but I'm not confident with that quite yet. I'm hoping an upcoming crown will teach me how!

Lessons learned from this crown:

🌸 It's very important to have the crown on a head when planning stuff like crossing rays

🌸 Try to plan ahead for concerns regarding lopsided balance

🌸 A solid, sturdy foundation really makes these a joy to wear!

UKRAINIAN FLOWER CROWNS BY TRETI PIVNI

Charles-Amable Lenoir

French, 1860-1926

A Young Woman Playing An Aulos

We all need this in our lives.

I post my IG reels on my only TikTok account, which is currently a mix of things.

This crown is from October 2020, and is the first crown I made in Canada. Unbeknownst to me, I was embarking on a series of crowns that followed the seasons, and as such, I was creating Autumn.

I really like this crown. I found the materials - two different sets of garlands - on a random errand trip and was immediately inspired. It took some adjustments to get the balance right. Because it's much like a wreath, we use it as decoration when it's not being used for looks 🤭

Lessons learned from this crown:

🍁 Wreath-like crowns are good for giving off a wild feeling

🍁 Taking materials completely apart isn't always necessary to build something

Hello and welcome ~

I've been making crowns for years, mingled in with all my cosplay and the like, and I really want to focus more on them! Join me as I share both my older and newest creations, and show progress on my current designs. Hope you enjoy what I make!

You can also join me on Instagram at gilded.flowers 🌸