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Celtic Folklore and Folk Art
OCTOBER WINNER: peppapig
Hi everyone and welcome to the last week of October’s muse. In keeping with October’s theme of celebrating Folklore/Folk Art from different cultures I decided to go with a Celtic influence, looking at how their Samhain festival over the years slowly evolved into what we now know as Halloween. We will also look at some Celtic art that we can use as inspirations for our layouts this week.
Folk Art: a visual expression of a community’s cultural identity through the artistry and craftsmanship of locally made items that tend to have some practical, utilitarian, or ceremonial purpose (as opposed to being purely decorative or “fine art”).
Celtic Art:
“Typically, Celtic art is ornamental, avoiding straight lines and only occasionally using symmetry, without the imitation of nature central to the classical tradition, often involving complex symbolism. Celtic art has used a variety of styles and has shown influences from other cultures in their knotwork, spirals, key patterns, lettering, zoomorphics, plant forms and human figures.” Excerpt taken from Wikipedia, a great read if you are interested to learn more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_art
I am sure that you all familiar with what Celtic art looks like, the Celtic Cross and Celtic knot to name but two of the more popular forms. I love the detailed work of Celtic art and the symbolism associated with it.
This is an Inspiration Board I put together of Celtic Art that I found on Pinterest:
My page: I used a variety of products from Rebecca McMeen's products to create the three circles featuring a stag, a tree and a raven. Each circlet was created separately and then placed in the finished document. Rebecca has a wealth of suitable products to suit a Celtic theme, I could have made quite a few more circles! lol! Check out the credits in the gallery to see where each part of the layout is located if you are interested.
Credits are in the gallery.
Folklore: leaning towards oral traditions of a community or culture including tall tales and proverbs.
Celtic Folklore:
Modern day Halloween can be traced back in history to its origins as the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), celebrated by the Celts to mark the end of Summer and harvest by building large sacred bonfires. The Celts believed that on the night of October 31 the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. This belief can be seen in the many stories that were handed down from generation to generation of Celts. Mythological stories like the Morrigan, Mabon and the Greenman no doubt ended up as folk tales told many times over as people sheltered around a fire through the dark months of Winter.
After the Romans conquered the majority of Celtic territories the traditional Samhain festival was combined with two of their festivals, Feralia (commemoration of the passing of the dead) and Pomona (celebrating the Roman goddess of fruit and trees). Hundreds of years later, with the spread of Christianity and the power of the Church, the Roman/Celtic festival became a three day religious observance, encompassing All Saints’ Eve (Halloween - Oct 31), All Saints’ Day (All Hallows - Nov 1) and All Souls’ Day - Nov 2. In the ensuing years Halloween morphed into what it is now, quite commercialized but still compromising some of its original adornments like wearing costumes and masks.
As always, this week’s muse is up for interpretation. I hope you find some inspiration, either from the Inspiration board or from the brief history of Halloween above.
Some ideas for a layout:
- think circles and intricate type designs, like using lace, scroll type brushes or pngs
- also fancy triangle shapes work well
- nature, especially birds and trees
- create a halloween fantasy page
- use leaves as a center point in a circle
You may create any style of layout (ie. clean and simple, artsy, pocket style etc.) you wish, with or without a photo. Create any size page you wish. This is for everyone, so have fun and see where the inspiration takes you.
Please post your layout to the Art Journaling Gallery HERE prior to Midnight EST November 2, 2021 and then post it in this thread by copying the code (at the right of your gallery image) from the box under "Share BB Code".
We will draw a winner at the beginning of next month for a coupon!! Every layout you create is equal to one entry in the random draw. So if you create 1 layout you are entered once, if you create 4 layouts you are entered 4 times.
You can use any products in The Lilypad store or retired products from current Lilypad designers, (just make sure you follow our gallery guidelines).
Looking forward to seeing what you gals come up with this week!
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don't mind me, just having a senior's moment that seems to be lasting all day 
You still have a couple of days to go before this challenge closes so if you haven't already joined us, then please do!! 
