Hieropice.com is now live!

I'm so excited to introduce my brand new website, Hieropice.com.  I've been vending on Etsy for years, and the time has come to add a new online venue, of my own design.  On Hieropice.com, I'll list new creations, as well as old favorites available on Etsy and Facebook.  And you'll still be able to purchase Hieropice items on Etsy, just like before, at Hieropice on Etsy!  Pricing for Hieropice pieces will be a little lower on Hieropice.com, as there won't be a commission to Etsy on every purchase, but wherever you choose to buy, I'll continue to appreciate your support of my handmade original pieces.  Here's to years more of bringing Hieropice to you!

Dara

More newness!

Expanding the palette of Hieropice's miniature terrarium necklaces, I'm introducing our new miniature terrarium necklace in soft blue!

Introducing: One of A Kind, by Hieropice

  I feel I often begin posts by talking about how excited I am, and am probably getting dangerously close to sounding like I'm perennially hopped-up on something, so, despite the fact that I AM really excited about this announcement, I'm going to refrain from stating that.  At least, not first.
  I've so appreciated all the love folks have shown me, and support for Hieropice.  I think, as an artist, you've got to keep innovating, changing, doing new things, to keep your brain from atrophying, or burning out.  As I was making one of many made-to-order terrarium necklaces recently, I thought, man, I am working SO small, the vessel is so tiny, I really wish I could expand this and create a whole landscape in this thing!  And my next thought was, um.....I can!  So, I started thinking about ways to create miniature landscapes under glass, and for some reason, the first thing that came to mind was Tucson, Arizona, where I lived after high school.  The desert there was the most surprising place I'd been to-date; contrary to my impressions from back East, it was not "deserted" at all, but full of life, and amazing shifting color palates that revolved around the movements of the sun.  I saw more shapes, colors and textures in the desert than any landscape I'd encountered previously, and an abundance of plants with romantic names like "agave" and "ocotillo."  And weird things, inexplicable stacks of boulders balanced on the edge of a cliff, oversized cactus blossoms that only bloom at night and just once a year, and an aspen forest, covered in snow at the peak of Mt. Lemmon in the middle of the city, while miles below, it was eighty degrees and sunny.

Barrel Cactus Detail

   Yeah, all kinds of weird and wondrous, but memories of the desert haunt me now that I've moved back to the northeast, and it seemed fitting to create my first landscape from those memories.  And so, I am introducing the first of Hieropice's new one-of-a-kind Landscape Terrarium Necklaces, the Sonoran Desert Terrarium Necklace.

   My goal with this new line is to experiment with vessel shapes and sizes, creating miniatures incorporating a variety of techniques, like re-creating miniature plants from bits and pieces of other ones, hand-painting, dyeing, etc., with a focus on realism.
 
   This first piece includes a miniature barrel cactus that I impregnated with a slew of little wire spines, a stack of stones that I created to match my memories of Mt. Lemmon, lichen tumbleweeds and layers of sand that I hand-dyed, to recreate the changing landscape of the desert.  Red-tipped agave, cholla, and of course, the iconic Saguaro cactus, that the Arizona desert would be bereft without.  There are a lot of other goodies tucked in there, and the piece so reminds me of the Sonoran, I wish I could crawl into it!

Agave Detail

  The new one of a kind (ooak) pieces will be just that, never to be reproduced, so when they're sold, they're gone.  But I hope their new owners will enjoy having pieces that are unique, and knowing the one they own is the only one in existence.  I'll be listing the new pieces on Etsy as I make them, so stay tuned for future landscapes!

How's It Done?

So, I mixed a few colors of polymer clay to resemble the natural tones of a live mushroom, and rolled the clay around a wire, topped with a clay mushroom cap carefully shaped with a manicure-tool, and with the point of a pin, applied clay polka dots to the cap.  Likewise, I created mini succulent plants with the green tones of the clay, rolling out and slicing tendrils and pressing them together to form a miniature aloe/agave. 

I began with a variety of miniature glass vessels.  In went the elements of our full-size terraria; colorful sands and bits of fragrant reindeer moss.  I wanted to add something extra-cool; living mushrooms can’t really be cultivated in a terrarium (or at least, to my knowledge) though I’d love to give it a go, but I thought of a way to incorporate adorable little mushrooms into the necklace version, by creating them out of polymer clay.

I love terrariums; the idea of an entire ecosystem existing under glass, green things growing and thriving, bits of nature you can keep close-by on a table or desk.  We make contemporary terrariums at Hieropice, but only sell them at shows, due to the risk of damage during shipping.  I wanted to make a version of our terrariums available to customers who can’t make it to shows in New England; a small, portable version of them that could be worn.

Someone inquired recently about our Lost World Mini Terrarium Necklaces, and how they are made.  The short answer is, very carefully!  Joking aside, they’re the product of a lot of intricate work, and I appreciate the question.  For artists who handmake work for sale, the process is often ignored in favor of the appearance of the finished product.  If you’ve ever hand-made anything, you know that the process, the work, materials, skill, and effort that went into it is 80% of the finished product’s significance.  And those of us who hand-make for a living really love it when someone appreciates the work we do!  So here’s a bit on the process of making these pieces.
I trimmed the wires and the pieces went into the oven, and afterwards, I strategically placed them in the vessels with a narrow pair of tweezers.  Adding additional Spanish moss or sand, and sealing with waterproof adhesive and a decorative stopper finishes them off, and they’re hung on meticulously-selected chain.  Each one is unique, incorporating some elements and not others, created with color, contrast, and balance in mind.  That’s the process, in a nut-shell, and thanks to the fan who inquired!