For the writer who loves a little dangle of history (& May/June shop update)….

Antique pen nib earrings with Swarovski crystals… available at The Beaufort Emporium (Beaufort, SC) and soon in my Etsy shop.

Happy Almost-Summer! I’ve been enjoying making earrings with antique pen nibs (many 100+ years old) and Swarovski crystals, no longer being produced as components for the wholesale trade. These pictured have sterling hooks and fun vintage links as well. They’re available at The Beaufort Emporium in downtown Beaufort, SC.

I’ll list them soon in my Etsy shop, which is currently taking a little break. See you back there in mid-June-ish! Feel free to send an email or a message through Etsy if you need to reach me before then. Take good care, Robyn

A Little Lunar New Year Fun with William Blake…


Happy Year of the Tiger! Or, Tyger, as it were…

I like to participate in the New Year Poem Postcard Project spearheaded by Jone Rush MacCulloch, one of my dear poetry friends. Several of us Poetry Friday folks, or poetry minded folks, swap postcards in the mail to jumpstart the year. These are usually lovely and inspiring. I got a wild hair this year and decided to toss in a chuckle, with this play on “The Tyger” by William Blake (1757 – 1827):
©

Poet Poet, burning bright

In the blue computer light

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful syntax-y?

Did he who made Iambs make thee?

©Robyn Hood Black, after, and with apologies to, William Blake

I sketched the tiger in pen and ink, but filled in the fur with snippets from
Blake’s draft of “The Tyger” from one of his notebooks  (copied from a reproduction in Peter Ackroyd’s book, BLAKE).  Lucky for me, there were lots of heavy black scratch-outs!

To see the poetry postcards I received and for links to and about Blake’s poem, click here for my author blog post.

Wishing you a wild and poetic 2022!

Here’s to 2022!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYJ5n2pJHXg/

Thanks for a holiday season so busy I didn’t even get a Christmas post here… If you’d like to read my recent newsletter, click HERE.

And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been….

Rainer Maria Rilke (in a 1907 letter)

Wishing you a healthy and joyous 2022. I look forward to making all kinds of new literary-ish creations this year! (To see & hear the quote above being typed out, just click the link.) :0)

‘Tis the Season… Mwah ha ha

Happy Almost Halloween!
4X4 inch mini mixed media shadow box featuring reproduction entry from an antique Webster’s Dictionary, a delightful tiny vintage glass bat, a gorgeously gothic vintage brass stamping, and Swarovski crystals. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1098382281/mini-bat-mixed-media-with-brass-ornament?ref=shop_home_feat_2