#annenchanted

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Here's the guy gracing my altar in yesterday's post. I call him "Death", after the Tarot card. When I painted this I was in a dark place, waiting on MRI results and in the midst of a spiritual upheaval. This piece became emblematic of that time of waiting and wading through uncertainty, of being undone and remade. I'm okay now, and I've come to love this piece for reminding me what I've endured. This is also where butterflies first entered my work, and they haven't left since.

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Original Hecate painting, commission on 500 page journal.

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Raven stole the Sun by AnnEnchanted

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Original art is Raven stole the sun by AnnEnchanted on DeviantArt. Also, this picture on tumblr is cropped. Go look at the original!

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One of the Raven o' Blue painted journals I've done recently, arylic on canvas.

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We just got in the New Ann Enchanted magnets that will be going out with our orders. Coming soon to a fridge near you!

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*new* Tri-Fold Grimoires. | Etsy | Facebook | Deviant Art |

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11x14 black-paper Spirit Board in the shop.

Ann Enchanted | Etsy | Facebook | Deviant Art |

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Hand-Embroidered Maze Journal with Crochet Belt

Ann Enchanted | Etsy | Facebook | Deviant Art |

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Ann Enchanted | Etsy | Facebook | Deviant Art |

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Ann Enchanted | Etsy | Facebook | Deviant Art |

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Meet The Artist: Morgan May

It’s amazing to me that people, all over the world, have connected to Ann Enchanted, inviting me to further explore the line between art and the occult, to paint that convergence. I love the stories people tell of their grimoires, the way our books go off and fold into such different lives. I adore the shifting nature of all this, that each day and each book is a challenge to explore.

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Meet The Artist: Anna

“When I make a book I nestle into another world, like rumplestiltskin spinning gold. It's like a trance, a world of creation, and it feels good to be there. There is no better job than creating something and sending out it into the world with my love.”

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Frequently Asked Questions

♦ Who are you? There’s two of you? Aye. AE is a family operation run by we two ladies, Anna and Morgan May. Anna is the primary bookbinder (sewing paper, painting canvas, binding). I, Morgan, on the other hand, am primarily the online handler (customer service, blog, shop). We both are equally artists.

♦ Do you do commissions? We certainly do. Head over to Etsy to talk to us about requesting a custom journal suited to your needs and imagination. Link.

♦ What kind of materials do you use? What binding method do you use? We choose papers that are acid-free, archival and, of course, beautiful. The paper is bound into signatures using a long-stitch method into a case binding. Cotton canvas is cut, stretched, primed, painted, and fitted to the book. Our products contain no animal parts. (I repeat - Nothing You See Is Leather). Then we paint the actual design, and afterward seal it with a layer of protection. 

♦ Are you eco-friendly? Our paper is always 30% Recycled Content, approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, “for responsible management of the world's forests”. More than that, ‘green’ is a lifestyle that’s important to us. Our power is largely wind and solar, we tend not to buy throw-away plastic containers, we re-purpose, recycle, and compost. We also grow food and raise a few ducks. 

♦ Do you always paint your books? Technically all books are painted; the nude canvas is always painted before binding, if only as a background for further art. We're mixed media fans, so ink and watercolors, graphite, markers and pens, tend to find themselves in there as well. The materials we use are professional grade, with a high pigment load that produces rich, permanent color that is flexible when dry, and remains free of cracks and chips over time. 

♦ Aren't you scared, after all the work of bookbinding, to screw it up when you paint? Have you ever ruined a bound book? It was pretty scary the first couple times, but our choice of mediums helps; it creates a kind of bridge to put canvas on the book covers because canvas invites us to paint it.  There are always little mistakes, of course, when paint goes one way and shades wrong or the dreaded moment when a jet-black inkblot drops, that sort of thing, but in the end it just becomes part of the work.

♦ Would you ever repeat a cover design? We like the fact that every book is its own creature and the person who takes it home has something no one else does. That said, upon request we do repeat books of the same theme, while making certain changes to the original design (such as the frilly work on the spine of the book, the tones in the background, etc.) to keep every one unique.

♦ Did you learn somewhere or are you self taught? A bit of both. We both have always been art-inclined, and taken as many classes of the like as we could. The bookbinding in particular is a combination of family knowledge, book learning, research, and good ol' creative process of elimination.

♦ How hard is binding a book by hand? Bookbinding is a series of several simple steps, strung together to make something more complicated. Each individual step is relatively easy to learn. When you want a book to be more than just simple, and begin adding paintings, wood-carving, or explore alternative bindings .... well, then it's as hard as you want to make it.

♦ Can I share your work on my site/blog/etc? Our art and images are "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs" copyright protected, which means some rights are reserved. You may download and share images with others so long as we are credited, but you or anyone may not change the works in any way or use them commercially. Basically, on Tumblr, don’t remove the tag. Legal jargon.

♦ Didn't answer your question? Ask away.

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My oringinal art: To Dream of Unfulfilled Desires - annenchanted.deviantart.com