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Bonus episode- Ghost Stories & Lino Prints: A Creative Journey into Spooky Season
235 Plays16 days ago
Bonus Episode from The Bell Witch Podcast
In this delightful midweek offering host Swailes Friendly Green Witch chats with Fiona from "Lino Folk," a project focused on lino cutting and printing. Released during the spooky season, the episode explores Fiona's artistic journey, inspired by folklore and witchcraft. They discuss the history of witches, folklore elements like the Hand of Glory and Mother Shipton, and the creative process behind Fiona's artwork. Swailes also shares exciting updates about joining the Dark Cast Network and participating in the HubHopper Awards, encouraging community support. The episode celebrates the intersection of art, folklore, and witchcraft.
Vote for your favorite podcast (hubhopper.com)
Special thanks to Fiona Lino Folk by Fiona (@lino_folk_by_fiona) • Instagram photos and videos
Produced with love and magic by Swailes the Friendly Green Witch friendlygreenwitch | Twitter, Instagram, Facebook | Linktree
Official podcast sponsor Whimsy Goth Market London- thewhimsygothmarket.uk
Jasper cacao affiliate link - https://www.jaspercacao.com/shop/?affiliate=2714
Join the NEW Patreon for bonus content and exclusive episodes The Bell Witch Podcast | Podcast | Patreon
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Official Photos by Beverley Thornton Beverley Thornton (@beverleythornton) • Instagram photos and videos
#tarot #crystal #oracle #magic #stories #interview #holistic #healing #wellness #reiki #crystalhealing #3ofswards #podcastpal #witchcraft #wicca #spiritualism
Key words
lino cutting, printing, witchcraft, folklore, spooky season, Dark Cast Network, Hub Hopper Awards, community support, Hand of Glory, Mother Shipton, artistic inspirations, intuition, psychic abilities, urban legends, modern folklore, Slenderman, ghost stories, cemeteries, supernatural, artistic process, manifestation, law of attraction, social media, comparison, self-doubt, moon gazing hare, ghost tours, confidence in art, enchanting lino prints, creative journey, community engagement, magical aspects of life, historical connections to witchcraft, creative process.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Darkcast Network, bringing our indie podcasts out of the shadows.
00:00:38
Speaker
Now then, witches and beautiful souls, you are listening to a bonus edition of The Bell Witch Podcast with Miss Wales, the friendly green witch. This is a midweek offering for a few reasons. One is, well, because it's spooky season, the best season, and we're celebrating with a lovely bunch of podcast pals in the moot loot and I'm Bloody loving it, I'm on such a roll, I tell ya. A second reason is to blow my own trumpet a little bit to celebrate the fact that I'm now part of a podcast network. Woohoo, gummy! Darkcast Network is a fantastic group of podcasts that are helping independent podcasts with a dark side grow, yes. And you may have noticed the Bellwitch podcast logos add a bit of a tweak with a little Darkcast sticker.
00:01:36
Speaker
and it's become a bit more vibrant with the border and it looks a little bit retro. It's got a retro vibe which I just love, love, love, love. And one last thing, I am humbly asking for your help regarding voting for the Bellwetch podcast on the Hub Hopper Awards 2024. Yes, I've entered and I've been accepted. So please, dear listener,
00:02:03
Speaker
help the Bellwetch podcast grow by voting for the Bellwetch podcast in the yeah documentary and news non-fiction category. This is quite good because you can choose that category. There's a list of all the podcasts and the Bellwetch podcast is at the bottom of the list and there's not many of us. I think there's maybe seven or eight of us. That would be brilliant. There's a bit of a short time frame for this, which hence why you're getting two episodes this week because I think there's only a week or so before they close the voting. So if you do have the time and the spoons to vote me, the link is everywhere. It's on my link tree. I will put it in the show notes of this episode and it'll be splashed all over my Instagram and Facebook. So please, please do vote for me. The address is community. a
00:02:51
Speaker
dot hub hopper dot com forward slash vote for your favorite podcast separated by little dashes. So that would be awesome. All right. That's it from me. Enjoy this rather spooky themed conversation with me and Fiona, who is a fantastic witchy line-o printer.
00:03:16
Speaker
I'm Fiona of Linofolk fame and I've been doing Linofolk as a thing only a few short months actually. I did a stall around Halloween or Samhain and it went surprisingly well and I thought oh there's something in this. Did some more, set up a little let's see and then it's just kind of taken off from there really. I'm quite new to it then are you?
00:03:42
Speaker
I am lino cutting I only got into lino cutting like last year and you know how it is you're like oh I'll have a go at this and I don't think it's very good I'm going to hide it away and not show anyone but then a friend of mine had a stall and she said oh do you want to share it with me and I was like oh go on then so I probably would have never even tried to sell it if a friend hadn't encouraged me This lino is absolutely beautiful. I think your account might have got suggested to me on Instagram. I find most of my guests on Instagram. And when I looked at it, it was just so witchy and quite kind of like tutoring. The style you've got is really beautiful and it works really well in that medium of printing. And imagine how
00:04:25
Speaker
shock and amazed I was when you do folklore inspired lino cuttings. It's like, oh my gosh, I need to get her on the podcast to talk about folklore and lino cutting. It's so cool. And I simply got messages from you and was like, oh my God, she's got a really cool podcast. Oh, I'm so flattered. Oh my God. So you're not, you're not a witch. No, no.
00:04:52
Speaker
i'm I'm not. I think I'm very conscious with my artwork because I don't want to do something that's like offends people or they feel like I'm parroting their beliefs. So I'm always trying to like stay on the edge where it's kind of got more of a folklore and element to it. So nobody feels like it's some kind of cultural appropriation or something. But I consider myself, I guess, an open minded skeptic. So I've always had an interest in the other, whether that's paranormal, whether it's the history of witches and kind of, I don't know, whether you'd call it an alternative religion or what what name you'd give it really. But I can never quite push myself to fully commit, if that makes sense. Not the time. That's what that says to me. I think eventually it's going to happen. I'm just going to say that. Never say never.
00:05:43
Speaker
Never say never, it'll find you when it's ready. That's what it's like. The last line I cut, you did it. It had a witch on it, I believe, because I saw the witchy hat and I was just like, oh my God, it's a witch. It's a witch. Those witches love to be in people's art. We don't mind at all. It's pretty amazing in that we get shown in normalised in art rather than, you know, like the wicked hag, crop bags and all that rubbish. It's really nice actually coming from a witch to see myself in such a gorgeous lino printing with a, you know, with a history that that surrounds it and inspires it. So I was wondering if you wanted to tell us a few maybe stories that inspire your lino printing?
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah so I guess I was going to mention kind of the couple that actually sort of sell the best because it's clearly the ones that people are capture people's imagination the most. So the the most recent one that I did of a hedge witch very very interested in sort of cunning women and it kind of grinds my gears a little bit that through history, people would go to these people for sort of remedies and for support. But at the same time, they were expected to kind of live on the edge of society. Someone that I will mention a little bit later is Mother Shipton, because I think she's a ah prime example where it's like, you go there and live in a cave, yeah and we'll come to you for prophecies. But like, you know, we don't want to associate with you every day.
00:07:09
Speaker
But I like to think that the lady in that print, she's done it on purpose, she wants to go, you know, be with nature and in a nice little cottage and, you know, it was... through choice rather than because of of society. I think like a couple of the ones that kind of really seem to capture people's imagination are Hands of Glory. I do a love a Hand of Glory. I still haven't been to one in Whitby in the, you know, there's, I don't know if you know this, but there's one in the Whitby Museum and I still haven't been to see it in person, which is familiar. It's just so weird because have you heard any of my episodes?
00:07:45
Speaker
yes I actually do one about the Hand of Glory because I stayed at Robin Hoods Bay and went on a ghost walk and one of the stories was about a Hand of Glory. So I did a bit of a podcast because I was just so inspired, an episode on it. I were desperate to go see the Hand in Whitby.
00:08:03
Speaker
I had my two little kids and they were like, no, I want to. And they were like, please, please, children. But they want Gunna. And then how weird is it that you're talking about mother Shipton? She's like my favorite witch. And I live on the border of Leeds of North Yorkshire. yeah So I live really close to Nesbrough and mother Shipton. And I will do an episode on her at some point. So it's like the universe has just chucked me a couple of little Oh, see. I was going to say more about it. I won't say too much because I don't want to ruin it for you then in that case, but I absolutely. Oh, you can. Honestly, you can. There'll be loads. There's just so much information out there. You can't be dangling carrots for the witches and be like, I'm going to tell you now.
00:08:50
Speaker
Well i'll I'll talk about Hand of Glory first, so for anyone that doesn't know, which I think is probably very few people that listen to your podcast, it was a hand taken from someone that's been hanged. They would cut it off, they would pickle it or preserve it in some way um and do some kind of ritual and I think the the kind of details of that have been lost to the sands of time and then they would kind of make it into a candle and the purpose of the Hand of Glory was mainly for people that wanted to rob houses apparently because it was meant to put the people that lived in the house to sleep so you could go in with your little lit hand and and sort of rob everyone and the door just sleeps through it apparently if one of the fingers wouldn't go out it's because someone in the house had stayed awake
00:09:38
Speaker
I don't have the details because I'm terrible at remembering things but there was apparently a case where someone then in turn got hanged because they tried a hand of glory that didn't work. They must have had a duff one. Does your hand of glory have the candles or the end of the tips or in the middle? I'm a tip person.
00:09:58
Speaker
but that you it too it
00:10:17
Speaker
yeah i didn't want to go that route
00:10:21
Speaker
Fingertips the author it just kind of yeah ruined it a little bit for me if i'm honest probably like as fuck avoid it like the absolute plague is not for me yeah yeah yeah it's such a shame i mean growing up it was worst witch i don't know if you remember that i do but i just absolutely loved it because i'm just someone that you know would accidentally get into trouble and just be really clumsy and just kind of try but just kind of muck things up and i think at that time i did fancy myself as a witch so i wanted to be her
00:10:57
Speaker
It were all Sabrina for me. I used to be like Sabrina, a cat that would just like saying what everybody was thinking. So good. I imagine my cats do the same thing in real life, you know. Just looking at you and judging you. I need a cat. What kind of witch doesn't have a cat? You do. You do definitely need a cat. I do. My husband's like, cats? Back to the hand of glory. Is that one of your big sellers?
00:11:23
Speaker
Yes, so that one is I think something that just captures people's imagination. I guess some people might be because of Harry Potter and they just have to live with that. But, you know, I guess it has bought a lot of folklore like the Mandrake to people's attention. So I guess it's not all bad that it's kind of bought some of that that kind of historical stuff um into sort of popular knowledge. Yeah, there's just something very iconic about that image of a hand of glory.
00:11:52
Speaker
It's just so dark, isn't it? I love how dark it is and that there's history behind it that's real, that, you know, there isn't a folklore. It's actually a real item in a museum that you can go and see. I would recommend it for burglary sale, apparently. I don't want to count so well. You end up in the slammer. But um yeah, unfortunately, Mother Shipton is my worth-selling print because a lot of people don't seem to know who she is, which I was absolutely astounded by.
00:12:21
Speaker
I am surprised by that. Yeah, I even did a pagan market a couple of months ago for sort of the May festivities in Nottingham, which is an amazing market if people haven't been. I think they do them a couple of times a year. And even then, people didn't seem to know who she was. You want to get in touch with Nesbrough, see if they're interested in buying a bunch of you. Yeah, not that bad. They probably will be, won't they? Because they'll want to look after locals and stuff. Well, I'm presuming you're local.
00:12:49
Speaker
Well, Sheffield, it's not too far. Oh yeah, yeah, that's local. Yorkshire. you're Everywhere in Yorkshire is local to me. Does the print look likeer then? Does your line up cutting in actually? Yeah, well, it's it's kind of based on the figure that's in in the cave. Again, I didn't want to sort of just copy something. I'm always very conscious when I do something that I don't want to do an exact replica of something that already exists because copyright reasons, but also I think it's fine to use reference materials, but I think you know, what's the point if you're not going to sort of make it your own, really? So I've kind of hopefully captured the spirit. So I think the people that do recognise her, it does sort of really chime with them. And I don't know, some people I think just don't want a crone in my house either, which again, bit of a shame.
00:13:35
Speaker
I'd love a crone in my house. I'm going to have a look after this. I'll put some pictures up on Instagram and then you'll have a flurry of people buying mothership tin prints. Yeah, so I guess for anyone that doesn't know, she was known to be kind of a prophetess. I think that's the right term for it, essentially, to predict the future.
00:13:53
Speaker
and again was a wise woman that kind of did remedies for people and was in Nersborough. Nersborough is such a ah fantastic place anyway. You must feel lucky having that on the doorstep because it's also got a petrifying waterfall which is so great I think for at all ages really. You can see like Victorian hats I think, i think' some maybe even some pants that have been petrified and teddy bears and all sorts.
00:14:22
Speaker
comments I mean, you used to be able to take your own items and put them in the well, you know, a turn to store, but I think they had to stop it because everybody did it. And they ended up with hundreds of items and know where to store them. And now they do teddy bears and you can buy them from the little shop, which is amazing. Cause my whole life I've been like, I really want a stone, not teddy bear, but another stone item. So hopefully they'll they'll start doing different items, but it's such a cool idea.
00:14:49
Speaker
to keep the funds coming in. And also they sell the wishing well water. I use that actually in my magic. I've got two little glass bottles of Mother Shipta's wishing water just to like sprinkle on the altar and make wishes with and stuff. It's really good. Yeah and they're not expensive. The little but bottles are lovely. They'll sell it really good on your witchy shell.
00:15:09
Speaker
I remember my mum taking me when I was young because you can walk down the side, there's the river and there's there was the cliffs at the other side of the river. And now these cliffs, they've all been built on, so there's loads of houses there. But when I were little, I remember walking with my mum looking at these cliffs and I could see faces in the cliff. And it's like a really strong memory I've got. When I go back, I'm always looking, you know, where they might have been because it's just all flying now with houses. Like we were looking for who's going like, oh, look at that face and look at that face. and proper spooky little tale for you. Is there any liner that you like to do the most and you just wish you could do all the time like a certain design or do you like to just mix it up? I like to mix it up. I think i think the thing is that i the reason I started in the first place was because I'm just obsessed with the medium and I'm quite impatient. So I like the fact that you can get results relatively quickly. I like the sort of the graphic nature of it.
00:16:08
Speaker
And I literally just started doing designs that I wanted because I was spending a fortune on buying stuff that other people were doing, which I still do. It hasn't stopped that at all. The designs are kind of what interests me rather than maybe what might sell. So sometimes I do have to kind of like think, is that a bit too obscure?
00:16:25
Speaker
and if it is are you prepared to not really sell any. But I haven't done much deities and I guess folklore from across the world. I've done bits and pieces but I've got literally a massive list of ideas and there's some things I think I probably will revisit. So I did a green man at one point and again that's one of my bigger sellers but I'm just obsessed with it kind of earthy things really and just anything that's touching on sort of folk horror. I really like just horror in general but it's kind of the the meshing of kind of folklore and horror
00:17:02
Speaker
in you know kind of the horror of nature and of people that you know might have nefarious intentions and kind of magical objects that can be sinister and maybe the devil thrown in there sometimes. Just all that sort of stuff really captures my imagination and it seems to be capturing everyone's imagination at the moment and I think so there is kind of a a real interest in just folk in general and customs and I'm here for it really so just horror of that sort of thing would be great. For horror I'm just trying to think of of some. Like the Wicker Man's the kind of famous example that people sort of quote and I guess Midsummer's like you know um a more recent really famous one. It's funny because to me Wicker Man isn't horror
00:17:54
Speaker
It's just normal. Well apart from the killing fate where you've burned him. We don't burn fe police officers or anything but I legit go to camps that make huge effigies out of straw and we burn them. I don't make that.
00:18:09
Speaker
Connections. Oh, I just love all that sort of stuff. I just, I don't know. It, it gives me a a feeling that I can't quite describe, like quite an electric feeling, all that focusing just like kind of connected with, with history. I do find, even though I don't know what's making me feel that way, I don't really understand that feeling. I enjoy it, if that makes sense. Yeah. ah Something like that sounds amazing to me.
00:18:36
Speaker
I think it's there, I think you'll think it'll find you and when it's ready, it's got a feeling, it's got a feeling. I must admit when I was um a teenager I think that's that that was the time when I guess I've been closest to kind of exploring all that sort of side of things because I was already kind of interested in just anything other but I'm ashamed to say I think the craft had quite an effect on me, which again probably isn't It's the best example, but I then went out and I was like, right, I need tarot deck. I need some candles. I need a pendulum. I need a crystal ball. I need runes. I need, you know, the full shebang and just like scatter gun approach. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to try it. And then when I couldn't make people levitate, I was like, oh. I can make people levitate.
00:19:29
Speaker
or change your hair colour and get a different face and all that. Yeah, I have to do it with hair dye, damn it. Yeah, light as a feather, stiff as a bar, doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's solved. I probably shouldn't admit this either, but I um started holding sciences from about 10 years old as well. Ooh, that's amazing. Tell me more then, did you do that now as an adult? ah I haven't done in a long time because I think it depends on on sort of who you're hanging around with. If I was hanging around with other people that were up for it I would definitely be up for giving it another go because I think I've always been kind of ghost obsessed because you know growing up like it's not like children today god I'm sounding really old but you know that they have the internet and they pick these things up. I have no idea how I found out about
00:20:19
Speaker
Ouija boards or spirit boards. I just like had a homemade one and I used to take it primary school with me and have break time séances and it'd be like give me 50p and i'll I'll get your grandad for you sort of thing and people crowd round for for for these séances and then kind of just kept doing it for quite a few years really because I was just desperate to find enough evidence that I could go yes it's real and an open-minded skeptic more in that area I guess because I still find it fascinating that so many people all through the ages have seen things and I just can't understand what it is but then at the same time I think if there is spirits that are unrest that's not a very comforting thought
00:21:06
Speaker
So I don't know. I don't know if I want it to be true or not. I just would somehow like to know. It is an absolute minefield, isn't it? I mean, I do sort of swing to and fro. Yes, it definitely is. No, it's nothing. Definitely is.
00:21:19
Speaker
But I mean, I helped run ghost nights and my mum was psychic. She knew stuff about people and there were no internet then, do you know what I mean? She just knew and they were shocked that she knew. I cannot believe that she was faking it, I just can't. And I get little bits of information about people and whispers in my ear, you know, and it's like, that's got to come from somewhere because I'm not just making this up.
00:21:43
Speaker
I think that's the thing. I think intuition is also really, really interesting because there there definitely is something to it. Is it that we we read people or where does that information come from? I don't know, but I find it absolutely fascinating. but Even as a skeptic, there's times where I feel like I've picked up on something in you know intuitively about somebody. It's like, have I just picked something up from their demeanor or where does that come from? I don't know.
00:22:12
Speaker
Do you have ghosts in your lino print? Not literally ghosts. I mean, you might. I might. I mean, who knows? and I couldn't couldn't possibly comment on that. But yes, I kind of have done some some kind of ghosty prints. I would do more, but I think there's a lot of other fabulous artists out there. I think ghosts are quite a hot topic at the moment. So I'm trying to do something that is unique to me, but every now and then ghosts do creep in because I can't help myself. Blanket of your head and no feet. No feet. Yeah, that's how I dress to do my lino printing. I want a tattoo to know of a ghost underneath. Look, no feet. Well, I do have an arm that's like cryptids and I don't have a ghost on there and I don't have a lost man on there and it's just kind of, I know.
00:23:08
Speaker
time has come. I do have a Baba Yaga one though. Oh gosh, she's a right topic, isn't she? That's another one I need to write down. Oh yeah. Yeah, well that's, it's weird because I just never know what people are going to recognise and like, if you do market something and things you see people and you think oh yeah they're my customer I can tell sort of thing usually you know sort of black clothes tattoos piercings and then every now and then you'll get somebody who just doesn't look like they they would be into my stuff and then they'll come up and be like oh yeah that's baba yaga that's blah blah blah that's blah blah blah
00:23:43
Speaker
So but there's clearly, it's not just sort of the alternative crowd, I guess, that I kind of know about folklore related things. It's it's quite far reaching.
00:23:53
Speaker
Think about it, it's like all everybody's history of the past, of of the country's past, and you know it's all connected, isn't it? The history of us all, I guess that's what I'm trying to say. And even now we say things, sayings and stuff that have come from folklore. And folklore starts out just as a warning, and doesn't it, to stop kids going near the pond because Jenny Greenfingers will grab you and pull you and you'll drown.
00:24:19
Speaker
And I love that. I had a guest on a few episodes ago and her thing was for Claus Well, her topic, just saying how there's evidence that isn't the evidence people think it is at the time, you know, and it got misinterpretated and then kept hold of and passed down and passed down and became something so massive and magical.
00:24:41
Speaker
And then we were kind of sad because we were saying, well, maybe that's a thing of the past now, you know, because of technology and history and science. Yeah. Amy said, perhaps the only folklore we've got right now being made is ghosts, you know, because we can't prove them. And I was a bit like, whoa, mind blown.
00:24:58
Speaker
Well I guess there's that and I'm also quite interested in urban myths because I think urban myths are kind of the new folklore. I guess it is a modern interpretation of folklore. You know you've kind of got things like hat man for example which is I believe like a relatively modern addition to kind of ah shadow people type creature that people are seeing with like a ah hat and a a long coat on and it's popping up all over the place but it doesn't have a long history. And obviously Slenderman, those very tragic, tragic true crime story related to that but again that was just a creepy pasta that then became kind of actual folklore and urban legend. I don't know the story.
00:25:43
Speaker
Because I have such a terrible memory, I can't tell you the ins and outs of it, but Slender Man was kind of like an invention on like a creepy pasta. There was some kind of competition to invent a creepy new creature. So it's meant to be this kind of like tall, strangely slender man who kind of wants souls or something. and Tragically some young kids in America took it seriously and they thought they'd better make an offering to him. So they actually stabbed a friend of theirs. Oh my god. Yeah. Geez that's that's massive isn't it? Yeah yeah they actually killed her. Oh my god when was this? A few years ago maybe about a decade ago or something. So it's kind of a little bit like Candyman I guess. That's what I always think of when I think of urban legends.
00:26:30
Speaker
There are ah urban legends from the 90s, like you taking your homemade Ouija board. I used to stand in toilet, sweet lights off with girls going like Candyman Candyman, especially if you come out and.
00:26:45
Speaker
Stabbas never happened but we were scared each and were shitless and it was so much fun, you know what I mean? Talking about dicey with danger. Yeah, I don't know if you've seen Talk to Me but that's kind of, I guess, quite a good example of something similar. I mean, everything that I reference comes from films. I think I am a little bit movie obsessed but I think that that's got kind of the makings of a start of an urban legend as well because it's you know lots of teenagers talking to spirits through a kind of hand that connects them to the other side and clearly not good for them but they just can't help themselves and it just escalates and escalates but I can imagine you know kids inventing something like that in real life
00:27:27
Speaker
Is that a story of human beings being disorderly and rebellious? and i've I have seen it and it is kind of a little bit hand of glory, isn't it, really? Because the hand is just really scary looking. Don't they think it's just like a pot heifergy, like ceramic? yeah And it's an actual severed hand, isn't it?
00:27:53
Speaker
find
00:27:56
Speaker
So like line up pretty, how long do the take or does it vary? Very much does vary really because like the hedge witch one I kind of had put that off for quite a while because Anio was going to have to sort of sit down and do that over a couple of sittings and it took me a lot longer to draw the image because as well I guess if you're factoring the design side of it as well you know that could take any matter of time depending on the complexity really. Ironically hand the Hand of Glory is one of the best sellers but probably took me one of the least amount of times to draw because it is quite a ah simple drawing because it just didn't need to be a complex one but I'm always just trying to push myself because that was kind of one that I did
00:28:40
Speaker
a bit earlier on, you know, you've just got to keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, really. and And I do tend to get bored of things if I don't, if I'm not learning, if I'm not pushing. God knows what I'll be doing in a year's time. Massive ones, like huge. Yeah. But it does take time. And then, you know, when you're pushing it and you slip and you go, and then there's a line in it. And like you say, when you ink it up and roll it out, what's left? The yeah negative of it, isn't it?
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's the thing, like my favourite bit is that first inking, because you get obviously an idea, I was going to say an inclination um of what you're going to get. But I think until you ink it up, you don't really know how bad those slips are or whatever whatever it is. But yeah, I think that's when I like it the most. And then I kind of start to second guess myself once I've printed a few and I'm like, oh, maybe I could have done that thing. But I guess the thing with lino printing is you can't go back.
00:29:37
Speaker
You can only add so you can't take away. So it's like a little more, a little more. Oh no, I've done too much. I must admit with some of them I have actually gone over and like painted bits in afterwards because I've carved it out and then I'm like, oh no. Particularly if it's something like faces or something, it's like, oh, I've made that face look a bit janky there. Paint it back in a little bit. Hope nobody notices. Well, you've said it now.
00:30:03
Speaker
Just dobbed yourself, innit? I have, I have. It's true, it's true. I can always go back and revisit ideas. I really like analogue art. I just can't do digital at all. I just like the practice of doing things by hand and there's something kind of meditative about it, really. And I mean, I'm usually listening to podcasts, so I guess I'm not completely quiet, including this one. I'm going to say I'm mine, I'm mine. I definitely listen to yours. I love to listen to yours. A lot of what you say really sort of chimes with things that I kind of believe and topics that I'm interested in. But listening to podcasts of things that you're interested in whilst you're doing that, I think, I don't know, it kind of spurs you on a little bit as well, I find. But if you're someone that doesn't have a brain that shuts up, I think podcasts are great because you're listening to that and you're kind of getting into the right state of mind. Have you got any plans, exclusives you're going to do?
00:30:57
Speaker
So I do actually have one that I've done that isn't sort of out yet which I'm all really I'm so excited about. i am So this was another case of of somebody getting in touch and me being like oh my god I'm so excited.
00:31:12
Speaker
I don't know if you've ever heard of Mad Alice who does the Pudding York tours. So she does the ghost tours in York. She's fantastic. um Again, I got into her over lockdown because she was doing like virtual ghost tours when we're all at home. So I'd be there with my little glass of wine tucked up in bed with the lights off.
00:31:31
Speaker
doing a virtual ghost tour and someone from her team had sort of seen my work and got in touch and sort of said, do you fancy doing some prints that we're going to sort of sell on on the shop with kind of figures from sort of famous figures from York?
00:31:46
Speaker
and i was like um yes please um so i've only done one so far and i don't want to say too much about it and ruin it but i'm hoping there'll be more in the future and and they'll they'll just be sold by um the york bloody tours but i mean i'm someone that if i go to a city i have to do the ghost tour at least one ghost tour in Leeds recently actually i went to the goth you know the leads gothica market oh yeah so i was like oh well i'm there they've got some daytime ghost tours it's like oh i'm gonna do one and it's actually someone that's mentioned on that so it's someone that's from Leeds but hand in your if that kind of tips anybody off but also did and one which is now on Wikipedia
00:32:30
Speaker
which is quite exciting. So you never know what random things are going to come your way. So I know someone that runs a another podcast ah called Tales of Britain and Ireland, and it's a folklore one. And again, really cool guy and a really nice guy, because he actually goes to the folklore group that I go to. And he wanted to commission a load of people to do pictures of boggarts, not both arts, as I keep calling them. They're not directors. and they're kind of Lancashire-based vengeful ghosts, I believe. There's a Wikipedia page about it, so one of my pictures is on that, so that's quite exciting. Ah, that Yeah, that's saying like commissions scare me a little bit because i I don't know, I find it quite stressful like not knowing if what I've done is going to be what people want and
00:33:20
Speaker
because I've got very limited time, so I've got a day job, I've kind of don't really want to do ones that aren't something that I vibe with, because I don't think I'll do a good job. And I think I'd be wasting both that time. But both of those have been like really great opportunities. So I think if if there was other things like that, I'd definitely be well up for it.
00:33:38
Speaker
that but That was one of my questions, was do you accept commissions? I guess you do, but they've got to be right commissions and that's fair enough. It's your little business in it. I mean, you're you're allowed to say yes or no stuff. You don't have to say yes to everything. I take quite a lot of pride in it and someone came to me and sort of said, can you do a family portrait or something? I don't, you know, unless they're all ghosts. I've got to say.
00:34:01
Speaker
Are you dead? And I definitely don't want to go with a pet root because I ah got really into doing acrylic paintings years ago with kind of brightly coloured animals and things. I started doing some pet portraits and I started getting a few more pet portraits but nearly all of the pets seemed to be ones that had passed away.
00:34:20
Speaker
So it was just making me really sad and then you'd pass them on to people and they'd be quite upset because of the memories. I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. Pets passing is like, or just any animals at all. It's like the worst thing to me, like it upsets me.
00:34:38
Speaker
It is kind of ironic though, I must say. The dead. Let's do like a ghost version or something. I don't know, it's quite bad taste but... Nobody ever asked for that, strangely. Can you go ghost up my dog? Crying while I was doing it, probably. it Life and death and all that jazz. ah it's It's probably a bad thing to admit but if it's people, like I can kind of accept it when it's an animal, I can't.
00:35:05
Speaker
I think that's just a British thing. I think the British so really cared about animals like much more than people. But you know, a cemetery, I love a good cemetery. Again, I'll go on ghost tours. If I go to a city somewhere, I have to go see like there's a famous cemetery or something. I have to go to that. I see a pet cemetery and I nearly lose it. Human cemetery is fine.
00:35:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's fine. It's all right to mention. I guess I've got actually a couple of stalls coming up next month, both in Leeds. Oh, absolutely mention. I am actually going to be at the Leeds Festival of Gothica on the 7th of July and anyone that's kind of alternatively inclined or sort of a little bit witchy it's definitely the place to be there's like so many cool vendors at the previous one so i'm quite excited about that one and then hot ghoul summer at the key club um on the 27th of july yeah i did that thing where you apply for more than one because you get you do get a lot of rejection ill i'll be honest like with markets because it's really competitive so i was like well i'll be lucky if i get one and then i got both and then i was like
00:36:12
Speaker
whoops I guess so does the thing I kind of wanted to mention which kind of doesn't in any way tend to anything else we were talking about so it'll probably be fun to edit you've talked quite a lot about sort of manifestation recently and kind of law of attraction that really chimes with me even though I'm not really sure what causes it. There definitely is, and i've I found this all through through my life, something about putting yourself out there, I guess, and just energy of whatever kind, whether it's a spiritual and energy, whether it's an emotion, whether it's something physical, yeah you kind of can reap rewards from that in some way. Coincidences and kind of things like earlier you were talking about Jenny Green Teeth and I did actually do a print of her that but failed and I need to do that again and it was actually ah on my head
00:37:00
Speaker
And then you said it and it's like, oh, you see, you see. yeah there's something there, there's something there. I just find it such a fascinating thing but there's something about putting some kind of positive energy out there and then it does seem to come back. I mean obviously life happens, you don't know what's around the corner and there'll be things that sort of set you back but I think just kind of dusting yourself off and and keep going and and being resilient and it can really pay off whatever is doing it. Seeing those opportunities in life, sometimes it does literally feel like the universe is going this way,
00:37:34
Speaker
It is. You just have to look. I think one of the big things I've noticed since I've started doing all this, the secret stuff and all that is there's so many signs, so many. Everywhere they look, you know, like I'll hear some and then somebody will say some and it'll be the same thing. And then I'll go to the charter shop and it's there, the same thing. And then it's all these little tiny little fairy sized signposts from the universe going like, yes, follow the breadcrumbs, say yes to this, say yes to that.
00:38:01
Speaker
I mean, just today I've been trying to manifest a moon gazing hair, you know, for my altar work because I just can't find any that I like. And I had the one that I wanted in my head. I could only find giant versions of it that cost an absolute fortune. And I found one today in the charity shop for five quid. And it's beautiful. It is exactly, exactly like a Leonardo bronze looking one. Exactly what I wanted. So I was a bit like, oh, thank you for hearing me. It's been about a year, but I've got it.
00:38:30
Speaker
or just thinking about people and then they get in touch with you. I think you sort of mentioned that recently and it is just so strange. I don't know how it works, but it does. And I think maybe there's not one answer to things. I think we always try and make a black and white answer to that this is the answer behind it. And maybe there isn't always one reason or one way that these things happen, but just looking out for them and following them. When you start doing that, it can be quite life changing. And also I think because we're also distracted in today's day and age with mobiles and tweets and notifications and oh yeah and we get distracted away from what I call the universe telling us stuff and then the universe stops talking basically because it's not being taken notice of. In my swale's mind that is what people go through quite a lot and then they get
00:39:22
Speaker
Suck down into you know the doom scrolling and compare and despair and all that lowers your vibe and your vibe attracts your vibe and so it's like an absolute kind of worms. But it can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. It is really just like this shit happened to me. Have a studio, let it go.
00:39:42
Speaker
definitely with the social media I think it's so easy to kind of compare yourself and I think I am someone that's always done that and just kind of put myself down you know you can be like oh that person is doing something similar but they're just so much more amazing or they've got so many more followers and they've been around the same amount of time and you have to sometimes just have a word with yourself. and You do.
00:40:04
Speaker
Just kind of go, well, be happy for them. Exactly. And you do you. Be happy for them and be proud of them because they've obviously worked hard to get there. Nothing's given on a play. Everybody has to work for what they have eventually because they've manifested it. So it's like, why be jealous? They've worked done the hard work. So it's not a great vibe to have. I mean, I'm i was terrible for it until about a year ago. Would you like to ah plug yourself? Where can we find you? What's your handles and your website and all that jazz?
00:40:32
Speaker
I am lino folk by Fiona on Instagram. I don't have a ah separate website, but I do also have an Etsy, which is the same name. If anyone is in Sheffield or wants to go to Sheffield, there's an amazing new place called Red Brick Market. There's one in Birmingham and one in Liverpool as well.
00:40:52
Speaker
and it's like a massive indoor market that's got like over 100 vendors and it's a wide range of of products in there but I've got a little space in there and you can go there seven days a week but there's loads of witchy stuff in there so I highly recommend it if you're ever in Sheffield and want a little day trip yeah again Instagram's probably the best place to find out what markets I've got coming up because I do try and keep myself busy not too many not too busy nice middle ground I'm still finding that middle ground because I think I kind of never found success with my artwork and it's taken me till I'm in my 40s to have enough confidence to just go for it I think and I just seem to have hit on something that kind of resonates with other people which I'm absolutely thrilled about so you know I've kind of gone hit it hard and now I'm having to go okay maybe find a manageable level maybe the last couple of months wasn't it yeah
00:41:47
Speaker
I still can't believe there's a ghost touring Leeds. As if I've missed that. I don't know if they put it on because of the Festival of Gothica. I think the daytime one was. But yeah, um i'll have toll I'll fish out the information and and pass the pass it on because it was kind of two people doing it. I think they might be part of some historical society maybe.
00:42:10
Speaker
Because I think that's the thing. I think people like their their history with a bit of grimness and ghosties, don't they? So it kind of sells more seats than and just, oh, here's a building that wants a mill or whatever it is. Thank you for joining me on my little Mootloots. It's been a blast talking to you about spooky lino. Oh, thank you so much. It's been really lovely.
00:42:40
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to the Belle Witch Podcast, Witching in the 21st Century, it made with love and magic by me, Swales, the friendly green witch. If you'd like to get in contact with me, you can email me on thebellewitchpodcast at yahoo.com. I'd love to support other podcasts if you have a pagan, spiritual, witchy, spooky, scary podcast. Send me a trailer, I'll absolutely play it because there is magic in sharing the audience. Music by Jeff Harvey of Pixabay. Official photographer is Beverly Thornton and I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Until next time.
00:43:24
Speaker
Stay magical witches!