Sunday 30 October 2011

Runelight Talk/Launch at York

Joanne Harris’ eagerly anticipated and wonderful novel 'Runelight' (sequel to her amazing, entertaining novel 'Runemarks') is on the cusp of its public sales launch on 3 November 2011. Of course The Silver Bough team is thrilled.




I had the privilege of being invited by Joanne to her talk/introduction to Runelight at York's ancient and amazing Merchant Adventurers' Hall. As always Joanne’s talk was compelling as well as informative and the wonderful audience’s comments and questions were interesting. Joanne excels in conveying not only her own talents as a story teller but also her knowledge of the Norse myths. She always brings her stories and characters to life.

Always charming, Joanne had her audience captivated. I personally love the fact that children of all ages embrace these books. However for me, even better was that the audience consisted of adult readers (young and older) who are all lovers of Joanne’s unique novels.

The Silver Bough is always so proud of Joanne’s writing and her wonderful support of our designs. However, most of all is the incredible friendship that has developed between us (prior to The Silver Bough’s own launch) and her wonderful daughter Anouchka and husband Kevin.

Both The Silver Bough and Joanne have a wondrous and deep seated love of the Norse myths, Norse history and archaeology.

All of Joanne’s themes (no matter what the genre) usually contain a subtle reference to each of her novels previously written. This is delightful to the observant reader.

We are honoured to have such a fantastic and supportive friend in Joanne. She is inspiring and to feel very much a part of this book and hopefully future sequels/prequels is a gift.

I personally am very proud of my mention in the acknowledgments in Runelight and have to say I couldn’t (and can’t) stop smiling. Yes, Joanne, I do love your characters probably as much as you do.

Regarding The Silver Bough – The Jorvik Centre organisers were wonderful. Danielle and Chris were lovely. We hope that we will be able to showcase our designs in York at the Jorvik Centre Shop. We have been approached by their shop buyer following an email from us and now hope we have the support of those involved in The Jorvik Centre. I thank Chris for his interest, Danielle for her hospitality and organisational skills. I am so glad that such an organisation exists to promote the ancient Norse history of York and these Isles.

The evolution of The Silver Bough has seemed to coincide with the evolution of the Runemarks/Runelight novels and hopefully will always grow with Joanne’s ongoing development of this series of books.

Becca

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Runlight's Release and News from The Silver Bough.

23 days until the much anticipated release of Joanne Harris’ ‘Runelight’ the sequel to her original exciting novel ‘Runemarks’. Continuing on from the adventures of Maddy Smith, Jed Smith’s daughter who discovers that in reality she is the daughter of the Norse God Thor and Jarnsaxa of the Jotuns. Her life as an outcast amongst the Folk is turned upside down by the friendship of her mentor and friend, One Eye (Odin) and the crafty revelations of Loki, his blood brother. The adventures continue three years on whereby the Gods, bereft of much of their power once again must face the potential destruction of the Worlds by Chaos released by Loki via Dream in Runemarks into the world and they must also attempt to prevent a strange new alliance whose actions threaten to fulfil the ancient prophecies which would exacerbate this ruin. Who will die? Who will live? Who will come again? Will Asgard be reborn?


ttp://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/runelight/index.html

This Runemaker is looking forward to her invitation to Joanne’s introduction to Runelight in York at the Merchant Adventurers' Hall on 27 October (2pm), and seeing the ever mystic Posh Shed of creativity.

http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/event-calendar/88-Joanne-Harris-introduces--Runelight/

Of course we are also looking forward to the release of Runelight which is a very special novel to me. Joanne has been a great friend and very inspirational in The Silver Bough’s evolution and of course in her support.

I promise our blog readers and Joanne’s readers that Runelight will not disappoint – it will however leave you craving the next book in this series.

On the Silver Bough news front the evolution seems to have accelerated from new techniques to new items offered on our site: Beautiful handmade Yggdrasil cards which have already proven popular in private commissions, followed soon by a selection of eclectic original photograph cards. We hope that these cards may be worthy not just as a beautiful card suitable for any occasion but something that the receivers will want to keep.

We have also created a Norse inspired stylised dragon bas relief pendant and this new method opens the door for many new design applications both as pendants, necklaces and rings. The finish on this pendant is more in line with actual finds as opposed to the smooth polish of our silver rune pendants, being oxidised a dark charcoal colour with hints at times of iridescence. However if requested the relief of the dragon could be polished along with the smooth back of the design. We love the feeling of antiquity this design and finish evokes. This pendant is 99.9% pure silver as are all of our silver designs.


The Silver Bough has been researching actual ancient Norse and Iron Age/Bronze Age/Celtic artefacts and trying to closely reproduce these. The first design has been a Mjolnir (Thor’s Hammer) found at a Viking grave site in York. We are also in the process of creating a Celtic ‘serpent’ ring based on an original find – although we have used a bit of our own artistic interpretation on this ring.

We also have ideas for a Norse Shield. There is always something new and exciting for us to enthuse over and hopefully for our customers to desire and appreciate.

As we are soon to be also working in bronze, larger designs will be more affordable as silver is currently at a premium and the costs rising quickly and regularly.

Next step? Setting gem stones in our designs; working in silver/bronze/copper sheet metal.

As they say – The World is our Oyster and it seems ‘pearls’ come in many shapes and sizes.

We thank all of our loyal customers who have purchased our designs and have expressed such appreciation and love for what they have received. It doesn’t get much better than that!