Farsang // carnival

Babafarsangra készült ez a maszk :) Nagyon egyszerűen színes kakaóvaj és ecset segítségével festettem.

Once upon a time, there was a city. It was a quite ordinary city with bigger and smaller houses, pigeons on the streets and bridges arching over the river. And in the middle of this city stood a white castle. And in the green park of the castle stood a small bench, from where a stunning view opened on the old town and the river.

This was the contemplating spot of the Dragonmaster-Without-Dragon. The Dragonmaster, unlike the other ordinary citizens of the city, could see the shadows of kings who had once trodden the paths of the green park, he understood the whisper of the breeze and when he woke up at dawn and heard the roof tiles rattling, he knew that the night creatures that walk the roofs in the moonlight, are climbing back into the darkness to hide their delicate skin from the rays of the sun.

But even though the Dragonmaster perceived the creatures of the otherworld, he was lonely, because none of his friends, not one other person in the city could see them, and he was lonely as he had no dragon to tame and train.

One fine spring day the Dragonmaster was sitting on his bench, contemplating and waiting for something – even he himself didn’t know for what. The sky was crystal clear above him and the sunshine was warming the white walls of the castle that still kept the winter cold. Around, in the park, the trees and bushes pampered their tiny sprouts and sparrows squabbled among their branches. The fingers of the wind caressed the still dry and yellow grass, then it danced around the bench and whispered in the ear of the Dragonmaster.

He looked up and among the other, ordinary people, he saw a figure approaching.

She was a Barbarian, in ragged clothes and with long, unkempt hair. As soon as they cast an eye on each other, they knew their meeting was not a coincidence. She sat down on the bench of the Dragonmaster and in her presence he felt all her years spent with wandering in distant, wild lands, the wars that she’d fought in the past, and a strange yearning.

'That is right,' said the Barbarian. 'I come from a long journey, from a far-away kingdom. The wind told me that I would find you here.'

'Why were you looking for me?' asked the Dragonmaster.

'Because I have something that will complete both our lives.' She tossed her long hair back. 'I’ve been through many adventures and saw many places and knew many people. But my greatest wish, the one thing I crave for, I have never been able to get hold of, no matter how hard I tried or how far I went. But now that I found you, you can help me and in exchange you will get something that you have been yearning for.'

She dug into one of her deep pockets and took something out of it. This something was round and coarse and shone like a ruby flame in the sunlight.

The heart of the Dragonmaster skipped a beat.

'A dragon egg!' he whispered. 'I’ve been looking for dragon eggs for so many years, I went through the Devil’s Tunnel in the underworld, I swam in the depths of the Stormy Ocean, I even climbed the Fiery Peaks, but to no avail! Where did you find this one?'

'In the most unexpected place of all: after a battle I entered a calm, beautiful forest in the search of new adventures, when an old peasant crossed my path and warned me that there still might be dragons in that part of the wilderness. So I followed his direction and arrived to a pleasant clearing where a thin creek was flowing and flowers were growing in the river bed. But around the field the rocks looked like molten drops of metal, and I saw a red sparkle behind one of them.'

The Dragonmaster looked at the egg.

'I wonder why they left it behind. Can I hold it?'

'I will give it to you, but first you must promise one thing.'

'What is that?'

'When your dragon grows up, whenever I will want to fly with him, you will have to allow me, for that is my greatest wish of all.'

'I promise,' said the Dragonmaster and the Barbarian placed the egg in his hand.

'Now we have to wake him up and hatch the egg. You must stay with me, the dragon has to see you, otherwise he won’t let you touch him.'

'All right then. How do we wake him up?'

'We need the Midnight Fire for that.'

'You have a Midnight Fire in this city?' looked around the Barbarian frowning.

'No, not here, but I know where we can find it.'

So when the night descended on the city, the Dragonmaster and the Barbarian returned to the castle. Their path led to the excavations at the back of the park. They climbed through the fence and quickly made their way to the tunnels and holes that looked like dark cavities in the stone teeth of the ground. The Dragonmaster entered a narrow tunnel that ended in a dome-like space. He turned to the right, where a thin crack opened in the wall. Inside it was darker than in the vast space, darker than in the stomach of the Great Leviathan. They crept slowly in the thin, dark passage for a long while – they lost track of time, it seemed as if they had been walking for days. Sometimes they took a turn and the air got hotter and hotter as they approached the center of the earth.

From the fumes and fires of creation came forth the dragons and as the center of the earth still kept the heat of creation, its flames were able to give life to gemstones called dragon eggs. These flames broke to the surface in places where magic concentrated, but the Dragonmaster knew that he could find them only far, far below his city.

'We are almost there,' he told the Barbarian, and in that instant they arrived in a great hall, whose walls gleamed in red. The fire roared below them, the heat was unbearable, even breathing was painful.

The Dragonmaster crossed the hall and on the other side he found a tunnel leading even further down. In the next cave the stones were glowing and they could not proceed any further because poisonous steam filled the air. So the Dragonmaster built a nest of the burning stones and he placed the egg in the middle. They covered their noses and waited, their eyes fixed on the egg.

Nothing moved, only the lights were dancing on the walls and sometimes new flames flared up on a stone.

The Barbarian shifted from one foot to the other.

'Maybe the dragon died?'

'Shhh, it takes time,' replied the Dragonmaster.

'I’m not a patient person, especially in a place like this.'

'Do you want to fly with the dragon or not?'

To this question the Barbarian closed her eyes and immersed in a dream about flying while the Dragonmaster kept on waiting, leaning even closer to the egg.

The only sound that remained was the silent purring of the flames of the Midnight Fire and the snake-like hissing of fumes, and sometimes the earth tolled like an enormous gong whose sound resonated in the guts instead of the ears.

'There you go! The first crack!' exclaimed the Dragonmaster.

They were both staring at the egg while tiny cracks appeared, one after the other, and ruby pieces of the shell fell on the rocks like drops of blood. First the nose, then the head, the long, graceful neck and the body wriggled out of the egg. The newborn dragon was not bigger than a hand and he curiously looked at them with his shiny, golden eyes.

The Dragonmaster crouched down and held out his palm towards him.

The creature timidly smelled his fingers but he seemed to like the smell because he quickly ran up the Dragonmaster’s arm, to his shoulder, where he nested himself close to his neck and after all these hardships, fell asleep.

The Dragonmaster stood up, he smiled at the Barbarian.

'We can go back now,' he said.

They left the great halls of the center of the earth and walked up the dark passage. When they arrived to the excavation site, it was still night: the light of the stars mingled with the lights of the city, but in the East a faint grey stripe glistened.
They stood there for a minute, absorbing the sight of the sleeping city, then they walked down the hill of the castle: the Dragonmaster-With-Dragon and the Barbarian.

Queen of the spring flowers

She arrives unnoticed on a fresh night that breathes the warmth of spring, yet retains the cool of winter. Bald trees sigh in the wake of her steps, they stretch and shrug after a long sleep. Her hands float like the breeze, stroking buds on the branches and twigs of bushes. Wherever she goes, the earth warms under her light feet, sprouts emerge and the grass shakes itself and raises its head proudly. She kneels down to flower beds and sings for the flowers buds. And when the sun comes up, just like a miracle, a gentle green net covers all branches which used to be barren during the long winter, as if spring was a spiderweb that stretched through all living beings. White, yellow and pink flowers open their chalice toward the sunbeams. They seem to be the daughters of light; no one knows their secret - that the Queen of flowers hummed the colors in their petals by the moonlight.

Hozzávalók:
120 gr fehércsoki
50 gr tejcsoki
ételfesték

1. Alaposan megtisztítom a formát. Papíron megtervezem a virágmotívumot, előkészítem a hozzávalókat. Temperálom a tejcsokit, és ecsettel a maszk arcrészén megfestem a virág körvonalait. Miután a csoki megszilárdult, kifestem: a szirmok végére fehér lüsztert festek, amit összemosok rózsaszínnel, majd legbelül pirossal. A virág közepe aranyszínű lesz.

Ingredients:
120 gr white chocolate
50 gr milk chocolate
food paint

1. I clean the mold thoroughly. On a piece of paper, I plan the flower pattern; and I prepare the ingredients. I temper the milk chocolate and with a thin brush I paint the contours of the flower on the cheek of the mask. Once the chocolate sets, I paint it: I add a bit of white luster to the edges of the petals, which I blend with pink, then red on the inner parts. The middle of the flower is gold.

2. Temperálom a fehércsokit, beleöntöm a formába, és körbe-körbe forgatom, hogy minél egyenletesebb és vastagabb réteget kapjak. Végül amikor a csoki már egészen kihűlt, kirázogatom a felesleget, a széleknél lehúzom spatulával, és fejjel lefelé fordítva hagyom egy darabig.

2. I temper the white chocolate, pour it in the mold and then turn it around for some time so that I get an even and thick layer. Finally, when the chocolate gets cool, I shake out the excess, then I scrape off the edges with a spatula. I place the mold on a parchment sheet upside down.

3. Kis időre hűtőbe teszem a formát, és amikor a csoki már teljesen megszilárdult, óvatosan kiveszem a formából. Arany lüszter és néhány csepp alkohol segítségével megfestem a szájat, a szemeket és a szecessziós mintát az arc túloldalára.

3. I place the mold in the fridge for some time and when the chocolate gets solid, I carefully take it out of the mold. With the mixture of gold luster and some drops of alcohol, I paint the lips, the eyes and the art nouveau pattern on the other side of the face.

carnival

Február végén és március elején a tavasz közeledtére a föld mélyén és fák tövében élő tündérek előbújnak, felöltik legszebb tavaszváró ruháikat, koszorút fűznek az első virágokból, pillangók hímporából és holdezüstből elkészítik karneváli maszkjaikat, amiben első alkonyi táncukat lejtik. Aki meglesi őket az erdei tisztásokon, réteken, csupán halvány derengést lát a gyep felett örvényleni, de álmában a jókedvű tündérek meglátogatják, és ha szerencsés, ébredés után még megreked az emlékezetében néhány álarcos alak...

Hozzávalók:

100 gr fehércsoki

lüszterpor

Elkészítés:

A maszkhoz temperálom a fehércsokit, kiöntöm a formát. A felesleget kicsurgatom, kis ideig fejjel lefelé állítom az öntőformát, majd a hűtőbe teszem. Amikor megszilárdult a csoki, kiütögetem az álarcot a formából.

Lila lüszterrel alapozom az álarc szem körüli részét.

Temperálom a maradék fehércsokit, és habzsákba töltve megrajzolom vele a díszítést. Ezt arany lüszterporral festem ki. A maszk ajkait is aranyozom.

A csokirózsát ezen videó alapján készítettem el. A szirmokat összeállítás előtt lilával és arannyal festettem meg. Miután a virág elkészült, egy kis temperált csokival rögzítettem az álarc halántékrészére.

At the end of February, beginning of March, for the approaching spring, the fairies living underground and among the roots of the trees, come to the surface. They don their most beautiful spring-anticipating dresses, create wreaths of the first flowers; and from the dust of butterflies and moon-silver, they prepare their carnival masks, in which they dance their first dance at dusk. Those who spy on them at forest clearings or meadows, might only see faint luminescence whirling above the lawn, but in her dream, the jolly fairies will visit her and if she is lucky, some masked figures might get stuck in her memory after awakening...

Ingredients:

100 gr white chocolate

lustre dust

How to prepare:

I temper the white chocolate and I prepare the mask: I pour the chocolate in the mould, swirl it around, then shake out the excess. I keep the mould upside down for a while, then I put it in the fridge. When the chocolate gets solid, I tap the mask out of the mould.

With purple lustre dust, I paint the part around the eyes.

I temper the leftover white chocolate, pour it in a piping bag and I draw the decoration on the face. I paint the lines with gold dust, and also the lips.

I made the chocolate rose based on this video. Before assembling the petals, I painted them with purple and gold. When the flower is done, I fix it to the temple of the mask with tempered chocolate.

tavasz // spring

Tavasszal, ahogy az első napsugarak megolvasztják a havat és az utakat fedő jeget, a víz utat talál a föld alá. Apró patakokban csordogál a hótakaró alatt lepréselődött, őszről maradt avar, majd az alvó növények cérnavékony és a fák vastagabb gyökerei között. Addig-addig csordogál, míg egészen átnedvesíti a földet, elér a mélyebb rétegekhez, a felszínen pedig nem marad már se hó, se jég.

Ekkor ébrednek fel téli álmukból a föld alatt élő tündérek és apró manók, hogy nekilássanak sürgető tavaszi teendőiknek. Előbb előbújnak kéreg alól, gyökerek közé vájt odúkból, kavicsok alól, ahol a hideg hónapokban szunnyadtak, kis csapatokba verődve köröket alkotnak, és reggeli tornával megmozgatják elgémberedett tagjaikat. Tócsában, olvadó jégcsap hegyén csüngő cseppekben megmosakodnak, aztán ki-ki irány a dolgára!

Az egyik a fák gyökereit masszírozza, hogy meginduljon bennük a lusta keringés. Egy másik a bokrok tövében kószál, egyesével rázza meg őket, hogy a hósipka alatt elmacskásodott ágak a fény felé forduljanak. Végül a legkisebb manócska kis ezüstsíppal a virágok és füvek gyökereihez kúszik, és addig játssza a legkedvesebb tavaszi dalokat, míg az összes növény fel nem éled.

Hanem közben a tündéreknek fontos feladatot kell ellátniuk: a tél elején félretett, mókus által elrejtett, madarak által elfelejtett, félig kikelt magokat veszik gondjukba, dédelgetik, itatják őket, míg meg nem duzzadnak, és ki nem pattan belőlük a csíra. A tündérek dolga, hogy eligazgassák a sötétben mocorgó, nyúlkáló zöld nyelveket a fény felé. Nem egyszerű munka ez, mert az apró növénykezdeményeknek göröngy és kavics között kell megtalálniuk az utat. De az időközben felszívott víz és tápanyagok erőssé teszik a csírákat, előbb-utóbb kibukkannak a felszínre, a melengető napfényben megnyúlnak, megerősödnek.

Manók vigyázzák a gallyak csúcsán megjelenő pókhálós rügyeket, az első kibomló leveleket. Tavaszi eső paskolja a növényeket, bogarak zümmögik körbe őket, pezseg az élet minden gyökérben, szárban, ágban. Sarjak aranyzöldjébe, nedves kérgek feketéjébe öltözik a világ. A természet manói és tündérei addig szorgoskodnak, míg magabiztossá erősödik az utolsó, árnyékban-hófoltban megbújó fűszál is. Féltőn óvják a zsenge szárakat, és amikor kifeslenek a tavaszi vadvirágok, vidáman hintáznak a kelyheikben.

In spring, when the first rays of the sun melt the snow and the ice covering the streets, the water finds its way underground. In tiny streams, it trickles through the withered leafs left over from autumn, then among the thin roots of the plants and the thicker roots of the trees. It trickles until it soaks through the earth, reaches deeper layers, and neither snow, nor ice remains on the surface.

Then the fairies and tiny sprites living underground wake up from their winter dream to set about their urgent spring business. First, they crawl out from under barks and stones, from dens dug beneath roots, where they were sleeping during the cold months; in small groups they form circles and move their numb muscles with morning exercises. They wash themselves in puddles or drops hanging from the tip of icicles, then everyone goes about their business!

One massages the roots of trees in order to get the lazy circulation going. Another one wanders under the bushes; shakes them one by one so the sprigs, which went numb under the snow, turn towards the light. Finally, with a small silver pipe in hand, the smallest sprite creeps to the roots of the flowers and grass, and plays the gentlest spring songs until all plants wake up.

In the meanwhile the fairies must attend to an important task: they take care of sprouting seeds, which were put away in the beginning of winter, hidden by squirrels, forgotten by birds. They pamper them and feed them until the seeds swell and the sprouts bust. The green leafs stirring, stretching in the dark have to be orientated by the fairies towards the sun. It is not an easy job, because the tiny plants must find their way among clods and pebbles. But the water and nutrients they have absorbed make them strong; sooner or later they reach the surface; they stretch and strengthen in the warm sunshine.

Sprites take care of the cobwebbed buds, the first unfolding leafs appearing on the tip of boughs. Spring rain pats the plants; bugs buzz around them; life sparkles in every root, stem, branch. The world is donned in the golden-green of sprouts and black of wet barks. The sprites and fairies of nature busy themselves until the last blade of grass hiding in shadow and snow gets confidently strong. They take care of delicate stems and when spring flowers bloom, they cheerfully swing in their chalices.

A természet manóiról szóló mesét még annak idején anyukám találta ki és mesélte nekünk, így a szerzői jog az övé, bár azt nem garantálhatom, hogy épp így hangzott el ez a mese annak idején :) A csokimaszk tavaszi motívumainak egy részét Johanna Basford színezőkönyveinek rajzai ihlették.

Hozzávalók:

150 gr fehércsoki

30 gr étcsoki

kakaóvaj, ételszínezék, lüszterpor

Elkészítés:
Érdemes jó előre kitalálni, milyen mintát festünk majd, hogy ne akkor keresgéljünk, amikor kész a temperált csoki. A referenciát az asztalra készítem vattapálcával, ecsettel együtt. Temperálom az étcsokit. Vékony ecsettel megrajzolom a mintát a maszk belsejében, a pontatlan vonalakat vattapálcával korrigálom. Ezután jöhet a színezés: egységes színeket alkalmazok - ez esetben zöldek és rózsaszínek voltak hangsúlyosak. Kétféle zöldet, sötétkéket, vöröset és rózsaszínt használtam a mintához, ezeket vegyítettem különböző árnyalatokká, és próbáltam egybemosni őket, hasonlóan ahhoz, mint amikor színezek. Ezen még majd dolgozni kell, mert nem mindenhol sikerült úgy, ahogy akartam. Ennek ellenére azért elégedett vagyok a végeredménnyel, úgy fest, mint egy porcelánmaszk :)
Végül temperáltam a fehércsokit, a formába öntöttem és többször körbeforgattam, hogy a szélekre is jusson. A maradékot kiráztam, és lekapargattam a forma peremét. A hűtőbe tettem a formát.
Miután a maszk megszilárdult, kipottyant a formából. Gyertyaláng felett hevített késsel elegyengettem a széleket ott, ahol szükséges volt.

The tale about the sprites of nature was found and told to us out by my mum, therefore she owns the copyright. However, I cannot guarantee that this specific tale was exactly the same at that time :) Some of the spring motifs of the chocolate mask were inspired by the colouring books of Johanna Basford.

Ingredients:

150 gr white chocolate

30 gr dark chocolate

cocoa butter, food paint, lustre dust 

How to prepare:
It makes sense to find out the pattern in advance so you won't have to search when the tempered chocolate is ready. The reference, cotton buds and the brush shall be prepared on the table. I temper the dark chocolate. With a thin brush I draw the pattern into the mask; I correct the inaccurate lines with a cotton bud. Then comes the colouring: I apply selected colours - this time greens and pinks were stressed. I used two types of green, dark blue, red and pink; I also mixed them to get various shades and I tried to blend them, similarly to when I colour with pencils. I'll still have to work on this because I didn't succeed everywhere. However, I'm still satisfied with the result, it looks like a porcelain mask :)
Finally I temper the white chocolate, I pour it in the mould and rotate it around so that it covers the edges. I pour out the excess and scrape off the brim. I put the mould in the fridge.
After the mask gets dry, it falls out of the mould. With a knife heated above candle light, I straighten the edges where necessary.