Group 4 has finished their creative challenge and we are excited to present to you their final photos of the character created. The theme for their challenge was to create an owl in clay, with magical abilities that lives in the deep dark forests of Helsinglight. When we have presented the final work by every creative challenger/contestant in group 4 we will announce the winner of the group that will advance and compete in the finals later on. This is the final result by Nikki Cogley, creative challenger, group 4.
The Owl “Croi” by Nikki Cogley
Thank you so much for setting up the creative challenge and allowing me to take part. I really enjoyed the theme as I'm secretly in love with owls. Having a theme and the deadline and being able to see all the other groups and their creative process really gave me a boost and the motivation needed to get back to crafting and creating.
Croi
You know her, probably. You have heard stories about her wicked ways. Your parents may have warned you about her, you may have even over heard the frantic stories of those who claim to have seen her. They call her The White Witch, The Banchee, The Woman of death, The White Woman, The Ninefold Goddess and perhaps you have even known her as Blodeuwedd. Whatever the name the stories of power and revenge are enough to know. You don’t want to know her.
Her history is long and told in many different versions. No one dares to cross her path no one with half a value on his life would seek her out. Yet she was summoned from her haven, cast together with the flowers of the forest primrose, meadowsweet, chestnut and hawthorn. She was transformed in to a beautiful woman, and presented as a bride to be for the Kings Son. Expected to just comply and conform she went along with this supposed arrangement for a while. However, her heart fell for someone else. The same way the leaves on the tree cannot resist blowing in the wind. Or the meadow flowers can not resist leaning towards the sun. She knew she had a different path and she wanted to follow it.
She did what any disgruntled wife would do over 500 years ago. She made a plan to kill her husband. Needless to say this did not go according to plan. She was found out and punished by her creator. He couldn’t just destroy the flower he created so he banished her to the darkness of the forest. Turned her into an Owl. Confined to the darkness and hated by the other birds of the forest. It was a sentence of destitute and isolation. Hardly the life a former flower would thrive in.
She is strong. She spent years haunting the night, bitter and alone. She survived and often burst with anger and grief. After all she brought this on herself, or did she. She didn’t ask to me made, she didn’t choose her husband, she couldn’t have predicted how her heart would feel. This torment went back and forth for years until finally she realised, she came from the forest, this is her home, her roots. She can regain her spirit and have a new start a fresh start. So many years have past. The monarchy has been burnt to the ground her story has been distorted so much nobody really remembers the truth any more. Her love, he is long gone.
A new challenge awaits her. She needs to learn to walk again. The Curse is wearing thin and she is beginning to fade away. Feathers are falling, her voice reduced to a shriek. Using the only magic she knows she is rebuilding herself with parts of the forest. She clings to a branch trying to gather all she can to start rebuilding. After all she iscroí na foraoise. The heart of the forest. Croí for short.
- Nikki Cogley
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