There is much magic wrapped up in these little poppet dolls.
As a doll maker I view myself in a long linage of doll makers which spans thousands of years and spreads over many cultures across the planet.
From the earliest surviving dolls carved in stone such as the Woman of Hohle Fels created between 40,000 and 35,000 BCE to the first clay fired figurine, the woman of Dolní Věstonice created from 29,000 to 25,000 BCE.
There are the thousands upon thousands of dolls whose natural parts unravelled by wind and rain into a few scattered twigs, a feather, a little bit of fur and some plaited grasses.
My poppets talk long before I pick up a stick or hunt out hues of tweed. This is the way of the magic of dolls. As we approach spring equinox the land is awakening, no matter what is unfolding in the world the energy of the earth is tangible, and the sense of hope, of possibility. What greater power is there than bringing back life to that which was dead.
This is the purpose of the dark winter, an opportunity to let go of those things that no longer work for us, to shed those things we no longer need. The spell to be cast is simply our attention, focus and commitment to the task.
These creations of twig and tweed are blessings, blessing of the land. Twigs fallen from trees, once part of a being rooted in the earth, born of water, sunshine and soil.
The tweeds are fibres of sheep who graze the hillside on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. I imagine hem on the hillside looking up one night to see the sky ablaze with a green aurora, and gazing at infinite worlds in the night sky. The colours of the tweed a blessing by heather and bracken, aqua marine sea and lichen rocks.
The blessing of the fabric lies in the threads of the tweed. Woven together in their own magic of the warp and the weft. Threads which cab hold imagination, words and intention. Each thread different yet woven into the whole to create the cloth.
Hold her in your hands and she might tell you something of this unique weaving that she is formed of.
She can hold your intentions, your prayers and gratitude’s. Your words to your ancestors and your beloved dead. For dolls have that power for they exist between worlds – between the human world and the wild world, between this world and the otherworld. They have the power to help us remember that we too are of this wild world.