WOrking with the nergies of the year - at any time
Join me for a journey through the dark months of the wheel of the year with your deepest intentions, to dance between the worlds, share stories in community and create five unique dolls which honor the festivals, hold parts of your personal story and weave magic in your life.
Doll making is a very ancient tradition. The woman of Hohle Fels, originating from modern day Germany dates between 38 and 33,000 BCE was fashioned from ancient hands from the Aurignacian culture of the Upper Paleolithic.
Dolls have been fashioned from stone and bone, feather, fur and all manner of natural materials. Dolls that returned back to the earth from which they were born. As a doll maker today I feel very much a part of this ancient tradition and sometimes I imagine some of my intentions might be similar to some of my most ancient foremothers.
Radical Doll Making in the Dark of the Year is a 6-session journey for nature-rooted women to explore their creativity through honoring the festivals of the deep of the year through doll making and ritual.
This path through the dark provides you with the creative tools to ignite your inspiration and imagination allowing you to:
Create powerful dolls born from story and ritual and connection to the otherworld
Navigate the deep rhythms of the dark
Create engaging rituals to explore aspects of your journey
ART
Create five unique dolls from clay, sticks, fabric, bones, sticks and natural materials
STORY
Hear stories from Scottish folklore & tales of the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland
RITUAL
Create your own personal rituals to weave together threads of the festival, which speak to your intention and experience in the deep which are held and reflected in your doll
“Jude’s depth and breadth of experience and knowledge as a woman, artist and scholar indigenous to the lands of the Ancestral Mothers inspires trust in the authenticity and wisdom of her teaching and guidance around the Wheel. Discovering Jude and her work has greatly enhanced and expanded my search for the path to my personal Ancestral Mothers and traditions. ”
Why ‘Radical’ Doll Making?
As we descent into the deep of the year the outer world turns on the bright lights in an endless parade of consumerism - it is a radical act to walk the path into the forest and attune yourself to its ancient rhythms.
The roots of Radical doll making lie in the hands which birthed figurines like the Woman of Willendorf. These ancient figurines, honoring femaleness aren’t pin-up totems which is still a theory written about today. This is a linage rooted in matrifocal societies, who honored a Mother Goddess.
This journey through the deep invites you consider all that is happening in the world and explores how we weave the threads of a life affirming culture.
Tools such as paper dolls and hearth maps help you gather together your inspiration as you plan your doll. Hearth maps create your map of a festival, allowing you to write, color and collage to build up an image of what resonates for you for this particular holy day.
“The Ancestral Mothers of Scotland online course has touched and inspired my relationship with the world within me and with the world around me. The course is rich with stories, music, and art that take my spirit on a wondrous journey.”
5 Dolls, 5 Gatherings (On Zoom)
1- Autumn Equinox. Sleeping Doll
We gather around the Autumn Equinox with stories of Breejah, Bear Priestess. Her story invites us to the Cave of the Grandmothers where we dance with the old ones. Your doll is a little clay figure to be ritually buried for the duration of the deep. It can be buried in the earth, placed in a cauldron or ritually wrapped in layers of fabric.
2 Samhain. Cailleach Doll
For Samhain you’ll create a fabric doll honoring the Cailleach, the old Crone from Gaelic folklore. Stories of her visiting her Cauldron, the Whirlpool of Corryvrecken and her little shrine, possible thousands of years old, which sits in a remote Scottish Glen will help inspire your doll making.
3 Winter Solstice. Winter Bone Doll
The story of the Old Antlered One is the tale for Winter Solstice on the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland wheel of the year. You’ll journey with She Who Runs With the Herd, shapeshifting into reindeer. You’ll journey deep in time, back to our Paleolithic foremothers to one of the most ancient traditions of doll making, the Winter Bone Doll.
4 Imbolc. Brideog Doll
For Imbolc we welcome Brighid back into the world with the tradition of the Brideog doll. You’ll hear stories of how the Brideog was taken around the village and of the threshold rite where Brighid was welcomed back into the house.
Your Imbolc doll is a little poppet doll made with a wooden clothes peg, and dressed in tweeds and wool.
5 Spring Equinox. Oracle Doll
At Spring Equinox we gather again in the cave of the Grandmothers as we begin our descent from the dark of the year and symbolically coming back the outer time of the year. You’ll assess your time in the deep and decide what you lave behind and what you wish to step out into the outer time of the year with. Your doll for this time is an oracle doll. This is a doll made with sticks and natural materials, you can either use natural materials you have or head out to the land where you live and gather materials, or use favorite natural materials you have.
This doll represents your time in the deep and speaks to something you wish to express. She begins, like all the dolls from ritual, a deep communication with the land, ancestors or deities.
You’ll also be revisiting the doll you buried at Autumn Equinox, who, like the plants, have been resting in the dark among the roots.
Zoom Gathering Dates (all sessions will be recorded) and uploaded to the course the same day
All Zoom gatherings will take place at 7.30 GMT/London Time/ UK - 2.30 PM Eastern Time/ US
Sleeping Doll - Sun 16th Oct
Cailleach Doll - Sun 30th oct
Winter Bone Doll - Sun 11th Dec
Brideog Doll - Sun 15th Jan 2023
Oracle Doll - Sun 19th March 2023
HOW THIS COURSE WORKS
The main teaching of this course is online via Zoom. There are no great pages of text to read, so no feeling you're behind and need to catch up. The doll making instructions will be avalible on the online lesson a few weeks before the course. You can create your doll before the class or use the class for inspiration before you make your doll - whatever suits you.
What to expect at the Zoom gatherings:
An introduction to the festival and the folklore stories plus a story from the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland
The ritual for the
Time to chat with other class participants and exchange ideas
Guided journey and time to record and share your impressions
All gatherings will be recorded and uploaded to the course site on the same day
Once you sign up you’ll be prompted to use your email and set a password which will take you to the online site. Here you’ll find an outline to the lessons. Each lesson will be released a few weeks before our gathering and will outline doll making instructions and the materials you need.
Skill Level
Basic sewing skills would be helpful for doll making but if you can’t sew you can always skip some of the instructions, simplify the pattern and really make the doll your own.
Required Materials
Most of the doll making materials are fabric so you can recycle old clothes. The only materials you may wish to purchase is some air drying clay or polymer clay.
Investment
Your investment for this dark of the year journey is £99 (roughly USD $112). See below if you wish to pay in 2 installments
If you wish to pay by credit card please get in touch by clicking here and I’ll send you an invoice
Pay in Two Installments
If you’d like to pay in 2 installments, the first payment of £65 is due at booking, while the second is due on 15th January.
Scholarships
There are two scholarships available for this course.
The first is a full scholarship and the second is offered at a reduced price of £55. Both are open for anyone who hasn’t received a scholarship from me before.
The only requirement is in being an active participant in the course. Use the button to apply and use ‘Radical Doll Making - Scholarship’ as your email subject. You do not have to discuss any personal circumstances to apply. Preference will be given to elders.
Your Guide
Your Guide
Jude Lally is an artist and writer with a background in Human Ecology. Her work explores connection to the land through art, story and ritual.
A Radical Doll Maker viewing her art as part of a practice that stretches back to the first dolls fashioned from bones and stones – such as the Woman of Willendorf. She uses dolls as a way of connecting to ancestral figures and exploring the wisdom they represent. As a painter her work is born between the worlds and she creates ancestral figures whose images incorporate local soils.
Through Cultural Activist she draws upon the rich tapestry of her heritage offering ancestral practices such as Keening, which when used in a modern setting can help to honor the grief we feel for all that is happening in the world. In using keening in this cathartic way she uses gestures of ritual which help inspire to work in creative ways in acts of resistance, working towards a restorative culture.
Her tradition is the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland which is born out of her deep rooted connection to the land. She lives on the West Coast of Scotland on the banks of the River Clyde, near Loch Lomond.