Mugwort Mourning Dolls on Etsy

I've had this idea for sometime about creating dolls stuffed with the magical herb mugwort. Mugwort was used in ancient times, and still is used in protections spells and for contacting the dead. It is also used in protecting yourself from evil spirits. It provides protection in traveling and aids in Psychic work.
I am fascinated by all things mystical and magical, so I wanted to create dolls incorporating this magical herb. I wasn't sure about how to do the body in order to be able to stuff it using the herb, so... Mary Lent was my first victim in experimentation. Her head and hands are polymer clay and the body is hard stuffed muslin using wool and mugwort herb. She is 7 3/4" tall and her dress is made from a victorian mourning cape and from it hangs victorian mourning beads. Also used is victorian black net with gold metallic threads, all in keeping with the times. I hand sculpted her bone and skull beads. She was the first proto type.

After I finished Mary, I wasn't sure thats how I wanted to do the body and thought it would be much more fun to do one in a casket. As my daughter Kimberly's boyfriends dad ,Vern, (thats a mouth full) ,is a wonderful wood worker, making hearses, wagons, carriages and caskets (how perfect was that) I commissioned him to make me some cool little caskets for my mugwort babies. Lucy resides in the first one. I changed the body to more of a minature type, which is 5 1/2" tall, the casket is 6 1/2". Lucy has head, hands, and legs sculpted from polymer clay and the body is hand sewn from muslin, and stuffed with mugwort. She is removable from the coffin. Lucys clothes are made from an antique pink ribbon that had silver lined beads sewn on. It has vintage lace, vintage millinary net and pink silk ribbons. Mohair curls, hand painted glass eyes.

The interior is tufted cream silk velvet, with the same on the sides of the little casket. The top is removable and held on by tiny nails. Lucy is removable and can be displayed with the top on or the top off the casket as it stands up on it's end. I like this idea better than the first, so the next few I will make will be of this type. The top of the casket has antiqued gold dresden trim for decoration. The poems for them are as follows: "Mary Lent, her little life spent..when into the witches cauldron she went"

And... "One dark gloomy day, little Lucy went out to play..it was a day of dispair, as she ceased to breathe air..and now in her casket does lay"

Both Little Mugwort Mourning dolls are now available in my etsy shop waiting for new homes to haunt!http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24802821 this should get you there, my etsy user id is queenofthefaeries.

I am also working on some other similar pieces using another famous poisen herb in the mixture! so be watching for the next magical batch!

Happy Hauntings, Gail