Pagan Medallions

Most of the time, I don’t wear jewelry unless it is meaningful to me in some way; my wedding band, a gift from one of my children, or something that reminds me of my spirituality. Pagan jewelry and pendants are not something you can get at any corner jewelry or department store. You usually have to seek out a new age or occult shop to find them. Whereas, other religions can find their symbolic jewelry, pendants and medallions anywhere. It’s not fair, I know. But think of it this way; it just gives us more opportunities for craft projects! You can make your own Pagan medallions depicting any deity. It takes surprisingly few materials and is relatively inexpensive.

Materials:
a bezel
deity image
small scissors
mod podge
small paintbrush
(pourable) liquid glaze

Use an internet image search to look up a deity image for your medallion. I especially like the classic look of Johannes Gehrts’ Norse deities. Save the image you want and use a photo editing website like pixlr-o-matic or befunky to change the tint of your image to your liking. Shrink it to the size you need and print it out. Using small scissors, carefully cut out your image to fit the inside of the bezel. Brush a thin layer of mod podge on the inside of your bezel. Press the image into the bezel. Use the blunt end of your paintbrush to make sure its pressed down on the edges and all over. Brush a thin layer of mod podge over the image. Now this is very important: let it dry thoroughly and completely. When image is dry, carefully pour the liquid glaze into the bezel to cover the image evenly, turning the bezel back and forth to make the glaze go where you want it. Do not try to use a paintbrush or other tool to move the glaze around. Lay your medallion somewhere that it won’t be disturbed for at least 24 hours. Don’t be tempted to touch the surface too soon, or it will leave a fingerprint. When medallion is completely dry, attach to a necklace or bracelet.

 

figurine makeover

Recently while thrift shopping, I came across a figurine of an angel holding a rabbit. “Oh neat”, I thought- “that can be a deity figure for my Spring Equinox altar!” I didn’t much like the colors though; it never seems to look right to me how small figurines have the details painted in. Then I remembered what I did for altar statues before I started sculpting; I made them look “rustic” with layers of acrylic paint. So now I’ll share that method with you…

You’ll need:
paintbrush
sponge
white acrylic craft paint (or acrylic gesso)
dark acrylic craft paint
light beige or off-white acrylic craft paint

1. First, clean all the dust and grime off your thrift shop treasure.

2. Next, paint a layer of thick white acrylic paint or acrylic gesso. This will make the subsequent layers of paint look even. Let dry thoroughly.

3. Now give the figure a rough layer of dark acrylic paint, concentrating on getting paint into the creases. I used a shade of green called “thicket” for the figurine shown here. Let dry thoroughly.

4. For this next step, use a sponge instead of a paintbrush. Dip the sponge in a light shade of acrylic paint like “parchment”. Lightly blot the sponge and dab over the figure; mostly getting the raised parts. Don’t try to get paint down in the crevices. Let dry.

There you go! From cheesy to rustic in four simple steps.

Crafting with Salt Dough

Years ago I used to make goddess figurines and such with plasticized clay (like fimo or sculpey). This time around getting into crafting again, I don’t really have much of a budget for craft supplies. I also don’t like the idea of the permanence (plasticized clay is non-bio-degradable) and the artificial feel. (I don’t know if they still have them, but there used to be a warning label on the packages of some brands that said they could possibly cause cancer.)

Since I don’t have access to cheap clay, nor a kiln to fire it in, salt dough came to mind as a cheap and natural alternative. At first I thought it wouldn’t be strong and durable enough to make things to hang on the wall and last a while, but then I remembered a special recipe I had jotted down from a library book (sorry, I don’t remember the title). The book called the recipe “alum dough”. It’s a salt dough recipe with less than the usual amount of flour (1 cup instead of 2), and some alum thrown in. I call it “Strong Salt Dough”.

Strong Salt Dough
1 cup flour
1 cup salt
1 teaspoon alum
½ cup water or more
Mix dry ingredients. (Alum can be found in the baking isle with the spices.) Add enough water to form a stiff dough. Stir and knead until well-mixed and pliable. This dough has a coarser texture than regular salt dough, because of the 1:1 salt to four ratio. For best results, air dry after forming into desired shape. (I’ve tried baking this kind of dough; it puffed out a lot and browned on top.) If you do want to try oven drying, test it out on a little unformed lump of dough first at 200°F or less.

When completely dry, this dough is pretty strong. I’ve made wall plaques from it, poked a hole in the back with a tack before drying (for hanging), and they stay on the wall. I’m sure some day, the things I’ve made with this kind of salt dough will deteriorate, but that’s a good thing.

The kinds of tools I use for working with the dough are a pizza-cutter (sometimes using a knife will pull and drag the dough instead of making a clean cut), toothpicks, skewers, rolling pin, and I’ve also used the face molds that I used to use for making goddess figurines. I’ve made molds with strong salt dough too; from a Greenman plaque and various thrift store figurines, to get a better variety of face molds. Rubber stamps have also been useful.

As far as I can tell, you can make nearly anything with “strong salt dough” that you could make with the regular kind. I’ve gotten a couple of craft books at the library that had pretty good ideas in them. I’ve been searching thrift stores and used book stores for more. All the best ones seem to be from the 1970’s. I found one that can be read online (PDF); “Morton’s Dough It Yourself Handbook”. That one has some awesomely funky projects in it, a good idea book.

So coming up, I’ll be sharing pictures and processes for various things I’ve made lately from salt dough; goddess figurines, wall plaques for my shrine, ritual beads… Stay tuned, I’ve spaced them out to post at various times throughout the year.

2015 UPDATE: I have found that “regular” salt dough can be just as strong as “strong” salt dough when baked instead of air-dried. For a regular batch, use 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water (no alum). Bake at 250°F until completely dry. You can paint completely dried projects with acrylic craft paints. Seal your best projects with clear acrylic sealant if you want them to last longer. See all my salt dough articles here.