a Lord of Plenty sculpture

Abundance, or the Lord of Plenty- as I like to call him, is the third primal Power in Waincraft, the second born of Mother Night, and bright twin of the Wild Father. In creating a sculpture to represent him for my altar, I drew on imagery of what this Power represents for me from Germanic and Celtic sources, but also a lot from intuition.

As for how I made the sculpture, just as I did with my Wild Father sculpture, I started with a regular batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water). After kneading, I broke off a big chunk of the dough and formed a rectangle and rounded off the top edges for shoulders. I rolled out some more dough and cut a circle shape with a drinking glass. This I placed above the shoulders as a backdrop to the head and celestial objects around the figure, making the basic size and outline match its twin sculpture.

The beard and face were all one rounded rectangular piece. (When attaching a new piece, always dampen the base surface.) I used a cutting tool to add details to the beard. A tiny rope of dough was used for the nose/eyebrows. After making soft indentations for the eye-sockets, I attached tiny balls of dough for the eyes, poked holes for the pupils, and cut horizontal slits to suggest eyelids.

I cut grooves into the sides of the figure to suggest arms of a robe. The wheat-like texture on the right of the figure was made with little scissor snippets.

The cornucopia, pig, and bird shapes I added to the base were cut out of dough flattened with a rolling pin. Ropes of dough were used to make the tree branches and the sun rays. The apples and leaves on the tree, and fruit in the cornucopia were all made from small balls of dough. For the leaves, I flattened small balls of dough and pinched each end. The stars around the head started out as tiny balls of dough also. I cut and carved their shapes after attaching, pressing down with a small tool, the areas I wanted to recede into the background.

For the opening to the cornucopia, I pressed into the base a little with my thumb, then attached a rope of dough around it, smoothing with dampened fingers where the rope joined to form a circle. I then pressed ridges into the cornucopia basket.

When completely done shaping and blending, I baked it at 250°F for several hours.

After cooling, I painted all the grooves and crevices with an acrylic craft paint in the shade of burnt umber to get a good contrast. I used a paintbrush dipped in water to blend a little bit of the color to other areas for lighter contouring. When this was dry, painted the rest of the piece. When all of this was dry, I sprayed the entire piece with a coating of clear acrylic.

My new altarpiece now sits upon the fireplace mantle next to a small cauldron. I hope this description of how I made it was useful to anyone wishing to make something similar.

a Wild Father sculpture

Wildness, or as I prefer to call him- the Wild Father, is the second primal Power in Waincraft, the first born of Mother Night, and dark twin to the Lord of Plenty. In creating a sculpture to represent him for my altar, I drew on imagery of what this Power represents for me from both Celtic and Norse lore.

Instead of telling you which deities I drew on for this, I will just say that one was a deity I followed in my early days as a Pagan, and one is a later patron. The idea that both deities draw from (or are aspects of) the same Power, holds deep spiritual meaning for me. Many other deities come to mind as well when I gaze upon this altar piece. I don’t want to name specific names here because I want others to see what is most meaningful to them.

As for how I made the sculpture, I started with a regular batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water). After kneading, I broke off a big chunk of the dough and formed a rectangle and rounded off the top edges for shoulders. I rolled out some more dough and cut a circle shape with a drinking glass. This I placed above the shoulders and a backdrop to the head and antlers of the figure.

Working with salt dough is pretty simple. The shapes I add are usually rolls (for hair, beard, antlers, snake…) or balls of dough (like for the head). When attaching a new piece, always dampen the base surface. With dampened fingers, I continue to shape and blend pieces after attaching to the base.

Small flattened balls of dough are blended on the face for cheekbones and a tiny roll of dough for the nose/eyebrows. For simple deep-set eyes, I poked holes with a toothpick. You may not be able to tell from this photograph, but one eye is closed.

I cut grooves into the sides of the figure to suggest arms of a robe, and I dug deep grooves into the center to form a tree. I scratched texture into the sides to represent vining spiraling wild growth. When completely done shaping and blending, I baked it at 250°F for several hours.

After cooling, I painted all the grooves, crevices, and backdrop of the antlers with an acrylic craft paint in the shade of burnt umber to get a good contrast. I used a paintbrush dipped in water to blend a little bit of the color to other areas and for lighter contouring of the hair and face. When this was dry, I sponged on brighter colors on many of the raised areas and painted the snake a sage green. When all of this was dry, I sprayed the entire piece with a coating of clear acrylic.

My new altarpiece now sits upon the fireplace mantle. I hope this description of how I made it was useful to anyone wishing to make something similar. Check in next week and I’ll tell you how I made my sculpture of the Wild Father’s twin- the Lord of Plenty.

Tailtiu Shrine

In Irish mythology, Tailtiu (pronounced tal-chuh) was the foster-mother of the god Lugh. Her name meant “The Great One of the Earth”. She died of exhaustion after clearing land for farming in what is now known as county Meath. Thereafter, every August, Lugh held funeral games in her honor. These funeral games (and fairs) became known as Lughnasadh; “the assembly of Lugh”. An older name for this holiday is Bron Trogain; “Lamentation of the Earth”.

“Great en the fair wood was cut down by her,
roots and all, out of the ground,
before the year’s end it became Bregmag,
it became a plain blossoming with clover.
Her heart burst in her body
from the strain beneath her royal vest;
not wholesome, truly, is a face like the coal,
for the sake of woods or pride of timber.

Long was the sorrow, long the weariness of Tailtiu,
in sickness after heavy toil;
the men of the island of Erin
to whom she was in bondage
came to receive her last behest.
She told them in her sickness
(feeble she was but not speechless)
that they should hold funeral games to lament her
– zealous the deed .”
-from the Metrical Dindshenchas

Dagda and Curnunnos Wall Plaques

As part of the ADF Dedicant Program, I’ve been working on making improvements to my home shrine. One of the things I wanted to do was make more deity images, preferably ones I could hang on the wall and coordinate with the ones I already have. I’ve seen what beautiful statues and plaques they have at Sacred Source, but the expense is just too great (and probably wouldn‘t “go with” what I have anyway).

I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a do-it-yourself project. My first thoughts were to make something out of plasticized clay (since I don’t have the kiln that would be necessary to fire natural clay), but after seeing the price tag on a large block of the stuff, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. So I decided to use a special recipe for salt dough that dries a bit harder than regular salt dough. (See my post “Crafting with Salt Dough“.) I figured it wouldn’t have the near-permanence that other materials would have, but that is probably a good thing; it would be bio-degradable.

I wanted these to be the same size and shape as my other shrine plaques, so I rolled out the dough, measured and cut to shape. I actually let the tile shapes dry a day or so before adding anything else, so pressing on the other items wouldn’t distort the shape of the plaque. For the most part, I used the coiling method to shape the forms, and used white school glue to make them stick to the partially dried dough tile.

For the Curnunnos plaque, I had a coloring book page of the Gundestrup cauldron that I used as a model I coiled the dough and placed it directly onto the page, let it dry, then transferred it to the dough tile.

For the Dagda plaque, I was stumped. I didn’t have a historic picture that I wanted to model it from. I looked at several modern renditions of Dagda in a Google image search. I was most inspired by a picture of Dagda painted on a longboard. For the face, I used a homemade mold I had taken of my Greenman plaque with strong salt dough. I trimmed away the leaves and added curled coils for mustache and beard. After I had filled in the picture with his three symbols; his club, harp, and cauldron. The picture was complete.

After air drying about a week, I used acrylic paints from my old craft supply stash to finish them up. Curnunnos got a layer of black, then silver. Dagda got a layer of brown, then gold, both drying thoroughly between layers.

Altars and Shrines

A shrine is a sacred place dedicated to a specific entity, at which s/he is venerated or worshipped.  The area of a shrine in which votive offerings are placed is considered an altar.  This may be quite different from how many Neopagans define ’altar’- a sacred area where symbolic objects and ’working tools’ are kept during ritual.  (Not a place for offerings- making offerings isn’t a Wiccan thing to do.)  I never got much into using magical tools (athame, chalice, wand, pentacle) when I was Wiccan.  I had fun collecting them, but ended up not using them much.  For magic, I’ve always used just whatever items are needed.  So I guess I have always thought of an altar along the lines of it’s ‘official’ definition- as part of a shrine.  I’ve seen many Wiccan altars that I didn’t recognize as such- they seemed random, without the central focus that a shrine would have.  Once I went to a ritual where there was a potlatch (stuff swap) afterward, and it seemed that a couple of people almost mistook the altar for the potlatch table!  I guess my point is, I have a specific idea of what an altar/shrine should look like- and I don’t see the likes of one very often.  I don’t think an altar should be a blanket on the ground with a bunch of mismatched stuff on it (including matches/aim & flame!).  I don’t think shrines are always necessary nor practical for all rituals- Nature is often my only ‘shrine’.  And in my opinion, altars are only necessary in ritual if there is going to be some kind of offering made.  
A few years ago I went to a ritual at the Orpheum, where there was a shrine put together by all the people there.  Oh yes, you could tell that was a shrine- all the various deity images lit by only candlelight- it was inspiring.  Inspiring- that is the word.  That is what we should aim for in creating shrines.  In Hinduism, ‘darshan‘ means to see a sacred image of deity and receive the deity’s blessing.  Have you ever seen a shrine or image of a deity that moved you to the point that you felt you received blessing just by the sight of it?