My only problem was which one to choose, as the book has so many delightful designs for poppets, spirit dolls and magical animals.
In the end I decided to make the little witchy intent dolly you can see in the photos on this post. Silver describes this technique as a “sandwich doll”, because it is made from three layers of fabric. I chose black felt with a silver web pattern for the outer layers, because felt doesn’t fray. The filler layer is cloth from an old pair of my black leggings, to give a personal connection to myself.
The witch is intended as a protection doll. Being flat, it is designed to put between the pages of your Book of Shadows as a little guardian spirit. Actually, my Book of Shadows is considerably more than one journal these days. It includes numerous notebooks, folders and box files - and takes up an entire shelf. You can see my finished doll on just one volume of my BoS in the photo below and to the left, but I am sure she will be capable of guarding the lot.
As you would expect, Poppet Magick describes techniques for empowering magical dolls as well as making them. The photo at the bottom of this post shows my craft supplies on my altar before being cleansed, blessed and dedicated – always a good thing to do with any objects you are using for spellwork.
To specify the poppet’s purpose, you write your intention or create a sigil on a piece of paper and pop that inside the doll before completing the stitching.The hands-on crafting comes in between these stages. First I traced the pattern from the back of the book. Then I sandwiched the layers of fabric, pinned my pattern to the top and stitched around the edge, then trimmed close to the stitching to get the perfect shape.
Afterwards I used applique techniques to stitch on the face and add more cobwebs to the hat and dress. I also painted and inked the eyes, nose and mouth.
My witchy guardian is bound to be only the first of many magical dolls I'll create using the patterns in Poppet Magick. I can honestly say it is great practical guide to constructing and embellishing poppets. The instructions are really clear and full of tips on how to get the best artistic results. The book has loads of colour photos to give you an idea of what the finished products could look like and there is a big section of patterns to trace at the back.
I'm no novice to poppet-making - after all, I've written a book on the subject myself, called Pagan Portals - Poppets and Magical Dolls, and I teach workshops - but I was delighted to learn a few more crafting techniques from Silver's book.
Poppet Magick is published by Llewellyn. You can view Poppet Magick on Amazon.
Links and previous related posts
https://www.llewellyn.com/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/06/magic-books-effigies-poppets-enchanted.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/06/poppet-magic-put-saturday-14-july-in.html
https://silverravenwolf.wordpress.com/
6 comments:
Hi! I just made some poppets with friends and I ran into something weird. We lit candles around our poppets, and we let the candles burn all the way down, but hours and hours after my friends candles stopped burning, mine were still going. My friend cleansed it, then lit new candles. They left the room (door shut), and came back to the candles out, but not burned to the bottom, and the doll sideways, not the way it was left. What could have possibly caused this?
Without being there and having a look myself, it is hard to say. It could have been something quite natural like a breeze blowing the candles out and blowing the doll over, or maybe someone else did it to tease you, or the candles had some imperfection and the doll was heavier on one side. If you do rule out all obvious natural causes then I would recommend doing some scrying or other kind of divination to see if that gives you a clue about the meaning of what happened.
Hey, so I'm currently making my first poppet thanx to an amazing book my sister gave me. I'm already in the process of making it and as I already feel a strong connection too it, the reading is telling me that once the spring equinox arrives I must burn my doll. Honestly I was hoping I didn't need to burn it but I also don't want it to not have its full intentions and powers to not work simply because I didn't follow directions and burn it. So my question is, do I HAVE to burn it? And if I didn't what differences and changes would that bring to the ritual?
Personally I would say it isn't necessary to burn the doll. You can end a spell in other ways. You could do a ritual to thank the doll for what it has done and tell it the spell is over. Visualise cutting all connections between the doll and the energy of the spell. You could sprinkle it with a little salty water. Then, put the doll into a box for at least a full month and store it somewhere dark, symbolising burying it.
Hello! First off, I very much enjoyed your book on poppets. I have been practicing some no-sew designs. My question is: for a personal guardian/protector type poppet…what type of ritual/intention would suffice? Thanks so much!
Anonymous, glad you enjoyed Pagan Portals - Poppets and Magical Dolls. In the spells page on my blog I have posted quite a bit about protection magic, including a poppet of protection with words to say as part of a ritual to enchant it. You can find my spells page via the link at the top of my blog or here http://www.badwitch.co.uk/p/spellbook.html
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