1:12 Scale Weekend :)

We has reserved the weekend for Imbolc’s outdoor activities, but the rain has not stopped so we decided to take the free time to work on the dollhouse. Using more parts from the discarded house we got, we built a third wall for the diorama and worked on turning the bakery project we had unfinished onto a little shop for the girls’ garden. Here are some pics:

The wooden floor in front of the little shop will have a small vegetable garden and another space for a few chickens – this will be a slow work as I don’t have much practice in making miniature plants and it is something I’ve wanted to learn for a while. It’s not too clear because the light was too strong, but the outside wall of the house has been aged and distressed – I’ll take better pics next time. I really don’t like the over-polished look that most dollhouses have: though we don’t want to imitate reality to the last detail, most dollhouses look like a wedding cake to me; and well, my house doesn’t look like that – it has scratched walls, cat and dog damage and the result of being almost 100 years old. Making this house I have discovered how much I love imperfection.

On the inside of the new wall, a black and gold trim was painted over the burgundy wall paint that matches the other side of the room.

Little-girl-doll, still unnamed, got her hair finished and a beautiful brass necklace.

This roombox was originally a bakery that never got finished – too much pink for me LOL… the roofing was made with our wildharvested reeds, aged and distressed, of course, and the whole piece got a paint makeover to make it match the mood of the rest of the elements. Now it’s ready to be filled with goodness, and will need another doll to take care of it (hint: grandma and grandpa are on the way).

These pots were made over a year ago – they finally got finished.

The bottles, which were purchased blank, got labels and painted caps.

The pots, also an old purchase, got a coat of good ol’ grubbiness to match the upcoming wood stove. In front of them you can see several thread bobbins I made for the doll’s sewing space.

The window was also trimmed with reed wood. Here you can see better the distressing of the wall.

That is it for now. The week has begun with a lot of work already scheduled, so the dollhousing will have to be stolen from sleep hours LOL… yes, I am in love. This process is being so magical, and anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows how much I love dollmaking, and devoting my whole time to it is still my goal, even though I’m sure the witchcraft shop still has a long life ahead. I am very glad that we chose to take the dollhouse out of its boxes and start working on it again – I truly feel this will be an important piece in the puzzle of the future.

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Imbolc Activities, New Listings & Dollhouses

Candle making and offering the latest handspuns for the Goddess to bless them.


Three new wool poppets have been listed – made with our handspun and blessed at our Imbolc altar.



It seems that this year’s Imbolc theme for us is bringing back what has been abandoned – our (very neglected) dollhouse project is moving ahead at last. We are finally seeing a concept and a direction on our Gypsy dollhouse style, and since we have been seriously decluttering we finally have some space to develop the project of the house+garden+shop for our miniature gypsy family. The first doll I made got a clothing makeover (the first of many, I’m sure) and we have started placing our miniatures on the two-wall diorama we finished last year, using parts of a dollhouse we got from another miniaturist. Here are some pics:

Hey, don’t blame the girls, they just moved in! The smaller doll is not finished yet, but they look so cute together, I couldn’t help it.

Handsewn tunic with functional pockets and crocheted bolero.

The (provisional) table was made with a slice of pepper tree. 90% of what you see in the table and the hutch behind was made by us.

Of course, our doll will have a sewing/spinning space: this sewing machine was purchased and completely repainted with my usual style.

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New Listings Today

Wormwood Smudge Sticks

Smudge sticks are one of the easiest and more effective forms of cleaning the energy of a place or a person. Smudging cleans the aura, purifies energy and banish negativity. Just light an end until you see the ember (as in a cigar), blow over the flame and it’s ready to go! If you move it, the air circulation will keep it smoking, so you can – for example – go from room to room or pass it around a person. When you leave it on a plate/ashtray, it will slowly die. It can be reused until finished – and these smudges have been made to go a long way, being around 5 inches long about 1 inch wide. That’s around 10 full house cleansings or more (dependng how big is your house of course!). These sticks are unique for two reasons: one, that the wormwood variety, Artemisia Thuscula, is unique to the Canary Islands and doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world, and two, because it was wildharvested at my in-laws organic crops, without any harm for Mother Nature and only pruning the excess growth, thus assuring the wellness and balance of the plants.

Mother Goddess – OOAK Handcarved And Handpainted Altar Statue

Absolutely unique Mother Goddess statue for your altar, made with a piece of Mango tree root – don’t worry, this tree was just relocated and we picked several pieces of root that were left behind; we don’t like to hurt trees and we only use pruning/discarded wood on our pieces. Our designing process is very intuitive; Fernando cuts and prepares the wood, and then I meditate with every piece and look for the Spirit inside it. I then create a design, he makes the carving and I make the painting and any other finishing details needed. It is a true labour of Love as it goes back to each other through all the process.

Daughters Of The Moon Dolls (Sold Separately)

I have been customizing discarded dolls for almost a decade, and during that journey I fell deeply in love with the idea of turning something unwanted into a small jewel, that will receive love and care again from another owner. Last year, I purchased a lot of second hand dolls online, and a dozen of these small dolls was part of it. They’re similar to Barbie’s Skipper but unmarked, and have been the embodiment of other dolls I have made for the shop. These dolls have received a complete new face makeup, dressing and hairdressing, and a handmade stand for exhibition. Each one wears a beautiful dress, suede sandals with brass ornaments, underwear and a gorgeous beaded hairdo with a shimmering hair net. Despite the dolls being 11 cms only (that’s around 4 inches), every detail has been carefully worked and several parts have been hand sewn. This doll can be perfectly place among 1:12 miniatures, and be the star of your magickal/witchy dollhouse. There are three dolls available, in similar styling but each one is a completely unique piece and it won’t be repeated. Each doll is sold separately.

The Hoodoo Shop

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Imbolc Preparations Start

My witchy friend is leaving again for Madrid tomorrow (sob!), so yesterday we spent the day preparing the Imbolc altar and a box of witchy supplies for her to take home, mostly herbs and seeds from our stash. The change of yule-to-imbolc energies has been quite drastic: it’s been raining non-stop for three days already and I think last night was the coldest we’ve had since last winter. We are really enjoying the rainy, dark days, but that changed our plans of making the altar on our rooftop garden. We brought the Lady statue downstairs and, as you can see, she chose the looks of the White Maiden out of all my fabrics and ornaments.

February 2 is also the day of the Candelaria Virgin, a regional holiday – she is the syncretized image of Chaxiraxi, the Guanche mother goddess. In Amazigh, the language of the Guanches, Chaxiraxi means “mother of the sun” or “the one who holds the King of the World”, whom is the Resplendent Child of Imbolc, the lactating lamb born from the Maiden Goddess, the reborn Winter King that we honoured in Yule. We don’t have any lamb fur so we chose the pelts of two white rabbits, not only because of the colours, but also because Fernando and his parents have been (and still are) rabbit breeders. If you have read any of the past month’s posts, you’ll know that he is helping his parents build a new rabbit shed this month; we would love the Goddess to protect and bless both the project and the farm’s animals. The carved wood table where she is standing was bought by my father in the 80′s to an African artisan, and has been with me since then – the african wood is a homage to our Amazigh ancestors, who are Berbers. The blue and green mat under everything was my brother’s Christmas gift, and a reference both to Brigid (as it is a woven piece) and to the Atlantic Ocean, the place where the first image of the Candelaria Virgin came from – the Guanches found a wooden statue, most likely from a spanish shipwreck, and identified it as the Chaxiraxi goddess, way before the spanish conquest. The wreath at her feet was made with wildharvested fir, wormwood and rosemary a couple of weeks ago, three plants that are striving right now on our short winter; on the furs, many special items that are placed to recharge and receive blessing from Her; shells from the beach of Taganana, rocks from the Anaga mountains, a goat horn from the island of La Gomera that my best friend found while working there… too many to mention. We will be adding offerings as we make them all through the week; the first was the wormwood smudge stick you saw on the previous post, which we will burn a little of every day. As time allows, we will offer her food, handmade candles and anything that crosses our path; we will spin wool for Her to bless (the spinning wheel has been placed beside the altar) and, as much as we can, we will offer all our work to Her. One day this week we will visit our Spirit Ancestors at our favourite spot in the mountains os Las Mercedes, and take offerings.

This way of celebrating the change of seasons and sacred days is more natural to us than big rituals on a one-day celebration, and it really allows us to make a lot of wonderfully energized work both for us and our customers. We have really enjoyed the time with our friend, but we are such hermits that we are both eager to go back to our quiet routine – despite the rain, these are the best weeks for gardening and the whole islands are so green and beautiful… so much to Witch, so little time…

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Untitled

Ouija session, monday night. It wasn’t the most interesting seance, but it was my brother’s first and of course he loved it :). If you want to print your own ouija, you can download the image on this post.

The Wormwood (Artemisia Thuscula, or Incense Plant here) smudge sticks I mentioned on last post, being put to test to purify the house for Imbolc. Absolutely fantastic! Very soon they will be at the shop. This wormwood variety exist only in the Canary Islands and it is the most fragrant plant you could use as incense. It has a forest-like scent, similar to a mixture of sage, frankincense and rosemary. Fernando collected the yearly harvest at his parent’s crops, where this plant grows abundantly, just by pruning a few plants, and later made around 40 of this smudge sticks. It’s not noticeable on the pic, but these are huge – 1,5 inches wide for 8 inches long.

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Odds And Ends Of The Week

Last week’s handspun yarns – I already finished knitting them, and are being worked into more beautiful items for next week’s listings. Since we finished the spinning wheel (you can see it here) we’ve been spinning almost every night; after all the day’s work is done, there is nothing more relaxing than watching a good movie while creating these yarns. Right now, three more skeins are drying upstairs.

Tulasi Basil flower bouquet – our very soft winter is bringing many flowers to our little garden.

We built this stair gate with a very old bed headboard – actually, this was from Fernando’s childhood bed. We had to cut off a bit of length and added some painted wood trims to it. It’s not finished yet – we still need to create a prettier latch and finish a few other details, but we put it back in place because it was taking space in the studio. Here’s a detail of the handpainted trims:

Our witchy friend is here on a short holiday this week, so it is very likely that there will be a little less blogging this week – tonight we have a Ouija session with her and my brother, and we want to make a pre-Imbolc celebration because she won’t be here that day. I am working on a few pretties for the shop: some charming little Fairy dolls, wormwood smudge sticks, altar mats… and, on top of all that, I would like to create a new altar for next week’s celebrations. Lots and lots of work as you can see – I better go back to it, so I can come back with beautiful pics and items for you :).

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New Listings Today

Crocheted And Beaded Offering Bowl – The Five Pointed Star

Hand crocheted with a gorgeous variegated yarn in tones of pink and purple and completely hand beaded, this offering bowl is the perfect addition to your altar! Measures 6,5 cms tall and around 10 cms wide – that’s 2,2x 3,8 inches – I have placed a dozen nuts on it for size reference, but I can also envision it containing roots, stones, bones, and any other delicate item you want to offer or keep in your sacred space. The bowl has five “petals” or points resembling the pentacle, the greatest protection sign of Paganism. The whole fringe has been beaded with a multitude of types of beads and a dangle hangs between each petal, adding interest and reflecting light beautifully.One of a kind, of course!

Crocheted Pouch V

As you can see, this pouch fits a small deck – this is the Loteria deck. Closes with a skull bead dangle and a loop; the lower line is adorned with skulls, cowrie shells, a hand-dyed resin flower and a lovely wing charm made by me in air-dry clay. Measures 12×12 cms / 4,5×4,5 inches. Each piece is handmade from start to finish.

The Hoodoo Shop

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New Listings Today: Handpainted Stone Talismans & A New Painting

Handpainted Stone Talismans, First Batch – listed separately at the shop.
Stone talismans have been used from centuries, usually carved and dyed with herbal and mineral dyes and pigments. Stones gather tremendous energy, enhancing their original power. Can you imagine having a talisman that has been on the womb of Mother Earth for thousands of years? Now you can :). Stones help you ground, center energies, enhance concentration and meditation and last longer than any other talisman.

These stones are of basaltic type, created by the eruptions and tectonic movements of the Anaga mountains of Tenerife. Fernando collected these stones from the course of a spring near his parent’s farm, on a place that has to be reached hiking up and down the ravine rocks and that has only been visited by the dozen inhabitants of the valley. A truly sacred and untouched place, which makes each piece even more special. As we always do, many offerings of food and drinks were taken to the place and offered to the Spirits as a payment. Each stone is handpainted and varnished to with a water-based varnish to make them more durable, as we know you’ll want to take it everywhere :).

Important Note: We keep the utmost respect to the places where we wildharvest; even though these rocks are plentiful where they were picked, we will only make one small “rock harvest” a year, so these stones are a special offer for our customers and they won’t be permanently available.

Original Painting – Canarian Goat

The goat, symbol of the Male God, is one of the few animals that can be bred on the islands, due to our rocky, impassable geography, which makes grazing impossible for other farm animals. Thus, the goat was essential to the Guanche aboriginals, since it was their main source for milk, meat and leather. If there is an animal that represents our love for our Guanche heritage, it is this one. Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 6 cms/ 3,2 x 2,3 inches. The sides have been painted black, so it can be hung without framing. OOAK. Easel not included.

The Hoodoo Shop

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More Craft Bits

Custom charm for a Hecate altar statue, for a lovely new customer.

Custom Witch Cords for another lovely customer – I would like to announce that we will no longer be making custom cords since our supplier is going out of business and, from now on, we will have to buy the wool outside Spain, making custom work too expensive.

Upcycled planter made from a wooden box found in the dumpster, painted in my signature gypsy-meets-william-morris style. A perfect place for the Pothos on our patio, since the light is very soft there due to the glass fiber roofing.

More handspun yarn, for personal use, made using some scrap yarn given to me by a friend as a core and several types of wool (Corriedale, Merino and Blue-Faced Leicester), around 40 yards skeins. A cool way to recycle yarn leftovers.

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See You On Monday :)

Spellwork for a customer, earlier this week.

The last three weeks have been hectic, to say the least. Besides a ton of custom work, two parcels that contained hand sculpted pieces were lost by the f***ers of the mail service, so we’ve been working extra hours to remake those orders while keeping our already very busy schedule. To say we’re exhausted is an understatement! Luckily, we’re about to finish with those extra tasks and we’re starting to have a little time to go out and play with Mother Nature! Yesterday, the park and the dogs; today, the beach; tomorrow, I will have the day all to myself since Fernando will be at his parents’, building a new house for the rabbits they breed. A day for myself usually involves sewing,crocheting or knitting and my favourite movies…after working around 14 hours per day for three weeks, this Witch is in serious need of a little time off, extra long siestas and hours of uninterrupted music. And that’s the best of this magickal life: after all the hard work, we are the ones who decide when to stop, and how to stop, and when to reconnect with the world outside.

Have a wonderful, magickal weekend! We’ll be back on Monday, as good as new :D .

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