Copyright 2006 Margot Potter for Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS
Sketch for Baba Yaga Copyright 2006 Margot Potter for Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS
I can't believe it! Halloween is here! Huzzah! Hooray! My favorite holiday!
For my final piece, I am sharing one I have shared several times before. Why? Because of all of the many, many projects I have made over the years, this is by far and above my favorite. I put more of my heart and soul into this piece than any other. It is an exploration of the archetypal crone witch figure, the wise woman who can be terrifying or comforting as she chooses. The Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic Folklore. She lives in the woods in a house that stands on chicken legs. She flies in the air on a giant pestle and kidnaps and consumes small children. In that function, she is a very scary figure indeed. Yet she is also a source of wisdom for those who seek her. That dual nature makes her a most complicated and fascinating creature.
When the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS team invited me to design pieces for their Brazil Russia book, I knew immediately that I wanted to create designs inspired by Slavic fairy tales. Mythology fascinates me and that Joseph Campbell/Jungian inspired archetypal lens is very resonant for me.
When I made this piece, it was a moving meditation. Each of the 75 handcrafted polymer clay chicken bones, every knot, every crystal moon and star, every bone skull I added reminded me that the crone comes for all of us. That we will, if we are lucky enough, one day become the crone. That was a powerful meditation indeed. It isn't easy to embrace the crone, she is quite frightening, but in allowing her in, allowing for the duality of joy and sorrow, of loss and triumph, of bitter and sweet, we can become whole. When you embrace her fully, you will be overwhelmed by her beauty.
Follow this link for the 411 on how to make your own Baba Yaga Necklace.
Happy Hallowe'en.
Goulishly yours,
Madge
2 comments:
I absolutely love your Baba Yaga necklace! And not just because Halloween's my favorite holiday, too - it's fabulous on its own!
Happy Halloween!!!
Are fantastic pieces !
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