Hellooooooooo beefriends! Long time no post. I have been busily working on a new doll (and a new horse, who still needs hair after I painted him yesterday), so I haven't been making videos. Allow me to introduce you to Laeg!
"Laeg" is pronounced like "lay," imagine that that "g" is silent
Laeg macRiangabair is really a real person from the Ulster Cycle of Irish history/myth. He was CuChulainn's charioteer. He's also the best-surviving-description of anyone from that time period that I know of, so I'm working on a real description, here. :D Red hair, green eyes, freckles, beard, and gold discs in his hair.
His hair took a while to sew in, not because I was painting it this time, but just because there is so much of it. I used almost the full skein!
His pants are sewn with a plaid fabric; his white shirt I made with a loom knitter and I tried a different technique this time (cough because I totally forgot to make arm holes cough), so I ended up attaching the sleeves and crocheting the collar, which ended up with a much lower neckline (I mean, I could have kept crocheting up if I wanted to), but at least now I have a new technique up my sleeve for different shirt collars for them. :)
His tunic is black fabric (also seen in: Morrigan's skirt and Lugh's pants) and vintage buttons. I have a button stash that includes several metal ones that I bought at an antique store years ago and they are awesome. I think they are brass. I tried hooking them around with ribbon though, rather than make button holes, because historians say people didn't use buttons that long ago (the Ulster Cycle traditionally is set in the 1st century CE, but there's a window of 100 years where it's like "somewhere around here, we're not really sure," so give or take 2000 years ago).
His gold torc (the necklace type jewelry) and the gold discs in his hair, I made out of clay and painted with gold paint. I attached the discs to his hair with earring hoops. And I drew on his freckles (which are pretty subtle) with a Le Plume paint marker!
Tools of the trade:
The wide end of that loom knitter I use for the body, and the smaller end I use for the sleeves
So now he has happily joined the rest of the faerie fam and soon his stallion, the Black of Sanglain, will join them too once I get his hair done (the gray mare is known as the Gray of Macha). Yep, they're real too in the stories and they pull his chariot. Story time!
So horse traders had shown up at Emain Macha (the city where he lived), and these two ostensibly wild horses just joined the herd going in and the traders were like, "Cool, more horses for free." Well, they wouldn't let anyone ride them - including Laeg's brother Id, who was also a charioteer - except Laeg. So, his father bought them for him (he was young at the time, probably a teenager). His chariot is special too because CuChulainn was prone to jumping in and out of the chariot in battle (a move known as "the salmon leap" so imagine him flipping himself over like a salmon jumping out of the water) and he had smashed several chariots doing that move, so the pair of them had a special, sturdy chariot made that could withstand that, because otherwise Celtic chariots were really lightweight constructions. The Romans actually took a bunch of chariot construction ideas from the Celts because their chariots were just better (and ya know, Rome was the ultimate example of "we're gonna take ideas from every culture we conquer and cobble it together and call it ours").
Morrigan's raven is flying above her head on the top of a bottle if you can tell, but the angle is a little odd, lol
So between Laeg's magick horses that just showed up and wouldn't let anyone else ride them except him, and the fact that he was just fine standing next to CuChulainn in the chariot, who (caveat: depending on the version you are reading) would LIGHT ON FIRE in his battle fury, while other people would get burned by it, and the fact that Laeg went to the Otherworld (the story differs depending on what version again, but he's always there), in my UPG Laeg is the son of Epona (the horse Goddess). That's how I wrote him in my novel. :)
So YAY, another faerie doll complete! :) The magick continues. :D
Love your post (directly showed my husband who also loves Laeg, I think braids an beard got him) I will write you tomorrow, as I am already over bedtime (trying to avoid more headaches) <3
Thank you so much (and your husband too)! I hope you feel better soon. Sending you healing thoughts! 💚
Your dolls are lovely. I love the colors and their hair, they look so adorable.
Thank you! :)
The thing I love best on your artworks is that you incorporate multiple genres: your dolls are only the visible part, but behind them is a much bigger story (your post, your novel, your universe). All you create seem to belong together and every detail means something. I remember you making a hanging with spiritual tokens and now I see references on your god dolls to this spirituality. All accessories of the dolls seem to hint to a deeper story I am teased to explore or even become creative myself and create world for them in my mind.
But before my comment gets too nice and in German i would say "der Schleim tropft raus" (the slime starts to drop out of it - not sure this works in English) I change the topic to - tada - the fibula :-DDDD When I started at university I was indecisive between two subjects: Classical Archaeology and Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology so I started both. The first was centred around Greece and Rome the second encompassed northern Europe. I was much more into the latter in spirit, but in reality there was only one professor (and he was sooooooooo boring) and not much choice in courses. A good friend proceeded with Prehistoric Archaeology and only wrote about fibulas... every course, paper or exam was about: fibula. I think he developed a nervous tick while hearing the word fibula (He now works as a radio moderator). In hindsight I am very glad I decided to stick with classical archaeology (but I forgot everything I fear) :-DDDDDD
FIBULAAAAAAAA
Sorry got a writing fit :-DDD (I avoid cleaning up my huge pile of clothes in our bedroom)
Ah, thank you! I do like to create as part of my spiritual practice. It's all inter-linked for me. Especially since modern Pagans are recreating new traditions for ourselves, I like doing this as part of mine. :D
LOL! In English I think the closest thing we say is "getting sappy" (as in, tree sap) or "syrupy sweet".
And laughing again at the fibula story. Your poor friend! I am much too broad-focused to do that kind of work, I think. I might go mad if I had to focus exclusively on fibulas. 😂
I do like the joke that every time an archaeologist calls something "a ritual object" that just means they have no idea what the f**k it is for. 🤣 There are these little balls with knobs on them that are Roman and archaeologists were calling them "ritual objects" because they found them all over and didn't know what they could be for. A knitter 3D printed one and knitted a sock on it. Ta da! LMAO
Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful work. I really love stories and you really know how to tell them. Beautiful! They really look like real Vikings. 😍 In love!
Aw, thanks! :) They are Celtic, not Viking, though - earlier in time than Vikings and Irish, not Scandinavian. The Viking era started with the raid at Lindisfarne around the year 800 CE, I think? - and Laeg is from the first century CE, so 700 years or so apart. And the Tuatha De Dannan (the faeries) are from WAY earlier in time than that; they go back thousands of years in the Invasion Cycle of Ireland, but have been a constant presence ever since. :)
thanks to share with me, i really appreciate!
your dolls are very unique and original, congratulation for your creativity <3
Thanks very much! :)
I love the creativity. Your dolls are original and lovely.
Thank you! :)
Your doll is so original and colorful.
I like you come back to the community.
Thanks very much! :)
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