Description

The Weaver
Julia Inglis (Sacred Familiar)
Size 9 inches high
Pure Natural Wool (Scotland & Australia), Handwoven Tweed, Seaweed Fibre, Stone, Bone, Metal and Seed

Inspiration: Pictish symbols on a standing stone found in Inverness-shire dating around 7-8th century, Pictish symbols as a codes or keys to language, wisdom and ancestral realms.
The Weaver – Pictish Ancestral Doll
The Weaver is an ancestral spirit doll and is the largest and most potent doll I have made to date. She is woven from wool from Australia and dressed in wool from the Shetland Isles in Scotland purchased on the Isle of Skye last year. Her hair is woven from a fibre made from seaweed and In her seaweed hair are talismans and charms such as a hagstone, bone, seeds, bells and quartz crystal. Around her shoulders she wears a shawl of handwoven tweed made from scraps purchased from the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Inside her body is a medicine bundle of herbs including heather that I picked beside the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye. She was inspired by a Pictish standing stone that I have loved and visited for many years now held in the National Museum of Scotland but originally found near Invereen, Moy, Inverness-shire. it dates at around 7-8th Century and features the symbols of the crescent moon, double discs, Z and V symbols. I have been drawn to this stone on many occasions and I could not completely understand why. When a doll was requested for The Gathering, this stone become very prominent in my mind’s eye as I had wanted to recreate the symbols to be worn by an ancestral doll for a long time. 
During her creation I experienced many magical and symbolic dreams and astral travels. She held a lot of strength and support for me with a very difficult personal challenge that was completed and accomplished around the same time as she was. After completing her I now feel that many Pictish symbols are also a type of faerie language and star code. I see her design as a ‘key’ to open portals to the ancestral and faerie realms. May she be a strong support, magical guide and physical link to the ancestors for her new keeper.