Clay Dolls for Altar Work, "Blanks"

I've long made dolls and poppets for clients out of cloth or clay or wood and mixed fibers, but when you want them to move around the altar as you're working with them over a number of days, the easiest thing is often to use figural candles to stand in for the target(s), because those will stand up on their own.

But what if you want to still have an effigy or poppet or doll to work on after the moving candle or lodestone portion of the work is over?

That's where these little dolls come into play. These are "blanks," meaning I don't do any customization work on them beyond the options listed here for color. You are responsible fortying them to your target, adding anything you want to add, doing any baptism, etc. If you order two dolls, they probably won't be distinguishable from each other at first glance - you'll need to draw on them, dress them, tie something to them, or otherwise mark them if you need to tell at a glance which one is which

They aren't the fanciest dolls you've ever seen. They're made of polymer clay, I'm not charging $60/hour for my time, and I'm no Leonardo anyway. But they will stand up on their own if that's what you're looking for!

These weigh about 1/2 oz and stand about two inches tall. I carve out a little notch in the bottom before they're oven-dried that you can load with (small) curios and personal concerns. You can seal it up by dripping candle wax on it or using a little dab of clay.

Once I bake them, they're solid, strong, and waterproof, so unlike cloth dolls, they can be given spiritual baths, and unlike wax dolls, they can be worked with close to incense burners and candle flames without softening or melting.

But once they're baked, everything is permanent, so you can't add anything afterwards that won't fit into that little notch in the base. So if you want a lodestone contained inside the doll, for example, or for the clay itself to be mixed with herbs, curios, and/or personal concerns, you want the custom-finished listing for that, as that will need to be done before they're fired.

If you do want a fancier doll with facial features, certain hair length or color, larger sizes, etc., I can do that as custom work - just write to ask about the details and a custom listing.

And of course you can add elements by dressing your doll in clothing, anointing it with oil, wrapping it with certain things, etc, and baked polymer clay *is* carvable if you have the appropriate sculpting/chiseling tools and know-how.