Blog Archives
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Artists and Artisans Part 2
I created the Yuletide Shopping Guide in part because Yule is one of my favorite times of year. The guide features items polytheists would enjoy seeing in their homes or under their tree this yuletide. All with the hope of both spreading some holiday cheer in a difficult year, but also to hopefully lift up some of the artisans in our midst too. So far I’ve included resources for crafters, makers, and DIYers: cookie cutters, crafting molds, fabric (Mesoamerican, Egyptian, Greek, Northern Europe), machine embroidery designs, cross-stitch and embroidery patterns, as well as knitting and crochet patterns. I’ve also highlighted some items on a Krampus theme. I’ve spotlighted items you can use to deck the halls and trim the tree. Now I am spotlighting artists, artisans and the goods they make: Part 1, and Part 2 is today. Stay tuned, because there’s still more to come.
TrueCraftWorks
TrueCraftworks is run by a USA based leather-worker that offers in addition to jewelry and guitar straps, purses, boxes designed to hold cards (or if you wanted to runes), leather wallets/card holders, coasters and more.
Emily Balivet
Emily Balivet is a talented artist whose brightly colored works encompass pagan and polytheistic themes ranging from tarot, to various Goddesses (Egyptian, Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu and more). Her shop features the prismatically vivid colors of both original paintings, and reproduction prints of her work.
KatLunoeArt
KatLunoeArt is the online shop for oil painter and illustrator Kat, whose work has graced book covers and other special projects. She currently has a small collection of various deity art available.
Anetteprs
Anetteprs is the etsy storefront for artist Anette Pirso. She focuses her artwork around various polytheistic traditions, including Gods and Goddesses (mainly Goddesses). Some of her artwork has been used in clothing designs offered at Valhyr. She has a large selection of both Norse and Greek Goddesses, and an expanding selection of other goddesses from around the world: African, Mesoamerican, Egyptian, Native American & Inuit, Slavic, Celtic, Asian, Polynesian, and Hindu. In addition to her artistic prints of these Goddesses, she also has a few artistic depictions of impactful women in history. She recently started offering waterproof stickers too (great for use on cars, water bottles, etc.). She has made the commitment that 5% of each purchase is donated to a The Estonian Women’s Shelters Union, which helps women who have been the victims of domestic violence.
OlivosArtStudio
OlivosArtStudio is the online shop for painter Claudia Olivos whose depictions of Goddesses range from all over the globe: Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Minoan, Norse, Mesoamerican (various traditions), Polynesian, and so much more.
SilvaTamayo
SilvaTamayo is the online storefront for paper artist Mary Carmen Silva Tamayo specializing in Mesoamerican and Mexican art, including depictions of Aztec deities.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Artists & Artisans – Part 1
Yule is one of my favorite times of year, and to help spread some holiday cheer I decided to create the Yuletide Shopping Guide to help people find goods for their homes, and gifts. Hopefully in the process, helping to steer some business towards some very talented artisans, including some within our religious community. So far I’ve spotlighted resources for crafters, resources to trim the tree & deck the halls for the holiday, highlighted Krampus goods, and now I’m moving onto artists and artisans.
VisaVisJewelryLA
VisaVisJewelryLA specializes in jewelry made with bronze and gold, sometimes with a cloisonné technique too. There’s a range of polytheistic traditions represented across the bling worthy offerings: Assyrian, Sumerian, Norse, Celtic, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Hindu, and more.
Making Magick
Making Magick features a husband and wife artisan team from our religious community based in North Carolina creating goods in ceramics, wood, metal, fabric and more. They are currently specializing in scroll saw wooden puzzles for children. They can make any animal or object into an age appropriate puzzle. They can also make other items in wood too, from decorative bowls and decor for the home, or memorial items for use outdoors. As we all know, 2020 has been a challenging year, and that’s included unemployment for one of the members of this artisan team. If you have an idea, they’d love to talk to you.
RareEarthWoodworks
RareEarthWoodworks features a variety of artisan crafts in wood, featuring divination tools such as ogham staves or runes, and an expansive array of portable travel altars or altar icons across a range of polytheistic traditions: Welsh, Norse, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and more. There’s also other items too!
SacredPathArt
The United Kingdom based artist Amanda Lindupp offers up her range of art prints and cards through her store SacredPathArt. Her illustrations of Gods and Goddesses encompass Kemetic, Norse, Celtic, Greek and Roman deities.
CorazonMexica
CorazonMexica features chicano created works depicting Mexican spirituality and pride, with a focus on Mesoamerican deities from the Aztecs, as well as Aztec inspired tarot, queer art, and regalia.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Cross-stitch and Embroidery Patterns
Makers, crafters and DIYers I have been spotlighting in my Yuletide Shopping Guide resources to help you create items related to polytheistic religious traditions. So far that has included cookie cutters, craft molds, and fabric related to Mesoamerica, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Northern Europe. I’ve shared machine embroidery design files, and today I’ve got needlepoint in the form of cross-stitch and embroidery patterns.
Norse
- Tree of Life
- Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds
- Yggdrasil with deer, squirrel and birds
- Futhark with Yggdrasil
- Runes (Elder Futhark)
- Helm of Awe with Futhark
- Helm of Awe
- Odin’s Ravens (Hugin & Munin)
- Odin’s Ravens (Hugin & Munin)
- Mjolnir
- Mjolnir Sampler (runes, troll cross, and other symbols)
Egyptian
Miscellaneous
- Goddess Fortuna (Roman)
- Brigid Blessing (Celtic)
- Huitzilopochtli (Aztec, the listing is misidentified as Tlaloc)
Please let me know if there are any errors, with all the copy/pasting it is easy to make a mistake. If there’s something you think I should spotlight in the yuletide shopping guide, please contact me and let me know. So concludes our fabric resources, but there will be more resources to come! Stay tuned.
Yuletide Shopping Guide – Fabric – Mesoamerica
I recently posted that because 2020 has been a challenging year I was putting together a Yuletide Shopping Guide with the intent to help artisan members of our community & to help spotlight items that support our religious devotions and practices. Starting with resources for our craters, makers and DIYers. So far I’ve spotlighted cookie cutters, and craft molds and now it’s time to tackle fabric.
I decided to ignore offerings from big box retailers, and instead focus on work from individual artisans by scouring the inventory of online storefront, Spoonflower–a print on demand fabric (and sometimes wallpaper) service where individual artists can upload their own fabric designs making them available on the platform. Since Spoonflower takes care of fulfillment they get a cut of each purchase, but the artists also get their share too. These are not mass manufactured fabrics where you get cost savings because you’re a big box retail store chain ordering thousands of bolts at a time. So prices are more expensive, but if you pay attention to the site you’ll find that they run periodic sales.
The service is set up so that you can choose the amount of fabric you want, and have an array of different types of fabric (cotton, fleece, chiffon, linen, jersey, canvas, poplin, etc.) so you can select the best type of fabric for the creation you intend to make. Similarly when wallpaper options are present there are usually a few different options. If you love the fabric, but just aren’t that crafty sometimes the items will also be available for purchase as finished goods in the form of table runners, placemats, napkins, tea towels, tablecloths, pillowcases, duvet covers, sheets, curtains and the most manufactured good in the world this year (or seemingly so) cloth face masks. So, for any pattern that catches your eye, be sure to check the listing carefully. If you opt to pick up a finished good, please pay attention to fabric orientation.
There were so many design options available for a wide range of polytheistic traditions, that I’ve decided to split it up across multiple days. First up is pre-Columbian/Mesoamerica, which encompasses two of the most widely known cultural examples: the Aztecs and the Mayans.
Muhlenkott
I was very pleasantly surprised to discover a pattern of interest for our Mesoamerican polytheists based off of the illustrations of the Aztec Gods Tonatiuh, Itztlacoliuhqui, Mictlantecuhtli from the Codex Cospi, and there’s more designs from the artist Muhlenkott celebrating the religious heritage of the region encompassing the cultural heritage of Aztec, Maya, Peruvian, Oaxaca and more. How often are you going to find fabric designs featuring the glyphs for the Mayan calendar, each month was named for an animal or item and many of them we know to be sacred and connected to one of the Gods. There are a range of color variants too for most of the patterns.
Shop Muhlenkott’s Mesoamerican Collection
Miscellaneous Designers
While I have some passing familiarity with the region, this is beyond my usual scope of expertise. Yes it is true folks, I don’t know everything. LOL! I’m sure anyone working with these Gods as part of their religious tradition will be able to decipher the art style and resulting glyphs and symbols far better than I, but I wanted to at least spotlight these designs because it can be hard to find assets outside of the traditional lands of Mesoamerica.
- I believe this design by b0rwear features glyphs of some of the Mayan Gods, as well as some of the houses found in the underworld.
- I think I’m spotting a modern take by axeleon (in both color, and a black & white) on the symbols for the Aztec Calendar months (Ozomahtli, Cuauhtli, Miquiztli, etc.).
- Pond-ripple’s design of Mayan pitz ball players.
- I believe I recognize the glyph for the Sun God K’inich Ajaw in this pattern designed by APN201 with multiple other (probably deity) glyphs too.
- A colorful contemporary version of the archaeological Aztec sun stone by Raveneve (or it’s variant).
- Thinlinetextiles has a collection of line art renderings of the Aztec sunstone in various colors, and at various sizes.
Coming soon: even MORE fabric resources for DIYers.If there’s something you think I should spotlight in the yuletide shopping guide, please contact me and let me know.
Gangleri's Grove 