Monthly Archives: January 2022

January 20, 2022 · 6:10 pm

Carved Wooden Vasilisa Dolls by Noreen Crone-Findlay

(UPDATE: Many of the dolls in this post have sold. To see which of the Vasilisa Comfort Dolls are available,

please go to LINK 1 and LINK 2)

To see the larger Vasilisa Comfort Dolls, please click on LINK

I have been carving wooden dolls non-stop for the past year.

I’ve been working on several series of dolls.

One of the series that has brought me great joy is my ‘Vasilisa Comfort Dolls’ group.

I call them this because of the Russian folktale, Vasilisa the Brave. Vasilisa’s mother knows that she is dying, so she makes her darling daughter a doll that embodies all the mother love in her heart.

The little doll acts as a guide and comfort for Vasilisa throughout the story.

My Vasilisa dolls are also an embodiment of love, and even though they look very simple, they are deeply heartfelt, contemplative, meditative and powerfully healing.

I have used all kinds of wood- some it is from old pianos that died and the wood was given to me, some of it is from trees that were pruned or felled because of old age, some is from old furniture or planks of upcycled wood in other forms. There is a very small amount of new bought wood, as I prefer to plant trees, rather than use them up. Upcycling soothes me.

I have separated the Vasilisa Dolls into different categories.

Many of them are meant to be held in the palm of your hand or carried in a pouch (carrying them in a pocket with coins, keys, pebbles etc is not recommended, but on their own in a pocket is fine).

The Vasilisa dolls are all about 2 1/2 inches tall.
Just perfect to be embraced in your hand…. and held to your heart!

Here are the ‘Square Body’ Vasilisa’s dolls

Some of them have cords, because they are necklaces.

Some have dear little wooden legs that turn them into lucets, so they can make cords.

Some of them have brass nail antennae that also allow them to be used as lucets.

Some of them have lucet cord arms that allow them to hug your finger, thumb or house plant.

Here are the ‘Heart Shape’ body Vasilisa dolls:

Here are the Round Shape Body Vasilisa Dolls:

The group of Vasilisa dolls in the photo below all have pins on their backs so they can be worn as brooches.

The group in the next photo are necklaces and I realize that some of these should have been in the Goddess photo, too, but, you know… keeping everything straight…..

The group in the photo below are all Lucets (and I’ll send a pdf on how to use them as well as links to 8 video tutorials on lucet cord making with these Vasilisa dolls)

These are the Finger Hugging Vasilisa Dolls:

These Vasilisa dolls are based on Goddess energy and inspired by Goddess imagery:

The Vasilisa dolls are great for storytelling…..

I couldn’t resist making one little Vasilisa Snowlady 🙂

They are for sale and range in price from $25 to $95 +shipping, just send me a message or note.

Not all of them are still available.

I am quite emotional about posting them, as they have been such a source of healing for me through the pandemic…. I hope that you can feel all the love in them, too. ❤

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Tagged as carved wooden dolls, carving wooden dolls, doll making, dolls, hand carved wooden doll, Noreen Crone-Findlay, Vasilisa dolls, wood carving, wooden dolls

January 17, 2022 · 12:09 pm

Follow the Thread Mixed Media Woven Works

I have uploaded photos of my series of mixed media tapestries, “Follow the Thread” to

https://crone-findlay.com/2022/01/17/tapestries-follow-the-thread-series /

If you’re interested in any of them, please send me a message 🙂 LINK

“Woven Portals Tapestries and Mixed Media Weaving-1

For approximately 4 years, I worked on a series of tapestries and mixed media weavings that I have named: “Woven Portals”.

As I worked on the tapestries, I found myself being more and more fascinated by the compelling imagery of either a single eye or both eyes. When I finished the last piece in the series in the beginning of March 2020, within days, the world shut down because of the pandemic.

And, we all masked up…. and suddenly…. all we could see of other people’s faces were their eyes. I was gobsmacked by how I had been obsessed with making images that just showed the eyes surrounded by ‘soul imagery’ or blessing imagery, and now, that was what I was seeing in the world. Truly fascinating!

To see images of all of the tapestries in the series, click on WOVEN PORTALS

*“A Blessing For the Bees” by Noreen Crone-Findlay*

The pieces are woven on looms that I either modified to be able to weave the pieces or that I built myself or with my husband and son.

I will post images of the tapestries and mixed media weavings in separate blog posts to follow.

Here is the artist statement that I wrote for the show:

NOREEN CRONE-FINDLAY ARTIST STATEMENT: “Woven Portals”
How on earth do we navigate our way through the upheaval and chaos that have unfolded in the last few years?
Noreen Crone-Findlay draws upon systems like Sacred Geometry and the slow, meticulous process of weaving
tapestry and making lace to create beauty as an antidote to suffering, using the process of enquiry through art
making in the voyage of discovery at the heart of the creation of images of compassion, courage, community,
integrity, resiliency, hope and connection.
Metaphor is one of the main themes in this collection of mixed media tapestry/woven works. One of the first
steps in creating these tapestries required building and altering looms to be strong enough to stand up to the
rigours of weaving with wire, which is a relentlessly difficult medium to wrestle into a congruent form. This process
is a powerful metaphor of weaving the web of a new way of being in the world.
Why combine wire with the more normal fibres of tapestry construction? Wire is ubiquitous in our world, but
almost invisible in it’s ‘every-day-ness’. Wire is sturdy, flexible and strong, while having a definite breaking point,
much like humanity. Its reflective quality offers a moment of light at play while acting as the foundation for the
softer fibres. It has the ability to hold its ground, so it frames the Woven Portals into the Sacred Geometrical
shapes of equilateral triangle, square, circle and hexagon. It can be folded and manipulated to lift off the wall once
it has been woven. It’s magical. Difficult, beautiful, sometimes even painful to work with, but magical.
The mixed media woven works/tapestries that are the Woven Portals are a way of capturing glimpses of what is,
and what possibly can unfold by using Sacred Geometry as the leaping off point for each piece, while each tapestry
is asking questions that reach down into the depths of our souls.
How is it possible that children are held captive in cages while parents seek refuge? What do we carry forward as
a beacon of hope in creating healing and justice? What aspects and elements of the previously created systems
and structures will act as foundations for creating new healed and whole ways of being? How do we create
communities of resiliency in the face of a pandemic that has brought the world to its knees? How do we connect
with Nature and end the cycles of destruction that humanity has unleashed? These are difficult, painful questions
that need countless acts of small and great commitment and action.
Because the questions are so vast, great focus is required, and so some of the tapestries are very small, as they
are meant to be viewed as a cluster, with the narrative flowing from one piece to the next. Other tapestries are
meant to be seen as mandalas, offering an invitation to pause, sink in, and gaze into the eyes that look out at the
viewer. They are a moment of respite, of sanctuary, truly a portal that invites a visionary, new way of seeing and
being. As we navigate this great mystery, we need new ways of seeing and being. New portals. New hope.