Stick Dolls
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Each art and healing doll is made with a certain kind of energy that becomes a journey of discovery. This energy develops and intensifies as the doll takes shape and forms.

Michael Samuels and Mary Rockwood Lane, from their book, Creative Healing, pose the question and relate the answer:

“What is this energy? Chi, prana, kundalini, God’s breath, acupuncture energy meridians, chakras, the life force? It has been described throughout all time. It is an integral part of the human experience. Because art acts at the level of the spirit, because art is the language of the spirit, energy is involved. The simplest metaphor for how art heals is that it frees our body’s healing energy to flow…unites with the deep source; and energy is released…”

Your stick dolls can be healing dolls. Making your stick doll is a healing action that is intimate in nature. When you create a stick doll/ healing doll you are creating an image of a responsive, loving spirit that moves through your heart, mind, and hands to show or teach you something, it may be a sign or clue on your healing life journey. Your stick doll is infused with your energy as you played with the materials and completed her. When you hold her in your hands and witness her beauty, I invite you to take in your connection to your creative power through her, may you feel blessed every time you gaze at her.

• You can’t make a perfect looking doll when you use sticks. Sticks come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, thicknesses, and colors. These qualities invite you, the maker, to play with what is in front of you.
  
  
• The natural materials bring a certain sacredness to the artistic process, which is distinct from painting and drawing. The energy from these objects brings spirits from the shamanic ritual dimension and or a spiritual dimension. Things from nature are like talisman, they are embodied inspirited objects that carry and keep the forces that gave birth to them. These forces and energies can guide and inspire your artistic creation.
  
  
• While gathering be a sensitive participant in the physical, natural world. Mindful gathering has to do with appreciation and attentiveness to the expressive qualities of these things in their natural habitats. It is about honoring the spirits of nature and carrying those things back with you. And after the making, these gathered natural items will add meaning and story to your stick doll. She will be a Talisman of your connection to nature and will be a reminder of your creative experience of moving through nature – collecting, gathering and receiving.