The Wee Peeple Newsletter

July 2019                              Issue 149

 stocking up on Dollmaking supplies...

Getting ready for the "really big show" in the Fall...

Ms. Cydnee is one tremendous tracker of treasure!

This month, she surprised the Dollmaker with a delightful trove of:

and, in amongst this most intriguing collection, was a perfect doll-sized

Hand of Fatima!

The Hand of Fatima or "Hamsa" is an ancient talisman that mostly symbolizes

 Protection.

 People wear this pendant when they have faith in a mighty Supreme Power-

-and it doesn't matter what their religion is-

In fact, it's kind of mystical

how the Hand somehow seems to fit into the Main Titles of widely varying religious doctrines..

representing everything from the "interplay of chakras" to "the Five Pillars of Islam"

to "the five fingers of the Hand of the Daughter of the Prophet Muhammad!"

Hamsa is originally from the Hebrew word Hamesh- roughly meaning- "talk to the Hand"

just kidding- It is actually thought that Hamesh means...

you guessed it- FIVE!

Now then- when the Hand really means business,

there will be an EYE in the center of the palm...

This would be the Eye of God naturally- the Main Protective Agent

 in an amulet worn as a defense against negative energy

intending specifically to deflect the gaze of the Evil Eye away from the wearer.

Belief in the evil eye dates back to Classical antiquity.

It is referenced by Hesiod, Callimachus, Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Theocritus, Plutarch,

Heliodorus, Pliny the Elder, and Aulus Gellius.

-Wikipedia

 Good Eye vs. Evil Eye

Good Eyes:

It takes a very Good Eye to combat an Evil Eye, one supposes!

So the Dollmaker's first truly anti-Evil Glass Eyes tended to guard a specific location:

the refrigerator..

..always prudent to keep evil away from the refrigerator..

and then... well... the EYE-dea morphed through cosmic consciousness...

where there were

Seriously she didn't do this on purpose

but the Dollmaker's Good-Eyeball creations actually bear an uncanny resemblance to

Nazars

charms (from the Middle East) intended to bend a malicious gaze back to the sender...

                                                                                              Tree with Nazars in Cappadocia, Turkey

 Charms and decorations with eyeball symbols known as nazars used to repel the evil eye,

are a common sight across Portugal, Brazil, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon,

Turkey, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, parts of North India, Palestine, Morocco,

 southern Spain, Italy, Malta, Romania, the Balkans, the Levant, Afghanistan, Syria, and Bahrain,

and have become a popular choice of souvenir with tourists.

-Wikipedia

so... after a while

the Dollmaker got to wondering how those great new glass eyeballs

 would look on dolls.....

The Good Eye Garland thing

cleared the space for

Garland Consciousness

aka... making Garlands out of everything in sight...

Vitamin bottles happened to be in sight at the time...

(no telling where this is going...but we are already way outside the box here, so...carry on!)

and what with all this supernatural kind of talk, really...

the Dollmaker could wait no longer

to get started on

Wee Witches

 with a brief nod to "Christmas In July"...

the Dollmaker hummed right along past that

into more 'familiar' Territory... lol

In French, pique assiette literally means "stolen from plates".

You Tube as usual has wonderful tutorials on this art form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jfbtx2H6d0

But who knew that, right in little old Smithville,

there is a whole building completely covered in odd fragments, like a Crazy Quilt

in the Pique Assiette Style!

The Dollmaker's old friend, Jim Horton (whom she thinks of as  "The Face of Smithville") took her on the grand tour of the Community Gardens, the Food Pantries (old and new)   and then he showed her THIS building...

 

 She was blown away!

And the little town of Smithville once again proves to be

full of surprises!

Like how the Dollmaker's Baby Pineapple (against all odds)

 is actually growing kind of BIG these days...

 The Dollmaker was, furthermore, startled to discover

(in the spot where she just threw some extra dirt and a few old seeds...)

 An Alien Armenian Cucumber Invasion!

(seriously... two and a half foot long cucumbers?  What?!)

(and they're not finished growing YET!)

yes, amidst the Angel Trumpets blooming, Sungold Tomatoes ripening

Snowflake water lilies glowing, baby pineapple flourishing, Birdhouse Gourds swelling

 and Tadpoles metamorphosing...

it's been a lovely, calm, if a tad dry, summer...

Hope all is well with Yours!