The Morrigan

Face-up artist(s):

Botfly Baby; Simply Divine

Body blushing artist(s):

N/A

Modifications artist(s):

N/A

Tattoo artist(s):

N/A

Date of acquisition:

2012

Provenance:

Direct from Soom

Reason for choice:

Gorgeous body, lovely face

Best Points:

Amazing sculpting.

Worst Points:

About as poseable as Iplehouse. However, if forced to choose aesthetics or poseability, I will go with aesthetics every time.

My dad died recently, and it happened suddenly. I have had a hard time saying goodbye. When the couture contest was announced in late July of 2016, with the theme of the witching hour, I chose the Morrigan and the bronze age era to honor my dad, because he loved the archeology and myths of northern Europe and the British Isles. The Morrigan is a story my dad told me when I was a child, so I thought it would make a fitting tribute to him. The Morrigan is a warrior crow-witch who flies over the battle field, and who may take one side or another. She may also be a portent of a warrior's death. Beyond this, she is a goddess who takes the form of three different sisters. For this reason, figures like triple spirals and the triskelion are associated with her, so I included subtle spirals in the design I created for the contest. Because the triple spiral motif is found on ancient structures all over Europe, it seems possible to me that the story of this witch has also been around as long. For that reason, it didn't seem unreasonable to dress her in a mix of bronze age-inspired artifacts from several countries. I dyed and deconstructed wool fabric to make an interpretation of the cord skirt worn by a bronze age German priestess found in Denmark. A cord skirt is a wrap around skirt made from hanging cords--kind of like a grass skirt-- you can see one here. I made mine by partially unweaving a piece of wool fabric, but leaving the top and bottom edges intact. The waist jewelry is also from this grave-- my version is made of gilded Sculpey. The bracelets are also gilded Sculpey, and are based on those from other bronze age hoards. As I blew my budget on feather trim and chain and could not afford metallic gold leather, I gilded a scrap of thin leather, sewed it to felt to make it sturdy, and then sewed glass bugle beads and ball chain to it to make a simpler interpretation of the Mold cape, the most precious gold artifact of the bronze age. I spent most of my time on this, but i am in the process of making a new one as I was not completely happy with the gilding on the finished product. I dyed and hand printed the inside back of the cape with triple spirals found at Newgrange, one of the oldest manmade structures on Earth. As the Morrigan can also take the form of a crow, I sewed feathers to the back of her cape and gave her a headdress to signify her avian nature. Lastly, each of her shoes is made from a single piece of thin leather, laced together with ribbon. They are in the style worn in the bronze age.

The Morrigan

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