Create a garden goddess for May Day!!!

When Ruby was about 3 yrs old, I began the yearly tradition of making a garden goddess.  The idea comes from a fantastic book "Celebrating the Great Mother" by Cait Johnson.  We do this craft together before every May Day, so our Goddess is ready to look over our garden and take care of the seeds we are sowing!

Here is a tutorial on how to make your own garden goddess...

you will need:

a stick

face of some sort, (you could craft your own from clay), I have a mould and use fimo bake clay

scraps of fabric, ribbon, yarn

gemstones, beads, wire

crystals, feathers...

whatever tickles your fancy!!

a eye hook, (for hanging her up)

To start, we put a bead of glue on our stick and then attach the ribbon or fabric scraps to the glue, start wrapping...there is no right or wrong way, just wrap...change fabrics, add ribbon...

  Ruby is wrapping some torn fabric around her soon to be Goddess!

This is what mine looked like when it was done...

Then add beads, wrap bits of yarn around, glue gems, wrap wire around...go to town!!!

Remember...there is no right or wrong way to do this!!

On the back of my face, I like to add some feathers...

Here is Ruby's finished Goddess, hanging up in our Oak tree, looking up the hill at our garden...

(mine is at the top of the post)

Alternately, you could also use a bigger stick and just "stick" it in your garden somewhere.  I love putting our goddess in the tree and letting the wind and rain and sunshine change her over the course of the season...when harvest time is over, we go out and take her apart, save what we can, and burn the stick, (thanking Mother Earth for a job well done!).  However, these goddesses are so pretty I've also had friends hang them in their porch, so they can savour them over the course of many seasons!

May Day is a day to celebrate Mother Earth in her time of flowering...make it a day to link with our ancestral past and honour Mother Earth in all her radiant glory!