A doll to carry your grief
Grief doll adorned with the salmon bones gathered from the beaches of Lingít Aaní.
I reached deep into the well of my grief, and my tears sang this doll into being. This spirit holds within her the cycles of life, death, and rebirth. She wears a gown of ocean waves and is adorned with salmon bones on red thread, representing the water, blood, and bones that connect us to each other and to the earth. The thread is tied with nine knots (3x3) - each knot a spell for protection and remembrance. She wears three blue Russian trade beads that I received as a gift. They shine on the blue waves of her gown, honoring the love that persists even in the face of unrelenting grief.
This doll is carries the spirit of the moon, the ocean, and ancestors of blood and bone. She serves as a vessel to carry my grief.
She reminds me that I am a part of the ebb and flow of the ocean, my tears rising and falling as the ocean dances with the moon.
“Dear child,” she says, “never forget that grief and love dance this way, too.”
Her tears and moon are woven in tussah silk. The ocean waves are woven in wool. Her heart holds seaweed, milk thistle seeds, hawthorn berries, butterfly pea flower, frankincense & myrrh resins, and a salmon bone.
