Cactus Gallery LA
Greek Pagan Folktales: Τα μαγγάνια των Ανεράιδων/ The Faeries’ Spindles (Kalavryta) by Anima ex Manus Art Dolls
Mixed media: wire armature, paperclay, polymer clay, vintage and found fabrics and trims, black soft tulle, leather, ribbon, silk, silk threads, wild silk cocoons. Her arms and legs are poseable and her eyes are glass. Her body is soft and poseable, as it has wire running through it. She is painted with soft pastels, acrylics and watercolors, and sealed with matte and gloss varnish. She has a loop on her back, to display on the wall.
Height: approx. 47 cm/ 18.5 inches
There’s a secret cave where the Faeries hide their spindles, which they use to spin the most beautiful silk in the world. To hand-spin the silk, the Faeries steal the cocoons from the houses nearby. There was a spell people used to cast, to prevent the Faeries from stealing their cocoons: they would take an egg shell and, without talking, they would go to the seashore and fill a small phial with water from the forty waves sea. Then, they would sprinkle it on some of the cocoons and hide the phial. They would make a female figure out of old clothes to display her in the room where the cocoons were. An old hag would chant an incantation three times to keep the Faerie thief away; the Faerie would indeed stay away and she would also return as much as she had stolen from other houses.