Rosewicket Wicca Coven

Most of us like having a sculpture or statue in our house or even on our altar. However, some painbted metal sculptures have traces of heavy  metals like lead, which can cause lead poisoning in large amounts. Likewise for teh environment, they may not have been made in teh greenest of methods.

So here, for those of you that want to make yoru own altar tools, like statues or athames, or maybe if you're just feeling crafty, I have posted some recepies for clay mixtured that you can make yourself for altar tools.

HERB OR FLOWER CLAY (recipie from http://www.crystalforest1.homestead.com more crafts available at their Pagan Crafting Page )

I do not own this recepie. I also haven't tried it. But it sounds like it would be perfect for sculpting your own ritual/altar ornaments or making other witchy-crafty things, and you can make the plants you use suit your purposes.

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon salt

3 tablespoons water

3 cups freshly chopped flower petals or herbs of your choice

Mix flour, salt and water together in a small bowl until it forms a firm dough. Knead in flowers or herbs.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

sculpt into ornaments, dishes, beads or whatever you choose. Let finished pieces air dry for 2-3 days or untill hard. You may paint these as you choose, or simply put a clear coat of shellac to protect it and give it a nice shine.

SAND SCULPTURES

This is a little harder to work with then the above, as it uses sand. Please do try to get it from a natural source, and as the same as the above recipe I'm sure you can make some nifty altar decorations with it. I also haven't used this in years, so I'm sorry to say that I just quickly googled a recepie along the same lines and found one from: http://www.geocities.com/janesplacehomedaycare/Recipes1.html (This place looks like it has lots of good stuff for parents & kid projects)

2 cups sand

1 cup cornstarch

1 cup water

spoon

Mix the sand, cornstarch, and water together in a saucepan. Heat the mixture over low heat and keep stirring; remove from heat when the mixture is thick. Let the mixture cool, then make your sculpture. Allow sculpture to dry and harden.

Might I recommend pressing in beads, shells, stone or sea glass? Sound like a great way for kids to make projects or for you to come up with some alter decorations, no?

And last, but not least, never underestemate what a naturewalk can do for you! You can certainly go outside and look for a fallen tree branch to carve a wand, staff, or athame out of. Or you can even ask and pray to a tree and take one of it's branches. Then it's up to you to carve and decorate as you choose.

I have seem people pay 350$ for staves....ones that could be made with a stick in your yard and topped with a 3$ (roughly 2pounds) crystal ball. I suggest trying to make your own first.

The homemade clay sounds great, very cool finds