The Liminal Market

Tag: Collage

  • Art Witch: Invoking Practice – Altar Cards

    Art Witch: Invoking Practice – Altar Cards

    Altar space has always been an important part in my witchcraft from the very beginning. It isn’t necessary or required that you work with an altar in the craft at all, but this practice helps me immensely. In spellwork, a functioning altar space makes my magical projects and spells stay more organized. I also have altar shrines for my ancestors and the deities I work alongside. The contents of any altar I create fluctuates depending on the work I’m doing at the time and who/what I’m trying to invoke at that moment. This altar practice can be modified to almost any altar situation to add more depth and representation to your sacred space, plus they are really fun and simple to make.

    What Are Altar Cards

    These are cards I add to altars to invoke magical elements, deities, sacred animals, you name it. If you want some more visuals added to your magical work, I really recommend giving these a go.


    What do They Bring?

    For example, say you wanted to connect more with the Fire element. The first step is processing what the Fire element looks like TO ME and searching for a few images that reflect that. WARNING: DO NOT PICK THE FIRST 3 IMAGES ON GOOGLE AND CALL IT A DAY. Truly find pictures that speak to you and what you are trying to work with. After collating the number of images you want into a simple collage, aside from the lovely visual you just created, deeper work can happen with this tool. What type of Fire energy is represented in the images you chose? Which Fire energy did you most identify with? This collage works both as physical tool and an analyzation aid for continuing work and development over time and across topics. You can even repeat it for the same subject and note the differences and evolution of your preferences over the course of your work. The options are endless.

    How to Make Altar Cards

    There are two ways to go about creating your altar cards:
    Electronic (ease of access, travel, always having your altar with you)
    Physical projects (for literal altar placement, travel talisman)

    Whichever your preferred outcome, we start our search online.
    **This can also be done in a physical cut and paste collage format but for these, I always use search engine magic to find the perfect fit.**

    -Search whatever name you need (deity, element, animal, etc.)
    -Find the best representations of that thing that connects with you. (Tip: try and keep the image number 3 to 5)
    -Put the images into a collage app.
    -Print and place or keep in phone and use while out in the wild.
    -And BAM – you have your new altar aid.

    Adaptions- Prayer and Lesson Cards

    I have adapted this altar card idea a bit and have made specific prayer cards for my patron deities, as well as, lesson cards that I take from the gods that I’ve worked with but haven’t stayed. I use these cards for the same invoking energy to use in spellwork or honoring means. All my altar cards are small and to the point, to hone in the energy I really want from them.

    Honestly, this has been a practice that I stumbled into making a collage of things I liked based on my favorite colors, adapted it to my witchcraft, and now it’s something I utilize more and more as time goes on and my work deepens. I enjoy the process of these so much and I hope you will make your own altar cards and find them helpful.

  • Witchcraft Winter Pathwork Planning, Art Share, and Resources

    Witchcraft Winter Pathwork Planning, Art Share, and Resources

    Here in the Northern Hemisphere, Fall is quickly turning into Winter and you can really feel it in in the cold,crisp air. With this shift, we’re approaching a time of rest, review, and renew in my Witch work. A time where I slow down and go over all my art, study notes, divination records, and my books list from the year so far. I acknowledge where I have grown and what needs more focus through the Winter season.

    I have been doing this more in-depth diary/records keeping and review for the last few years and it truly helps guide my practice and path in a more solid direction. This year I picked up a wonderful resource to aid in this process that I wanted to share with you, Jamie Ridler Studio Yearbooks. At each seasonal shift, Jamie provides a Yearbook record/journal with room to fit all my notes across the above-mentioned topics, space for Full Moon collage work, and more. I cannot recommend the Studio Yearbook enough and it has brought so much more organization to my usual, multi-notebook approach.

    It is from these Yearbooks that I wanted to share the following Collage Clips collection. These are collage clippings taken totally out of context from my magazine cut and paste Moon collage Art Witch work. I found them during my review process, truly loved them and wanted to share.

    May Winter speak what you need, and may you hear.

    -Mel

  • ​ Melanie’s Mutants

    ​ Melanie’s Mutants

    All of these creatures originated from a card game called Createures where you are challenged to draw animal combinations with or without special attributes and environments. This game inspired a fun little collection for me and is, honestly, one of my favorite sketch exercises to do on a regular basis.


    I hereby invite you to meet some of my most unique creations. Take a look.


    You can get the game for yourself at http://www.createures.com/

  • ​ Squirrel in a Matchbox

    ​ Squirrel in a Matchbox

    This season seems to be centered around death work for me which lead to my most recent drawing, Squirrel in a Matchbox. Keeping in line with exploring legacy projects and wanting to deepen my experience with this Death Doula practice, I decided I wanted to honor the first life I ever paid tribute to in ritual. In my case, it was a baby squirrel. This little one was the first to fall from a nest in one of my grandma’s trees in the front yard. I found it at the base of the tree when I wandered away from the swingset. I was under ten years old. I remember finding the tiny creature and then sobbing. I was distraught knowing that I couldn’t help it. I was distraught learning that babies could die at the very start of their journey in this world. TV was one thing but this was my first experience holding a dead being in my hands and knowing I couldn’t end it there. So my child brain decided to hold a special burial for the squirrel. My grandma and I grabbed a matchbox from the drawer in the kitchen, placed it inside with some flowers, and buried it under a tree in the pasture behind the house.

    My experience is not unique but I still remember the sadness at losing the squirrel that Spring. And to be honest, looking back, I think it was a pretty good indicator of where my path might take me. From caring for those in a nursing home, learning about end of life care, and now my continued Death work; I think of the squirrel in the matchbox and it fits on that line too.

    Nowadays when I see animals taken back by death in nature I chant a blessing instead of providing a matchbox. This drawing, however, is simply recording that moment in time and my tendency to walk with Death instead of away from it, even from a young age. And now I have a legacy project to remember and keep that sacred moment alive and carry it with me.

  • Death Memorial Projects as Ancestor Work

    Death Memorial Projects as Ancestor Work

    Earlier this year, in the midst of the pandemic and housebound, I considered ways to move forth with ancestor work. Cemeteries aren’t usually bustling with activity, yet the grounds where I offer honors are quite distant from my home. Between adapting to being home for over a year, and online schooling with my six-year-old, my routine shifted. The honoring process had to adapt to the times.

    I kept the ritual consistent by choosing nearby spots and adjusting schedules to fit home life. The practical shift helped me honor my ancestors without neglecting family duties or the house. Over time, the change became part of my routine rather than an interruption.

    Here is where I welcomed in ancestry online services. I started diving into my family tree for the first time and spent quite a few late nights piecing together what little I could to understand their histories that built up to be my future. After a few nights of deep diving, I decided to find an ancestor project within my growing family tree. I wasn’t sure what that project would be but I knew I would know it when I saw it. 

    The tree held a few surprises for me. Although I knew of my Irish and German roots from the knowledge of immediate relatives, anything deeper was lost to time. Scotland, however, popped up much more than any of the other lands and from multiple branches on the tree. On one of these branches I found a painting of a woman in the 1600s. A commissioned portrait, a face to a name from all those years ago; this was the moment I met the Lady Grange (Rachel Chiesley).

    As I tried to tie all the strings together, I found someone not too different from myself. An outspoken individual, who wasn’t afraid to chase after what she was owed, and was ultimately punished for her will. After a separation from her husband and threatening to expose him as a traitor if he didn’t send money to support her and their children, he had her kidnapped and taken to live in isolation on island off the Scotland coast. At least one rescue was attempted and failed and the Lady Grange was left to perish alone in a cottage on one of the rotating islands of her imprisonment. She was somewhere in her sixties.

    I was struck by her story. Speaking the truth made her unlikable for her time, and she wasn’t protected during her abusive situation like she should have been. Her kidnapping and island damnation was seen as a “martial issue” and the government washed their hands of a loud mouthed woman. 

    Once I read through as much information as I could find, I knew I had found the ancestor I needed to honor. I grabbed a jar of buttons passed from my aunt, to my grandmother, and then to me. I knew this was going to be the medium I used to recreate the ruins of her last home. I wanted to memorialize her life, her memory, and her unfair treatment at the hands of someone who was supposed to love her. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t forgotten again to my family.

    I selected that jar of buttons for this project from the multiple hands it passed through to get to me. My aunt, my grandma, Rachel, and I would all be connected in building a piece of work together across time and even the afterlife. Buttons, to me, are a very liminal object as well. They connect fabrics from different directions and make a bridge from one side to the other. The construction of this piece, stacking the buttons, gluing them as a foundation to build the whole cottage; it truly felt like it was building that bridge back and making that connection located so far in the past, so very present and alive.

    A few weeks later I began my training in Death Doula work. I learned the importance of the grieving process and creating living projects for those who came before to carry with us into the future. A living memory of them. Although I couldn’t ask Lady Grange (Rachel) how she wanted to be remembered in this project specifically, I wanted to preserve what was authentically hers from her tragic story. Her foundation, as well as, her cottages’ ruins are unshakable. They are still here today along with her story. Lady Grange the unshakable, the unwavering, the uncompromising. Her strength and her resolve live in those stones and my blood to this day. I may not have known her, but her strength can echo through my actions, my uncompromising, my outspokenness. I ache for the way her life ended, but I am grateful for the fight she put up for her and her babies in spite of the fate she probably knew would await her in doing so.

    Every step we take in this life is due to the steps that came before ours. Thank you Rachel, I hope I walk a path you can feel honored by and I hope this piece pays tribute to your legacy. 

    Lady Grange

The Liminal Market

The Liminal Market offers mystical yet accessible spiritual goods, artwork, botanical creations, and educational resources, inspired by Witch of All Trades. A welcoming space for all kinds of folk to express themselves.