II: High Priestess Medicine Bag, Part.2: Carving the Panels

Welcome to another installment of the Tarot Medicine Bag journey of creation. Today you will see the image of the High Priestess emerge from the milled vegtan cowhide.

Two panels are needed to form the carrying bag for the two Pillars / wine bottles.

Boaz and Jachim at your service, Pinot Noir and Sauvingnon Blanc, peut etre?
Part one describes their making: https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/ii-high-priestess-medicine-bag-part-1-pillars

Ready to transfer the line drawing to the leather.

The pebbled surface makes the tracing ever so faint. The Scratch Awl leaves the paper in shreds. Kind of a lost wax process...

She reclines in majesty on her throne of boulders. Her hair is a cascading waterfall.

Using my photos from Anza-Borrego, I carve in a Fan Palm oasis.

Lettering stamps.

Oak trees twine, gripping the rocks. All is carved and beveled.

Now for the reverse side. An Owl for her familiar, set against a backdrop of moon phases.

Carved with a Swivel Knife.

I do a lot of sketches from my own photos and from the internet. When I get something I like, I trace it as a line drawing on vellum. Then I place it on the leather, and trace using either a Stylus or the Scratch Awl. I work in an additive process, sort of a collage of bits of tracing paper building up the scene.

I want the Tree of Life to be represented by the tangle of chaparral. So I freehand in twisted oak branches and whitethorn thickets. I use a stamp for the repeating oak leaves.

Now a White Tailed Deer and a Mountain Lion peek out from the briar.

More chaparral foliage fills out the panel.

Now that both sides of the Medicine Bag are carved, I will spend my day carefully dyeing them with EcoFlo leather acrylics. I want the night sky to cast a luminous glow to Our Lady of the Chaparral.

May the wellspring of our hearts run clear and cool between the jagged stones.

Thank you for reading.
Love,Cat
@creationofcare

Part 1:
https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/ii-high-priestess-medicine-bag-part-1-pillars

See the other Medicine Bags at the following links:

0: The Fool

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/medicine-bottle-make-a-long-pt-1-wet-molding

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/medicine-bottle-make-a-long-pt-2-surface-design

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/medicine-bottle-make-a-long-pt-3-color

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/medicine-bag-make-a-long-pt-4-stitching-to-the-finish

I: The Magician

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/i-the-magician-will-and-skill

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/order-fr8m-chaos

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/rendering-red-roses

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/the-magician-part-3

https://steemit.com/art/@creationofcare/completion-of-i-the-magician-medicine-bag

I am working on doing all 22 of the Major Arcana as Medicine Bags. Each incorporates leather and glass, and is a voyage of archetypal discovery.