Why I make Fetish Dolls.
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My interest in Southern folklore and superstitions started in childhood. I was fascinated by the superstitions that my family members followed. I was born in 1950 in Columbia, South Carolina and grew up in Dixiana, S.C., a small community outside Columbia. Many of the inhabitants of Dixiana were African American and I was also influenced by their beliefs and way of life. My Father was also a great teller of tales and loved to entertain us with tales of the Plat-eye and ghostly sightings. Other family members were also a good source of occult experiences. We grew up Christian and attended the local Church, so to most of the family this "talk" was not taken seriously. My interest continued to grow through my teens and into adulthood. I worked for a company that sent me to New Orleans in the mid 1980's. I studied the Voodoo culture and enjoyed the evening walks through the French Quarter. This continuing interest in superstitions and folklore became a hobby of sorts and I collected books and began asking work associates and family members for superstitions that they remembered. When I moved to Charleston S.C., I began my studies of Hoodoo and the Carolina Gullah traditions. I made my first fetish doll in 2013. My vision for the dolls began long before and is based on what I imagine a neighbor from my childhood would have made.
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My dolls are frightening in appearance because they take on the characteristics of the creature that they are protecting us from. All of the dolls are approximately 28 inches in height and are machine and hand made by me. I use new and vintage fabrics and embellish the dolls with beads, pieces of jewelry, bones and found objects. Every culture since civilization began has made human effigies for comfort and entertainment.
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All dolls wear Gris-Gris bags of healing and protective herbs and roots. This is one of the Hoodoo and Voodoo traditions. Voodoo is an organized religion and Hoodoo is more of a practice based on Gullah, Native American and European folklore. I use five elements in my gris-gris bags. In Voodoo and Hoodoo odd numbers are always used. The owner of the bag can also add elements such as nail clippings and hair, always keeping an odd number of elements in the gris-gris bag. One of the elements in my gris-gris bags is Acefoetida. This spice was sold in drug stores in the early 1900's as Acifidity bags to ward off influenza and other ailments. The children of my Mother's family wore these bags to school for protection.
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Pricing for my Fetish Dolls:
All Fetish Dolls wear a tag and are numbered and dated on the back. Currently I am only making custom dolls. Custom dolls are $600.00 plus $22-28.00 for shipping depending on time zone and handling. Do not send a deposit ($100.00 non-refundable) until I call you to discuss your doll. Please include your phone number.
When ordering a Custom doll you may make three suggestions in addition to the Family and Sex of the doll. Please feel free email me to discuss any further questions you may have. My website is www.DoctorWrenFetishDoll.com and my Instagram page is: drwrenfetishdolls