Reconnecting with Nature in a Digital World

Medicine Doll Workshops

Create a personal talisman

to deepen your connection

to Nature.

The illusionary connectedness of this digital era bombards us with artificial experiences and constant electronic chatter. Suddenly we look up and it’s Spring and we failed to notice the Winter except perhaps to complain about the weather. This workshop is a great way to quiet the noise and connect to something real. It can help focus your thinking to make and to accept change or to gather strength to combat adversity.

Meet The Folks:

We design great websites and all sorts of interactive products from start to finish

Not just for artists. Anyone can make

a Lifeforms Medicine Doll!

Lifeforms medicine doll workshops combine specialized nature observation skills with ritualized doll-making. Natural objects collected with specific intent can personify qualities and ideas you wish to bring into your life.

One may create dolls for:

• Healing

• Balance and inner peace

• Blessing for change and acceptance

• Creativity or Joy

• Grief or loss or anger

• Dreams

• Facing fear

• Relations with specific element or animal

• Whatever you need

Remember, we are indeed creatures of Wind, Fire, Water, Earth and Spirit.

We go out into nature to collect objects that call to our outer and inner selves. The common-place can take on special meaning when they come to represent parts of ourselves and gifts from the Earth.

About the Process

Locally:

If you are taking the workshop in Baltimore, we travel to a Chesapeake Bay beach nearby for a walking meditation and to collect natural objects.

Nationally:

We bring this workshop to places of natural beauty across the country – forest, seashore, rivers, streams, even parks in an urban environment. We will scout the best place to do our walking meditation and collect natural objects.

While in the Studio you will learn and employ some of the following skills:

• Wire-wrapping

• Paper and cloth dyeing

• Printing

• Machine and hand stitching

• Wood carving

• Use of small hand and electric tools

• Other materials and methods available to suit your doll’s needs.

Who We Are

I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.

This is a great space to write long text about your company and your services.

You can use this space to go into a little more detail about your company. Talk about your team and what services you provide. Tell your visitors the story of how you came up with the idea for your business and what makes you different from your competitors. Make your company stand out and show your visitors who you are.

What We Believe

This is a great space to write long text about your company and your services. You can use this space to go into a little more detail about your company. Talk about your team and what services you provide.

Tell your visitors the story of how you came up with the idea for your business and what makes you different from your competitors. Make your company stand out and show your visitors who you are.

These four day workshops are intended as a dialogue with the landscape to foster connections, healing and to promote joy.

“I had no idea how this workshop would change my life. Going through the process I was able to let go of things I didn’t even know I was holding on to. I came away with a new perspective in my work and in my life. A key component to the magic of the experience was working with a supportive group.”

- CE, Graphic Designer

About the Teacher

The natural world is always Laura Vernon-Russell’s inspiration and obsession. Her work reflects her investigations into the mysteries of nature and the energies of life. She is the recipient of a 2003 Maryland State Individual Artists Award for her photographic drawings using radiographs of birds, and was awarded (with L. Schwing) a Kresge Arts in Baltimore grant for a community-building project using a problem-solving art game. She, with her husband and son, live in the Patterson Park area of Baltimore, MD.

Join a Workshop in Baltimore

The workshops run with minimum of three and maximum of four doll makers and is ideal for a group of friends. Price includes all materials and transportation to and from the park. $375

See the Class Schedule for our current offerings.

Have us come to you

Perfect for retreats, spiritual centers and resorts. Contact us to find out how we can customize a workshop for you or your guests. We bring all the supplies, you provide a work space and natural space for meditation and object collection.

“Remember when you would get into a project as a kid and time would just expand - in a good way? This workshop is like that - first in the woods and then in the studio, it is a great escape from day to day life and a wonderful inner exploration as well. Laura is a talented and generous artist who is there to help you every step of the way and yet doesn’t hover. I highly recommend this workshop.”

– JC, Acupuncturist, Qigong Instructor