My last post was all the way on the other side of the witch’s Wheel of the Year, Imbolc, and today is Lammas, the first harvest! I vaguely like to follow the Wheel of the Year in releasing new pieces and collections, and I’m so excited to have something new to share in the summer season. Lammas is all about reaping the first fruits of your labor throughout the year: traditionally it’s about harvesting the first grains and summer vegetables. For me, my family and I have made our own garden and are really exploring growing our own food for the first time, and I wanted to use that as the inspiration for my newest piece. I had this beautiful green corset top, and I knew it needed to be garden-related. The Nine of Pentacles tarot card popped into my mind as inspiration, and this piece was born!
I think it’s a little wild that I haven’t made a tarot-inspired piece before now. Tarot has been a big part of my life for about five years now, and the cards have helped me understand so much about myself and the world around me. I’m hoping to create many more tarot pieces, but for now, let me introduce you to the Nine of Pentacles corset top! Hand-embroidered and beaded, as usual, this piece features the nine coins of the card, growing alongside a little garden of sparkly flowers. Two hands reach up to the Pentacles, as if casting a spell of abundance. I loved making this garden scene against this beautiful green vintage corset, and I especially loved adding little beaded sleeves to the look.
The Nine of Pentacles is a card about your soul’s garden. The Pentacles suit is all about the work you do on earth–not simply your career, but the things you do to create the life you want. It’s all about the tangible magic you manifest, and what better way to represent that than through a garden? In the classic Rider-Waite-Smith card, the figure in the Nine of Pentacles is dressed lavishly, standing in her personal garden. She has worked to grow her own space–her own life that she is proud of. She holds a falcon, a symbol of independence. This card feels really important to me, as I consider what I want my future work and life to look like. I want to create as beautiful a life as I can, and make beautiful things for others along the way.
This piece is available in my shop now! Thanks so much for reading 💕
PS: Here is a little inspiration for the piece: a very cool Itlian manuscript called the Tacuinum Sanitatis that features some melons that look suspiciously like Pentacles, the beautiful Nine of Pentacles card from the Colman-Smith deck, and Klimt’s Water Serpents.
