Motanka Dolls

This is a transcript from the Youtube video I posted on March 27, 2025

Hi and welcome, friends. If this is your first time here, my name is Tiffany, and I'm the international witch. Today, I'm going to be working on my April bullet Journal layout. I'm continuing to use my Reverie Journal by Mellow Days.

And this week, instead of watercolors, I'm going to be using these Primrosia dual-tip markers. I'm not going to be doing a lot of shading, so just having basic markers will work for me. The specific colors that I'm using are going to be 02, 42, 59, 69, 94, and 101. Because I'm not using watercolors, I can use these STA pigment liners because they're water resistant, not waterproof. But like I said, I'm using markers and not watercolors this time.

Now, a poppet is another word for a puppet, or it just means a doll. As a matter of fact, in the UK right now, you'll still hear people say poppet as a term of endearment. It is just another name for doll. But in the magical community, a poppet is an Effigy or a doll that's created for a specific magical purpose. All cultures from across the globe have their own version of poppets. The Pueblo people of North America used the Kachina dolls. The American indigenous tribes have the corn dolly. The Japanese use hoko dolls, and the kitchen witch is actually from Germany. The Ukrainian version of a puppet is called a Motanka doll. The name Motanka comes from the word motati, which means 'to wind' as these dolls would have been made out of fabric and just done with knots and not necessarily with any kind of needle or thread. A lot of times, the cloth was from family members of the person that this motanka doll would have been given to. Many poppets around the globe were made without faces just for simplicity's sake, but in the case of the motanka Dolls, the Ukrainian people did not add a face to the dolls because they believed that it could accidentally tie your soul to the doll.

There were so many beautiful motanka dolls that I really had a hard time narrowing down exactly what I wanted to do, but ultimately, I wound up falling in love with the color scheme and the overall design on this doll. The bright green, red, and orange just seemed to pop, and it felt so very spring and summery and cheerful.

There are many different types of motaka dolls, but they can ultimately be split into three separate groups: the ceremonial, the guardian, and the play dolls. There are many different Guardian-type dolls, and they all have different names according to their specific purpose, such as the cleansing doll to get rid of bad energy in the house. There was a 10-handed doll that was to help a Hostess in her household chores. If you wanted a successful marriage, you would put a cabbage doll in the window. A princess doll helped with family affairs. There was a fertility doll that you can give to a new couple to wish them many children, and there was also a traveling doll that you would give to someone in hopes of their safe return home. I'll leave a link in the description below to a website that goes over each of these different types of dolls and gives you their proper Ukrainian names.

Motanka dolls are always used for blessings and gaurdings. They are never used in any kind of sympathetic magic. And what I mean by the term 'sympathetic magic' is a spell or ritual using an object resembling the person you wish to have control over. This is also known as 'primitive magic' or 'imitative magic.' Some examples of sympathetic magic are using the crystals heliotrope or red jasper in a spell because they resemble blood and are thought to help blood because of their visual appearance. The most common puppet that is used for sympathetic magic would be the voodoo doll. However, that name is a misnomer as no one in the voodoo or voodou communities actually uses sympathetic magic on poppets like this. It's unfortunately a stereotype that was introduced by a white Marine captain and was perpetuated in the TV, but they have never used any kind of sympathetic magic on an effigy. They make Effigies and statues of their deities.

As a matter of fact, the only poppets that have been proven to be of sympathetic magic were Europeans, specifically the Greeks and Romans who used sympathetic magic on poppets.

Using the artwork from this month's bujo, I made a Motanka doll grimore page. If this is your first time here, then you may not know, but I offer all of my bullet journal layouts as well as grimore Pages for free download on my website. All you have to do is navigate to my homepage and sign up for my newsletter. In your email, you'll receive a code. You enter that code into the grimore section of my website, and you have unlimited access to all of my pages. Make sure to bookmark this page because I do update it frequently. All I ask is that you please don't pin anything from my password-protected site onto Pinterest, please.

I based all of my designs on Ukrainian embroidery, and at this point, I am really, really, really glad that I decided to use paint pens and markers instead of watercolors because there was so much detail that at first glance, the designs are very simplistic. However, that's very deceptive because they use so many designs. It is covered front to back on designs, and that gets very tricky.

Finally, the cover page is done, and I think my matonka doll is so cute. I love the colors.

And now, on to my schedule page. For this one, I went with more of their geometric patterns. I thought it would be easier, and well, not really. I made a couple boo boos, but you can't tell.

So for the full moon this month, we have Libra, and that is a social, diplomatic, and polite sign. And for the new moon, we have Taurus. And while Taurus is very laid-back, they can also be uncompromising, possessive, and stubborn. So, keep this in mind whenever you're talking about your spells and any goals that you want to set for this month.

Okay, and that's it for the schedule and the astrology page. And here's an overview of that.

For the final spread of this month, it's going to be my tasks, spellwork, and habit tracker pages. Now, I did do a little bit more on the sides. Well, what am I saying? I kind of overdid the images on all of my layouts. It was a difficult one this month, but I think it turned out really nice. Maybe one of these days I'll embrace the 'less is more' ideology and actually do something simple, but for now, I just keep making things more difficult on myself for no reason. Hope you enjoy it: my suffering.

Okay, and here's an overview of the finished spread. You'll notice that I did not draw any of the boxes for the Habit tracker, and that's because I have a hard time scanning in really fine lines. I will do that afterward on the computer, so it's nice and crisp for you when you download them.

Now, we're ready to do the final walkthrough. Did you enjoy this theme this month? What about the colors? Did you like how bright it is? Is there anything you would like to see for next month? I've got to admit, I'm starting to get a little stumped and a little bit of artist block. I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what I want to paint. That's why I didn't do a grimoire this month. Cause I just couldn't figure out what kind of grimore page I should paint. If you have any ideas, leave them in the comment below or just give me a big thumbs up or a heart emoji. I'd love to hear from you. Love you! Bye!