Hello dear humans from faerieland! I finally finished the chariot for the God Dolls so I had to show it off. :)

I still have to make the Black of Sanglain (the second horse), but the chariot itself is done. :) In these photos, filling in for Laeg and Sé (two dolls I haven't made yet) are Nuada and Lugh, with Morrigan flying overhead with her raven friend. :D

So you know how there's a stereotype of the tinkerer/builder/crafter who keeps a bunch of random objects and people ask them why, and they say "it might be useful one day" but they often never use them? I use my random objects. Because the chariot is made almost entirely from them! LOL

The woven side panel that is mostly green is a square I wove on a square loom around 20+ years ago; the woven floor panel is the first swatch I ever made on my rigid heddle loom as a test; the argyle that wraps around two sides is two holey socks; the cream colored fabric on the inside of the front is a scrap fabric.

The structure that those pieces of fabric are sewn onto is comprised of a headband on one side, a broken scalp massager on the other (that's the side with the copper colored pole sticking out the top that has their banner on it and the reins are hooked onto when not in use), the front is a small rectangle plastic hanger and empty thread spools, the bottom is the top frame from one of those shoe racks that hangs from a closet rod.

The red right hand of Ulster, because this is the chariot of CuChulainn and Laeg, the dolls I haven't made yet

The yoke is two wooden rulers (there are also corks on that and on the bottom parts of the chariot box); the blue part of the harness setup is part of the seal that had cracked and broken from a tupperware type box; the pink harness/reins I made on a spool knitter.

The axle is the bottom of a wooden hanger that broke, and the bits that hold it to the box of the cart is a mishmash of keychain parts, tabs from cat food cans, the inner spool from a roll of dental floss, and glue. Lots of glue. One of the wheels has about two sticks of glue gun glue on it, trying to reinforce it after it popped loose.

The wheels are brass bangle bracelets, lids from reuseable cups from our favorite pizza place in college, more blue from the tupperware, a thread spool, a jack (because it is the scythed chariot, so that's the pointy bit sticking out of their wheels meant to tear up somebody else's wheels), more keychain bits, foam, a zip tie, and ...yeah, so much glue. LOL

There is ribbon and beads and bells and embroidery floss and did I mention glue?

Here we see the Gray of Macha all harnessed in and ready to go, waiting for her partner, the Black of Sanglain. Yes, she is proportionately smaller than the chariot or the dolls, but I love her and think she's adorable. She's made of air dry clay, paint, and yarn for hair which is of course attached with glue!

Lugh has a sword and is ready to do battle

Nuada has the reins and is driving the chariot

Plenty of room to maneuver inside the cart

Believe it or not, as mishmash as my chariot construction is, I tried to remain somewhat accurate to ancient chariot construction in that they were made as a frame with hides and sinew stretched over it, not a solid heavy wooden thing like you might imagine. The axle didn't have suspension, the floor of the cart was the suspension, because it had give and you could bounce around on it, so standing up, the floor and your knees were what kept you from being jostled around on the uneven terrain. Like this: https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/scottish-history-and-archaeology/newbridge-chariot-reconstruction/

You better believe there will be more videos. ;)

Thanks for checking out my work! Have a good weekend, everyone! :)