Domowik (Domovoi) #2 - Trust The Process
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Domowik 2 sitting on a bookshelf. Made of 99.99% needle felted wool with a pair of clear, glass eyes, and standing 5 inches tall, with peach skin (clun forest wool), white horns (shetland wool) and bright white, curly beard and hair (cotswold wool). His hands hide his belly, and he has very, very short, stumpy legs - which are mainly just feet.
Hello there! Domowik speaking.
(pronounced doh-moh-veek, with short o sounds like in the word “thought”)
You may or may not remember me from my first attempt at felt presentation back in… oh…
Needless to say, things have changed. I’ve done a bit of self-improvement. I’m feeling more myself now. I’d even go as far as to say that I even look quite a bit better, though I definitely didn’t look half-bad back then! But, as with all things, there’s always change. There’s always growth. The way we appear now will not be the same as we did in the past.
I’m speaking as myself now as well - the creatress.
Exploring other media and working through courses that are seemingly unrelated do, in fact, have an impact on future work. Back in the summer of 2020, I took a mushroom-doll specimen course, which involved making a polymer face. Even though this face is clearly not polymer, I struggled less with the face this time. The creation process was still a bit hilariously creepy at times. If you will, please observe… also please ignore the chipped nail polish - I’m out of nail polish remover and really need to get some more.
Domowik 2 work in progress
By the way, those weren’t his first feet/legs. I had to chop those off and try again. Even now, years later, I’m still learning. I still make mistakes. It gets a bit easier every time, but it’s still a process.
For those of you who are curious which scissors I recommend, it’s these. They give a really nice, clean cut, as you can see below.
Look ma, no legs!
One thing I pondered during the creation process was how, for the vast majority of the time it took me to create this, I didn’t know if he was going to turn out okay. I did to some degree, because if there’s anything you learn after years of needle felting experience, it is to trust the process. But I couldn’t guarantee that he’d turn out. I couldn’t even picture what he was going to look like in the end.
I pretty much never know what the things I make are going to look like when I’m done with them, because for me (personally) that is also part of the process.
What works for me might not necessarily work for you. It’s also easier to trust the process with practice and experience. That being said, I find that the path from planned to improv is a much shorter one with something like needle felting as opposed to something like sewing an article of clothing. I am amazed at how someone can just write down a few measurements and come up with something that’s functional, fits well and looks great.
Not knowing what to expect is what keeps me going through to the end. Otherwise, it’s like stopping a movie halfway through… I want to know how it ends! And, like movies, some endings are predictable, some are totally unexpected, and some just leave you wondering “now why did you have to go and ruin a perfectly good thing?” One movie that comes to mind is Dreamcatcher (2003) - I enjoyed it until they introduced aliens into the plot. Really? ALIENS? No, I hadn’t read the book. Even Stephen King hates it (and the book).
I still personally struggle with follow-through right before the end - when I’m at about the 80%-90% mark (as I look over at my stumpwork alphabet sampler with 3 letters left to complete that I put down back in October…). Where I struggle most is with getting started on new projects, and then again when I’m almost done. This is part of why I lean heavily on other tricks like telling my close friends what I’m working on and when I plan to have it completed - and I share photos with them of my progress.
This works about 90% of the time, because now I have no choice but to finish it. Sometimes it doesn’t, and I need to be careful with balancing more challenging projects with less challenging ones. Otherwise (and this has happened a number of times) I end up setting myself up to fail by overwhelming myself with too many challenging projects, telling everyone I’m going to do them, and then I not only have to deal with the personal disappointment but other people’s disappointments in me as well. I will say, the times this has happened, everyone has been extremely understanding. That does make it easier, but I still beat myself up. Also, it’s never happened on a commissioned piece - I don’t take on commissions beyond my skill level.
That’s when I take a break, ice my emotional bruises, dust myself off, and find the courage to try again. This is part of what I’d been going through this past year, though this time, other external factors had a major impact on my ability to create things. Sometimes that emergence is encouraged by the gentle nudging of friends. Either way, I always come back to my art. Stephen King kept writing after the Dreamcatcher flop.
“Speak quietly to yourself, and promise there will be better days. Whisper gently to yourself, and provide assurance that you really are extending your best effort. Console your bruised and tender spirit with reminders of many other successes. Offer comfort in practical and tangible ways - as if you were encouraging your dearest friend. Recognize that on certain days the greatest grace is that the day is over, and you get to close your eyes. Tomorrow comes more brightly...”
How many of you give up well before then, because your project doesn’t look right? How many of you post a work-in-progress photo asking for help, only to get the answer “just keep stabbing.” It’s not going to look right for the majority of the project. It won’t look right until it’s done.
I do admittedly feel a bit uncertain about giving any advice when I’m still struggling in other aspects of my life at this moment. This advice that I’m sharing now is one thing I am certain of. With art, you have to trust the process. You have to follow your intuition. And sometimes, you have to cut the legs off and start over.
Domowik sitting on the shelf next to some tea and the cookbook “Kuchnia polska”
I’m sharing this with you so that you don’t feel alone. Despite years of experience with this medium (and sharing it quite publicly at that) - I still struggle with self doubt at times. I struggle with it before I get started. I struggle with it during the entire process.
“No! Try not.
Do! Or do not.
There is no try.”
That quote is my approach to my art. It doesn’t make the fears and self-doubts go away, but I don’t let them hinder my work. It doesn’t mean I don’t screw up. It doesn’t mean I don’t fail at times. Sometimes, looking back, I realize that the projects I think I “failed” were never meant to be completed - because either my direction had changed, or I learned what I needed to learn in the process to apply to another project down the road.
What I mean by that last statement is the fact that a lot of artists practice their skills in their sketchbooks. For every finished art hanging on the wall, there are dozens upon dozens of sketchbooks in their studio exploring things like texture, line weights, shading, color, themes, etc. There is no needle felting “sketchbook” - some of your work will be sketchbook art. Some things will never be finalized. They don’t need to be. As long as you keep stabbing, you’re practicing and improving your skill.
There were times where all I did was grab a bit of wool with no project in mind whatsoever and just take a stab at it. I filmed that process while making the 3D needle felting guide on this blog. There was no plan - I was just showing the techniques. If you’re starting out and feeling discouraged, spend some time doing just that - just a stab meditation. No plan, no end goal, work on the process.
And now onto the project I’ve been sharing in this post. Before I show you a few more photos, I wanted to tell you more about the domowik itself.
What is a domowik?
I wrote about the domowik a bit in the blog post about the first one I made (linked at the beginning of the post), but I’d come to learn quite a bit more about this wonderful little being, thanks to coming across a few new sources.
The domowik (or domovoi in Russian, and has other similarly sounding names in other Slavic languages) is a friendly spirit and household guardian in Slavic folklore. While some believe they are a separate type of being, others believe they are the spirits of deceased ancestors who, instead of passing on to the afterlife, chose to remain on the Earthly plane to assist their descendants.
There isn’t just one such helpful being - there are quite a few, and there is a hierarchy. The domowik is the boss of them, or butler if you will, and as such he was a respected protector of the home- he’s the one who oversees the other helpful beings in the home and out in the field, and makes sure they are doing their jobs. All he requested in return is some nourishment, in the form of an offering of food (some say clothing as well), and in return he kept the family healthy and safe from harm. I’d say it’s definitely a good idea to have a happy domowik as an extra safety measure during a pandemic. In fact, it was imperative that a family made sure their domowik cared for, because he directly impacted their daily lives.
Yes, I will be introducing the other helpful household beings in the future!
Most never see him. Some believed that if you did see him, it was because he showed himself to warn you of impending death. Those who have seen him would say he was a tiny, stodgy dziadek (grandfather), with long, thick, grey/white hair and worn and tattered clothing. Mine are nude, because I don’t think an invisible non-human creatures cares much about fashion. Some say they could shapeshift into animals such as family pets - which I suppose would make it easier to hide in plain sight.
As you may notice, mine has horns - later descriptions of the domowik added the horns and tail as Christianity became mainstream in those cultures, largely the result of a whole lot of misinterpretation and misunderstanding, as well as a concerted effort to make any heretical beliefs seem evil and scary. I added the horns (but no tail) on the original as a way to differentiate it from gnomes, which are a popular subject for needle felting, and the client who commissioned this piece requested for the horns to be on this one as well. In none of the beliefs or descriptions does the domowik have horns or a tail. I used artistic license to add them initially, but also made an effort to make the domowik look cute and harmless, because I like the juxtaposition of the sweet and “scary” elements. Any future renditions, however, I may do without the horns.
Now, it was absolutely possible to upset and offend your domowik. After all, nobody deserves disrespect, especially not those who dedicate their existence to protecting family and home, and making sure everything runs smoothly. One should keep the home clean (he is not your maid), and keep him fed, and, well, you know… run things by him when you make any changes like rearranging your furniture. Otherwise, he will get annoyed at this lack of respect and start doing things like pranking the family or lashing out.
Should you move to another home, you absolutely should notify your domowik and let him know where you’re going, because there will be problems. First of all, you might assume your domowik came with you when he didn’t (so no more guardian), and second, the next family that moves in is going to have trouble.
As you can imagine, if you have an existing domowik, and a new domowik move in, there will be battles. Lots of battles. The previous domowik will be understandably upset that he was not informed of the move, and now there is a new domowik trying to take over his role, and the family will experience this in the form of what we would refer to as poltergeist-type activity.
Speaking of moving, this sweet little guy was commissioned as a house-warming gift for new homeowners. I wanted to share him with you before I package him up and send him on his way to his new home.
I hope you enjoyed my post! If you did, feel free to share and leave a comment below. I am taking my art in a new direction - one that incorporates a lot more Slavic folklore and mythology, and I’ll be sharing the stories with them as I go!
