#120: Worry Spider

When I was 15, I bought a small decorated balsam box filled with six Guatemalan worry dolls at a gift shop at Mount Rushmore. According to folklore, if you tell each doll a worry, the doll does the worrying for you, thereby giving you peace. These small talismans are given to children in some medical centers, perhaps as a testament to the power of positive thinking; they're really more like prayers in disguise.

Materials: vintage doll clothespin; embroidery thread; fabric scrap; multicolored bugle, seed, and E beads; green floral wire