Description

The Hawthorn cloak,
Was started at the end of the white blossoms in June, and finished just as the summer solstice was cresting…
It’s made using hand spin wild yarns with a red nod to the berries at the end of the season as well as the ancestors..
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In these two photos taken on the solstice I am wearing it as an ode to the beautiful Hawthorn trees that reside on this island we now call home.
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Hawthorn is a tree with much folklore surrounding it, most especially known as a guardian of the land, a blessing tree and of course the fae.
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It is also associated with sex and death.
Sex because the blossoms exude a sex like smell and don’t has become associated with fertility and bough of blossoms were often used in marriage decoration, and for death because on the other side of the sickly sweet smell is also the smell of decomposition. Things caused by the chemical Trimethylamine that the blossoms produce.
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It is said that a lone Hawthorn is a portal or gateway to the otherworld, or the fae and that cutting down a hawthorn would cause an “accidental death”.
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The leaves and berries have also been used for centuries as heart medicine good for both your physical heart and emotional heart and I have been working with this medicine for some time now as an ally.

The shawl will come with a bottle of Hawthorn blossom tincture I made before the solstice.
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