![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bc0ba3e664fb4de1ecef47507ce90236b4394b000935063c9fd0be56cf64f266/Spells-for-Protection_01.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b70f5a97d1c24518afc386a81f12af4593dba409377b67836721732778e493dd/Spells-for-Protection_02.jpg)
Spells for Protection
Salt crystals grown into silk with mica and graphite, along with smoke from mugwort, juniper, and mistletoe.
13 x 13 x .25 inches
2020
13 x 13 x .25 inches
2020
Spells for Protection is a series of apotropaic drawings that blend the surrealist technique of fumage with the Scottish folk practice of saining. They are a collaboration between myself, the plants, and the minerals.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/264a8e8d748cfd032c9ac9f7e9d51e89f79285f24654ef12d15ab351ec2e7d0b/Spells-for-Protection_05.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4c1159654dcc78ecbd95b0ee7a75a36de7d63b6f99fce3cbf94ee8aa97ef80cf/Spells-for-Protection_03.jpg)
My work with other-than-humans is often antiphonal—one gesture invites another, a call invites a response.
In this case, I invite the plant smoke to make marks on the silk and then I respond to these marks by drawing with graphite and mica powder. The drawings are submerged in a bath where the salt molecules respond to the smoke and pigments on the surface of the fabric as they grow into the silk fibers. The spell is complete when I choose to remove the drawings from the bath.
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/46fb46c92b691dbae7f4c14160921cf0fa92223e076f2ca9932289467ee6fc83/Margaux-Crump_Spells-for-Protection_04_DETAIL-copy.jpg)