Pastoral Crafting: Peg Disciples

The curse of being a pastor with hobbies is the lack of time you get to do said hobbies if you aren’t intentional about carving out time. For the last 6 months, however, I have folded my hobbies into my pastoral duties and ignited a fire inside of myself. Holy Week (especially Good Friday), Vacation Bible School, and the peg dolls have all been sources of creativity that spiritually filled me.

Disclaimer: If you care extensively about historically accurate clothing or aesthetics, this post will not be for you. The character designs were built entirely on “vibes.”

Since Holy Week of 2024, I have been on the lookout for Bible character dolls or action figures. I have been on a journey to incorporate play into our worship space to include kids and neurodivergent minds to engage with their faith. Much to my dismay, there was nothing even close to affordable for a small country church. Fortunately, I am a crafter with ADHD and a “How hard can it be?” attitude. I turned to Amazon, yes, the evil Bezos empire, and purchased some wood peg dolls. (unaffiliated link)

The first rendition was Jesus, the original 12, and Paul & Matthias. They were imperfect, and I didn’t have any women represented. I was satisfied for the moment; ministry was calling my attention to other duties.

Maybe it was a year or only 6 months later, I finally got myself organized enough to create more peg dolls. Here are some slightly better photos of all the dolls. The guys got a few updates (because of the lack of sanding I did; they were already showing signs of wear), and now we have some of the original female disciples from the Gospels.

I’ve learned a lot about this medium. I loved using acrylic paint for it’s quick drying properties and ability to layer colors. However, I really should have sanded the pegs first. I tried to work on the guys too fast, and the paint is muddy in a few spots. I am considering putting a clear-coat varnish on the dolls, hoping to protect the paint.

Dolls include:
- Jesus (heart on his chest)
- Mother Mary (heart on her chest)
- The 12
  - the fishermen/inner circle
    - Peter (fish & keys)
    - Andrew (fish)
    - Sons of Zebedee: (fish & lightning bolts)
      - James (the Great/Elder)
      - John
  - Judas Iscariot (bag of money)
  - Philip
  - Thomas/Didymus
  - Bartholomew/Nathaniel
  - Matthew/Levi
  - Jude the Zealot
  - Simon the Zealot
  - James of Alphaeus/ James the Less
- The women
  - Mary Magdalene (fancy clothes & a money bag)
  - Mary of Bethany (scroll & pen)
  - Martha of Bethany (apron)
  - Susanna
  - Joanna
  - Salome
  - Mary of Clopas
- Acts Characters
  - Paul (scroll & chains)
  - Matthias

If you have ideas of items the other characters could carry in their hands or be represented on their body, let me know! I created these from memory and would like to add more details.

I am placing an order for a few more dolls, including a few different sizes. Naturally, my ADHD wants to go all in, therefore i’ve started making a list of future peg dolls.

Near Future Peg Dolls:
- Gospel characters: woman at the well, healed woman, man born blind, John the Baptist, Pharisees, Sadducees, Roman officials, King Herod (Luke 2), Herod Aggrippa (Easter), Zacheus, Elizabeth & Zechariah, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea
- Acts & the Epistles – Lydia, Priscilla & Aquilla, Phoebe, John Mark, Luke, Timothy, Onesimus, Philemon, Stephen, Eunice, Lois, Syntyche & Euodia, Barnabas, Cornelius, Dorcas, Ethiopian Eunuch, James brother of Jesus, Philip (not the apostle) & his daughters
Eventually: Hebrew Scriptures Peg Dolls
- Abraham & Sarah
- Moses & Zipporah
- Aaron & Miriam
- Jochebed (A, M & M mom)
- Isaac & Rebecca
- Jacob/Israel + Rachel & Leah, Zilpah & Bilhah
- Hagar & Ishmael
- David, Saul, Jonathan, Micael, Abigail
- Dark stories:
  - Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel
  - Noah & Family

Okay, I had to stop listing characters… I was about to list everyone in the Bible. You get the point.

Tell me if you’ve made any peg dolls. Do you have tips or tricks?

Rocking chair upgrade & “The Green Room”plans

So we bought a rocking chair at The Original Treasure Mart in Kokomo, In. It was on their discount floor for about $50. The structure of the chair was amazing. The ONLY downfall was the weird orange cushions.

Rocking Chair before: This chair was down in my craft room for the longest time. Our dog Dexter made it his bed. Now it’s upstairs and cats make it their bed. We used blankets to cover the nasty orange look most days.

We decided to bring it home and research how to reupholster it.

I cannot tell you that this will be a DIY instructional because I am not certain i want you to copy my method. I kind of made things up as I went with the knowledge of some blogs and YouTube videos in the back of my head.

I ordered fabric through JoAnn’s. Real talk: This chair & this room is for a some-day baby. Nope, we aren’t pregnant right now… but that doesn’t mean I can’t plan and set up this room now. Right? So when I say I ordered fabric. I ORDERED A TON! Yep I got 10 yards of this fabric. This room is going to be full of this stuff!!!

Ignore my super dark & thick eyebrows…. I was experimenting with filling them in during COVID-19….
Side note: Did you know that some of their fabrics can be customized? I found a pattern that I loved but did not love the colors. I was able to customize the colors and choose the type of material. Then it was mailed to my home.

If you’ve read my About or paid any attention to my posts you may notice that we have a Great Dane named Freyja. Well… long story short she partially ripped up a king size mattress pad. Yeah, like a $200+ one. *Grumbles* the good news? I was able to cut that and use it as additional support of the nasty orange cushions.

Here’s a basic break down of what I did: (If you actually want instructions then check out this woman. She does this way prettier than me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2bxjaND1uE) Josh cut some plywood for me. I cut the foam. I stained the plywood. I laid out the roll of fabric, set the foam on it and made a plan for how much extra would be used to wrap the fabric around the cushion. I cut the fabric. I cut batting. I used spray adhesive to attach the batting to the fabric and then the batting to the foam. I stacked the orange cushion and plywood on top. I folded in the raw edges of fabric and stapled around the wood. Whooooo! It’s done.

Rocking Chair after. There’s the custom ordered fabric. If you were curious, the material originally looked like this: https://www.joann.com/summer-fantasy-forest/78027.html#icn=navigation&ici=customizable-fabric&prefn1=productGroup&prefv1=Product&q=forest&srule=Test-V2-Search-Rule&start=1

Yes, this chair has imperfections. But DAMN! I love this rocking chair even more now that it has more cushion and better fabric. I can’t wait to make curtains to match. I may make a contrasting throw pillow to go with it.

Want to know more about this room? We are obviously making it into a nursery. The theme? Storybook/Whimsical forest. Think Hundred Acre wood meets Narnia meets Fangorn Forest. (Shout out to Tree Beard!)

This green room will slowly become a beautiful forest.

Here’s a silly video I took right after the room was painted. This is what we started with. Yes, I’m coy about my plans in the video. I wasn’t ready to blatantly say “We’re trying!”

Honestly, I didn’t want a nursery that was clearly “boy” or “girl.” I wanted it to have enough flexibility that our hopeful kiddos could make this space their own. Do they like fairies and flowers? Do they like nights and dragons? Do they like sweet woodland creatures? So much can happen in the imagination when you start with a forest.

We gathered things that we had already on hand that would prepare our little one for an adventure. Swords, a wizards staff, etc. Then I planned out some art I wanted to make which would incorporate some of my favorite quotes from books.

I still have quite a few more of these to make!

We bought some art at ComicCon last year that are some prints from David Wenzel, who did some art for The Hobbit. One is of Smaug sleeping on his pile of gold with Bilbo blending into the background and the other is of the shire.

Most recent walk through.

Cool mirror we found at The Original Treasure Mart.

The room is continuing to develop and I can’t wait to show you more progress. But here’s where we are for now.