Véward | Hand-Worked Ward for Sacred Space

A Véward is a small working ward created to hold and protect a place you have intentionally set apart.
 
Its name brings together vé, an Old Norse word associated with sacred or set-apart space, and ward, something placed to guard or protect. The Véward itself is a modern working piece, made for the reality of contemporary practice.
 
Sacred space does not always need to announce itself. A Véward may sit openly on an altar beneath a devotional figure, offering vessel, candle, stone, or ancestral object. It may also live quietly near a threshold, beneath a plant, on a shelf, or anywhere within the home where protection and intentional boundary are wanted.
 
To anyone else, it may simply look like an old wooden riser. You know why it is there. Each Véward is individually worked by hand. I flame the wood, sand it back to soften the newness and bring forward the grain, then finish it with beeswax. Three small wooden feet lift the piece slightly from the surface beneath it.
 
The working is carried on the underside. There I hand-burn VERND, an Old Norse word meaning protection or defense, along with my maker's mark. The top is intentionally left open so that I am not deciding what belongs at the center of someone else's practice.
What rests there is yours to choose.
 
The Véward is not a reconstruction of a historical Norse object, nor is it presented as one. It is a modern piece of working practice informed by older ideas of sacred space, protection, and the deliberate setting apart of place.
 
Approximately 5 inches across.
 
Each Véward will vary naturally in wood grain, flame pattern, shading, and hand-finishing.