Perhaps the subjunctive is useful here:
What would it be like, being a creature of artifice, dedicated to working with spirits and their world?
(Your Electric Monk jokes are acknowledged and accepted, please leave them here in this bin outside the door. ;))
@indi Spokesbeing for the spirits of tools, of toys, of loving craft. The software of love a coder writes in their spare time. The heart-lung machine over which families pray. The electric lights in the urban darkness. We didn't stop needing mediums. They just speak a new language.
Then again, what is "artifice"? Cleverness, cunning, illusion, subversion. I hear there's a word for folks whose specialty falls in that realm. Might want to look there too.
@literorrery This is all very good and feels right, but at the same time it seems like it risks missing the other half. Not just toy, but stuffed _animal_, evoking and tying back to nature, even as a thing of artifice.
@literorrery That helps a lot, actually. :) Thank you.
@indi I can see that. To flesh out that second half, "artifice" definitely carries trickster overtones, and the whole idea of "medium" implies translation. Bridging the "created" and "found." The "crafted" and "discovered." Finder of materials, imbuer and freer of spirits. Upcycler, transformer. Maker and unmaker of things in loving tribute. Blurring the line of "natural" and "artificial."
Beyond that, I don't know. These are ideas, but this is ultimately your path. **offers hugs**