The above picture is a corn husk doll I had made on the fly for a coworker a few years ago. She wasn't perfect, and she wasn't made with any magic intent; I had just twisted, tied, and pulled her together while chatting. I first learned to make them as a kid from people on my father's side of the family and friends. Indeed, these are not conjure, rather they are sometimes used in mountain and PA Dutch magic. Most all the time when you see them, they're nothing more than toys and folk art, but corn dollies are are a part of sympathetic magic called doll magic or poppet magic. They can also be used for protection.
Dolls, dollies, doll babies, voodoo dolls, poppets... every culture has a slightly different name for a figure that represents an actual person and is used to affect that person. Using a corn dollie as a poppet is pretty similar to the way you would construct a wax or cloth doll in conjure.You include personal concerns of the person (hair, nail trimmings, bodily fluids, scraps of worn clothing, etc) and maybe herbs appropriate to your goal (not everyone does). You might dress the doll with clothes, especially clothes *made from* the clothes of the person. The doll is baptized in the person's name and then worked on and spoken to as if it *is* that person.
I'm not sure how widespread their use in protection is, sometimes things that were once used for magic lose their meaning over several generations. I've known people, both in and outside of my family, to create corn dollie angels and pray over them for protection, hanging them on the front door or sitting them up on bookshelves. Sometimes you'll find corn dollies of angels or ladies in kitchens. I've seen corn husk angels being sold at farmers markets that I'm not sure were meant to be anything but decorations, but who knows?
