Thursday, December 23, 2010

NEW Faerie House!

Greetings Everyone,

It has been FAR too long since I've made a posting here. I've been very busy with creative projects of several descriptions. The one I am most excited about is my latest Faerie House creation. This is the first house I've made that is designed to be seen inside and out. I'll give you some exterior images now and more images in a few days.

The roof is very special. It is removable and is made using the needle felting process. I'm thrilled because it is a way to bring bright colour in while still retaining the natural feel for the house. The material is custom-dyed sheep's wool. I've been searching for a material that would mimic a moss roof and I think this is finally it, only better!



The front door does open but we will have to wait for the next set of images to see that. This cottage has a sweet little tower that has a tiny flickering light inside which is visible thru the "stained glass" windows. On the Main floor we see a bump-out bay window, also with stained glass. There is a spectacular large Amethyst heart decoration just under the window. Glittering pink and lilac rhinestone hearts are tucked in the foliage that skirts the entire house.








On the back we can see more flowers in the foliage surrounding the house and up on the roof we see a leaf covered "chimney" that has a special, magical function which will be revealed in the next posting.

I'm so excited about this new direction of incorporating felted wool (and other fibers) into my constructions. They bring in colour, texture, whimsy and fun... and even more creative ideas about where I can go with this new material/technique. The felt is soft, and very easy to work with but it takes a long time to make a roof like this. This roof took approx 8-9 hours to make! But part of that was because of the need for it to be worked on all sides since it is removable and also to make the chimney hole that was a particular challenge.

But this technique gives the houses a look of refinement and finish that I've been trying to achieve for several months now. For those who have ordered custom-made houses on my book fund-raising project, this technique was developed especially for YOU !! I knew I wanted to offer my new patrons something really special and this is a great start in that direction!!

Stay tuned for more images. The inside is really rather simple, since the client wanted this for his very young daughter. But more creativity and decorating possibilities await for future projects. Creating houses that "work" inside and out is a whole new level of technical challenges since it has to look good from both the outside and the inside...and be strong enough to hold together, yet be delicate and fanciful to stay in scale. All of this has taken a LOT of hours to work out and it is mainly why it has been so long since I've posted!!

Wishing everyone a magical Solstice (belated) and Christmas... and a bountiful New Year!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is just adorable! Great Job! Merry Christmas to you!

Robyn said...

What a beautiful, magical little house!!....you have truly found your calling Sally....May your New Year be filled with joyful success!

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love this! Any chance you'll be selling one? Love, Love Love! ajyoyo@comcast.net

Anonymous said...

I would very much like to learn how you did the roof.
  Was it just used wool felting?

Sally J Smith, Environmental Artist said...

Greetings Anonymous!
Thank you for your question about the felted roof. Yes, it was done using a technique called "needle-felting". If you're not familiar with the process, one uses a specialized needle and loose, unspun wool layered onto a felt base to achieve the effect. The needle has tiny barbs on it. You move the needle up and down, by hand thru the loose wool and the needle grabs individual hairs of wool and pushes them down thru all the layers of loose wool thru the base layer of felt, anchoring them there. You keep repeating the up and down motion quickly until the whole loose wool is felted to the layers below. Adding different colored loose wool gives the patterns.

I will post a tutorial shortly here on the blog as to how I do this if you'd like to stay tuned. Thanks for the question!

Sally

Welcome to the enchanted world of Environmental art and Faerie Houses sculptures created by Sally J Smith. Here you will find photos of the artist's unique art-forms and hear some of the stories from behind the scenes as she shares with you her creative process.