Friday, January 7, 2011

Inside the Faerie House

For those who did not see it before, this is a very special custom Faerie House made for a very special little girl. The house had two tiny battery-operated tea lights inside, one in the main house and one in the tower. The windows are a very special material that shine all the colours of the rainbow in normal daylight, but are transparent when lit from within. The roof was specially designed to be removable to view the interior of the tiny cottage. It was not designed as a dollhouse per se, but was strong enough to withstand careful play.







Here , at last we can get a peek inside the magical, wee house. As mentioned before, the battery operated lights are quite magical... they change gently from one colour to another...here it is in the green phase. The inside of the door has a personalized plaque with the new owner's initial. The door-step is a naturally curled bit of Birch bark. The bay window to the right of the door in this image has its own felted roof that is a bit hard to see in this image.










The roof by itself. The roof was hand-felted using needle felting techniques built over a hand-built form. This roof took over 12 hours to make. The underside (not shown) was covered in Scottish Harris tweed, and then dark, sparkly yarn was needle felted onto the "brim" area to provide light blockage so that when the interior light was on, no light would "leak out" from under the roof. It worked quite well. I love that it also looks a bit like a Wizard's hat... maybe I'll make one for myself one day then I would really be camouflaged in my forest walks!





The support joists to hold up the roof are made from White Cedar branches that were peeled by the river in the spring floods. I go along the mountain streams in spring and collect the newly peeled and polished twigs. They are silky soft and smooth. I love to work with the twigs and use them in many of my constructions.

The walls were wall-papered with handmade rice paper that had various flower petal embedded in the paper. The tall vertical tube is the chimney for the fireplace, which is also the tea light. The tea light is activated by blowing a tiny breath of air down the chimney.


The walls were all decorated in such a way that you saw something special as you looked thru each window or the open door from outside. It is a bit hard to see, but here we have the edge of the bay window just visible. And the wall of flowers that decorated the tower wall (the tower is attached here ). The floor is laid with a fresh carpet of green silk leaves and a sparkly spiral is part of the floor decoration.



Here we are looking towards the other window which has a leaded glass effect. More floor leaves are visible, some with pink, sparkly edging. Amethyst coloured sparkly hearts decorate the walls here and there. The round, green silk leaves circling the room provide a soft edge for the roof to sit upon.






A last peek out the open door. This whole "room" is quite small, only about 6 in x 8 inches and only about 6 inches high. It was really hard to work in and hard to get the photos too.

I loved the miniature scale and am starting to dream about making tiny twig Faerie Furniture to go inside these rooms... but that is a whole new level of devotion.

Thanks for coming on the tour!

And, if you have read this far, may I ask for your support on my book project. I'm beginning to be a bit worried that we might not make the goal. So many people have come forward to support the project and I am so very grateful to all their contributions... but if the goal is not met, we won't be able to make the book and that would really be a big disappointment to all those who have pledged so far. Please consider telling a few of your friends and most especially any groups you belong to about the book project. Your personal recommendation for my work goes a long way to get people to take a look at the project. There are many pledge levels, some quite affordable. Each pledge really makes a difference because if the project receives a lot of activity, it will get selected to be featured on the front page of the Kickstarter web-site. This is great coverage that only happens if a project is generating buzz... so many small pledges really do count a lot!!

I need your help. Please tell your friends about the Kickstarter project, here is the link:
Greenspirit Arts Book project

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

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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.