Just Hanging out

Hi Everyone!  These days I am working furiously to get all the final images edited and prepared for Amber Lotus' 2016 calendar! There have been quite a few sweet new houses made this year and as promised, I'm happy to share them with you here on this blog.

   A couple of weeks ago I was out in the forest scouting for locations when I found a beautiful fallen tree trunk that was entirely covered in moss. It was like a green velvet log, a big one! The tree had been a large maple in its former life and now it was home for a garden of moss. When I checked out the other side of the log I was amazed to see a single "Artist's fungus" on the other side. You can read about them HERE. They are also called shelf mushrooms and are the typical place where you can imagine a Faerie wanting to build their home, so I made one for them! ( I just love my job!)

 I took some measurements and some photos and went home that night to begin. It took several days to make this special little house. The forest location was very dark so I knew the house had to be bright and simple so it would photograph well. I wanted some really nice windows since the view from up on the fungus would be really nice for whoever lived inside. I used some of the shiny Faerie film to make the windows be a teenie bit reflective as I hoped it would pick up any ambient light and make the lattice windows more visible.

 These windows are really tiny.... the big one in the middle is about 1.5 inches high. I knew I wanted moss for the roof features so I made the house with places to receive the moss once it was ready to set up. The door had a similar design to echo the elegant window and I made a tiny gable which could pop into the roof if it seemed like a good idea once I got there. I took the time to make the door be an operational one since I may decide to fully finish this house for sale later on down the road.

I added a great little dried Poppy pod for a "lamp" and the house was all set to be photographed.... it "only" took me about 3 days to make this little structure, but part of the challenge was because it was so small!

 Then a good day came for shooting I was all set. I took the house out and set it up on the shelf fungus, it fit perfectly and I was so happy. I did indeed find some great moss for the roofs nearby and some lovely Partridge Berry vines that I thought would look great trailing off over the edge of the fungus. But it needed a wee bit of colour.... luckily I had brought along some snippets of Anise Hyssop which happens to be in full bloom just now so I added them into the arrangement and it looked a wee bit better. Then found some sweet little blossoms and some other bits to finish the "landscaping". I set up the camera and took a ton of photos. The sun never shone directly on that side of the log which is why I suppose the shelf mushroom had started to grow there. But using my portable fabric reflector I was able to shine just enough light on the wee house to get some good pics. Here is the best one... enjoy!