Monday, July 7, 2008

My FIRST FAIRY HOUSE!

I've always been fascinated with the "Enchanted" and the "Mythical/Mystical". As a little girl, I CONSTANTLY had dreams about fairies and castles...I played in the heavily wooded, plush green woods full of ferns and moss that was one our property...when I tried my hand at drawing in my teens, it was always of fairies, mermaids, princesses, castles and the like.


NOW that I'm ALL GROWN UP~lol (do we EVER really grow up?)~I'd love to try my hand at making versions of all those "childhood dream" images come to life.

So, I'm working on my first Fairy House.
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The house itself has a leaf-thatched roof (real leaves!) which have also been coated with 'fairy dust'.

The 'faux-lamp' is a cone-cut amber stone/bead which I attached to heavy gauge wire and added a few twists for depth before drilling it into the house above the door, there's also a 1/2 bead affixed as a 'mounting' for the wire arm.

Not pictured here is a 'tinkle bell' also attached to the same type of heavy wire, which I also bent into a scroll to hold the bell.
Also, around the door is some spanish moss and a few shiney beads/baubles to attract your new fae resident.
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On the back, there is a large slice of dried apple with a large red glass bead glued into the center 'star' shape w/a gold dragonfly attached to it as well.
The leaves adorning the back are also painted w/fairy dust.
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The sides are both embellished w/leaves, an irredescent bead, spanish moss and gold dragonflies
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The base includes a small deer w/bark trim and leaf ears.
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I created the tree by first cutting my main 'trunk' out of the heavy gauge wire and then using floral wire to create the branches. The entire tree trunk was then wrapped w/thin jute string and mounted in a dried curled 'leaf' of some sort that I found during a nature walk. The 'blossoms' of the tree are actually pieces from some potpourri that I had! (I thought they were pretty and gave a nice splash of color)

Those pieces were strung onto the wire and different color bead has been added to the end of every tree branch. The ends of the green floral wire were then curled up for extra texture.
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Right now I'm working on woodburning a pattern around the base--an afterthought that I wish I would've thought of BEFORE gluing/attaching the deer and the tree to it!! (DUH!)
The finishing touch will be covering the entire base surface w/moss and adding the 'stepping stones' shown in the picture (they're not yet attached)


Comments would be great!
This is my first one, as mentioned, so I hope I'm doing the Fairies justice!