I love making Wee Folk fairy dresses. I love making tiny shadowboxes. Like cookies in cream, I combined them both. This is The Witch Hare, a fragile dress made from dried grass and cattail fluff perched in a shadowbox on a bed of dark green moss with two sprouting mushrooms. Watch. Here she is. The Hare Witching Hour. Behind The Curtain. Had to learn how to learn miniature wiring. Here is the Witch Hare in her natural element.
I live in Maine, which inspires so many writers and artists, and here, made in a cigar box, is a miniature 5 inch x 4 inch "Studio of One's Own" for the artist in your life or for yourself. A two-inch watercolor portrait of where the mountains meet the sea sits on a tiny wooden easel. This postage stamp view, comes from the imagination of local Mainer Justin Stephens. He also handcrafted the little easel that holds it, along with the palette (the size of a fingernail) and minuscule brush. On the studio's wall hangs a portrait of Mt. Katahdin (which is actually a vintage postcard). This beautiful, one-of-a-kind keepsake is a reminder of unsurpassed beauty in Maine. We only make these one at a time, so check out our Etsy page to see if there's one still available.
Here we go...a new one! In 1929, Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own" imagined a literal and figurative space for women writers. As a writer myself, I made this miniature room out of a vintage cigar box that imagines that space. The tiny furniture is handmade: a rustic ladder back chair and a simple Shaker writing desk, as well as a tiny cork board and a "picture window" made from a vintage postcard of a lighthouse on Pemaquid Point in Maine. When you have a room like this, you need a beautiful view. On the desk is a little blotter with inkwell and pad of paper, a stack of mail, a marked up manuscript, a pot of sunflowers and a bottle of wine with a glass. I only make these one at at a time so check out our Etsy page to see if one is still available.
After another nor'easter blew through, piling up two feet of snow everywhere in Maine, there were pockets of arctic blue in the snowbanks when I happened upon this one, hiding. I had a closer look and confirmed that indeed, I'd found a wee Witch Hare, tucked amongst the banks. Click here to see the story of the one I'd found last spring. This one, made from dried grass bodice and a gone-to-seed cattail skirt is adorned with dried field flowers. She is one of the "Others" and I suddenly grew cold as the snow. She did not care for me looking down at her and so I walked away.
March is the month of celebrating Celtic legends and lore, such as the history behind St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland and to commemorate this day, I made this wee fairy dress in the midst of a nor'easter. While it was a whiteout outside for nearly 18 hours, piling up over a foot, I wanted to bring the beauty of Ireland's lush green landscape into this dress with dark green reindeer moss over a birch bodice. These are a lovely little gift for the Irish person in your life and for St. Patrick's Day and can be found on my Etsy page. I can make them to order. Pictured below are three of my most Irish green miniature fairy dresses all propped up by vintage tonic bottles.
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Tonic of the Woods
the inspiration behind the creations Photos, stories and concept ©Kay Stephens
Look up the story behind a fairy dress by clicking on the name below
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