Tonic of the Woods
  • Home
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Journal
  • Buy
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Journal
  • Buy
  • Contact
Search

Beware The Banshee

7/26/2018

Comments

 
The Banshee plays a special role in the Other Crowd, and usually, she is a benign, if forbidding fairy, in the business of death warnings and the like...
Picture
But, as many folk tales from the small rural villages of Ireland can attest,  people would do good to remember there is another side to her. Treat her with disrespect or interfere with her duties and she will retaliate.
Picture
This is a dark fairy and her pallor is grey. She is made from dried grass and birch with a dried bulb of Queen Anne's Lace as her underskirt, adorned with dead flowers. She is a portal from Man's world at the moment of death to The Other Side.
Picture
She may turn her back to you, but do not turn your back to her.
Comments

The Banshee

8/16/2017

Comments

 
In July, 2017, Coastal Mountain Land Trust donated nearly a hundred slabs of ragged wood to Midcoast Maine artists for them to fashion an art piece from it. (Read more details about that here.) My husband, Justin and I collaborated on this sculpture, a suspended fairy dress, calling it The Banshee.
Picture
This art piece is named for the Irish fairy who has grown solitary with sorrow. She shows up at the moment of death and wails out her grief. Some say she is really a ghost, wronged by the ancestor of the dying.
Picture
Picture
This fairy dress measures two inches by six inches and is crafted from decayed leaf and dried brambles. The dress is suspended above the ragged wood slab with a hollow reed. Her "wings" are made from hand collected bird feathers.  Justin gave the slab a couple coats of poly stain to give it a high gloss.
But wait...it gets better. See what happens when darkness falls....
Picture
Buried beneath the wood slab is a tiny red LED light that can be clicked on and off, turning her sinister heart light on at the moment of someone's impending death. Created exclusively for Coastal Mountain Land Trust's "Ragged Wood Art Project," this fairy dress will be donated to CMLT and sold as part of their campaign to protect 1,400 acres of land on Ragged Mountain. This dress comes from the woods and it will go back to the woods.
Picture
Justin and I are actively working on a body of work this year around literary shadowboxes, altered book arts and "Wee Folk" Irish fairy tales embodied in sculpture. Our interests are on the darker side of literature designed for a show in libraries and galleries that lean toward the alternative. If you are interested in having us display our work with you, please contact us.
Comments

    Tonic of the Woods

    the inspiration behind the creations
    ​


    Photos, stories and concept ©Kay Stephens

    Where to buy one
    Look up the story behind a fairy dress by clicking on the name below

    Archives

    July 2023
    June 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    A Room Of One's Own
    Artist Receptions
    Ballet Dress
    Beach Rose Red Fairy
    Bridal Gifts
    Buttercup
    Craft Shows
    Driftwood Vases
    Edna St. Vincent Mllay
    Fairy Encounters
    Fairy Furniture
    Fairy Mirrors
    Fairy Of The Stream
    Fairy Potting Bench
    Fairy Sculptures
    Fairy Wreaths
    Fall Fairies
    Fernald's Neck Fairy
    Flapper Dresses
    Fly Away Fay
    Forest Fairy
    Home Goods
    Lady Of The Greenwood
    Lady Of The White Thorn
    Literary Dresses
    Maiden Mother Crone
    Manga Dresses
    Mania
    Miniature Furniture
    Paper Pixies
    Pine Nymph
    Pixies
    Queen Of The Crows
    River Fairies
    Shadowboxes
    Spring Fairies
    Steampunk Dresses
    Summer Fairies
    The Banshee
    The Brides
    The Celtic Fairy
    The Corvid Queen
    The Cranberry Fairy
    The Faery Maiden
    The Fairy Healer
    The Fairy Mistress
    The Fairy Nurse
    The Fallen Angel
    The Fuin Fairy
    The Gatherers
    The Honeysuckle Sidheog
    The Huntress
    The Maiden Fairy
    The Merrow
    The Queen Anne's Lace Fairy
    The Queen's Handmaiden
    The Queen's Muse
    The Reindeer Muse
    The Sentinel
    The Snow Angel
    The Solitary Fairy
    The Spring Angel
    The Spring Maiden
    The Warrior
    The Wee Sinann
    The Witch Hare
    The Yule Fairy
    Tree Shifter
    Wee Folk
    Where To Buy
    Winter Beauties
    Yuletide Fairy Collection

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Journal
  • Buy
  • Contact