About
Tonic of the Woods is the side project of Maine author Kay Stephens (of the book and movie The Ghost Trap). She makes hand-crafted shadowboxes and miniature literary sculptures and dioramas using natural forest materials, old books, wood, and repurposed items,
Miniature Writing Studios & Literary Shadowboxes
The following exhibition spanned more than seven years to create. Growing up in the '80s and '90s, when the Internet wasn't society's primary form of entertainment, being an author was still a viable path. Today, 46% (nearly half!) of the American population doesn't even bother to read books anymore. These are custom, one-of-a-kind miniature scenes made from upcycled items or original frames. Each piece comes with a story (some from Kay's original works) to lure the viewer deeper into the scene. The enchantment of each tiny scene may spur people to pick up the book it was based on and read.
Room of One's Own Book Nook
An antique book is the backdrop for an aspiring writer.
Materials
This 1938 copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations serves as a three-dimensional book nook for the 1929 Virginia Woolf essay "A Room of One's Own," imagining a literal and figurative space for women writers. A closer look reveals the tiny desk and chair, a blotter, a dictionary, a potted plant, a fresh notepad, a couple of books for inspiration, a glass of wine, and an old-fashioned telephone. P.S. Virginia Woolf's quotes are on p. 877, but there’s no mention of her famous quote: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
This 1938 copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations serves as a three-dimensional book nook for the 1929 Virginia Woolf essay "A Room of One's Own," imagining a literal and figurative space for women writers. A closer look reveals the tiny desk and chair, a blotter, a dictionary, a potted plant, a fresh notepad, a couple of books for inspiration, a glass of wine, and an old-fashioned telephone. P.S. Virginia Woolf's quotes are on p. 877, but there’s no mention of her famous quote: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
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Story
What…is that confounded quote?
It was right at the tip of her tongue, on the edge of her memory, just outside in the shadow of aphasia.
The dictionary was no help. It was that Virginia Woolf quote, about needing a Room of One’s Own, but how did the sentence actually go?
She thought of calling her agent, but quickly nixed the idea. The woman was busy enough; she didn’t need the interruption.
She uncorked the bottle of wine, listening to her kids scream in the next room the way they did when they were horsing around, unchecked; her husband was doing nothing about it. This was her time. She’d made that plain. One hour: leave me alone. But so, far, in the ten minutes she’d been staring at that blank note pad, her mind fixated on starting the work with that quote, she’d produced nothing.
She took a sip of wine and leaned back in the writing chair. A woman needed a room of her own, just to think. Or rather, to drown out the words, the screams the demands, the chores…and not think.
Just let the words come.
What…is that confounded quote?
It was right at the tip of her tongue, on the edge of her memory, just outside in the shadow of aphasia.
The dictionary was no help. It was that Virginia Woolf quote, about needing a Room of One’s Own, but how did the sentence actually go?
She thought of calling her agent, but quickly nixed the idea. The woman was busy enough; she didn’t need the interruption.
She uncorked the bottle of wine, listening to her kids scream in the next room the way they did when they were horsing around, unchecked; her husband was doing nothing about it. This was her time. She’d made that plain. One hour: leave me alone. But so, far, in the ten minutes she’d been staring at that blank note pad, her mind fixated on starting the work with that quote, she’d produced nothing.
She took a sip of wine and leaned back in the writing chair. A woman needed a room of her own, just to think. Or rather, to drown out the words, the screams the demands, the chores…and not think.
Just let the words come.
"I have a best seller in me, I just know it."
A vintage jewelry box is converted into a miniature 1930s dive bar where a failed writer drinks away his talent.
Materials
An upcycled jewelry box serves as a miniature pub. Inside are a handmade bar and stools. A row of whiskey, wine, and glasses sit on the back of the bar. The main focal point is a miniature manuscript with a glass of red wine and a burning cigarette beside it . When you work so hard on your manuscript and the wine glass tips over, you're like, 'I hate my life.' Hidden panels on the sides of the box contain rejection slips from famous writers.
An upcycled jewelry box serves as a miniature pub. Inside are a handmade bar and stools. A row of whiskey, wine, and glasses sit on the back of the bar. The main focal point is a miniature manuscript with a glass of red wine and a burning cigarette beside it . When you work so hard on your manuscript and the wine glass tips over, you're like, 'I hate my life.' Hidden panels on the sides of the box contain rejection slips from famous writers.
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Story
An editor at Alfred A. Knopf rejected Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar twice. The first time, submitted under her pseudonym, he stated, “Reject recommended: I’m not sure what Heinemann sees in this first novel unless it is a kind of youthful American female brashness. But there certainly isn’t enough genuine talent for us to take notice.”
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Donald A. Wollheim of Ace Books rejected Stephen King's The Running Man in 1972. He stated, "“We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."
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An unknown editor rejected F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, stating, “You’d have a decent book if you’d get rid of that Gatsby character."
An editor at Alfred A. Knopf rejected Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar twice. The first time, submitted under her pseudonym, he stated, “Reject recommended: I’m not sure what Heinemann sees in this first novel unless it is a kind of youthful American female brashness. But there certainly isn’t enough genuine talent for us to take notice.”
**
Donald A. Wollheim of Ace Books rejected Stephen King's The Running Man in 1972. He stated, "“We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."
**
An unknown editor rejected F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, stating, “You’d have a decent book if you’d get rid of that Gatsby character."
Hemingway's Lost Suitcase
An antique accordion baffle to a camera serves as a window into 1920s France.
Materials
The shadowbox is an accordion baffle of an antique camera. Inside is a miniature desk, a chair, a suitcase, a handmade coat, and cap. The second shadowbox, lit from behind by a micro LED, is a vintage postcard of the 1920s train station in Paris, the Gare de Lyon.
The shadowbox is an accordion baffle of an antique camera. Inside is a miniature desk, a chair, a suitcase, a handmade coat, and cap. The second shadowbox, lit from behind by a micro LED, is a vintage postcard of the 1920s train station in Paris, the Gare de Lyon.
Story
In December 1922, Ernest Hemingway was in Switzerland on assignment as a correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star when he asked his first wife, Hadley, to bring him his first novel, untitled but rumored to be the juvenalia of A Farewell To Arms to a Paris train station to meet him. She packed up his manuscript in a suitcase, including the carbons. While the train was still standing in the Gare de Lyon, Hadley went to buy a bottle of Evian water for the trip. She left the suitcase unattended on the train station platform. When she came back, it was gone. This shadowbox titled "Hemingway's Lost Suitcase" imagines the thief brought the suitcase to his Parisian tenement opposite the Gare de Lyon to examine the contents of what he thought would be valuable. When he realized it contained meaningless papers, he threw them to the floor. The original manuscript was never recovered, and Hemingway rewrote much of his lost war writings from memory. A Farewell to Arms was published in 1929.
In December 1922, Ernest Hemingway was in Switzerland on assignment as a correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star when he asked his first wife, Hadley, to bring him his first novel, untitled but rumored to be the juvenalia of A Farewell To Arms to a Paris train station to meet him. She packed up his manuscript in a suitcase, including the carbons. While the train was still standing in the Gare de Lyon, Hadley went to buy a bottle of Evian water for the trip. She left the suitcase unattended on the train station platform. When she came back, it was gone. This shadowbox titled "Hemingway's Lost Suitcase" imagines the thief brought the suitcase to his Parisian tenement opposite the Gare de Lyon to examine the contents of what he thought would be valuable. When he realized it contained meaningless papers, he threw them to the floor. The original manuscript was never recovered, and Hemingway rewrote much of his lost war writings from memory. A Farewell to Arms was published in 1929.
Japanese Tea Room
A 1980s wooden CD case is converted into a secluded tea room.
Materials
This Japanese tea room, built into an old CD case, is based on Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata’s Thousand Cranes--a story of desire, regret, and the almost sensual nostalgia that binds the living and the dead. The elements incorporated into this shadowbox include the handmade low table and Tatami mat with floor pillows, the hot water kettle, and tea bowls. Behind this scene is the Tana (utensil stand) with "the wastewater receptacle (kensui) on the bottom shelf and the water ladle (hishaku) and lit rest (futaoki) can be displayed (kazaru) on the top." To the left is the Ro, a sunken firepit. The room's decorations are sparse, with only two plants and a hanging scroll. Much of the renovations to the original box were done by hand, with a hanging shelf and rice paper, beautifully lit up by an LED light from the back.
This Japanese tea room, built into an old CD case, is based on Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata’s Thousand Cranes--a story of desire, regret, and the almost sensual nostalgia that binds the living and the dead. The elements incorporated into this shadowbox include the handmade low table and Tatami mat with floor pillows, the hot water kettle, and tea bowls. Behind this scene is the Tana (utensil stand) with "the wastewater receptacle (kensui) on the bottom shelf and the water ladle (hishaku) and lit rest (futaoki) can be displayed (kazaru) on the top." To the left is the Ro, a sunken firepit. The room's decorations are sparse, with only two plants and a hanging scroll. Much of the renovations to the original box were done by hand, with a hanging shelf and rice paper, beautifully lit up by an LED light from the back.
Story
(based on a book review by Jan Hooks in 2017)
"Even when he reached Kamakura and the Engakuji Temple, Kikuji did not know whether or not he would go to the tea ceremony. He was already late."
"It isn’t often that I read a book and don’t want to review it for fear of shattering its beauty. Thousand Cranes is such a book... From the very first lines, I was hooked. There is no introduction, no scene setting, Kawabata drops you straight into the story.
As to the plot, it’s a story of love, obsession, jealousy, and shame. Kikuji responds to an invitation from a woman who was briefly his late father’s mistress to attend the annual tea ceremony in memory of his father....He moves his attention to Fumiko, pursuing her against her wishes...A tea ceremony forced on Kikuji and Fumiko demonstrates the ways in which jealous women hate other women. It’s sad to read because it’s so accurate.
A beautiful allegory centered on two tea bowls says more about the feelings between Kikuji and Fumiko than any declarations of emotion and sensuality."
(based on a book review by Jan Hooks in 2017)
"Even when he reached Kamakura and the Engakuji Temple, Kikuji did not know whether or not he would go to the tea ceremony. He was already late."
"It isn’t often that I read a book and don’t want to review it for fear of shattering its beauty. Thousand Cranes is such a book... From the very first lines, I was hooked. There is no introduction, no scene setting, Kawabata drops you straight into the story.
As to the plot, it’s a story of love, obsession, jealousy, and shame. Kikuji responds to an invitation from a woman who was briefly his late father’s mistress to attend the annual tea ceremony in memory of his father....He moves his attention to Fumiko, pursuing her against her wishes...A tea ceremony forced on Kikuji and Fumiko demonstrates the ways in which jealous women hate other women. It’s sad to read because it’s so accurate.
A beautiful allegory centered on two tea bowls says more about the feelings between Kikuji and Fumiko than any declarations of emotion and sensuality."
A Cozy Book Nook
A vintage published diary becomes the backdrop to a dreamy reading room.
Materials
This enchanting hard-bound book published in 1906, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, was found in a thrift store. The rocking chair and coffee table are a Scandinavian design by a miniature Etsy artist. To complete the look, I made a similar bookshelf by hand to complement the brown edging of the furniture.
This enchanting hard-bound book published in 1906, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, was found in a thrift store. The rocking chair and coffee table are a Scandinavian design by a miniature Etsy artist. To complete the look, I made a similar bookshelf by hand to complement the brown edging of the furniture.
Story
(Based on the diary entries of April in this book)
"April 12: Painted the pony and colt all morning in the field. Very hot sun and cool breeze. Saw a beautiful Peacock butterfly and found some Purple Orchids in flower.
April 13: Good Friday. Went to Burrator and down into Meavy Glen. Everything is very dry; a good storm of rain would bring out many more flowers now. Down in the glen beside the Meavy, the Primroses and the Wood-sorrel were very plentiful, growing among the boulders and roots of the trees. The Ash trees are all in flower and some of the young Sycamore trees are in full flower and leaf. While we were resting on the bank of the river, we saw a Heron rise through the trees on the opposite slope and sail away over the wood; the pink and grey tints of his legs and plumage , showing up very distinctly against the brown background of bare trees. We came home across the moor. In many parts, the Gorse blossom was glorious, but on the Yannadon Down there were great black stretches where the gorse had been burnt."
(Based on the diary entries of April in this book)
"April 12: Painted the pony and colt all morning in the field. Very hot sun and cool breeze. Saw a beautiful Peacock butterfly and found some Purple Orchids in flower.
April 13: Good Friday. Went to Burrator and down into Meavy Glen. Everything is very dry; a good storm of rain would bring out many more flowers now. Down in the glen beside the Meavy, the Primroses and the Wood-sorrel were very plentiful, growing among the boulders and roots of the trees. The Ash trees are all in flower and some of the young Sycamore trees are in full flower and leaf. While we were resting on the bank of the river, we saw a Heron rise through the trees on the opposite slope and sail away over the wood; the pink and grey tints of his legs and plumage , showing up very distinctly against the brown background of bare trees. We came home across the moor. In many parts, the Gorse blossom was glorious, but on the Yannadon Down there were great black stretches where the gorse had been burnt."
A Hidden Room in a Root Cellar
An antique box transforms into a 1920s root cellar, complete with a hidden room for illicit alcohol.
Materials
A vintage box was turned into a miniature scene from Kay Stephens's forthcoming Maine Prohibition novel, By The Dark O' The Moon. In the book, a Maine farmer built a hidden storeroom inside his root cellar to store and sell illegal booze. This room box took months to make as nearly all the furniture, secret door, and stairway were handmade, including many canning jars and cornhusk-wrapped boxes of illicit alcohol.
A vintage box was turned into a miniature scene from Kay Stephens's forthcoming Maine Prohibition novel, By The Dark O' The Moon. In the book, a Maine farmer built a hidden storeroom inside his root cellar to store and sell illegal booze. This room box took months to make as nearly all the furniture, secret door, and stairway were handmade, including many canning jars and cornhusk-wrapped boxes of illicit alcohol.
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Story
(from a scene in By The Dark O' The Moon)
The root cellar smelled like damp earth, potatoes that had gone by, and undertones of mold. Upon the shelves, a sentinel of Mason jars held vegetables and fruits of funerary colors. The wooden door to the crawlspace was only three feet high. Danny placed the lantern inside the crawlspace to take a good look. The stone walls inside were snot slick, four feet by six feet, a tomb. A Moxie crate containing old earthen jugs had been shoved up against the far wall. Danny held the lantern up to the Moxie crate. Tucked inside were dust-covered brown glass jugs. He uncorked one and brought it up to his nose. Just what he expected: applejack. He tasted it; still good.
By The Dark O' The Moon, a long-awaited follow-up to Stephens's The Ghost Trap, will be published by Maine Authors Publishing in the fall of 2025.
(from a scene in By The Dark O' The Moon)
The root cellar smelled like damp earth, potatoes that had gone by, and undertones of mold. Upon the shelves, a sentinel of Mason jars held vegetables and fruits of funerary colors. The wooden door to the crawlspace was only three feet high. Danny placed the lantern inside the crawlspace to take a good look. The stone walls inside were snot slick, four feet by six feet, a tomb. A Moxie crate containing old earthen jugs had been shoved up against the far wall. Danny held the lantern up to the Moxie crate. Tucked inside were dust-covered brown glass jugs. He uncorked one and brought it up to his nose. Just what he expected: applejack. He tasted it; still good.
By The Dark O' The Moon, a long-awaited follow-up to Stephens's The Ghost Trap, will be published by Maine Authors Publishing in the fall of 2025.
Thoreau's Cabin
A vintage box is inspired by a tiny cabin where Henry David Thoreau might have stayed in his journey that spurred The Maine Woods.
Materials
This is the first literary room box Kay made more than 30 years ago. While getting her master's degree in Boston, she spent many days at Walden Pond. Thoreau's writings deeply impacted her as an aspiring author, so she created this room box before moving to Maine in 1993. Inspired by Thoreau's trek to climb Katahdin, this scene depicts the simplicity of the kind of cabin with minimal furnishings he might have stayed in along the way with a chess board and some homemade beer to wile away the hours. The shelves are handmade, but the furniture was assembled from dollhouse stores that existed in Boston in the 1990s. An LED light in the crack of the vintage box "illuminates" the kerosene lamp.
This is the first literary room box Kay made more than 30 years ago. While getting her master's degree in Boston, she spent many days at Walden Pond. Thoreau's writings deeply impacted her as an aspiring author, so she created this room box before moving to Maine in 1993. Inspired by Thoreau's trek to climb Katahdin, this scene depicts the simplicity of the kind of cabin with minimal furnishings he might have stayed in along the way with a chess board and some homemade beer to wile away the hours. The shelves are handmade, but the furniture was assembled from dollhouse stores that existed in Boston in the 1990s. An LED light in the crack of the vintage box "illuminates" the kerosene lamp.
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Story
(Excerpt of The Maine Woods)
"ON THE 31ST OF AUGUST, 1846, I left Concord in Massachusetts for Bangor and the backwoods of Maine, by way of the railroad and steamboat, intending to accompany a relative of mine engaged in the lumber-trade in Bangor, as far as a dam on the west branch of the Penobscot, in which property he was interested. From this place, which is about one hundred miles by the river above Bangor, thirty miles from the Houlton military road, and five miles beyond the last log-hut, I proposed to make excursions to Mount Ktaadn, the second highest mountain in New England, about thirty miles distant, and to some of the lakes of the Penobscot, either alone or with such company as I might pick up there. It is unusual to find a camp so far in the woods at that season, when lumbering operations have ceased, and I was glad to avail myself of the circumstance of a gang of men being employed there at that time in repairing the injuries caused by the great freshet in the spring."
(Excerpt of The Maine Woods)
"ON THE 31ST OF AUGUST, 1846, I left Concord in Massachusetts for Bangor and the backwoods of Maine, by way of the railroad and steamboat, intending to accompany a relative of mine engaged in the lumber-trade in Bangor, as far as a dam on the west branch of the Penobscot, in which property he was interested. From this place, which is about one hundred miles by the river above Bangor, thirty miles from the Houlton military road, and five miles beyond the last log-hut, I proposed to make excursions to Mount Ktaadn, the second highest mountain in New England, about thirty miles distant, and to some of the lakes of the Penobscot, either alone or with such company as I might pick up there. It is unusual to find a camp so far in the woods at that season, when lumbering operations have ceased, and I was glad to avail myself of the circumstance of a gang of men being employed there at that time in repairing the injuries caused by the great freshet in the spring."
An Reporter's Study in 1936
A vintage cigar box imagines the study of author Sinclair Lewis.
Materials
Trying to write on the heels of his success with It Can't Happen Here, a 1935 novel about a fictional fascist takeover of the United States, author Sinclair Lewis tries to get some writing done in his studio, but the news of Edward VIII's abdication has him too distracted. The cigar box's cover has been removed and replaced with glass. The desk and chair were stained. The writing desk has a map of the world on the wall, a potted plant, a Thesaurus, a blotter, an old-fashioned typewriter, a pipe, an ashtray, and a teensy pack of matches. And like many writers like Sinclair who sometimes need a little inspiration, a nip of whiskey.
Trying to write on the heels of his success with It Can't Happen Here, a 1935 novel about a fictional fascist takeover of the United States, author Sinclair Lewis tries to get some writing done in his studio, but the news of Edward VIII's abdication has him too distracted. The cigar box's cover has been removed and replaced with glass. The desk and chair were stained. The writing desk has a map of the world on the wall, a potted plant, a Thesaurus, a blotter, an old-fashioned typewriter, a pipe, an ashtray, and a teensy pack of matches. And like many writers like Sinclair who sometimes need a little inspiration, a nip of whiskey.
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Story
(Excerpt: It Can't Happen Here)
"He pictured then, a Paradise of democracy in which, with the old political machines destroyed, every humblest worker would be king and ruler, dominating representatives elected from among his own kind of people, and these representatives not growing indifferent, as hitherto they had done, once they were far off in Washington, but kept alert to the public interest by the supervision of a strengthened Executive.
It sounded almost reasonable for a while."
Lewis, an American novelist, reporter, and social critic, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930. He stood for social justice, and wrote satiric novels criticizing the middle class American culture of complacency, conformity, and narrow-mindedness.
The Faery Forest
An open-air frame houses a miniature forest and the "Wee Folk" who abide in it.
Materials
This hand-built frame encompasses birch branches and moss to emulate a forest floor. Kay Stephens's great-grandparents--all four--hailed from Cork, Ireland). Inspired by her Irish roots, she traveled around Ireland, England, and Scotland numerous times in search of Irish origin stories of selkies and fairies, by visiting bookstores, libraries, and storytellers. The tiny dress titled The Queen's Handmaiden is handmade from birch bark and hydrangea.
This hand-built frame encompasses birch branches and moss to emulate a forest floor. Kay Stephens's great-grandparents--all four--hailed from Cork, Ireland). Inspired by her Irish roots, she traveled around Ireland, England, and Scotland numerous times in search of Irish origin stories of selkies and fairies, by visiting bookstores, libraries, and storytellers. The tiny dress titled The Queen's Handmaiden is handmade from birch bark and hydrangea.
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Story
Irish fairies are the aos sí, a diminutive supernatural race on "the Other Side" driven underground by human beings since "the start o' the world." This literary scene depicts a forest where the faeries emerge again above ground.
It's that time of year again when the "Wee Folk" rath is eager to come up from underground, where they've spent a long winter. The Queen is looking forward to going outside and seeing the sun. Her lady-in-waiting is by her side. The Queen's Handmaiden comes up from the rath to sun herself on a bed of purple, pink, and white wildflowers. She is the reveler in the rath, welcoming the green grass and new buds on the trees and singing for the Goddess of Cold Darkness.
"Do you think the Irish peasant would be so full of poetry if he had not his fairies?" wrote Irish writer W.B. Yeats in 1891. A book of Yeats' prolific writings around fairies is compiled in the 2004 compilation, The Book of Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland.
Irish fairies are the aos sí, a diminutive supernatural race on "the Other Side" driven underground by human beings since "the start o' the world." This literary scene depicts a forest where the faeries emerge again above ground.
It's that time of year again when the "Wee Folk" rath is eager to come up from underground, where they've spent a long winter. The Queen is looking forward to going outside and seeing the sun. Her lady-in-waiting is by her side. The Queen's Handmaiden comes up from the rath to sun herself on a bed of purple, pink, and white wildflowers. She is the reveler in the rath, welcoming the green grass and new buds on the trees and singing for the Goddess of Cold Darkness.
"Do you think the Irish peasant would be so full of poetry if he had not his fairies?" wrote Irish writer W.B. Yeats in 1891. A book of Yeats' prolific writings around fairies is compiled in the 2004 compilation, The Book of Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland.
The Changeling Terrarium
A terrarium is converted into a miniature scene in Ireland depicting a sinister fairy custom as first described by William Butler Yeats.
Materials
A glass terrarium serves as the vessel for a hand-built hillside scene with charcoal, stone, and sand as the terrarium foundation and built up with moss, rocks, and tiny decorative elements. To display, the rounded terrarium will be removed from its box and placed on a supporting base. The moss is not live and doesn't need to be watered.
A glass terrarium serves as the vessel for a hand-built hillside scene with charcoal, stone, and sand as the terrarium foundation and built up with moss, rocks, and tiny decorative elements. To display, the rounded terrarium will be removed from its box and placed on a supporting base. The moss is not live and doesn't need to be watered.
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Story
In folklore, a Changeling is when the Wee Folk (fairies) steal a baby out of its crib or carriage and replace it with one of their old, discarded fairies to strengthen the fairy stock. In this glass terrarium, one imagines coming across a mossy forest and finding a hidden staircase of stone that leads up to a fairy rath, where a baby has been left unattended in its carriage. When the hapless parent comes back to check, in its place is the wizened old face of a tiny elderly fairy instead. This terrarium tells the story of a stolen baby. This is not a sweet little scene; it’s quite sinister once you know the back story. You wonder what happened to the baby.
W.B. Yeat's 1889 poem, The Stolen Child, is widely considered the basis for the Changeling myth.
In folklore, a Changeling is when the Wee Folk (fairies) steal a baby out of its crib or carriage and replace it with one of their old, discarded fairies to strengthen the fairy stock. In this glass terrarium, one imagines coming across a mossy forest and finding a hidden staircase of stone that leads up to a fairy rath, where a baby has been left unattended in its carriage. When the hapless parent comes back to check, in its place is the wizened old face of a tiny elderly fairy instead. This terrarium tells the story of a stolen baby. This is not a sweet little scene; it’s quite sinister once you know the back story. You wonder what happened to the baby.
W.B. Yeat's 1889 poem, The Stolen Child, is widely considered the basis for the Changeling myth.