A way with the Fairies

The Fairies are taking over my life and I am enjoying it.  See my blog on Templemorefairytrail.blogspot.com  and enjoy my progress with this exciting project.  Making the houses has been a treat and forcing me to look out side the box for items that are small enough and will blend into the background.  However at first I was playing too safe and it was not magical. Since then I have gone on to develop the following styles and when I put them on site the magic started to happen.  It will take the best part of 6 months to get it all finished but who is in a rush when adventure is at play!! Loving it!! My mind is working overtime with all the possibilities.  The part I am enjoying most is the smiles on peoples faces when I tell them what I am doing. We are all children at heart.  Just wait until the children start finding them

There are horse tracks in the Park. I am expecting to find discarded Horse Shoes any day that the Fairies have decided to turn into houses. I can already see where they would go.  It is coming into the season where the nuts fall from the trees so again it will be interesting to see what plans the Fairies have for these.

Aluminium Foil Mixed Media

I started experimenting with aluminium foil when I was asked to do a summer workshop with children recently.  I decided to do owl with them as a theme project.  Here is some of their work.

 

 

They tried out cats too

 

Waxed with shoe polish to finish

 

 

 

New Clay Owls and stamped medallions, drying before painting.

 

However I decided to take it a step further myself so I did the following.

I found a lovely old dressing table drawer and decided it was my challenge.

I sanded it and painted the inside in Annie Sloan Chalk Paints.  It was then waxed with Annie Slone Clear wax.

 

 

 

If you look closely you will see where I added skeleton leaves under the foil to give texture and hide damage that was on the surface.  I used plumbers foil tape as it was sticky and worked brilliantly.  Then I painted it with alcohol inks in various colours to give a beautiful finish.

I am delighted with the outcome of this and have another one to do.  I have thoughts of putting legs under it to make a small table.

 

Entering the world of Fairies

I have decided to explore Fairy Tree Houses. Every time I take a walk in our beautiful park with all the very old trees I start imaginng what a house would look like if it was set into the roots of the trees.  Therefore after photographing the trees I am going to set about creating little houses to fit into the trees as my next project.  I am also going to make fairy houses out of used metal cans and wrap them in timber etc to create handing fairy houses.  Over the next month I will be amaking these and hope to create a blog for you to follow. So today I am going to post some photos taken this week and where I am going to start from.

 

Love the mushrooms growing up so high on the tree near the hole.  I can see a fairy ladder dropped from the hole to climb up on.

REINVENTING THE BICYCLE

I was asked if I would do something to enhance the front of this derelict building.  It used to be a bicycle shop up to 1987.

I set about a design based on bicycle parts.  I collected used parts from various people who were delighted to get involved in the project.  It created a buzz around the place.  These were cleaned up sanded ready for painting.
Then the next stage was to get timber that would suit outdoors and also blend into the condition of the building.  I went to Sheerans of Mountrath  www.timberfencinggates.ie 
They have a great range of timber and were most helpful in suggesting what I could use.

 The Timber is pressure treated and I painted it with Crown Weathercoat emulsion in Grey.  Then I gave it a distressed look with Rustins Blackboard paint.
Next stage was painting the wheels and making the flowers.  I used spray enamel for this stage of the project.  The flowers were made from recycled drink cans and mounted with heavy wire to the bicycle wheels.  Then on to the site where it was all put together and screwed to the existing framework. 
Using the chain the words "Wheels of Time" were added to give information to the meaning of the design.

 Finally it was ready for the general public to view.  It has been greatly admired and is being put forward for an award in September.  I will let you know how it goes.

 

 

The last few months have been taken up with study and model making.  I have loved coming up with an idea for a flower shop for a shopping centre.  I have used a lot of quilling flowers I made a number of years ago waiting for the right moment to use them.  There is decoupage on the little wooden chair.
The flower pots are beads and small flowers used for dolls house miniatures 1:12 scale.  The outside is polypropelene so that you can see into the inside all around.  The green is made from pan scourers. 

JANUARY 2013

JANUARY 2013
Where did the last year go?  It was a particularly busy year for me crafting.  Did a good bit of puppetry and drama with a group.  We performed for primary school children which was fun.

I worked with Primary School children teaching them knitting.  They loved it and I am about to take on another group shortly.  I did a craft fair at Christmas and tried out a load of new ideas.  Working with jig saw puzzles as a new medium was exciting.  Caught peoples imagination.  I finished another Dolls House and made a lovely Mouse House out of Felt.