Inspired in Summer

A quick fairy update and other news - with pics :-)

It’s certainly been a busy time again of late with things opening up again and re-acclimatising to life outside a little more and all the overlapping family and work commitments. It’s been so lovely to re-connect with family and friends over the last couple of months, and see the children re-ignite their passions by being able to participate in activities that were on hold for so long.

It’s hard to believe the summer is here!

I always love to let at least a few of my fairies echo the seasons – whatever is going on in nature all around me is always a genuine source of inspiration to me and can inform what I choose to make, but it works the other way around too; the act of deliberately making something nature-inspired encourages me to slow down and take notice – even though I love to be outside so much, with the constant distraction of screens and life in general, it can be easy to lose connection.

Over the last month or so I’ve worked on two different sets of nature-inspired fairies and earlier in the spring I made a few fairies like this one with their ‘May Day’ inspired flower crowns and butterfly buttons.

The ‘Amethyst Fairy’ in the pictures below was created especially for Indigo Moon Holistics; a newly founded super-friendly wellbeing focused business based in the South East of England. With this fairy I wanted to convey the simple yet timelessly captivating quality of the amethyst crystal. I used a special purple wool blend – a perfect match for the purple amethyst and aptly named ‘Legacy’, beautifully echoing the essence of amethyst as a much loved and easily recognised stone that has stayed the course of time. The large ‘cobwebby’ wings of the fairy are intended to reflect the rough cut of one end of the stone and capture something of the wild natural beauty of this crystal. I wanted to keep her decorative details to a chic minimal, in keeping with the simple beauty of the amethyst crystal. She is adorned with a few tiny druzy quartz crystals, and one tiny swarovski crystal - to add a delicate touch of sparkle. I’ve also enjoyed experimenting with hand-making felted flowers and her rose, a symbol of summer, is also hand-felted and 100% handmade. I was super pleased with her – she really is quite beautiful ‘in the flesh’ so to speak, and she’s for sale through Indigo Moon and can be commissioned through them too.

The month of June and into July and beyond is the time for the roses to be out in full bloom! Inspired by the deep-red roses that I often see on my walk towards the Museum in the Park, Stroud, these next two little fairies were designed with the height of summer and the deep greens of the woods in mind too… my daughter thinks they look Christmassy with their red and green combo – and maybe they do, but I quite like the kind of symmetry involved in the fact that they are in fact colours found in the height of summer too…

These two fairies will be off to the Museum in the Park soon, along with some sweet little hand-felted rose brooches – I’ve added some deep red sparkly fibres to them – in the home of giving a bit of a feel of the deep velvety red of some of the roses I see around me.

With this little pair, I’ve ventured into making tiny wet-felted clothes… It’s very early days, but I am so pleased with these little outfits... I wanted these tiny garments to feel 'woodlandy', 'earthy' and 'mossy' with 'cobwebby' trims/edges so as to look as 'naturey' as possible - essentially 'faery' - and I really love the way the different greens have felted and blended together and it feels sort of magical to be able to felt such perfectly fitting tiny clothes. I'm super-excited to make more and I will update on this in another blog a bit further down the line.

I’ve also written a few more crafty blogs and tutorials for the PowerWood website and the links to these can be found on the Family Creativity page (on this website). We always have a fun time thinking up our activities – again, often inspired by things that are going on around us and using materials we have easily to hand – we loved making these super-cute cat planters! Do have a look if you’re after some summer holiday inspiration 😊

And, in other news, I am very excited to say that I will be making some children’s art and craft videos for the Kids Art Spot membership website, which is a part of the Artful Parent website. I’m super-excited about this, having been inspired by the Artful Parent for so many years, and especially when the children were young. I’m very excited to embrace the challenge of venturing into video-making and we’ve already had plenty of fun experimenting with ideas! I’ll share more details about this soon!

I truly hope this little update finds you well and enjoying some magical summer adventures. Wishing you a peaceful break filled with many creative and outdoor-in-nature blessings. ♥

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