Felt play set project: The Hobbit meets Jane and the Dragon

Oh dear, my creative yearning strikes again. Please, save me from myself.

I’ve decided to try felting, specifically to make a birthday present for my daughter turning 5 in October.

I’ve been inspired by her being attracted like a magnet to the felt fairy dolls at a recent Autumn Fair at the nearby Waldorf School. Here’s the little fairy she adopted.

There is far too much inspiration around for my crazy mind – felted hobbit houses, fairy houses, woodland creatures, hobbits, wizards, faeries, dragons.

I’ve started a pinterest board and already am completed carried away with ideas.

I think it will be a castle, with a few villagey houses, gardens with a vegetable and herb plot, and a forest to go around the castle that has a fairy/elven camp in it. A sort of The Hobbit/Jane and the Dragon/Narnia-esque mashup. In fact, I think I will based the character play-pieces on a few of the Jane and the Dragon characters. Also, I plan to make it all from recycled felted woolen jumpers. hah! Ambitious aren’t I considering I’ve never felted anything in my life!

I’ve also seen a lot of beautiful felting projects on Little eco footprints blog and love this little fairy house from recycled jumpers.

Along with the play set I’m going to make a compilation of ‘medieval/celtic’ music  so that I can use this when I play with it while she is at school she can use this as part of her play. All this will have to be created under the cover of darkness so that it can be a surprise.

I’ve got 6 months.  I’d better get planning and creating…and er…ahem…learning!

How to make a faery house – really quickly

Having just moved house, my 3 year old expressed genuine concern about whether the garden fairies would move with us. In our rented house, we built many a daisy-flower fairy ring and they would occasionally leave a little chocolate treat when we hid from view. No wonder she didn’t want to leave these generous little denizens behind.

So, to reassure her, we built the fairies a new faery house.

Nice for birds, but needs faery renovations

 

Step 1: Find a small bird house from your nearest hardware store ($10)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wild bits

 

Step 2: Gather wild leafy and flowery bits from around the place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Engage a faery expert to decorate the house.

Faery decoration consultant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fit for faery

 

 

Step 4: Admire the house and wish you were little enough to step inside and sleep on the rose-petal bedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Find a leafy place for your house (faeries prefer leaves as no tell-tale faery footprints are left behind).

location, location, location

shy faery abode

 

Step 6: If you have elusive, secretive, shy faeries (the most common type) find a dingly dell or secret glade for your house so that faeries can come and go by spider-web bridges, untroubled by mortal eyes.

Lovely nature spirit

Found this drawing/painting I did when Richard and I took an art class in the UK. I can’t really draw but having a tutor who can show you how to make eyes that hold emotion helps, and I was really proud of this Froudian-esque piece. This is the probably the only drawing I’ve ever been proud of and I want to ‘learn’ to draw more.

A serene, sage wood-whispering nature spirit