Sand Devil Jack

This was an anniversary gift for my husband based on a stamp he carved for letterboxing. The top image is his drawing with my color interpretation and our wedding date added.

The outside is a contrasting combination of lacquered black and a cinnabar red brushed with bronze and gold. Inside the box is fully lined with a trompe l'oeil image of a pirates treasure. Inside the lid that is further enhanced with the addition of three dimensional pearls and jewels.





This is one of my little helpers, Angus.

Semper Fi

Something a little different than my usual. This was commissioned as a gift for a retired marine.

The black lacquer finish is so shiny that you see some odd reflections from the light fixture in my office. There is a dark red shadow around the outside of the crest that barely registers unless you see it in person.

The paper inside is a patchwork of marine slogans. My husband, who is also ex-military, loved it so hopefully the recipient will too.

Gilded Autumn

This little American beauty is based on Charles Dana Gibson's illustrations. Her auburn hair has metallic copper highlights swirled into her Gibson style pompadour. Her wings are bases on the Queen butterfly and are glazed in the same metallic copper. A tiny rhinestone glitters from the band around her neck.

Her companion is based on a cat belonging to the recipient but I have to admit that his facial expression reminds me more of my furry little helper, Angus, who is a brown tabby instead of a golden Bengal. In the foreground of their resting place are cut paper leaves that echoes the autumnal paper inside.

The box's sides are sponged with layers of copper and several metallic golds then wrapped with real black lace accented with more rhinestones.





In other news - This is the first batch of pictures from my new camera. I can already see some improvement in detail and I'm sure as I figure out the ins and outs of how it works I'll be able to offer better images of my work for your viewing.

The Sailing Moon

This indigo haired mermaid has come up to the surface to get a better view of what appears to be the silvery crescent moon in her world, only to find a shimmering fairy sailboat with metallic silver sides and a mast made of a giant black narwhale horn.

Much of this box is pearlized when you see it in person. The sandy sides are layered with pearl and both the tiny boat and the mermaid's flesh and scales are accented in pearl. Her hair and the inside of the box are a deep indigo created with layers of midnight blue and royal purple. In her hair it is swirled with a metallic black.

My inspirations for this were my favorite fairy tale, The Little Mermaid (the old sad version), a print of John William Waterhouse's Miranda that hangs in my bedroom and the eventual recipient's love of sailing. She was originally intended to be a redhead like Miranda but at the last second she changed my mind.

Keep your eyes peeled for a very different companion piece to this one:)

Fairy Faces

As a little update I went through and added detail pictures of the faces of most of the fairies. A few were not crisp enough to see but most turned out better than I expected. It was a fun walk down memory lane for me to see some of those tiny faces in detail. I also got to get a real appreciation for how much more sophisticated the more recent faces are.

Be sure to look back and get a fresh view of some of your favorites!

Also of note - Mermaid's Treasure, Tiny Sailor and Winged Serpent were pieces I was inspired to do that do not have owners. If you are interested in purchasing one of them please send me an e-mail.

Damsel Fairy

This little lady is going to house a long treasured collection of baby teeth for giving back to a grown daughter. I think that is such a special idea. At some point I need to make a second tooth fairy box for my son to hold the teeth after his fairy takes them away.

The day I did her sketch I saw a bunch of electric blue damselflies darting around my garden. They were my inspiration for this windblown little fairy with her transparent wings.

Here face turned out particularly lovely IMO. I'm not sure why I haven't tried to include a detail of the faces before but here she is up close.

Harvest Fairy

This fairy was a gift from mother to daughter. It started with the idea that its future owner liked retro colors. My original plan was to mix the harvest golds, oranges and avocado greens with a neoclassical design with the fairy in the center encircled by butterflies.

I'm sure in part because I was watching HBO's ROME at the time I was working on her she started to take on the form or a tiny Roman harvest goddess with her headdress of grain and draped gown embellished with drops of gold. Some stronger reds found there way into her color palette as well.

Her wings are patterned after the Field Crescent butterfly.





Fairy Day Question - What is the name of your favorite fairy queen (from stories, legends, google...wherever)? Tell me her name and something about her.

White Octopus

This little box was made for a gift exchange I did with a group of friends in August. The box has a small glass fronted shadow box on top that contains a shell from Sanibel Island and crystal glass sand.

The octopus is one my favorite creatures. I did this one in white so he would really stand out from the tropical summer colors. One of my favorite images from a book called Archipelago is of a white octopus. Whenever I look at that picture I'm put in mind of a fairy creature of the sea.

It doesn't come through in the picture but the octopus' skin has an overlay of pearlescent glimmers.

Oracle Box

This is a new item I came across. The top image is under glass. It can hold either a painting by me or a photograph. I made mine to hold a deck of Brian Fround's The Faeries' Oracle cards. The box would be perfect for any sort of fairy/angel/tarot/inspiration/motivation cards or for holding precious photographs.

One new detail on this box is that in addition to the cut paper I added fabric trim. The thin borders of red and gold are nicely dimensional. All the paper images are deconstructed from an illustrated fairytale page. The text lines the box while the border adorns the sides of the box. The top image is a painted fairy laid over a portion of the illustration.

The fairy herself comes from an earlier sketch for a lily fairy in the shape of a fleur-de-lys. She has been bugging me to paint her ever since. Oddly enough, in the original sketch I thought she was quite stately but her finished painting makes me think of her more as an acrobat or jester.

Happy Customer!

I just had to share a great picture I received of one of my fairy box recipients enjoying her treasure box. A big thank you to Nancy for letting me share it.

If anyone else would like to share pictures of boxes with their owners I'd love to post them:)

And the Winner is...

The winner of the Fairy Day Contest is Michelle.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered.

Happy Fairy Day to all.

Meeting the Queen

This box is larger than the others I've posted so far, about recipe box size. I believe it is going to house perfumes in its new home.

On the top there are a few tiny details that don't come out in the photo. There are tiny crystals on the Butterfly Queen's crown and at the Fairy's waist. The Butterfly's eye is made of green glass beads.

The Butterfly Queen is a variety called Sara Orangetip. The Fairy's wings are based on the Gulf Fritillary.

The quote: "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." Is by author Richard Bach, a favorite of both mine and the owner.

The outside decorations are made of cut paper.

I wish we had some sunnier weather going on right now. The combination of my antique digital camera and cloudy days really robs the colors of vibrancy.

Fairy Day Contest

In honor of Fairy Day on June 24th (and to build a mailing list:) I'm going to have a drawing to win a fairy magnet hand painted by me.

To enter just e-mail me through my profile with your name and e-mail address.

Here she is! Her wings are based on a butterfly called the Mourning Cloak.




Entries will be accepted until Midnight CST on the 23rd of June. I will draw and post a winner sometime on the 24th. Good luck

Garden of Stars

I really love this box for a number of reasons.

It was fun to work with such a bright summer color palate. Most of the other tooth fairies have featured darker more nighttime color schemes.

I got to work with a new level of realism. The beagle required a little research on my part since Snoopy was the only beagle that I could picture. Then after having already painted the dog, my son and I were reading Insect World and I was inspired by a photo of a monarch butterfly. With the orange and yellow I knew this fairy needed those wings. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. They are my favorite wings so far. (I want to find a book on butterflies now just for fairy wings.) Her face and hair turned out really beautifully too.

Because we see her relaxing during the day the star motif is turned into a garden of flowers. I loved the whimsy of her sitting in a summer garden of stars.