(Not Quite) a Midsummer's Night Dream

Right now there is a very angry Shakespeare fan who googled certain key words or images is reading this saying "what the heck, man?" <insert wave, and jolly "Hello Very Angry Shakespeare Fan!>.  Hmm, they left - it wasn't something I said, was it? Anyway,  it isn't technically Midsummer, of course. That occurs in June, at the Summer Solstice. We could have a long discussion about how that makes no sense, the solstice marks the *beginning* of the summer,  in Canada the lakes are just barely free of ice just yet at that point, but who are we to argue with druids with sharp knives? Anywho, faeries. I have a soft spot in my heart for faeries. Well, the Victorianized ones suitable for the kiddies, anyway - I understand there are some malicious ones out there (although that can be said of the humans as well).  There are a lot of methods of keeping the faerie folk away, as they tend to have some social awkwardness about them, like not welcoming people into their space, *stealing children and leaving changelings, and the like. The long and the short of it is, don't tick off a faerie if you know what is good for you. Come to think of it, the same can be said about me* at times (checks quickly over shoulder for wings....nope).

*not the stealing children and leaving replacements bit

I had a lot of fun with faerie folk this week. I finished my wee faerie theatre, which was quite enjoyable. 

The plans called for making my own faeries -yaaaaa....no. After a couple of false starts trying to make a passable faerie (my sculpting skills just aren't up to snuff this week, or any other tobacco product you can name, for that matter), I gave it up for a bad job and wandered off to the model train store, in search of suitable people (in this case, HO scale). Happily the good store owner did have a couple of choices, one of which was a box of 24 unpainted people, which was perfect. I very carefully painted little dresses on the gals, and a more respectable male faerie outfit on the lad. I was originally going to have the ladies only dancing, but the fellow kind of looked to me like he was sitting on a mushroom, so I painted him as such. I let the acrylic paint dry, and then applied glitter (mmm, glitter), wings, and hair. The hair is just a tiny little piece of bunka thread, unravelled and glued. It gave a rather wild look to the folk, which was perfect. A few butterflys, landscaping, and voila! 

The Theatre, finished. The faerie folk are a bit tall, but you have to remember that the audience will actually be by small children seated on the floor looking up into the box, so  - from that perspective - everything is peachy keen. I think I will build a little box around this, and add the various little toys and such that I have collected over the years (including that kitschy marionette I bought at the show). 

While I was wandering about looking for a good way to make the faerie folk, I came across an interesting practice called "captured faerie in a bottle". It is like "ship in a bottle", but with way more girly additions, although the challenge of building in an enclosed space remains. This video is by Jennings644 - she has a number of videos, and it is worth a look around as she has some very great tutorials.

Having new knowledge of something hitherto unknown to me but now inciting a burning desire to try, I decided I wanted to capture a faerie folk of my own. There is a method to capturing a faerie, from what I have seen. They are attracted to sparklie bits (once again checks over shoulder for wings ... still no, sigh). They seem to like a lot of lace, pearls, flowers, and jewels. They like their privacy, so the faerie trap needs to have some seclusion - once again, don't tick off a faerie. 

I found these bottles at the craft store, but one can go searching in discount shops, etc., for glasswear, or you could even use clear plastic bottles as long as you can see in them, and you can easily get in the top. I liked these little bottles because there were 4 of different sizes, and the cork in them is easily removable, and they were a dollar. If you have the perfect bottle but no lid, no worries, one can make one and camouflage later. 

 

The bottle, in which has been added glue and decorative sand. I chose a lovely white sand with a sparkle to it. It took a long time for this to properly dry - at least over night. I found this out the hard way when I went to pop in the faerie stone and faerie, only to have the poor darling sink. Please, treat your faeries kindly! The piece of paper  in the top was a makeshift funnel, so sand wasn't getting everywhere.

A dramatic close up of sand. Looks like salt from this angle, but it is sparkly decorative sand. I found it in the gardening department in a large craft store, packaged in a bag which was not resealable so I had to transfer what I had left into a plastic storage container - they must think I am going to use the whole bag at once, which is silly. 

 Most of the faerie traps I found had some sort of background, which was "modpodged" (aka glued) to the bottle or jar. I found suitable picture, modified it for size, and sprayed it with a varnish so the colours wouldn't run when I glued it to the container - that part is very important, lest you  get a mucky Monet when you were aiming for fantastic fantasia.  This picture was pretty much the last one my printer spit out before it coughed, sputtered, and gave up the soup. This might hamper my future plots a little, we will see. The faerie was also supposed to be printed up - two copies, one a mirror image, "fussy cut",  and then pasted together.  I had a lovely fairy all picked out before  the sputtering effect noted above occurred.

 The bottle, with the sized printing glued in (trimmed as well). This, of course, is not a new idea - I seem to recall making a broach back in my sordid Girl Guide days out of a glass lens and wrapping paper in much the same manner. It is quite a lovely effect.  

This is a cool little faerie tree. Again, my new favourite YouTuber Jennings644 has a tutorial as well (see below). I made mine considerably smaller, but it is just so pretty. 

Simple, right? Make sure your wire is the "wrap" variety - memory wire will be useless, because it will be trying to snap back into shape. The wrap wire is fairly mallable and forgives many twists. 

I kind of like how sparkly this picture turned out - job hazard when you are working in glitter, I suppose. I painted her the same as I did the faerie theatre performers, but over a blue dress I added purple glitter, to give it an interesting texture. The wings of course are glittered. The head piece is a tiny piece of chenille or <???>, which came with my theatre kit.  One could make her a little head piece out of wire and beads as well if one couldn't find the mystery fabric. Again, the hair is a single strand of bunka. 

A slightly more clear look at the faerie above. 

On to the jar! As per Jennings644's instructions, I applied lace, beads, flowers, and trim until I fell into a diabetic coma. Once again, to make an appropriate trap, you have to make it appealing to the faerie's general love of all things beautiful. I did use a glue gun for this step, as it is just less hassle when applying laces etc. to a glass jar. Use the hot glue sparingly, however - very little just to tack it to the jar is all you need, otherwise you fight off little gossamer glue webs for the rest of the day, and the faeries won't like big globs o' glue in their new home. I certainly wouldn't.

Some of the lace, beads, and dangling bits applied - kind of looks like a dalek in a wedding dress, but never mind.  I went on to apply more of the ribbon with the beading, and added more of the silk roses with the sparkly centre. Again - think "DIABETIC COMA". The more frippery added, the more your faerie will feel at home, and the longer she will be inclined to stay.

Time to start adding to the interior of the bottle! A nice little jewel to sit upon. I did make up some mushrooms, but I felt that this trap called out for more bling, as the faerie I wished to attract is less earthy and more flashy. Mind you, I have 3 more jars to play with, so the mushrooms will be part of at least one.

Miss is now in place on her jewel, the tree behind her. Again, I didn't like the greenery and such, this little faerie just wanted sparkle - I added some beautiful glass seed beads near the main jewel to add some visual interest. 

A slightly better picture of the above. One could also create a mermaid this way - wouldn't that be neat? Even neater would be to add a non-water based liquid (so as not to dissolve glue), add sparkles and a stopper that won't come out, and have themselves a tiny little underwater scene.

Many of the captured faerie bottles seemed to have a charm added to the top, which gives it just an extra bit of oomph. I made a nice little charm out of the seed beads, the wrap wire, and some lovely baubles I had originally bought for my faerie to alight, but unfortunately they didn't want to fit through the top of the bottle and I had to use a different jewel. 

There is the completed bottle, front and back. Near the end I went mad and added bits of fern and more flowers as well.  Eventually I will need a little collection tag to go on the side, for authenticity of the collection - very scientifical, your average collection tag. 

It was a fun project, I must say! Of course, if by some strange quirk of the universe this project doesn't float your boat, certainly one could do a more mainstream type project (in the correct scale), use a smaller bottle (a tiny medicine bottle, for instance) to make something for display in a 1:12 scale house, etc. You could go off script completely, and maybe do a Doctor Who themed scene, with the Tardis trapped with the Doctor (hmm, maybe not, there is one thing you don't put in a trap, and that is the Doctor, as below). 

Still, I need to pay homage to 11 before he shuffles off and regenerates at the end of 2013 - decisions, decisions. 
 
Or, you could really go off script and do a Star Wars themed bottle - put Admiral Akbar inside and see which one of your clever friends falls from their chair laughing in glee.   PS: for those rare non-ST fans - and there are a couple out there, believe it or not, and one or two who didn't even watch the movies (gasp!) for whatever insane reason - this is a reference to one of the greatest Sci Fi movies ever made, and a very popular internet meme indeed...

Okay, fine, that one might just appeal to my sense of humor, but you get my meaning - anything goes.  I will leave you with a very beautiful captured fairy video that I came across ...

Until next time, my friends! Remember, be a responsible faerie trapper, label your bottles, and enjoy the last days of July!