Mad hatter Garden Fairies are all a glow in the night
Garden Fairies love to dress up. Some people save Halloween to relieve childhood dress-up days, whereas the Garden Fairies look at just about any occasion to create colorful costumes.
Some of our outfits and hats get transformed as much as our yards.
An outfit that has had more lives than Elvis is my Garden Fairy Queen dress. The base of the dress is a lavender “mother of the bride” type dress. Initially the dress was reconstructed for a house tour we did around eleven years ago. The transformation began with foam green leaves which were glued onto the top of the dress. The dress was changed to suit a number of different theme parties including it’s latest incarnations, all yellowed version. The “Yellow Mellow” dress was all dolled up for Kiaralinda and Todd’s 50th monkey themed birthday party.
Garden Fairy Vicky inspired by the “Yellow” adaptation of the dress, made an sensational stuffed version complete with matching black and yellow tights.
My outfit was inspiration for Vicky's Fiona Fairy Doll below
Vicky lived in Tarpon Springs for 5 years and moved back up north 17 years ago. She lives in an adorable log cabin, in Northwest Wisconsin with her husband and two cats. She is a Master Gardner, but during the long winters she pursues other passions; outdoor sports, painting and sewing.
In her own words, Garden Fairy Vicky:
“I LOVE art dolls. Not cutesy craft dolls – ART DOLLS. I own several that I have purchased in galleries going back to 1970!!!!
I have made dolls off and on over the years – always felt a little foolish doing so – after all what’s a grown career woman doing making dolls? Doesn’t she have anything better, more exciting to do with her life?
I guess when you reach a certain age you figure WTF! I should do whatever I like to do.
I was trolling Amazon in December 2011 when I happened to find a book called Creative Cloth Doll Making by Patti Medaris Culea. It gave complete instructions and patterns for new approaches in making cloth art dolls. Dolls that were hand dyed, painted, stamped, beaded, collaged, 3 different bodies of increasing complexity – with a gallery of photos of example dolls by various artists.
Fiona doll, based on Siobhan's costume is 20" tall
This book was my “AHA” moment. Armed with a photo of Siobhan in her garden fairy costume, I plunged into the world of art doll making. What a trip – totally delightful. Not scary and often frustrating like my world of painting. I must admit I am on familiar ground in the complicated stitching of dolls and their costumes – having studied clothing and textiles in college and working for McCall patterns for a number of years. But hey, I hadn’t really sewed in 20 yrs. My 40 yr old Elna sewing machine did not disappoint – as I stitched tiny fingers and toes, gathered fine silks and tulles, even did some free form embroidery.
My experience with paints certainly came in handy for doing the faces and Patti’s instructions gave good basics and some really fine tips. She is a former portrait artist and knows her stuff when it comes to faces.
I made doll bodies 1,2 & 3 – like I was taking a course. Each doll took about 30 hours to make. You can really go nuts adding details but I had a deadline for each doll, so I had to keep it under control.
So here they are: “Fiona” was sent to Siobhan as a gift. “Bjork” is in the Firefly Gallery in Cable WI in a show called All Things Birch & Beautiful.
Marisa - 20" tall
Marisa is in Art Beat Gallery in HaywardWI in the Really Big Blue Show. Bjork & Maria are priced at $195 (you do the math – it’s a labor of love).
To purchase a doll email Vicky at vzalatoris@me.com or see more of her work at her site
Bjork - 20" tall
Never a dull moment