Fairies in the Flowers: A Peek-a-Boo Project

I am missing the old homestead this time of year, as another Mother’s Day approaches without my sweet momma being with us. Her flower gardens were magical, we had a lilac hedge between the lower lawn and the newly plowed garden. A pathway between the row of lilacs, keep the tulips and the lupins in the designated area. Ancient Old Fashioned yellow roses next to these, with three lavender colored petals Ohio Spiderworts at their base, a remembrance of my grandparents time spent in that state. A narrow bed of Siberian  Irises between, the front yard, driveway and garden had a clump of orange poppies and painted tinted daisies. Gladiolus were planted in rows of the bountiful garden with its bread and butter corn, zucaanni and yellow squash, red beets, string bean, potatoes, kohlrabi and sometimes lama beans and peas. The lower end of the garden had a row of pink, red, and white peonies we were told that ants were needed to help them bloom as their bud were so compacted. The last flower bed at this side of the garden was one of my favorites, as it held the Bearded Iris Collection. 

There is another flower garden that was hidden in the side yard, beyond the black walnut trees, and hickory nut tree, along the old road in the shadow of the woodshed. This was the wildflower garden, perhaps the most magical of all, almost as if fairies could be found frolicking there. These are the inspirations for this artwork.

Supplies:  GSLC Arch Top Houe Silhouettes, Antiquarian Sticker Book: Imaginarium, Printed Woodgrain, Pencil, UHU GlueStick, Sanding Block, Green Markers, DecoArt Matte Gel Medium, Paintbrush, 49 Market Rub Ons, Fern Vine Paper Punch, Old Calendar Pictures, Ranger Glossy Accents Dimensional Medium, Small Plastic Palette Knife, Blending Tool, Brown Archival Inks

1. Gather Supplies.
   
2. Print Wood Grain on Ink Jet Printer.
3. Spritz with Water Allowing to Patina the Print.
4. Once Fully Dry Trace using  GSLC Arch Top House Silhouettes  With Pencil  and Cut Out.
   
5. Use a UHU GlueStick to Apply Cut Outs to GSLC Arch Top House Silhouettes.
   
6. Once Fully Dry Use a Sanding Block to Tidy Up the Edges.
   
7. Darken the Edges of GSLC Arch Top House Silhouettes with Green Markers.
   
8. Seal it all in with DecoArt Matte Gel Medium and a Paintbrush.
   
9. Collect Images from Antiquarian Sticker Book: Imaginarium. I Found Lovely Flower Fairies and Glued Them as Focal Points in Center of GSLC Arch Top House Silhouettes.
   
10. Next Add 49 Market Rub Ons of Stamps , Butterflies and Flowers, Creating a Collage Effect.
    
11. Use Fern Vine Paper Punch and Old Calendar Pictures to Add to the Collages.
    
12. Once Layered and Satisfied With The Content, use a Ranger Glossy Accents Dimensional Medium and a Small Plastic Palette Knife to Unify the Completed Collages.
    
13. Darken the Edges with a Blending Tool and Brown Archival Inks.
    

Final Thoughts

I was fascinated by the Cottingley Fairies Story. Two young cousins, in 1917 convinced their neighbors and eventually the larger world that there were fairies at the bottom of their gardens. Cottingley Beck still flows in English Countryside. They eventually photographed them and presented them to their family and to the Theosophical Society. Eve. Decade laters it would eventually confirmed they were fakes, cut-out figures, copied from “Princess Mary’s Gift Book” published in 1914. Finally in 1983 one of the young girls now much older, confessed to the hoax.

My momma’s wildflower garden was a collection of ones we gathered in the hollows and woodlands near our family homestead. The mosses almost glow with their intense greenery. It is too early for the mysterious India Pipes to appear with their milky translucent stems and solitary nodding flower.  Soon the flowerbed will carpeted with the dainty purple violets, the strange jack-in-the-pulpits, the brown-mottled tiger lilies, the elusive pink lady slippers, the comical Dutchman breeches, the attractive dainty white and pink striped spring beauties, called "piss in the beds" by his normally regal mother. There will be odd red and white trilliums, named "Nose Bleeds" by his inquisitive mother. Spring is truly the time when the world wakes up with an ever-changing landscape.