FROM OUR WORKSHOP: Backyard Faeries

Elizabeth and a Grass Faery.

Visit this site again!

Look for more individual "Backyard Faeries"

being presented in the future!

We moved into our new home in May of 2006. Immediately thereafter, Leslie began work on the back yard, clearing out overgrowth, tree stumps, and realigning the retaining wall. We stumbled upon a number of local faeries while working, and Elizabeth and I managed to capture a few before they scattered. One must have a faery's secret name in order to capture them, and obtaining it can be a daunting task. Luckily, we discovered that, for the most part, faeries are incredibly vain creatures (these are, anyway) who can be flattered into revealing the one thing that makes them vulnerable. We discovered this inadvertantly while making a fuss over the first faery we saw. Elizabeth and I exclaimed over her beauty, and as we continued, she kept hovering for more compliments.

After long and careful observation, we've learned a little about these tiny, ephemeral creatures, who continue to appear in our house and on our property. Native to the New Haven, Connecticut, area the Backyard Faeries we discovered have successfully adapted to living in suburbia, but also maintain their purest love of nature and Mother earth. You will find them a curious mixture of old and modern day America, as opposed to their European counterparts, whose roots lie in Old World Brittania and Celtic Ireland. We think they'll capture your hearts just like they captured ours.

Knowing full well the danger of revealing her secret name, this flower faery avoided capture for days. We almost squished her, when we found her sleeping atop the retaining wall in the backyard. She awoke confused (and captured), but hasn't been too angry so far. We're keeping our fingers crossed. An angry faery is a tricky faery. Don't worry, we'll let her go soon.

Backyard Faeries
by Donna & Liz Faber
(c) September 10, 2006

Each Backyard Faery is sculpted individually and no two are alike. They are hand painted and lovingly placed in a jar for safe keeping. But don't worry, we do let them out eventually.

Warning: It is highly recommended that you treat your faery with the utmost kindness and caution. While small and seemingly helpless in their jar, faeries own a surprisingly large amount of nature's power and can be very spiteful when aggravated. It's nothing they can help, however.

It's only their nature.

********************************************

Meet Teensy ...

While we were quite confident this was a Goth Faery, we had yet to discover her secret name. She landed on a windowsill in the study and demanded a close up because we gave other faeries so much attention. She was very jealous. A miniature embodiment of teenaged angst and rebellion, this Goth Faery had absorbed and demonstrated many standard punk rock behaviors (like belching and saying “dude” in her squeaky little voice, which we had yet to hear). She pouts regularly (as you can see), has a huge attitude (which she works diligently to hone), and knows, by heart, the lyrics to every Stevie Nicks song ever written.

It took some doing, but this feisty little faery finally confided (with great embarrassment) that her secret name is Teensy. We believe that embarrassment is due to her name being as un-goth like as it could be. After suffering a hefty dollop of oooo’s and aaaahhh’s, she adamantly insisted that her name was not Teensy, but “Tense”, which, we imagine, better suits her self image.

This is an untouched pen and ink rendering I did of Teensy.

Special Notes: Teensy (er, excuse me, Tense) was sculpted by Donna and is still flying around the house somewhere. She only uses her jar when strangers are around and she can’t find anywhere else to hide. The name "Backyard Faeries" and Teensy are copywritten by Donna L. Faber in 2007. Please do not copy or use anywhere without permission. Thanks.