Fairy Purses

The fairy purses have been mentioned mentioned before, they are Avril's crochet creations that were inspired by an antique "miser's purse". This one was in my Christmas stocking just a couple of weeks ago. Not miserly at all, these are stylish joined pockets of ingenious design; the entire work is a single continuous chain of crochet from one pocket to the other. Hard-to-find silky thread of just the right weight is necessary for the pockets to hang nicely and to support the beaded fringe.

Each pocket is 2.5 inches wide. The multi-layered flowers are Avril's invention too, plus the slider ring to keep the cords from tangling.
Designed to hold a few coins, perhaps or a sovereign or two, they are small enough to hang stylishly from a belt or belt loop.

Coming soon to the Etsy shop are these, in silky aquamarine

and fairy green.

Little fairy purses are beguiling things to shape and consider.

Fairy Finds

Along with the fairy paintings currently on display at Sovereign House are other fairy finds. There are the fairy purses of course, and now another one of Avril's crochet inventions, a little blue-finned mermaid with cascading golden hair. Like the fairy purses she is made of the finest, silkiest cotton thread, very beguiling to the touch. She fits charmingly into the palm of one's hand.

Some weeks ago I found a pair of child-sized chairs in my favourite charity shop and brought them home to sand down and repaint with a fairy motif. The weeks have slipped by with so many things to have ready in time for the show, but this weekend I finally finished the chairs and brought them into the gallery.

Here is the signature motif under the seat,

and here are the chairs, with daisy seats and winged back rests.

One of our young visitors pulled up a chair to sit and paint with me for a while. Working on scraps of watercolour paper we came up with these (fairy with a flower vine, fairy flying over a golden ship) and other miniatures, making up stories to go with each one.

On a table in the middle of the room are books, cards and ornaments. In recent years I did some designs for a giftware company and have a small stock of the resulting product. The Frost Fairy collection included these little cherubs,
and another group of ornaments was designed around my "Princess and the Pea" illustration,
with the Princess on her ladder, sets of Princess slippers,
and a trinket box of the Princess in her tall bed with (what else) a small golden pea inside, under all those mattresses.
The show continues until later this week, concluding another magical interlude at Sovereign House.