This year’s Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit is larger than the 2013 show and it will be on display longer, too. The houses are holding up quite well and we’re confidant that most structures will stay intact until the closing on August 31st.There have been some instances of eroding moss and hot glue not holding parts together well enough, which backs up my personal bias against glue guns! But, the fairies have made repairs and are doing their best to keep up the neighborhood.
Each fairy house has a number, so visitors can identify the 32 locations around the Highfield property. Maps, with a list of house names and their makers are available inside during open hours. I hope that more of you can come see the show during its last month. A printable pdf file of the map is here.
Highfield Hall Open Hours: Mondays – Fridays, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Saturdays & Sundays, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Grounds are accessible from dawn to dusk, except during private functions For this year’s collection, I painted 10 more markers to make a total of 32. Earlier this summer, I took pictures of some house builders setting up their creations.
Nicole St. Pierre – Enchanted Baa Baa Hollow Cottage
She also planted miniature succulents around the base.
Nicole St. Pierre – Enchanted Baa Baa Hollow Cottage
The fairy family raffle for the benefit of Highfield Hall will continue until August 30th, so there’s still a chance to win! You can buy 3 tickets for $5.00 online here.
Throughout Scotland, the building materials of choice are stone, with slate roofs.The rooftop scene above was taken from Stirling Castle. And just a short stroll down toward town is Argyll’s Lodging (below).
Argyll’s Lodging
This joining of metal and slate roofs was in a village along the Caledonian Canal.
Chimney pots and pointy roofs with finials added a bit of whimsy to the solid structures. The rest of the photos were taken in small towns in the Highlands and in Inverness.
The Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit is well underway, with many visitors coming to see it daily. I run into people around town, from the supermarket to my Zumba class, who tell me how much they enjoyed seeing the fairy houses. The other day I saw a grandmother come into Highfield, accompanied by a fully outfitted pair — a little girl fairy and a boy with dragon wings.
When I see everyone’s smiling faces, all of the preparation and planning that went into organizing the exhibit seems totally worth it. And then there’s the time and dedication that each builder put into dreaming up and creating their houses! More than one of them admitted having symptoms of fairy fever, lying awake at night, conjuring up how they were going to make their dwelling. See the map with house locations here. This tour isn’t over yet, with even more photos to come in future posts!
Glendell Towers by Glen and Susan Carliss
Cordelia Butterdragon’s School for Magical Creatures by Angela Tanner
My fairy house, “Grate Hall” (shown below) has battery powered LED lights, which add a shimmer to the glass and mirrors inside. Read a post about how I made it here.
Grate Hall by Salley Mavor
Grate Hall by Salley Mavor
A few house are inside the building, including “Lichen Lookout”, my house from the 2013 fairy house exhibit.
Lichen Lookout by Salley Mavor
The houses on display were made by 30 people and are all very different from one another. Their construction of materials include wood, bark, stones, shells and moss.
Please come along on a tour of the Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit. Since the popularity of the previous show 2 years ago, there has been much anticipation of this year’s display. The fairy house phenomenon has grown since then, so more people are familiar with the idea and it hasn’t taken as much explanation this time.
The houses will be set up all summer, but I suggest visiting sooner than later. Although most dwellings are quite sturdy and are holding up to the wind and rain, some are beginning to show their ephemeral nature.
Here are some of the many types of places where fairies live. Future posts with photos of more houses are coming…
Lone Star Postal by Barbara Whitehead and Bruce Safley
An old mailbox, mirrors and deer antlers…
Lone Star Postal by Barbara Whitehead and Bruce Safley
Vines and string webs…
Spiral Hallow by Bobbi Bailin
Believerton’s fairy community must follow neighborhood covenants.
Believerton by Sheila Payne and Sally Egan
Believerton by Sheila Payne and Sally Egan
A roof and stairway made of old books…
Hole in the Woods Library by Nancy Porter and Kellie Porte
Hole in the Woods Library by Nancy Porter and Kellie Porter
seaweed and sea glass.
Just Lobsta by Deb Coulombe and friends
tree trunks and bark…
The Oak Inn by Matt Inman
bittersweet vines…
Wood Hole by Lauren and Sadie Leveque
metal, glass and wood found objects.
Fairy House-Boat by Sue Beardsley and Tehva Baumflek
For this year’s Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit, I invited some new builders with fresh interpretations of the fairy house concept. I’ve always thought that ceramic artists could bring a unique perspective, so I asked 3 local potters to take part.
They were all thrilled and excited to make something for the show and each artist spent a good part of the winter and spring experimenting, constructing, glazing and firing their clay pieces. Each potter made multiple dwellings, creating a neighborhood, with many parts. Perhaps it’s because they are used to production work and couldn’t stop at just one! Ron Geering, Teesa Morgan and Kim Sheerin have all outdone themselves and in many respects, their houses are the stars of the show!
I’m encouraging everyone I see to go up to Highfield to experience the display. So many people assume that the exhibit is just for children and picture fairy crazy little girls flitting about, but it’s really an art show for all ages, men and women, boys and girls. If you live near enough to visit, please pick up a map inside (it’s free, but donations are appreciated) and start your search! I will be showing more pictures in the weeks to come, so that everyone can get a glimpse at these extraordinary dwellings.
We travelled in Scotland at the height of bluebell season. There were bright yellow gorse and broom everywhere, as well as thyme. I kept humming old tunes like “the blue bells of Scotland” and “wild mountain thyme”. Heather was abundant, but it blooms later in the summer. I hope you enjoy this tour of some wild and cultivated flowers we saw on our trip.
When we got home from Sunday’s opening reception for the Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit, I told Rob, “It’s so good to have the show finally up and running.” He said, “You mean “up and fluttering.” Yes, this collection of fairy houses is causing quite a stir here at the top of Highfield Drive, with more than a thousand visitors already. The display will be set up all summer, until August 31st, 2015. I recommend visiting sooner than later, because of weather related deterioration of the houses.
The morning rain cleared by noon, creating a perfect afternoon for families and friends to stroll around the grounds, searching for the 32 fanciful dwellings. You could see groups of all ages following the tour map. And everyone was smiling! It turned out to be a social gathering, too, with neighbors and acquaintances running into each other. One woman said, “I’m so glad to live in Falmouth, where we have a wonderfully creative community that puts on events like this!” She made me feel part of something bigger than just a group of people who like to make little worlds out in the woods. In recent years, I think that the fairy house concept has entered the collective imagination, bringing a much-needed lightness and sense of wonder. I owe a big thank you to all of the house builders who contributed their time and creative genius to making this show such a success!
I hope you enjoy this set of photos of people interacting with some of the houses. More posts with close-ups of the houses themselves will be coming soon.
UPDATE: I had the pleasure of launching and curating the first two outdoor fairy house exhibitions at Highfield Hall and Gardens in Falmouth, MA in 2013 and 2015. Further ahead, you can find out how I made Grate Hall, which was my contribution to the show. This post was written in 2015.
It’s been an exciting week in the fairy neighborhood! Every day, more wee domiciles are popping up around the grounds of Highfield Hall and Gardens in Falmouth, MA (Cape Cod). By the time the exhibition opens this Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 1:00pm, there will be 32 fairy houses installed and ready to view. Just like the previous show in 2013, this display is sure to bring in many visitors from near and far!
Last winter I invited 30 local artists and fairy aficionados to make houses for this summer’s outdoor display. Each builder started the process by walking around the property and picking their favorite spot. They spent the next few months planning and working on their creations. I haven’t been privy to any finished houses until this week, and from what I’ve seen, this year’s collection is spectacular! There’s a wide variety of interpretations of the “fairy house” concept, from cozy abodes to airy perches. Building materials are as eclectic as the pieces themselves: clay, wood, mushrooms, paper, moss, felt, plants, shells, bark, stones, glass, metal, etc. Don’t worry if you live too far to see the originals — in the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing photos on this blog, Facebook and Instagram.
The Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall and Gardens will be on display until August 31, 2015. Stop by the hall to pick up a map with house locations and artists’ names. Inside the hall you can also see my fairy family. Read a post about making the fairy family here.
Making my fairy house…. Come along, while I make my fairy house, “Great Hall”, which is pictured at the beginning of this post. It began with a bunch of old metal graters that I saved, while cleaning out deceased relatives’ kitchens. For years I’ve been eying them for a future project and thought they’d give a solid structure to a fairy house. I drilled holes and bolted 4 of them together to make walls and a roof.
Then, I used my felt covered wire technique to form a base and arched beams. This single glove was in a box of my grandmother’s things. She and her sisters did a lot of tatting in the early 1900’s, so perhaps one of them made it.
I incorporated the glove into the front wall, leaving room for a door opening and curled loops of felt covered wire.
I stitched wool tapestry yarn in a zigzag pattern to fill in some areas, while leaving other spots open for viewing inside the house.
I tried not to get too fussy, but the door required a bit more detailed work.
I worked on the house during the snowy winter — my favorite time to be engrossed in a project.
A whisk was another kitchen utensil that I added near the end.
I pruned some supple branches off my blueberry bushes and lashed them to the grates with wire, adding a more organic façade.
I wanted the interior to be magical, so I draped strings of glass beads and crystals from the ceiling. Tiny blue and white LED lights (run on batteries) added a glow as well.
In the daylight, it’s hard to see the lit interior, so I sprinkled small round Shisha mirrors on the ground inside to reflect the lights and make it sparkle.
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This year’s Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit is larger than the 2013 show and it will be on display longer, too. The houses are holding up quite well and we’re confidant that most structures will stay intact until the closing on August 31st.There have been some instances of eroding moss and hot glue not holding parts together well enough, which backs up my personal bias against glue guns! But, the fairies have made repairs and are doing their best to keep up the neighborhood.
For this year’s collection, I painted 10 more markers to make a total of 32. 
Earlier this summer, I took pictures of some house builders setting up their creations.
SALLEY MAVOR 