FAIRY FACE PIN & KNIT NECKLACE SET
They can be worn in many different ways, and really accent any top or sweater. Fun, colorful and whimsical! Below are several photos of this particular set.
Wear them together or wear them apart!
I am very happy to feature this artist's colorful work, and I think you will find it fascinating as to how and why she started creating her wonderful pieces. 
This little mermaid is my newest creation, and I just finished her today! I was so delighted with her, that I thought she deserved to have her photo out here.
She was just 6.5" tall before sculpting her into her current, permanent sitting position. These tiny little mermaids are very hard to work with, and to get them to sit, through the use of wire armatures in her tail and arms, takes a bit of doing! Sitting, she measures just about 4.5" tall from her "seat" to the top of her fluffy hairdo. Her fins span approximately 5" wide.
I used a shimmery dark teal fabric for her tail. When using a silky textured fabric such as this, it is necessary to use iron on interfacing on both sides of the fabric, to give it more strength. Her upper body and face are 100% silk tussah fabric. Tussah silk comes from wild moths whose's main diet is oak leaves. It is the amount of tannin in the leaves that determines the silk's natural color. Tussah silk can vary from a light beige (this is what I have used for this mermaid) to a darker tan color. Tussah silk is getting very hard to find, and keeps going up in price. The lowest price I've found so far is $15.00 per yard, and it can go as high as $40.00 per yard depending on the supplier. Her face, of course, has been individually hand-drawn, needle-sculpted, and hand-painted. I use a Micron .005 pen for the features, and acrylic paints for the eyes and lips. Her little face is approximately .75" long, and .50" wide. I can't get much smaller than that and get a good face.
Her wild hairdo was designed from a unique textured Italian yarn with wisps and poofs in it, accented with a metallic thread running through this yarn. I added another yarn call AURA, which makes her sparkle even more.
Her accents are all hand-sewn onto her, using a 4# test, clear fishing line. She has a Swarovski crystal belly button, necklace and her waist is also decorated with Swarovski crystals, and a real sea shell.
She is sculpted so that she can sit all by herself.
If you'd like to see more photos and learn more about her, click on the link below:
I'm a 30-something, country-dwelling, herb-loving, tree-hugging dirt-worshipper, artist, reiki practitioner, wife and stepmother. Although I do use commercial yarns for my goddesses, I also try to buy yarn from individual artisans, and hope eventually to use yarn exclusively from real people rather than corporations. I grow most of the herbs used in my creations on my small homestead in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. While I am not certified organic, my husband and I are committed to growing everything without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Furthermore, we work the land with the intention of creating better soil and a healthier local ecosystem, hoping to leave the land better than we found it. We see it as a spiritual practice as well as a factor in our health and well being. Every purchase you make helps my family move closer to the sustainable, close to the land life we long to lead.
What led you to start creating your art?
I've always loved creating, since I can remember. I liked to draw and paint of course, but I was always trying crazy new things that I would dream up. I was really small when my paternal grandmother taught me how to embroider and my maternal grandmother taught me to crochet (although I never got on with crochet). But things really started picking up steam after college, when I was living in New Orleans and having a hard time. I took up embroidery and beading, and it was really comforting. Then a few years ago a coworker loaned me her "Learn to Knit" book and an addiction was born.
How did you decide what medium you wanted to work with?
I don't think I have chosen a medium. I just do what is enjoyable at any given time--right now I'm obsessed with embroidery, and with making things out of plants. I have some willow figures that aren't in my Etsy shop yet, but some of them might be there soon.There's really only one criteria for what I work with--I definitely prefer natural materials. I don't like working with synthetics--I just don't sense as much energy in them. I like to work with things that feel alive. I'm not sure that makes sense to anyone but me . . .
What aspect of creating your art do you find the most enjoyable?
I'm a very tactile person, I love the way it FEELS to handle wool or silk, cotton thread, gemstone or glass beads, plant material. It helps me feel grounded and connected to the earth. Sometimes when I'm working, I just sit with my materials and hold them and move them around, just enjoying the sense of touch.
If you had to choose a fruit OR a vegetable, to describe your art, what would you choose, and why?
I suppose I would choose a rose hip, which is technically a fruit. Partially because roses are my primary "plant ally" right now, but also because to me they're an amazing symbol of tranformation, which is the soul of art (in my opinion). People mostly notice the flowers of the roses, but after the flowers fall off, after the cold comes, you have this amazing, brilliant red fruit that is FULL of vitamin C, to enrich your health throughout the winter, and it feeds people and animals, and if it falls to the ground it gestates over the winter and becomes new plants in the spring. If you think about it, the journey from seed to plant to flower to fruit back to seed in the womb of earth is about the most miraculous transformation possible. For me, creation is like that, a long slow process of transformation, it begins in those "underground" times, the times we turn inward, and then a thought forms, and then you create from that thought, but the process so often takes you elsewhere and becomes something entirely different. And then you send your creation in to the world and other people see it, take it in to themselves, and it can start the process in THEM somehow. Does that make any sense? I can see it in my head but I don't feel I'm explaining it very well!
What message, if any, do you want to convey with your art?
For me, art is an opportunity to create more of what I want in the world. Not just images, but energy patterns. I'm also a Reiki practitioner, so I work with energy a lot, and I can feel when I make a piece of art, that I'm creating something more than just an image in fiber or beads or willow. I'm shifting the energy of the world just slightly, by transforming one thing in to another. So I feel art comes with this responsibility--be careful what you create, you know? You can create anything, so make it good! I try to create more beauty, more magic, and more trees! You will notice that I depict trees and leaves with alarming frequency. I'm rambling here, I think, because my understanding of the creative process is still evolving. I guess what I want people to get out of my art is first of all pleasure, and then a greater awareness of the mystery in the natural world, and a deeper connection with spirit and earth. That's a tall order and who knows if I succeed.
What advice do you have for other artists?
I feel like such a novice, as far as being an artist in the world goes. I would just say, give your best from your HEART. Do what brings you joy or what's the point?
Michelle, thank you for your wonderful thoughts, ideas, and creations! I really loved what you had to say, may your hopes and dreams for a better world for your family come true. Click on the links below to visit GREEN FINGERS, and Michelle's other links.
FINISHED FAIRY WITH HER NEW HAIRDO!
For her short, fluffy hairdo I used a hair loom, which I purchased about 10 years ago. I know there are other style looms that can be purchased from various sites that handle "doll making supplies". It has the two wooden ends, with metal rods running through. You can adjust the size by removing the screws and placing them in the different holes which are in each of the wooden ends. 
The holes are spaced 1 inch apart, and are numbered, as you can see in the photo above. I used a spacing of 3" for this fairy's hairstyle. To start the hair, you tie your yarn onto the outer metal rod, as shown in the photo below.
You then wind the yarn around both rods, keeping the yarn very close together, as shown below. I gauge about how long to wind the yarn on the rods, by determining the figure's head size, and how full I want the hairdo to be. If you find you have too long a piece, you can always cut it off. If you end up with too short a piece you can make another smaller piece to fill in the back of the head. I used about a 4" piece for this fairy's hairdo.
After you have the length of yarn to where you want it, you center the piece of yarn, (still on the loom), into your sewing machine, as shown below. Starting at one end of the "piece", start stitching down the center until you reach the other end. Use the smallest stitch that you have on your machine. This is important, so that it holds the yarn together when you do the next step of twisting it This is done after you have taken it off the rods.
After you have sewn down the entire length of the yarn, you need to unscrew the screws and slide the "piece" off the metal rods. 
Below is a photo of my "piece" of yarn after I took it off the metal rods. The next thing I do, is twist the yarn, starting at one end, and ending at the other, so that you have it looking like the photo below. It is then ready to be stitched to the center of the fairy's head.
The above photo shows the hair "piece" after I stitched the center to her head. To style and shape her hairdo, I then stitch the yarn in place at different points around the head to secure it in place. I also used Fabric-Tac adhesive to shape the yarn around the fairy's face and neck.
Here she is, all finished, with her short, glistening hairdo all in place. I accented it with a hand-painted, organza flower, with Swarovski crystals sewn into the center of the flower. She is now available for purchase out in my DZFANTASY shop on Etsy. Click on the link below if you'd like to see more of her.
I will be sharing, out here, some of the fun, fantastic, colorful yarns, which I use to create the hair styles of my one-of-a-kind fantasy creations. I have a huge selection of many wonderful yarns, with unique textures, and colors!
The photo above shows the two yarns blended together. Below you will see a photo of the two balls of yarn and the soon to be fairy. I drape the yarn over the head to get an idea of how long I want it to be. After, I determine the length, I fold it back and forth until I get a "hunk" of it in the thickness that I want. (As shown in the above photo)
After I have the "hunk" or section of yarn to be used for the hairdo, I take a piece of the two combined yarns, and tie it around the center of the "hunk" of yarn several times and knot it. Next, I place the center of the "hunk" of yarn on the top of the fairy's head. Using 4#, clear fishing line, I then sew the yarn to the center of the head....securing it tightly! 
In the photo above, I have already sewn the center of the "hunk" of yarn to the top of her head. The next step was to apply a bit of Fabric-Tac, the permanent adhesive I use to "style and shape", the hair around the fairy's face. (I tried to get my husband to photograph this step...but...somehow it didn't work!) The adhesive is applied around the outer each of the face, and then you can press the yarn into place. I decided to give this fairy a side braid style hairdo, so I pulled the yarn to one side, and then I sewed it several times, where you see my fingers holding the yarn, to secure it. 
Above is the back side of the hairdo. I use a combination of stitching the yarn in place, and also the permanent adhesive, to firmly secure the hair to the back of the entire head. The other side of the face also gets an application of the adhesive so that the yarn can be shaped to her face. She is now ready to get her hair accents sewn on, and then her wings.
Here she is all finished! It is a bit hard to see in the photo, but she has a hair accent of three strands of Swarovski crystals, and tiny glass and metal seed beads strung on copper colored wire. Come back to see my next post showing how I create a "short" hairstyle using my hair loom.
