Caught Fairy

Last year, Halloween 2012, friends of mine organised a Monster Hunters Cafe (I was a dragon hunter) and for decoration they wanted a curiosities cabinet (well, table really) and while thinking about what stuff I had I could bring with me, this idea popped into my head, inspired by the fact we would also have a fairy catcher among the hunters (cause we all know fairies can be quite a pest). The beauty was, I had all the needed material/objects lying around, they just needed to be customised.

Starting with the cage, lately, putting potted plants in decorative fake birdcages seems to be quite trendy and since the summer of last year I bought several varieties, from quite large in a half circle, to be hanged against a wall, till so small it's a tea light holder (obviously I'm gonna put small dragons in those). This medium size I got was perfect for my idea, just very white, so I painted it in a blond bronze colour.

Then the fairy. The few things I've managed to save from my childhood (as in, I didn't have to give it away to younger kids once I had so called out grown it) are these little dolls plastic with possible limbs. They look quite bad, with their cheap quality hair and generic faces but several of them are wearing flamenco like dresses once crocheted by my granny from father's side and I always thought I'd one day be able to make them look nicer and like fairies, with wings and such. What with customising dolls being quite the rage nowadays and me being much more technically savvy that moment in time has finally arrived See, it pays off to be a hoarder

I rerooted the hair, chose a colour that would suit the dress, and I repainted the face. Not terribly well, I was rushed for time and my brushes were far too big, but I managed to make her look sad/cranky I feel. And I made wings out of metal wire, lace like fabric with I stiffened using colourless craft glue and once dry coloured with markers (I was surprised it actually worked). I didn't attach them to the fairy directly but made a sort of corset like belt from a ribbon to which I sew the wings. All because of time issues (it didn't have to be perfect, just good enough to show the joke).
Now I do actually want to repaint the face again but it wasn't until recently that I found brushes small enough (10/0). Now that I have I'm gonna give it a second try and when happy I will take new pictures of the fairy, showing her wings and all. I also had a very different idea for the cage when I first bought it and I still want to implement that so I will be taking apart this 'caught fairy' construction, but I wanted to show the idea before I release the fairy. She's been in that cage for over 9 months now!

If only I remembered where I left the key to that lock...