Turning a Gourd Into a Home for Fairies
2 Materials
Easy
We know that fairies love delicate, natural things, so we have made a beautiful, miniature fairy house for one in a kettle gourd. It is currently lined with moss to keep its occupant warm and cosy, however cold it is. Inside is a splendid wooden bed that has a mulberry bark, fleece and feather mattress, with a pretty handmade felt blanket to snuggle under. Surrounding the bed are all the things a fairy might need; a little wooden cup, acorn baskets and herbs that might be used for making fairy potions!
We purchased our gourd ready cleaned from eBay (I understand this can be quite a job), so when it arrived it was just a matter of marking out where I wanted the window and door, taking a deep breath, and then wimping out and getting hubby to cut it for me!
He drilled a pilot hole with a hand drill, and then used a little saw to cut the shape out. It turned out to be really easy to cut, and there was no sign that it was thinking about cracking. Once open you need to pull out the seeds and related material, these can be saved for future plantings. I then sanded both openings to remove any rough edges.
The fairy bed is made out of a twig frame, tied together with garden string, with acorn caps as bed nobs. It's mattress is made from dyed mulberry bark, with feathers and fleece for a pillow. A pretty piece of wool felt makes a lovely quilt for the fairy to snuggle under.
Our gourd is lined with moss. I gathered this and left it to dry for a couple of days on a drying rack over newspaper. Unfinished gourds are susceptible to water; they will soften and rot if they become damp.
I love how our gourd looks in its natural state, so decided I didn't want to paint or varnish it. You could, of course, do both these things. Just so you are aware, a surprising number of critters decamped from our moss once I had it laid out to dry, so you may want to do that somewhere where you don't mind a few creepy crawlies appearing!
We initially planned to decorate the outside of the house with leaves and bark, but we rather like it in its natural form so I think, for now, it will stay as it is. Although our fairy house is shown outside here, it would start to rot if allowed to get damp, so we do keep it inside when it's not being played with!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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4 of 25 comments
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great job, love it
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I have lots of gourds, different varieties and sizes. I just bought some fairy garden items and now I have the perfect idea for a fairy house. Thanks so much for sharing, this is a great project!
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Thanks Rose, Have lots of fun making yours :)
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