Beware of fairies and mushrooms! Deathly Fairy Pendant by Kat Hazelton

 

Deathly Fairy Pendant inspired by the stories of fairies, mushrooms, magical portholes and fairy rings you will need. 

The dangers of a fairy ring! Poem by Kat Hazelton. 

Nine times around the ring you step, when the moon is full. 

To travel to the magical realm this is the golden rule. 

But do be warned I need to impress. 

Don't step one more, nor step one less. 

For this is the fairy's way. 

Those will perish if they disobey!

There are hundreds of folk stories about fairies, mushrooms and fairy rings. Some are whimsical and fun depicting beautiful or childlike friendly fairy folk sitting on pretty toadstools or dancing holding hands around rings of mushrooms. But many more tales tell stories of mischievous sometimes malevolent creatures gathering in and around rings of mushrooms. Often these rings were places of magic and portals to other realms beyond our own. One tale says if you step into a fairy ring it will transport you into the fairy realm, never to return! Other tales say that if you step in and out of a fairy ring without permission on returning home you will find hundreds of years had passed! 

There is also various similar tales that say that to enter a fairy ring safely you have to run around the mushroom ring nine times under a full moon. But warning is given that if the runner did not pay attention and did a tenth that evil would befall that runner! Sometimes in the story the poor victims outcome was either madness or death! 

Personally because there are so many stories warning humans away from fairies, mushrooms and fairy rings it's best if you spot any on your travels to just admire them from a distance! It's not, in my view, worth the risk of upsetting the fairy folk!

You will need:

Assortment of MDF or Die cut shapes.

Acrylic paints, metallic paints or mica powder, paint brush, water. 

Sculpting paste and sculpting tool. 

Insect or fairy wing rubber stamp, ink and water colour paper. 

Metal steampunk cogs, assorted Gothic charms and tiny beads. 

Glitter. 

Gloss Varnish. 

Glue, I used both tacky glue and super glue. 

Sharp scissors. 

Paper flowers. 

Wording either bought or written with pen onto cardboard. It needs to be some sort of warning to keep humans away! 

String.

To add some details to the mdf mushroom I used sculpting paste, adding lines and grooves with a sculpting tool. Once I got the look I wanted I left the mushroom to thoroughly dry over night. I then painted it with a combination of brown and pink metallic paints. One dry I added an additional coating of brown mica powder which I watered down with water. The mica helped to add a shimmery effect. 

I then painted the MDF ring and 'Fairy' Skeleton with an wash of watered down white acrylic paint and brown mica. This gave both pieces a more grungy steampunk appearance. 

Using stamp and ink I created two wings. These were stamped onto smooth watercolour card. Once the ink was dry I cut them out, using sharp scissor, then painted them with acrylic paints. To finish them off I painted on a layer of gloss varnish sprinkled with assorted glitters to add a touch of magic. 

I positioned and glued on my mushroom and 'fairy' skeleton with the wings tucked behind the fairies back. 

I then glued on all my charms, flowers and wording. 

I also added some tiny beads to the wings. 

And finally finished off my pendant with a length of string. 

I did some tutorials as a guest designer for Calico Craft Parts a few years ago and thought whilst I was working on some new ideas it would be nice to revisit and reshare some of my past Kat makes here on my blog. 

All MDF parts are from Calico Craft Parts and other items were either bought from UK craft suppliers or rummaged from my craft stash. You can of course use your own shapes, die cuts and ephemera.