The Dandelion Faeries

---

~ Soliel & Siofra ~

I spied Siofra and little Soleil just after sunrise moving quietly across the yard. They were gathering basketfuls of dandelions. Soifra explained to me that if you gather them as they open with the morning sun, they can be brewed into a special tea to chase away bad dreams (and conversely, if you gather them at sundown as they're closing their bright yellow heads, they can be made into a faerie wine that will keep you dancing and merry making all night). But it was the tea they were after this morning, for little Soleil who's been suffering from bad dreams. When their baskets were full to the brim they sat down to rest and Soifra told Soleil and I an old story about how long ago the faeries had hidden themselves from the human world in the form of dandelions, and to this day they still hold some faerie magic, which is why the plants can cure so many ailments.

---

The Dandelion Cycle
By Emilie Poulsson

"Pretty little Goldilocks, shining in the sun, 

Pray, what will become of you when the summer’s done ?"

"Then I’ll be old Silverhead; for, as I grow old, 

All my shining hair will be white instead of gold.

"And where rests a silver hair that has blown from me, 

Other little Goldilocks in the Spring you’ll see!

"Goldilocks to Silverhead, Silverhead to gold, 

So the change is going on every year, I’m told."

---

---

Soliel & Siofra, the Dandelion Faeries are original art dolls, they are entirely hand stitched from natural fibres (with the exception of their wings). Their hair and dresses are hand dyed with goldenrod flowers from the woods around my house. The dandelions are dyed with turmeric. The toadstools and wool moss are also hand dyed using a variety of dyes. This piece stands 12" high. They will be in my shop this evening at 9PM ADT. They are $400 USD (plus shipping).

"You cannot forget if you would those golden kisses all over the cheeks of the meadow, queerly called dandelions.” --Henry Ward Beecher

The Goldenrod Faeries

---

Today it is still summer,

Tomorrow will be fall.

I see the purple asters,

I hear the autumn's call.

The maple leaves are golden,

The pumpkins, round and yellow;

The apple cheeks are rosy,

The pears are getting mellow.

The nuts are growing rounder,

The cornstalk brown and sear.

By twenty lovely tokens,

I know that fall is near.

I feel the warm sun shining

As a balmy south wind blows;

I see the flowers blooming,

And I see the grass still grows;

The goldenrod is waving,

The bees are in the clover.

I hear a distant honking--

The geese are flying over

Today it is still summer,

Tomorrow will be fall.

Today I still am barefoot--

Oh how I love it all!

--by Nona Keen Duffy

---

The goldenrod faeries are everywhere in our garden right now, soaking up these last glorious summer days. They showed me how to gather the goldenrod flowers to make a beautiful yellow dye. We spent the afternoon dyeing silk and wool and lace, and I made each of them a tiny goldenrod dress.

---

Daphne & Clara, the Goldenrod Faeries, are original art dolls made entirely from natural fibres (with the exception of their wings). I hand dyed their silk and lace dresses with goldenrod from the woods around our house. Their hair is dyed with goldenrod as well. The toadstools and wool moss are also hand dyed. Daphne and Clara are entirely hand stitched and embroidered. Tis piece stands 14" x 9"

Thy will be in my shop this evening at 9PM ADT. They are $465 USD (plus shipping).

Song of the Moon Sylphs

---

---

When I was a child and still remembered how to talk to the moon, I would leave small offerings on my windowsill, little forest findings; a perfectly preserved dragonfly, a shell, a stone. Sometimes, on full moon nights, when the yard was aglow with that mystical light, I would sneak out and dance barefoot on the lawn. A wild, moonlight child, imagining that I was a faerie changeling. I would wait for them to come and take me away home. And once, only once, I heard the Moon Sylph’s song calling me. It's a sound so hauntingly beautiful that there are no words describe it. Before I could follow, it was swallowed up by the night. I’ve often listened for it in the years since, but I never heard it again. Not until tonight...

The air in my studio was warm and muggy, but the night breeze coming in through the window was lovely. I decided to walk around the garden. The children were already in bed. As I reached the edge of the property, where the faerie daisies disappear into a thick tangle of woods and blackberries, I saw a faint shimmering. Very quietly, I stepped nearer. Then I heard it, dancing on the wind, soft and gentle and yet somehow filling my ears, filling every part of me; the Moon Sylph’s song.

---

They were gathered round a faerie ring, and in the centre a white hare sat gazing at the moon. They were singing to her, a beautiful, sad song, and there was such a longing in her eyes that it almost broke my heart. She looked up at the moon as a child looks at her mother, and I think that if she could have she would have climbed the very moonbeams to reach it.

---

I sat and listened for a long long time. And then they were gone, away on the back of the hare. A small luminous glow drifting through the forest. 

---

'Song of the Moon Sylphs' is an original soft sculpture made entirely from natural fibres (with the exception of the sylph's wings). I hand dyed the toadstools and wool moss using mostly plant dyes, some harvested from the woods around my house. The three Moon Sylphs are entirely hand stitched and embroidered. They are dressed in vintage cottons and hand painted silk. Their hair is made from undyed mohair locks. The hare maiden is needle felted over a wire armature. This is the largest piece I've made to date, it stands 16" high, 19" long.

Thy will be in my shop this evening at 10PM ADT. Their cost is $1385 USD.