Make Clay Fairy houses...

This year I wanted to try something a little with our fairy garden.

We found a lovely wooden wheelbarrow at the local garden center.

We lined it with a bin bag so that it the compost we would be filling it with wouldn't rot the wood.

We planted some little violas plants around the edges, took a "cutting" from one of our conifers to plant as a tree.

We also used a pine cone for a tree!

We made a fairy sized washing line and placed some special stones and moss found on walks for a fairy path.

Finally we placed our fairy houses in their new home and scattered grass seed around them.

Hopefully as the warm weather continues the grass will make a lovely, soft green carpet for a our fairies delicate littlefeet to tread upon.

Here is how we made our clay fairy homes.

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We warmed the clay between our hands, added a little warm water to soften it and rolled it into a log shape.

I began by cutting the log into approximately 1 inch slices for the houses.

I rolled out one more log with the second block of clay and made 1/2 inch thick slices to make the thatched roofs.



The girls and I had fun decorating our houses by carving into them with different utensils.

Sharp pencils and blunt table knives seemed to work well.







We attached the roofs with lots of warm water to help them to stick. Then we scored and cross-hatched them with our blunt table knives to create a thatched look.



The clay feels so nice and cool and wet :)



We put the m on a baking sheet in a very low oven for a couple of hours until they were properly hardened and set.

After they cooled down we painted them.

Unless they are professionally fired and glazed in a kiln these fairy houses work best for indoor fairy gardens as they will spoil if left to weather outside.




We sprinkled grass seed around the houses and waited for it to grow.

Sometimes we even find the odd little fairy friend hanging her washing to dry or dipping her toes in the a glitter sprinkled shell pond.

Sometimes they even leave treasures behind like little notes with the tiniest of writing, or special feathers or shiny pebbles!