A dreamer, a writer, an artist, a maker.

While on a Graphic Design course l started working on a fairy story, though it was very different from 'The Fairy Theatre' I was using my children and all my friends children, l dressed them up and photographed them,  but the idea got lost in the passage of time and meanwhile my lovely models grew up.

My background is in art education, and l just love the fact that we can make up something in our imagination and then turn it into an object; a painting, a story or anything we want, and then sharing that idea with another person is even better.

So, l had another think about how to illustrate my ideas and this story by building 'Film Sets' or 'Scenes'.  Having prevoiusly had work experience for a special effects company that produced props etc for the movie industry, got me thinking!  This felt exciting and something l could fit around family and working.

l would get lost for days building props and scenes, but through trial and error my imagined world started to take shape.

Using a soft modelling clay, l developed the folk from Nettlebed and fairy personalities from the woods, by making different faces and experimented until l would see the beginning of a special character start to appear.

Making the tiny clothes to fit them all was really fiddly, so l started by making miniature paper patterns, to check that l had their clothes sizes just right before sewing them together.

Sometimes though, you have to search for inspiration. So when it came to the two little 'Hedgehikers' l remembered a pair of famous actors who played shop keepers on a very old television comedy show. The hedgehikers are the fairies aids and helpers, who have evolved over hundreds of years from part hedgehog and part elf. The shop keepers coats just suited their cheeky and slightly mischievous ways as they went about hoarding goods taken from secret trips to the village!

The amazing Mike Taylor and l, then had so much fun setting up the scenes before he beautifully photographed them and helped in the making of this book. We hope you enjoy the adventure. Check out 'The Making Of" video for an in-depth look behind the scenes if you want to hear more, so until next time -

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Take care,

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Lizzie Brown