Compiled and edited for length by Megan Stouffer, New England Botanic Garden
September 2024
Everyone’s favorite magical creatures have made their way back to the Garden for another season of whimsy and enchantment. The intricately designed one-of-a-kind fairy houses of Enchanted Forest pull you into a magical miniature world where fantasy meets nature. Sally J. Smith, the artist behind the more than 30 fairy houses is no stranger to the Garden.
Megan: Creating fairy houses is a pretty specific form of art. What led you to start making them?
Sally: Ever since I was a little kid, I have always made fairy houses. I had a long career as a watercolor painter, a very successful one, but I took a break from that because I felt called to do something else. That’s when I started working with environmental art. My first fairy house was made from milkweed pods, and I fell in love with the idea of making little houses out in nature for the fairies again. That’s how it started, very simple. It just went on from there.
Megan: Natural elements and nature-inspired materials are used throughout your pieces. What are some of the materials you use for your fairy houses?
Sally: Birch bark is a staple. A lot of my houses are made with birch bark because it’s so flexible, waterproof, easy to work with, and looks great in the Garden. I use white cedar twigs because white cedar is very springy and bendable. I also use twigs that I find along the river, where they’ve already had the bark taken off, as well as other kinds of barks like red pine and willow, and lots of conifer cones. But because the houses must be sturdy and weather resistant, I used artificial moss and flowers to decorate and give them a lot of color and textural interest. Unfortunately, if I used natural flowers, they wouldn’t last longer than a day, so we have to use the faux ones.
Megan: A lot goes into creating these houses. Can you talk us through the creation process? What inspires the houses?
Sally: The inspiration has several different elements. The houses have to work with the garden space itself and the plantings, they have to be fun to look at, but also super sturdy and weather-resistant, and then they all have to be different from one another.
The process can be different from house to house. I will use the example of the rainbow houses, because they are new this year. We knew we wanted to make a set of eight rainbow houses, and there was only one place where they could go, around the circle lawn. We talked about that, and I did a rough sketch of the idea, so the exhibitions team could see what I was imagining. But then I had to get all of the different gourds. I had to select the eight that would make the series look good together.
I had to skin them all first, and I didn’t know that when I originally thought to use them for the exhibition. They all had to be peeled and prepared, cleaned out on the inside, and made ready. That took weeks! Next, I had to figure out how the structural elements were going to come together for each house. I needed to know whether it’s going to sit on a stomp, on some rocks, on rebar, or whether it’s going to hang, because we have several hanging ones too. There are many technical details you have to figure out before you start building, and those technicalities really drive a lot of the design, because I can’t have something that will look good on a stump, hanging in a tree. It’s just not going to work.
Megan: Can you give us an example of a house turning out differently than you originally envisioned it?
Sally: Oh yes, that does happen. And what’s nice too, is that The Ramble is so big and has so many different nooks and crannies that we set it up, and Lea and I look at it and go, “You know, it’s just not quite working,” and then we try it somewhere else where it fits perfectly. So that does happen, although it hasn’t happened as much with this second exhibition as it did with the first. We know what we’re doing a little bit more this time around.
Megan: I know this is always the most difficult question, but do you have a favorite piece?
Sally: It’s like having a favorite child. I will say that what was fun is there are two new pieces this year that are stumps. They have houses on top of them or houses that are made in them. I made the stumps. I’m not going to tell you how I made them because I will keep that a trade secret, but that was a new technique. It was really fun. There were some disasters the first few times I tried it, then I figured it out, and I was like, oh, this is really going to work. It was fun to do something new, bigger, and more dramatic. I can’t wait to do more.
Megan: This is the second year you’ve brought your fairy houses to the Garden. The last time was back in 2022. How does it feel to be here for a second time?
Sally: My heart is so happy to be here. The Garden is the best, most welcoming place to work, and it’s been great seeing everyone I worked with for the first exhibition. I especially like seeing all the kids watching us setting it up and knowing that they will have so much fun. It has been a magical time.
Megan: Is there anything specific you hope visitors take away from the exhibition?
Sally: Just a sense of joy and wonder, you know? It sounds so simple. But our world, our natural world, is changing so much. I mean, I see the effects of climate change and it is something that we all need to pay attention to. Even though the houses don’t necessarily relate to climate change, they do relate to nature, and anytime we can connect with nature and feel joy and delight it’s important. Maybe as these kids grow up, they’ll become environmental scientists, or not, but the fairy houses are there to spark joy and allow for some connection in whatever way that happens.
Megan: What is the most rewarding aspect of working on a fairy house exhibit, particularly in a public garden setting like ours?
Sally: Making the houses and setting them up is so intense. You’re thinking of all the technical details like the design and if something is going to work in a space. And when you’re thinking of all the technicalities, you have no time for emotions. It’s just ‘get the work done.’ But when I went through the gardens as a visitor during Fairies Aglow, and watched everybody enjoying them, I was really surprised. To see people just so touched and so giggly and happy, it burst my heart open. It was wonderful. The chance to come in and see there’s people of all ages enjoying it was one of my favorite aspects. I saw a lot of grandparents with their grandchildren enjoying the gardens, and it was delightful to hear the little kids explaining to grandma and grandpa what fairies lived in the houses and what they did. So, that’s the reward for me as an artist. It’s the enjoyment of solving technical problems, creating designs, and taking something that is a drawing on paper and turning it into a 3D thing. That’s really fun, but then going through the exhibit and taking it all in, that’s a whole different kind of experience. It’s even more wonderful and magical.
Megan: This is going to be a magical exhibition. Have you seen any fairies moving in while setting up?
Sally: To be honest, I haven’t. I’ve mainly been focused on the details. Although, I do feel that they are helping us pick out locations. When we were setting up the rainbow houses, a very large dragonfly came and sat on a twig of the Lemony Lookout house (the yellow one). It sat there for a long time watching us work. I wondered if perhaps it might have been a spy for the fairies!
Enchanted Forest invites visitors to immerse themselves in a magical miniature world where fantasy meets nature and imagination can soar. Experience the exhibit daily now through October 31 and enjoy featured events, such as Fairies Aglow on select Fridays and Saturdays and Fairy Fest Weekend on October 12, 13, and 14, or participate in special youth and adult-focused programming.
About the Author
Megan Stouffer is the Digital Marketing Coordinator at New England Botanic Garden. She has been with the organization since 2021 and primarily works on the Garden’s social media and email marketing content. Megan earned her BS in Public Relations from Slippery Rock University and her MPS in Environmental Studies and Sustainability from Unity Environmental University. Her professional interests include climate change communication, environmental interpretation, and inclusive storytelling.