This is a SAMPLE of a Fairy elinor has created.
We look forward to see how the new ones will turn out.

      It certainly wasn't yesterday, but it couldn't have been that long ago, when a girl child found her way into the garden and noticed that there were no fairies there. It was a great loss, she thought, to have a garden, even an ill kept garden such as this one, and find not a fairy in sight. When she asked the owner of the garden how such a thing had come to be, she was told that they had all been carried off by trolls, who had put them in small cages and taken them to the end of the earth and dropped them off. As far as the owner knew they were out there on the sea being tossed about or eaten by the fish. The child found this very grim indeed. But since she had nowhere else to go, and no one seemed to be in the least interested in what she did, she began to explore this place, picking about amongst the weeds. Around a pile of stones and under some moss she found an aged old woman, odviously a fairie of many years, sitting in a tiny rocker and knitting cobwebs.

      "Are you alone then" said the girl, "Quite alone", replied the old one. "Have they all gone away and left you behind."

      "Yes", said the old one, "But they did not leave me, I hid behind these stones and they never found me."

      Now a girl with imagination is a dangerous creature when left in a garden bereft of faries. It wasn't long at all until the child had a very excellent idea.

      "Then", she said, "You will tell me how to conjure up a family for you. Since I know that thoughts make fairies, and I have many thoughts that will be suitable, you and I will work together to people this very sad garden with dozens of fairies so that we will not be alone. Of course, we shall not make any trolls."

      "You are an excellent child. . .with a very subtle mind." said the old fairy.

      And that is how this class began. We will be making three flat fairies, because flat is how my fairies begin. First we will make "The Old One". You will be provided with a pattern for each of the fairies and photos of the fairies I have made with each pattern. You will receive general instructions about how to draw an old fairy yourself. You will be similarly instructed about drawing a youthful pretty fairy, as well as a child fairy. We will explore what makes the figure appear to be old youthful and childlike. You will be instructed in how to separate the parts of the body and joint them. You will be given a list of materials with which to make each fairy and to dress it. Each fairy will have wings that are made differently from the others. You will be invited to share your own creations with the rest of the class, and hopefully, using our collective imaginations, we will not be witness to such a travesty again: a garden without fairies, indeed!. That, of course, is up to you.