A trip to the Emerald Isle just before the pandemic grounded everyone, introduced me to the Irish belief in fairies. They even place little fairy doors inside their homes. (Think Tom and Jerry cozy mouse hole.) I was enchanted and envisioned a fairy door that could be 
fashioned to a tree as an imaginary fairy house for my granddaughter. I reached out to a friend with a full woodworking shop, sent a photo and asked if he could make a little door in a door jam that could open and close. I was blown away when he sent photos of his vision.
Now I needed fairies! Turning to Pinterest, my favorite rabbit hole, the search began, starting with fairy dolls and landing upon peg dolls. Peg dolls are made of wood, commonly stand about 2.5” tall by .75” wide and are shaped like a round peg with a head on top. They come in a variety of styles and shapes, and can be decorated easily with paint, felt or markers to resemble any characters you can imagine. (They also fit nicely into the classic Fisher-Price Little People spaces, so perfect for little hands).
Inexpensive blank peg dolls can be found on-line and at craft stores.
Read more ‘Creative Corner’ articles here: https://theconnectionsnj.com/category/creative-corner/
The other supplies used include:
- Small 2 oz bottles of acrylic paint in a variety of colors to mix and match;
- Fine point brushes or just cut down a kid size watercolor brush;
- Fine point paint pens;
- A pencil;
- Felt for accessories;
- Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating to seal painted designs and,
- A glue gun for attaching felt details.Start with letting your imagination go wild. What fun making a menagerie of animals, fairies, and characters from my granddaughter’s favorite books!Here are the steps:
- Draw the design onto the peg doll with pencil.
- Use a plastic lid to place small amounts of paint and an area for mixing color. Paint the main sections and let dry.
- Use the paint pens to edge the painted areas and add details.
- Spray the pegs with Crystal Clear to set the work. Test to make sure that the paint and paint pens do not run.
- Use felt to add accessories like hats and clothing.Pinterest will provide an endless view of characters to create, hairstyles, facial expressions, on and on. Think about the Harry Potter characters or other characters from your favorite children’s books.Now, during this time of COVID, I can read The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown over Facetime while my granddaughter holds the peg dolls of the playful kittens, Brush and Hush. My daughter got into the fun and created the main characters from Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans, the figures of Madeline and Miss Clavel were easily rendered from illustrations.Halloween is on the way. Try making a few pieces. It’s kind of addicting.