Fairy Shoes ~ Pollens Pods – inspired by a Bumble Bee.

… because even a Fairy has to have shoes!
These are Pollens Pods.

 

Pollen the Fairy has a very important job in the Land of the Fae, and that job is to dust down the flowers after the Bumbles have paid a visit.  You see, Bumble Bees can be very messy sometimes and in their desire to collect pollen from flowers, they will occasionally get a little over greedy and splosh tiny specks of pollen all over the flowers and their petals!  So Pollen the Fairy was put on the job and he dusts down the flowers with a very special brush, made from the hair of the Fairy Princess.  (what?  you thought that a bristle brush would do the job?  tsk tsk)

But .. Pollen needed new shoes and so wanted Cobweb the Cobbler to make some which had a nod to the important flower dusting job.  Cobweb thought long and hard about this and eventually came up with ‘Pods’.  The cobbler took some pea pods, and fashioned them into the right shape and correct size, but felt they were the wrong colour.

So the cobbler asked a passing Kingfisher bird  if he would be willing to gift one of his beautiful blue feathers to the cobbler.   The Kingfisher obliged!  – and Cobweb then went to town and, using the feather donated by the Kingfisher,  painted the pea pod made shoes!

Slowly, as the cobbler painted  –  the bright blue colour of the feather began to seep into the green of the pea pod made fairy shoe and dyed it the incredible bright blue colour you see in the photographs!

But … that wasn’t enough!   A fairy wouldn’t just have plain blue shoes for hecks sake!  No fairy would want just a boring plain shoe!  Nooooo.   Fairies  have  to have something special.  And that’s where the magic began.

… the front and back, and the back and front!

These fairy shoes are covered in the pollen of all the different coloured flowers which the Bumbles like to visit,  and the vines which wind their way around the shoes are there to gently hug the ankles of the fairy wearer so that the shoes don’t fall off in mid-flight,  for that would be disastrous!

A comment made by another blogger made me realise that I’d hadn’t shown any of the boxes which the Fairy Shoes arrive in,  so I thought that perhaps I should include these boxes in the photographs from now on.   So the first photograph (at the top of this post) and the last one (below) show the top (and sides)  of  the hand painted and decorated box which Cobweb the Cobbler delivers the special Fairy Shoes in.

The other box in the background?  …..  Ohhhhh … well you’ll have to wait till next time in order to see the shoes which belong to that box!  😉

Fairy Shoes
all hand-made by
Cobweb
@ The Cobweborium Emporium

 

This post is dedicated to a fellow blogger, who’s photograph of a Bumble Bee was the inspiration behind this post.  You can find her truly beautiful and peace filled  blog here:   http://friendlyfairytales.com/

Have a blessed rest of your day,   and  …  thank you for visiting and taking the time to read.  I hope you like the shoes!

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Fairy Shoes ~ Peapody’s Slippers ~ they’re his Sunday Best, don’t you know!

Peapody’s Sunday Best Slippers
handmade by
Cobweb the Fairy Cobbler

Peapody is a fabulous rascal in the land of Fae. He’s tall – in fact quite the lankiest of the male fairies that I ever did see – and wears long-legged brown woollen trousers with turn ups – which, he tells me, are there to catch seeds!;  an old (but still very serviceable) white with the faintest of line checks,  collar-less shirt – with the sleeves rolled up;  and braces which hold his trousers up and are attached to them with white bone buttons.

He’s a gardener in Fairy Land and has been around for a gazillion years. Well – that’s what he tells me, but I’m not entirely certain I believe him.  To me he looks around his late eighties / early nineties – but hey, what do I know.  I’m only a ”whipper-snapper” according to Peapody!

He gardens every single day. He says that no one else is going to take care of that forest so he has to work every day!   To be honest, I think he just likes to garden – but he also likes to have people tell him he’s doing a wonderful job – so I did, and still do, often!

He used to wear boots. Brown, wrinkled, crinkled, cracked, leathery looking boots with laces, but he said that he’s far too busy and can’t be bothered with boots now and so decided a while ago that he was going to retire his boots and instead wear something more comfy.  He asked Cobwebs the Cobbler to come up with something which he didn’t have to fuss with.  He wanted:  comfy with no laces;  no zippers; no doodly uppy bits; no hobnails; no rivets and no holes.  He said he just wanted to push his feet in and walk.  And this is what Cobwebs the Fairy Cobbler came up with.

Fairy Peapody’s Slippers

They look, to all intents and purposes, like they’ve been crafted from the pods of the peas which Peapody grows to make Pea Pod Soup, and they’re even adorned with peas!

Peapody was thrilled with them when he saw them, and, I’m told, hasn’t taken them off since because they’re sooo comfortable. One satisfied customer I think!

If you’re now wondering what Pea Pod Soup tastes like, Peapody very kindly shared his recipe, scroll down to find it!

Pea Pod Soup

Ingredients:

• A colander full of freshly emptied pea pods, rinsed
• 1 onion or a handful of spring onions, chopped
• A generous handful of fresh mint
• Light vegetable stock
• Seasoning:  a little salt, a little pepper, a little sugar, a little lemon juice
• To garnish: more chopped spring onions and chopped fresh herbs of your choice
• Optional: a little yoghurt or cream (use vegan varieties for vegan soup!)

Method:

1. In a large saucepan, gently fry the chopped onion or spring onions in a little olive oil for about 3 minutes.  Put the pea pods and mint into the pan – discard any very woody stems but there’s no need to chop everything up, this soup will be going into the food processor later on.  Add enough light vegetable stock to allow the pea pods to float about happily. Bring to the boil, then turn to a low heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Check the water level and top up if you need to.
2. Allow the mixture to cool a little and then transfer to a food processor or liquidiser and whizz until smooth. Pea pods can be stringy, so be prepared to run the machine for several minutes and taste as you go so that you can be sure that the consistency is right for you. If all else fails and the consistency is still a bit too fibrous you can put the soup through a sieve.
3. Return the soup to the pan, check the consistency and thin it down with a little more stock if you like. Check the taste and adjust it to suit your own preference using salt, pepper, sugar or lemon juice. This soup can be served warm or chilled. Top with finely chopped spring onions and fresh herbs, or a swirl of cream or yoghurt.

Yes, it’s a genuine recipe.  You really can make and eat it.

Thanks for coming to read and take a peep at Peapody’s Slippers.  I love them.  What do you think?

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day all.  ~ 

Even a Fairy has to have Shoes!

 The Cobweborium Emporium welcomes you into the Realm of the Fae, where magic can be marvelled and wonderment rules.

 

Here is where Once upon a Time comes back to life . . .

Bodwink’s Faery Boots
handmade
by
Cobwebs

Many years ago  I was taught to sculpt in heavy, grey Stoneware Clay and I remember one day,  my teacher coming to my work bench and seeing at what I was sculpting he smiled warmly at me and said  “… it’s all in the details for you, isn’t it.“.   He’d noticed, over time, something that I hadn’t realised before,  –  I loved to make tiny little extra additions to all my sculpts.   It was a lightbulb moment for me!  Before this I just thought I was just doing finishing touches to any sculpts I produced,  because they seemed to bring my sculpted things to life.

I began to look for a medium which would allow me to sculpt little things.   Although Stoneware is amazing – it’s a little too gritty to make the smooth surfaces I wanted in my small things.  I found a particular mix of polymers was the perfect thing and these tiny Fairy Shoes came out of my fingers about 9 years ago.

I christen all of my handmade shoes with the name of the Faery, Fairy, Elf or any other inhabitant of the Faery Realm who wears the shoes or boots which I make.   These,  are Bodwinks Boots.

They measure less than one and a half inches long,  and they have a finish to them which makes them look like they’ve been spray painted in pearlescent paint.  Very twinkly, with a depth which suggests they’re ‘other worldly’.

Bodwink’s Faery Boots
made
by
Cobwebs

While you’re here … and I’ve got your attention ..   I’m figuring that you perhaps like Fairy or magical type things since you’re reading this blog post, and if so I would love to share with you something which I’ve held dear to my heart for years.  There is a company called Duirwaigh (it means ‘door way’) who produced a mini film called: A Knock at the Door

This was Duirwaigh’s first inspirational mini-film. It contains beautiful works of art from a range of fantasy artists, combined with some beautiful, inspiring text that leads the viewer of the film back to the magical place inside themselves.

From their website:  “A Knock at the Door takes us to the beginning and end of every journey; a place of wonder and innocence, but above all a place of remembering – to the most magical secret place of all – the place of believing.”

Sit back, relax and watch the movie.  Your inner child will thank you for doing it.  

 

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day.  ~ 

Welcome to The Cobweborium Emporium, where crafting and handmade items are the main event.

. . .  ‘inthe beginning’  was the start of the journey  . . .

links hands in front of herself; 
looks down at her shoes
Feels the start of a hot blush coming to her cheeks. 
Takes a deep breath in and says loud and proud  . . .

 

“Hello my name is Cobwebs,  and I’m a Crafter.”

 

There, that’s my confession out of the way,    –  now we can all sit down and eat cakes.  YUM!

I’ve been a arty farty crafty all my life.  From painting on a large scale, (spring flowers in a grassy meadow – on a school reception wall), right down to very small scale ATC’s which are miniature works of art measuring just  2 1⁄2 by 3 1⁄2 inches (or 64 mm × 89 mm in metric measurements).

Amongst many things I love to craft, make and work with,  are:

• hand crafted greeting cards.
• needle felting  – so relaxing – and amazing too!  But painful if you get a bit cocky and look at the TV while doing it.  (don’t do that – it hurts!);
• Ranger Melting Pot  – known here in the Emporium as  ‘The Cauldron‘.
• Polymer Clay –  from the tiniest of flowers and Fairy Shoes (yes – fairy sized shoes) all the way up to long 12″ in length wands, a mixture of wood and clay and various ‘adornments’.

But  . . .   there’s more than just the few things I’ve listed above. 

Please take a look around here on the Cobweborium Emporium blog  – and perhaps even click to *Follow Me*,  just by:-  simply clicking the button over to the right, towards the top of the page.  By doing that you’ll get an email to tell you when I’ve added something to the blog which you might like to take a peep at.  (Yes, it’s that simple! You just click to follow me and then enter your email address.  You won’t receive spam or rubbish,  just an email to tell you a couple of lines about the new article I’ve posted on the blog here,  and a link to click if you want to, which will take you straight to the new article!)

I plan to put as much effort in as possible into this ‘ere blog  and hopefully have a little fun with everyone at the same time too  … and I hope to bring you something(s) that you perhaps you might not have seen before as well.     Oh . . .  and you can leave comments too on this blog,  so feel free to introduce yourself and say hello.  I’d love to get to know the folks who are reading. 

  Have a truly blessed rest of your day!  ~   

P.S  . . .   You can find all the categories on The Cobweborium Emporium blog by looking over to the right in the column    >>> over there >>>        and finding:-   ‘Categories on this Blog’   (the listed  ‘names of categories’  underneath that title are all clickable and one click on any of those categories will take you directly to the category you’ve chosen).

You can also click on the individual category names along the black bar  – towards the top of every page. (except the Home Page, that’s not along the black bar – that’s over to the right with the others).