Fairy Door No. 91

Christmas 2014 was extra special around the Creative Quarter in Nottingham. Fairy Doors were spotted all around Hockley.  The doors made a guest appearance at Light Night and now they have just finished going on tour to Sherwood Art Week 2015, where they appeared in Art in Shops and Exhibitions as well as going to local schools to inspire creative writing and art work.

For my door, inspiration came mainly from the location they were originally exhibited; The Lace Market, and Nottingham's textile and lace making industry heritage.

The door is surrounded by a dimensional collage with an original Nottingham lace punched pattern card at the base.  Elements were handcrafted from card, paperclay and paste, these were mixed with metal and wooden embellishments along with hardware, fabric, lace and other bits and pieces rescued from the bottom of the sewing box.

Here is how the door was decorated.

Firstly, an extension was added, which was primed with black gesso and the door and surround were painted.

The cogs were cut. Die cut cogs, lots and lots of cogs, all from cereal boxes.  Some were glued together to make them thicker and stronger.

Fabric, lace and the lace card was stuck down with PVA.  It doesn't look much at this stage.

With each layer, the elements were primed with black gesso.  Some detail was added with grunge paste two of the corners.

All the other elements were added in layers and glued with Heavy Gel Medium.

Layers and layers of cogs, washers, buckles, buttons, keys, zip pulls, swirls and flowers were added until it looked like enough.  Another layer of black gesso was brushed on and then a few extra bits including some old watch parts and charms.

The whole lot got a final coat of black gesso.

To decorate the step in front of the door, following painting with grey acrylic paint, a lace pattern was stamped onto some tissue paper and then decoupaged onto the step with Mod Podge.

Another piece of tissue was stamped with '91' (the number of the lace card), and decoupaged above the door.  A piece of lace was hung behind the glass.

A few different shades of green acrylic paint were tested, to see what worked best.  The dimensional collage around the door was painted all over and then highlighted with a paler semi-opaque green paint and silver. 

In the shop window on the CQ Fairy Door Trail

At the artist's viewing night



Here's some of the doors from the other artists who took part in the CQ Fairy Door Trail;