meet
the maker

Gemma Harris

Away with the Fairies…

My fascination for the life of miniature and the world they furnish seems to have been forever written in the stars. I have always been mesmerised by and see complete wonderment in the magical materials nature equips the miniature world with. What is more beautiful than being surprised by the discovery of a discarded feather, smooth gnarled driftwood, the intricacy of a spider’s web, the perfect polish of a conker, the sculptural scroll and furl of a fiddlehead? Nature’s debris is in turn a fairy’s rich gift. As a child I loved to press my nose to grass level and watch the bug life unfold before me, and I kept snails in an old drawer in the garage, creating a beautiful oasis for them.

I’ve always felt connected to nature, finding it both grounding and soothing. Our natural landscape takes my breath away – it’s a daily dose of magic accessible to everyone. With a sizeable 6+ years between my sister and I, I grew up happily entertaining myself and letting my imagination run wild – quite literally – pottering and exploring outside until I was numb and shivering, or fried and thirsty. We were blessed to have an expansive wood next door, where the tree boughs cast magical streams of light through the canopy onto the pond, which heaved with frog spawn, and dazzled with dancing water boatmen and dragon flies. It didn’t take much to persuade this little girl that fairies existed outside of the tales on the bookshelf (my dog eared favourites being The Elves and the Shoemakers and The Faraway Tree) and were a mystical part of nature itself.

Little Folk is therefore a natural extension of my childhood and my soul – and a wish for my own daughter and all others – to keep your eyes wide open, cherish and soak up the magic nature unveils at the end of your nose every day.

And if you don’t believe, you don’t see…

Gemma