It’s easy to make your own flower folk. Just follow Lydia Koltai’s steps below. Your own garden or yard is a great place to start. Go outside and see what catches your eye.
1
Find something round or oval for the head. Certain flowers, buds, sweet gum balls, acorns or seed pods can all work. My favorite heads are made from insect galls found in goldenrod stems.
2
Find something for the body. Depending on what you’ve used for the head, you may use some sort of stick, or the stem if it has one. I sometimes use long toothpicks or a thin, sturdy twig if my doll’s head doesn’t already have a stem attached.
3
Find flowers to make the dress. Ones that have wide, hollow stems will be easiest to slide onto your doll’s body. You can layer blooms to make a more elaborate dress.
“I like to challenge myself to use only items I find in nature. That means using a thorn to attach a doll’s hat, or a bit of pine sap from a felled tree to glue on wings or hair. You can be as strict or as lenient as you want. The idea is to have fun and create something beautiful.” — Lydia Koltai
4
Embellish your doll. This is the fun part. Add a flower hat or some usnea (lichen) hair, tie on a stem of grass for arms, wrap a leaf around her shoulders to make a shawl. Poke some smaller flowers in between larger petals of the doll’s skirt. Let your imagination run wild, and adorn your doll in anything you might like to wear if you were a tiny fairy dressed in flowers.
40 INVITATION OXFORD | May 2018