Tips For Builders: How to build a fairy house
The 2023 Fairy House Festival is
September 23rd and 24th
Building a Fairy House together is a creative activity for families, groups of friends, and organizations.
The heart of this annual event is the creative generosity of our volunteer Builders who create a magical Fairy House Trail through the woods for all to enjoy.
Read our guide and sign up to be a Builder below!
If you are considering becoming a Builder for the Festival, or just a builder in your backyard, here’s a guide full of wisdom from experienced Builders to help you get ready for an artistic, architectural, fairy house building experience.
Some Fairy houses are spell-binding and intricate, while others are light-hearted and cozy. Some are built to withstand the seasons and others just for the weekend. In festivals past, we’ve had Fairy Discos, Fairy Ferris Wheels, Fairy Eye Doctors, and Fairy Schools — we can’t wait to see what comes together on the Fairy Trail this year!
Step One: Activate your imagination and see nature with new eyes
Imagine yourself as a tiny creature who might want a cozy place to sleep, a fun playground, a gathering place with friends, or perhaps a library with books. Find a theme and take a fresh look at nature’s small wonders in your yard, gardens, and favorite woods. Can that acorn become a fairy cereal bowl or seed pod transform into a bathtub with a little help from your imagination?
Fairies like treats, too!
Step Two: Gather materials and decide on the dwelling
Will your project be a simple cabin, a fairy spa, a school, a farmers’ market, or a fairy hairdresser? The fairy village has a lot going on and we love being surprised each year by the new, creative ideas. It can be helpful to choose a theme to get your imagination rolling.
Head out into nature to gather up your materials, and don’t forget a bag or basket for collecting. Anything can become something else with a little imagination. You’ll have to explore closely to find the small cones, acorns, flowers, shells, stones, sticks, feathers, birchbark, and much more which will become your art supplies for this exciting adventure.
Note: For the festival, we require all-natural building materials, even with the extra challenge they provide. Plastic, metal and other non-natural materials are left behind in the woods after the natural materials have faded and distract from the organic designs. No plastic gems, glitter, etc, please.
Step Three: Building and Stabilizing
You’ll need a dedicated space to spread out your materials and build. Some houses take days or weeks to build, and others come together quickly - this is a truly creative project and can move through several design phases before the final one emerges, sending you out into the woods again to find the perfect pieces. We encourage giving yourself some time and a dedicated space for the process.
Build on a flat piece of wood, slate roof tile, or a wooden cutting board to provide a sturdy platform for your fairy house, which will make it more stable when transporting to the festival.
Hot glue, wire, and twine are useful to help your structure hold together better, but keep those types of materials hidden as much as possible.
Finally, building a Fairy House for the Festival is an excellent opportunity for collaboration and co-creation -- it’s amazing what great ideas pop up when you work together with another person or a group. If you feel stuck, ask someone new to join you and see what ideas might come to life.
Help Us Build a Collection of Building Materials
Our Fairy House Building Station is one of our many wonderful activities for visitors to enjoy during our festival. Here, folks can grab a bucket and choose from all kinds of supplies to make their own fairy house among our garden and meadow. Collecting these magical natural items is a big task and your help is invaluable!
Some examples of items we accept include small stones/pebbles, acorns, other tree nuts, dried reeds/grasses, small sticks/twigs, seashells, dried flowers, pine cones, small tree cookies, dried moss, native vines, tree bark, and much more.
Things we please ask that you don't donate include dangerous or invasive plant species (Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet, Chinese lantern seeds, poison ivy vine, stinging nettle, plants with thorns, etc.), large items (stumps, logs, bushes), and anything else that could be dangerous, cumbersome, or difficult to break apart.
Items can be dropped off on the museum front porch at any time, even if we're not open.
The Nature Museum (and fairies) thank you for your support!
Scroll through our Gallery of Fabulous Fairy Houses for inspiration!
