As with the Maidenhair Fern Cottage this design began from the ground up with a very special slab of Buck-eye burlwood. I wanted to make a house that had a lot of windows and quirky charm but had a tiny footprint so it could be tucked into small spaces. The main body of the house is made from a single tube of White birch bark which we find quite often here in the northwoods. The process is this: A birch tree will be brought down naturally by the fierce winter winds. A few years on the forest floor will bring the inner wood to a quick decaying process. When I find the branch or tree a few years later, the inner wood is like fine sawdust or soft chunks, easily cleaned out. What remains is a tube of the white bark which is carefully brushed out, gently packed with newsprint to keep the shape and dried for a year. Then I can begin to work with it. Only the nicest, cleanest sections of bark are saved for house constructions.
Though the door does not open nor is the roof removable, I still went to the trouble to finish the interior of this house for two reasons: first, the finishing adds strength to the bark walls and second, there are so many windows that looking into any of them would reveal the house interior, so I wanted to make it pretty too. Lighting is achieved with battery-powered micro LED lights which includes the acorn light over the front door. Trimmed with contrasting white birch twigs (which are nearly burgundy black in color) gives the house a bit of a Tudor feel.
The towering conical roofs are made with more birch bark, covered with pine cone scales from 3 different species of Pine trees. The roof finials are Goldenrod burls. Landscaping is done with polished river pebbles, silk foliage and flowers, and hand-dyed wool which has been needle-felted to look like mossy bits. Two of my favorite features are on the door; the “magical” porthole window and the doorknob. In the daylight the window looks silvery and reflective, but at night, the light does shine thru with a greenish glow… just enough to illuminate the incredibly tiny baby acorn door handle which is less than a quarter of an inch in diameter!
One of my more delicate pieces, the house without the base is just a little more than 3 inches in diameter, but the base gives it visual and actual weight to counter-balance the large and impressive pair of slightly twisting roofs, hence the name of the house.
approx 6 x 8 x 14 inches tall with the base
This house is 100% hand-crafted by the artist and no other duplicate can or will ever be built. It is truly ONE of a kind.
This house is included in this gallery for people who enjoy seeing more details of individual house sculptures which have been sold in the past and now reside with their new collector/owners.
