Folklore Vignettes

Last month's project involved collating what I have learned from Scottish folk and fairy lore into a series of illustrated vignettes using my current favourite medium: walnut ink. With its sepia hue I feel this ink adds an antiquated quality to my subject matter. After absorbing the fascinating book Scottish Fairy Belief by Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan as well as hundreds of folktales from Scottish compilations (by far my favourite of which is Land of the Seal People by Duncan Williamson), I felt compelled to express some if this lore onto paper. Each one has a wee story behind it which I will outline below. Much to my surprise and delight, someone has bought the collection so they are going to a very good home. This was a much needed project to keep me sane during the dark winter  months during a stint in London when I longed for the simmer dim and fairy woods of Scotland in midsummer!

The Selkie Cradle - inspired by Scottish Traveller and master storyteller Duncan Williamson's beautiful selkie tales from Land of the Seal People. Some eagle-eyed film buffs might also notice a resemblance to the cradle in the visually stunning 1994 film The Secret of Ron Inish which, incidentally, is based on the children's novel The Secret of Ron More Skerry by Rosalie Fry, set in the Western Isles. I've been interested in old cradles ever since I saw an old Fisherman-made cradle at Montrose Museum, which partly inspired the selkie story I made for my book.

The Fishwife's Stove
As well as cradles, I have a love for old stoves. This one is based on two different stoves/fireplaces at the Glenesk Folk Museum. I am currently working on an illustration project with them, and I'm excited to share more on that later. The fisher lassie sitting knitting (no doubt knitting a fisherman's gansie) is also from a character in my book.

Fairy Shoes
I have been obsessively listening to the Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast over the past few months which recounts real fairy encounters. There were a few accounts in which shoes, or even fairy shoes were mentioned and it just got me wondering what fairy shoes might look like.

Fairy Bridge
Throughout Scotland there are fairy bridges, dells, mountains, lochs and knolls - to name a few. This bridge is based on the one at Glen Creran in Argyll. I love the erect stones at the top, reminiscent of Neolithic standing stones. I was also trying to explore the idea of the bridge as a portal - in folklore, bodies of water, like rivers and liminal structures like bridges often act as the gateway to the fairy realm.

I am a woman on the land; I am a selkie in the sea

Inspired by the Orcadian/Shetland ballad The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry although I have swapped genders as the selkie in the tale is a man. There is an element of the Fair Maid's Tresses story with the long hair, which I explored in this project.

Fairy Fort
Many traditional tales in Scotland feature a fairy hill with a doorway emitting a warm light, music and dance - a welcome sight to mortal travellers lost in the dark. Musicians are especially at risk for one night in fairy land can be anything from one to a hundred human years. Beware of the fairy ceilidhs!

The Storyteller
We owe so much to the Scottish traveller community for preserving vast amounts of our oral culture. Many of the lore I have been exploring come from the mouths of travellers. No one tells a story quite like they do. This is inspired by a photograph from the Edward Chambré Hardman Collection.

Fairy Sleigh
This is very much inspired by the work of one of my favourite illustrators, John Bauer, a Swedish artist who illuminated many of his country's folktales with his work. I also love the idea that fairy's are often associated with the tinkling of bells. So next time you’re alone in the woods and it’s thick with snow, and you hear a tinkling sound like little bells - it’s surely a fairy sleigh!

Touch of the Fairies
The motif of the enchanted sleep is found frequently in Scottish folklore and not just in stories. Illustrator Jessie M King reportedly fell asleep on a Scottish hillside and awoke to feel the touch of the fairies. Traveller and storyteller Duncan Williamson recounts in his biography that he came down with sun stroke as a boy after climbing a Pictish stone after his parents warned him not to for such ancient stones have enchantments of their own. What dimensions does one travel to under a fairy sleep?

Thanks for taking the time to read this far, the fairy roads wind on through unfamiliar and often dark places, yet there is still so much to  learn and explore. Looking forward to sharing my next project with you soon.

Reading list:

Scottish Fairy Belief: A History by Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan 

Land of the Seal People by Duncan Williamson