Debbie Schramer

I began creating my little fairy furniture in 1987 when my husband Mike and I and our two sons lived in Washington state on a little two acre farm. It was next door to my parents who were music teachers; it was wonderful to live so close to them and enjoy seeing them every day. We loved gardening and being outdoors and would spend hours in our gardens and going for walks in the fields and meadows near our home. Our sons were in grade school and were gone all day and Mike worked so I had a lot of time on my own. I started feeling that I wanted to use my creative abilities again. I had written poetry and children's stories for many years. I loved our lives on our little farm; I spent a lot of time outside gathering beautiful flowers, herbs and grasses and loved the quiet of the outside world. I had always loved rustic art; Adirondack chairs and log cabins and I thought of making something from nature. I started to make a life size chair from branches but it turned out very feeble and wasn't structurally strong. Mike suggested making something miniature so I followed his idea and that is really how our adventure in creating our fairy furniture began. I sat at a table near our large window, looking out onto the trees and fields near our house and began to create tiny little chairs from twigs and moss, leaves and flowers. I was so delighted with the experience that I made several pieces and then had a charming menagerie of pieces that resembled a little fairy tale world. When Mike came home from work, he was surprised by what he saw and I was excited that he liked what I had made. I kept creating pieces and soon, I had so many little fairy furniture pieces on my worktable that I thought I should share them with others. I did a little exhibit at a local library and people really loved my creations. Then, an art boutique and soon, people were encouraging me to really develop my art into a business and share it with the world more. In February 1991, a wonderful six page article came out about my fairy furniture in Victoria magazine and that is when our art career really began to bloom. I received so many letters from people all over the U.S. and even from other countries who wanted to buy my fairy furniture, that Mike decided to quit his full time job and work with me on the nature art. 800 letters and hundreds of phone calls!! I had not expected such a response and had really not begun creating my little nature art with any of these results in mind!! Mike had begun to make fairy furniture off and on whenever he had time and he made some incredible pieces. Our styles were very different but they complimented each other and we seemed to inspire each other because our talents were different. It was exciting and fun to work together. Because there was such a demand for our fairy furniture, we needed to make a catalog people could buy from so we put together a charming little booklet with photos of our pieces for people to choose from. It was an amazing experience. We began showing our nature art in galleries and shops and other magazines contacted us to do articles on our pieces. It was a wonderful time in our lives!! Exciting and amazing!! That all began in 1987. We have been creating our nature art now for 25 years. We always wanted to have a book done on our art but never found the right publisher, someone who had the same vision as we did. When we were introduced to Familius by our son Matthew, we were thrilled to have found a publisher who had wonderful ideals for families and they were very kind and helpful. Our book has been a true dream come true. It has been a very positive and happy experience. We'll be adding more about our experiences as nature artists in the last 25 years. There's a lot to share; it's a story that will amaze you, I think, so we hope you'll visit again.