I’ve been fascinated by fairy doors ever since I saw the amazing ones made by the guys on Instagram at @thefairydoor. Check 'em out, they are unbelieveable! Anyway, I set out to make one of my own.
I found out after I made it that I used the wrong kind of foam board for the rock wall (I used expanded polystyrene, should have used XPS which is insulation foam board), so my next one will be better.
The image for the door was from my Print Shop 4 clip art of a bunch of boards. I converted it to greyscale and shrunk it down, then passed it through @jbmanning5’s filters for greyscale engraving, and did a 3D engrave on Proofgrade basswood hardwood. That stuff is only 1/8" thick though, so it engraved all the way through in parts, so I cut another door out of Draftboard and glued the two together.
I got a couple of cabinet hinges from Ace Hardware and colored them black. The strap hinges were cut out of Canson Watercolor Art Board (it’s about 1/16" thick), painted with black gesso, then stippled with Mod Podge Ultra Gloss to get the hammered texture. The door ring was something I designed in TinkerCAD and printed on my Elegoo Mars 3D printer, then painted and Mod Podge’d. The little ring actually moves in the knob. Kinda proud of that one. Also, the door actually opens on the hinges.
For the rock threshold and doorway, I hand cut a piece of styrofoam and distressed it with files and drills etc, then colored with different gray mixtures of acrylic paint and gesso. Finally, I used a few pinches of Woodland Scenics fine turf burnt grass on some diluted white glue, for the moss.
The backside and bottom are Draftboard, for support.
I’m toying with the idea of designing a little torch for either side of the door. What do you think?
Oh, and with banana for scale (it’s a small banana though):
looks like a fun project.