Pixies & Sprites

Pixies & Sprites Unusual Gifts made from usual things

So this weekend Pixies & Sprites is on tour! We’re back with Arthur Swallow Fairs for their Decorate Home and Salvage sh...
07/09/2026

So this weekend Pixies & Sprites is on tour!

We’re back with Arthur Swallow Fairs for their Decorate Home and Salvage show up at Ripley Castle.

It’s a 3 gazebo set-up. So a big undertaking for us. We did their fair in Loseley Park in July so this time round we’re definitely more prepared and will have more stock! Hopefully the L-shape layout as well.

So how much stock do we need for 3 gazebos?

Two walls of the 4.5m x 3m will be pure gallery space. So that’s 17+ frames plus a few extras.

Then there’s 2 triangle stands (mb 3) at a min of 6 pieces per stand.

Plus there’s 4 internal panels for the 3x3 gazebo, so another 10ish, plus smaller pieces.

So we’re looking at 40 plus statement pieces and extras to fill gaps 😅🤭

Do we have the stock, yes because we’ve been building up for this one.

Honestly can’t wait to do the gallery wall 🥰

Another finished vintage map piece.This one is coming with us this week to Ripley Castle. This OS map inland piece doesn...
07/09/2026

Another finished vintage map piece.

This one is coming with us this week to Ripley Castle.

This OS map inland piece doesn’t carry the drama of a coastline nor the deep green and brown tones of our Bartholomew map series pieces.

Instead it draws the mind in to explore a range of quirky place names and details like Markington with Wallerthwaite, Burton Leonard and Lindrick with Studley Royal Fountains (Fountains Abbey), to name but a few.

Familiar place names like Ripon help the viewer find a reference point to allow the meandering to continue.

So rather pleased with this OS Ripon map, it’s created a rather charming piece and will be a great additional to our ‘gallery wall’ this weekend.

and doesn’t his frame work so well with the piece. 🥰

Well that was a busy weekend 🤭🤭If you were at the Suffolk Food Hall with Deben Events or at Holt Sunday Market and took ...
06/09/2026

Well that was a busy weekend 🤭🤭

If you were at the Suffolk Food Hall with Deben Events or at Holt Sunday Market and took the time out of your day to chat with us and find out more about our quirky creations, then a huge thank-you.

We had some great conversations about Christmas pieces and possible commissions.

We’re working to a lead time of 7-8 weeks for our larger pieces and 3-4 weeks for our smaller pieces.

If we’ve got an item in stock then we can usually get that out the same week.

Our pieces are quirky and very unique so there’s often a few steps we go through, such as picking the right frame size or just the right source material.

So just pop us a message and we can get you on the list.

For the next couple of weeks we’re taking Pixies & Sprites on the road.

Can’t wait 🫣🤭

Set-up & about to sneak in a quick Bacon sarnie!Just had the rain & now we should be good for rest of day 😊
06/09/2026

Set-up & about to sneak in a quick Bacon sarnie!

Just had the rain & now we should be good for rest of day 😊

Was going to post about how we’ve just swapped over stock & gazebo & the joy of the 5 o’clock Sunday morning alarm.Yes w...
05/09/2026

Was going to post about how we’ve just swapped over stock & gazebo & the joy of the 5 o’clock Sunday morning alarm.

Yes we’re mad, but we love what we do.

I mean we get to create amazing pieces like this is gorgeous handmade frames.

This piece sold way back early July and we’re hoping to make up a few more like this in time for the festive period.

And we’re just about ready to go!Gorgeous morning, looking over the estuary. At the Suffolk Food Hall, so pop down. And ...
05/09/2026

And we’re just about ready to go!

Gorgeous morning, looking over the estuary.

At the Suffolk Food Hall, so pop down.

And the Spidey pieces have made the stand 🥰🥰

Feels like a cross between synchronised swimming and a relay race!It is organised chaos.Two comic pieces drying and read...
04/09/2026

Feels like a cross between synchronised swimming and a relay race!

It is organised chaos.

Two comic pieces drying and ready to be fixed into 40cm deep box frames

One Yorkshire piece to assemble

Smaller Derbyshire and Yorkshire flat maps to cut apertures and then assemble.

An absolutely gorgeous rare map of the North West to do something with.

A Ripon Tricorne piece fully folded & framed that just needs to be photographed then safely packaged.

Another Tricorne piece that has a frame, just needs assembly.

And finally a lovely flat mounted Harrogate map which needs a humungous piece of foam board to float mount- I think he’s made the frame.

Then there’s the truck to pack for tomorrow. Two orders to get ready for collection. The info cards to print…..

The new printer arrived yesterday, toes crossed it will behave.

Just a normal Friday afternoon 🤭🤭

When the simplest engineering solution is just a second pair of hands!Love the Keen-cut.It’s a fantastically simple piec...
03/09/2026

When the simplest engineering solution is just a second pair of hands!

Love the Keen-cut.

It’s a fantastically simple piece of kit. You have a perfect factory-set 90degree glide. Then everything is a series of pre-set stops.

This flat-mounted antique Yorkshire map is getting 68mm aperture which will fit it nice and snuggly.

The 3 stops are all set and then in theory away you go.

And this is where it has a design flaw.

It’s great at cutting pieces up to A2 size, without any bother. 50cm square is fine. At 75cm we start to need to support the mountboard as it gets cut. The conservation can bow in larger sizes and too much of a bend ‘pulls’ the mountboard and can distort the otherwise clean cut.

Either you can sink the machine into a workbench or you scaffold out a supporting ledge. This is the first time I’ve cut something as big in its new location and well - sometimes you just need that second pair of hands.

You can get additional supporting arms for the machine but I’d need to remove them each time to get in & out.

It doesn’t look to shabby just nestling in the rear of its frame. At 800mm x 960mm it’s not the biggest we’ve made but it’s up there!

Just needs to be fixed together.

Two very different Spiderman frames nearing completion.Bloomin’ marvellous examples of why each of our pieces are differ...
03/09/2026

Two very different Spiderman frames nearing completion.

Bloomin’ marvellous examples of why each of our pieces are different and not just a ‘rinse & repeat’

The first one has a protagonist with an almost identical colour palette as Spidey. These comics are best used for smaller pieces, but I love this internal title page.

The solution! We make the origami module just a fraction bigger. Makes it a little easier to distinguish between the characters and yet still works with the style of the piece. Given everything is on a slope, then I’m toying with mounting at an angle as well. Will see how the page colours alter when raised.

The other is the more conventional layout. A more modern comic with a slight sheen and the added interest of being in French. Same principle of internal title page ‘You must pay the bill’ or possibly ‘check’ in line with the typical American phrases.

These comics typically have a very varied colour palette with even the Spidey reds appearing more muted. For these ones you can’t throw too many Spiderman images in since there’s a big range of Spiderman reds used across the pages. Great for making the colours pop on a flat page, harder to then turn into a 3D piece.

So the style can work for both, we just tinker a little behind the scenes to work with the differences.

I may even get these framed up for our markets this weekend 🤞🤞

Next map project!This is a lovely 1956 Geographia map.Geographia is one of my favourite map companies. I love the colour...
03/09/2026

Next map project!

This is a lovely 1956 Geographia map.

Geographia is one of my favourite map companies. I love the colour palette of their London maps and their regional maps have a very distinctive typeset.

I find these maps almost impossible to read since the place names run into the next, yet I find the font charming so they’re forgiven.

I did consider flat-mounting this map but it would be a large piece and it’s less saleable when it’s harder to read.

So it’s reduced to 70 squares & with minimal wastage. I think it will folded into 3D Tricornes, since I want to see the spidery red veins of the road-networks against the contrasting black text pop.

Did I do the right thing? Could you have coped with trying to read place names on a flat-mounted piece?

I suppose it all depends on how the folded piece turns outs.

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