http:/www.pennybloodsblackbook.com

Tessa Farmer is one of my favourite artists. She creates incredible installations using animal and bird skeletons, taxidermy, dead insects, leaves and branches to create either simple pieces or epic battle scenes. But it’s the tiny ‘fairies’ which look like miniature human skeletons which blow me away. They are so small yet so detailed, you can virtually see the expressions on their faces. To make the fairies, Tessa uses a particular type of plant root from her mother’s garden for the bones and bits of soil to make the skulls. The crazy thing is, that even knowing how she makes them, I find it even more mind boggling, watching her haphazardly stab a tiny piece of soil which miraculously seems to take the form of a perfect microscopic face. Her studio is full of tiny drawers labelled ‘Leps’ (butterflies), frogs, crickets etc.. with a stuffed swan covered with ants hanging to the ceiling and snake skins tanning in buckets on the floor. What’s funny is how normal the rest of her flat is.

www.tessafarmer.com