The History Of Faceless Dolls - Updated February 2015 - Part XII - Fairies, Gnomes, Elves, Wee Folk, Bendy's, Pixies, and Trolls

Children just love fairies, gnomes, elves, pixies, wee folk, bendy's, pixies, trolls, etc. which is why their popularity has soared in the few last decades. They also love creating fairy gardens of their own, some simple and some very elaborate.

Their popularity is so great you can find thousands of examples of faceless fairies and fairies with faces on the web along with thousands of tutorials for making them out of just about any medium available.  Some of the dolls are simple, while others are actually art forms.

Fairies, themselves, have been around in the folklore for thousands of years. According to Wikipedia.com , "Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are very rare in the folklore; even very small fairies flew with magic, sometimes flying on ragwort stems or the backs of birds.[ Nowadays, fairies are often depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. "  

Most fairies have faces, but in the last few decades their has been an increase in the handmade and home schooling community for "faceless" and eco-friendly fairies. As a result there are a lot of tutorials out there showing how to make them. Here's a few I found:

One of the most popular types of fairies to make are the "Waldorf style gnomes"  which are basically faceless or with very limited facial features.


On the Wee Folk Art website there is a Felt Gnome tutorial by Kimara showing how to make a felt gnome, like those shown in the picture to the left, out of a wooden peg and wool felt.  The felt gnome is faceless.

According to Kimara they made these as traditional Waldorf style faceless gnomes.

If you would like to see and read the Felt Gnome tutorial please click here.

Wee Folk Art  also has a Flower Fairy tutorial by Kimara showing how to make a flower fairy, like the one in the picture to the right,  out of a wooden peg and wool felt.  The flower fairy is faceless.

If you would like to see and read the Flower Fairy  tutorial please click here.

The Wee Folk Art website also has a Basic Knit Doll In 6 Sizes tutorial for making a faceless knit doll here and  A Whimsy of Knit Gnomes tutorial for making a faceless knit gnome here.

The Duckyknits and Makes Stuff blog has a How to Make Fairy Dolls tutorial by Kersten showing how to make the faceless fairy doll in the picture to the left out of pipe cleaners, embroidery floss, wool felt, and a wooden bead.  The doll is faceless.

According to Kersten, "I like these dolls with clear faces as children can imagine them having any emotion  or expression they can dream up."

If you would like to read the How to Make Fairy Dolls tutorial please click here.

There is a cute tutorial by Amber Greene on the Happy Crafty Family website showing how to make a faceless fairy doll out of pipe cleaners, yarn, wool, felt and a wood bead.  To read this tutorial please click here. 

I love craft videos and was happy to find a Poinsettia Fairy Doll Tutorial by Emilie Lefler video on YouTube showing how to make the most adorable faceless poinsettia fairy dolls like the ones shown in the picture to the right.

If you would like to view the Poinsettia Fairy Doll Tutorial video please click here.

She also has a How To Make A Flower Fairy Doll video tutorial on YouTube showing how to make faceless flower fairy dolls here and a DIY Angel Fairy Doll video tutorial showing how to make a faceless angel fairy doll here.  Her Sunflower Fairy Doll video tutorial is here  and her Snow Fairy Doll video tutorial is here.  Both are also faceless and both are absolutely adorable.

In doing my research on faceless fairies I came across a wonderful Magic Wool Fairies Paperback book by Christine Schafer showing how to make the beautiful faceless magic wool fairies shown in the picture on the left.

According to the books description the faceless fairies are made using sheep's wool roving, pipe cleaners, wooden beads, scissors, glue, felt-tip pens, needle, and thread.

If you would like to see more of this book please click here.

On the Rhythm & Rhyme blog I came across an adorable peg dolls tutorial showing how to make the adorable faceless dolls, shown in the picture to the right, out of wood doll pegs, roving, and wool felt.

If you would like to see and read that tutorial please click here.

The Juise blog also has a Bendy Doll Faerie Family tutorial for making an adorable bendy fairy family tutorial.  The tutorial shows how to make the boy and girl fairies, shown in the picture to the left, using pipe cleaners, embroidery floss, wood beads and wool felt.

If you would like to see and read the Bendy Doll Faerie Family  tutorial please click here.

The Plain and Joyful Living at Natural Earth Farm blog has a wonderful  knitting how-to for making the cutest faceless knitted gnomes shown in the picture to the right.

If you love to knit and love adorable gnomes you might want to check out the post on the The Plain and Joyful Living at Natural Earth Farm  blog.  Click here for the post.

Fairies, gnomes, elves, pixies, wee folk, bendy's. spirits, trolls, etc can be made pout of so many things.

The Playful Learning website has an adorable tutorial showing you how to make the faceless DIY Autumn Peg Gnome, shown in the picture to the left, using a wood peg, embroidery floss, and wool felt.

If you would like to see and read the DIY Autumn Peg Gnome  tutorial please click here.

The Magic Onion blog also has a Make Autumn Gnomes tutorial for the faceless gnomes shown in the picture to the right.

The faceless gnomes are made using wood pegs, wool felt and  needle felted acorns.

If you would like to see and read the Make Autumn Gnomes  tutorial please click here.

Faceless gnomes can also be made out of natural materials, like pine cones and leaves.

The Magic Onion blog also has an adorable Lets Make An Autumn Fairy From Natural Materials tutorial showing how to make the pine cone fairy, shown in the picture to the left, out of pine cones, acorn caps, autumn leaves, roving and a white felt ball.

If you would like to see and read the Lets Make An Autumn Fairy From Natural Materials tutorial please click here.

They also have a Cute Autumn Gnome tutorial showing how to make a pair of gnomes out of a wood peg, acorn cap, roving, wool felt, and a button. It's totally adorable and can be seen here.


There is a totally adorable Flower Girl Bendy Dolls tutorial on the Something Lubely blog showing how to make the flower girls shown in the picture to the right.

They are made using a bendy doll kit, silk floral with wire removed, wool felt, roving, and embroidery floss.

If you would like to see and read the Flower Girl Bendy Dolls tutorial please click here.

The Wee Folk Art website also has a charming Flower Fairies and Buds tutorial for making the adorable flower fairies shown in the picture to the left.

They are made using wooden doll pegs, wool felt and embroidery floss.

If you like to see and read the Flower Fairies and Buds tutorial please click here.

I also ran across a charming More Magic Wool - Creating Figures and Pictures With Dyed Wool book by Angelika Wolk-Gerche.

The books teaches how to create faceless pipe cleaner dolls, faceless shelf sitter types of fairies, faceless nature dolls, faceless flying sylphs & sylph mobile, and faceless gnomes from wool roving.

Instructions are provided for making a basic roving doll body which is embellished for the type of faceless doll you are making.  The sylphs are made the same as the rainbow fairies.

Instructions are provided for making the faceless people (male & female - adults & children) using 3 pipe cleaners.   Instructions are also provided for making faceless shelf sitter types of mother dolls holding their swaddled baby, rabbits, or small sheep.  Instructions are also provided for making the faceless red-capped or flower gnomes.

The faceless seasonal fairies are much more embellished and include the Spring Fairy, Summer Fairy, Autumn Fairy, and Winter Fairy.   The faceless Spring Fairy, shown in the picture to the left, is basically made the same as the faceless shelf sitter type of mother dolls holding their swaddled baby only she is holding a horn of plenty filled with flowers.

While the book has instructions for sheep's wool roving I would assume any type of roving could be used for making these dolls as well.