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Fairy doors and beach glass at Artisan’s Market

August 5, 2022   ·   0 Comments

You can always find something different at the Tottenham Artisan and Farmer’s market every Sunday afternoon at Keogh Park.

Becky Crawford and Tom MacDonald brought their collection of beach glass jewellery and fairy doors to the market on Sunday, July 31.

Beach glass are small pieces of glass that found their way into the water – in this case, the Great Lakes – and have been smoothed by the waves after decades of being tossed around and worn down by the action of the water and rubbing against rocks.

Some of the glass has been in the water for more than 100 years.

Becky and Tom look for the glass near areas that were once, or are still, ports, where people used to toss bottles and the like over the side of their ships.

“The glass has to have in the water for a minimum of 30 years, and in a good amount of waves,” Becky explained. “The waves will round the edges. It comes from old ship wrecks and old ports. It gets tossed around and this is what happens. You find it especially on a beach with a lot of pebbles.”

Becky and Tom take the glass and it becomes the centre piece of jewellery. Necklaces are a very popular item.

The fairy doors are small, uniquely designed doors that look exactly like their name. They are decorative doors that look like they belong on a fairy home.

In some European countries they are a tradition and it is not unusual to see a fairy door in a bank or store. It is considered good luck to have a small door to allow fairies to enter your business.

Becky and Tom had their own secret when they started making them. They started attaching the doors and other fairy items to trees along the Tottenham railway hiking path. People soon started noticing the fairy village and were trying to figure out where they were coming from.

Eventually word got out that it was Becky and Tom who were creating the village. From there, people starting asking if they could get their own fairy door.

“It started when me and my sister saw one in a small shop about 20 years ago,” Becky explained. “We could never find them anywhere else. They are so fun and kids really love them. They think fairies are coming into their yard. We decided we have to make them ourselves because no one has them. We started putting them on the trail during the lock down. We thought it would brighten up people’s day.”

The doors did make people happy and many people, both local and of town visitors began walking the trail to see how many fairy doors they could find.

The Tottenham Artisan and Farmer’s Market takes place every Sunday afternoon through the summer.

By Brian Lockhart

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