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Posted on Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 5:57 a.m.

Kenville Studios summer campers find summer magic in fairy homes

By Pete Cunningham

Kenville Studios on East Hoover Street appears exactly as a dance studio should on the inside. Mirrored walls surround the studio’s hardwood floors, with balancing poles parallel to the ground secured along the side.

It’s a dance studio, and it looks the part.

But walk out the back door and follow the path of the winding garden to find a sight that's anything but ordinary.

It’s small in scale, extravagant in detail and maybe even a little bit magical.

It’s a fairy village.

Yes, a fairy village. That would be a village with homes made for and — according to the attendees of a summer day camp at Kenville — frequented by fairies.

Using twigs, leaves, flower petals, bark and anything else they could find in the garden, woods or their own backyards, the 11 girls at the creative movement/art camp (ages 7-13) made tiny homes with the hope that fairies would visit.

“We used twigs and bark and leaves because if we used unnatural things, like metal, it will scare away the fairies and they would become really angered,” said Celeste Forester, 10.

Forester helped design a fairy recreation center and neighborhood restaurant that has flower petals on top of twigs for patrons to enjoy appetizers at high-top seating in the bar area. The home Forester constructed features first-class amenities such as a dining room — with an elaborate spread of soup, salad, sushi and decorative centerpiece, of course.

There’s also outdoor seating on the front patio and a jacuzzi in the master bathroom.

On the other side of the fairy village is Country Village Way, a separate subdivision with two homes that feature outdoor clotheslines, have flower petal drapes across the front entrance, bathtubs and fine-grain sand to pretty up the dirt floors.

“It’s got a bathtub and nice sand inside because my fairy doesn’t like the dirt,” said Juliette Nanos, whose fairy home is in Country Village Way. “And it’s got some cool features inside.”

Commonly known for their pixie dust, tiny wings and magic, somewhere along the line fairies apparently picked up an appreciation for the finer things.

The development efforts of the campers are apparently working. That is, attracting clientele to their area.

On Friday morning, after spending several days carefully crafting the homes, the girls found gifts left inside of the homes.

“They left us gifts just today and we don’t know if they were magic or not because to us they just looked like marbles. But I did notice that some of them you couldn’t buy in the store, so they must have made at least some (magic),” said Ava Collins, 8, with an innocence that makes you want to believe, too.

Colette Kenville, the studio owner who runs the children’s day camp during the summer, had the girls read a book about fairies as a time-filler in between activities.

Their imaginations took over from there.

“It just filled in all those extra moments and took over actually,” Kenville said. “We’re a very creative bunch here and we have a lot of imagination.”

Skipping with excitement down the path to the fairy village, the girls excitedly describe the details behind making fairy beds (wrap feathers in a rose pedal, secure with a twig) kitchen cupboards (hang dishes made of acorn shells on the side of the kitchen-area pine cone) and hot tubs (stack a shell on top of a pile of leaves).

All the while, there’s no sign of an iPhone and and iPad.

Just little girls in the summer, running wild with their imaginations. There was also no sign of a fairy, but there was plenty of magic to go around.

Contact Pete Cunningham at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.

Comments

Ash

Sun, Jul 8, 2012 : 1:04 a.m.

This camp sounds like it may be following the Steiner approach about fairies being real with some complex philosophical concepts of his. I think it's fine for kids to have a fantasy world and play. I have some reservations about the Steiner ideas, though.

jns131

Sun, Jul 8, 2012 : 12:16 p.m.

Whatever it is? It is better then television and computers any day of the week.

bedrog

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 6:50 p.m.

cute and whimsical...reminds me of the famous "little guyhome" next to a minneapolis lake which consists of a tiny ornately-wrought door in the bole of a tree in which kids place messages...and then can pick up responses later from a person who is clearly a benevolent child-o-phile ( as opposed to the other variety we've heard alot about lately).

spm

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 6:03 p.m.

Love it! Oh, how I would have loved these fairy homes when I was little. These lucky girls, perhaps they will see a fairy or two.

Madeleine Borthwick

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 5:22 p.m.

Absolutely delightful!! to whoever posted the comment that had to be removed...shame on you! how could anyone find fault with this story?

Nicole Casal Moore

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 2:26 p.m.

Is this open to the public to visit?

LA

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 1:44 p.m.

what a wonderful camp/idea!! Wonderful!!!

jns131

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 12:51 p.m.

O BTW. Pete? You have to be like Peter of Neverland, think like a child and you will see a fairy. Our adult minds right now need a lot of zen to see them again. If it wasn't so hot? I might actually go out looking again. Thanks for the video.

Carole

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 12:48 p.m.

Awesome. How much fun - great activity.

jns131

Sat, Jul 7, 2012 : 12:45 p.m.

I wish they had this when mine was that age. Sigh, they grow up so quickly. Thanks for the photo. O to be ten again.