Hello!

I’m Angela Drake, the Artist and creator of Emily’s Fairies.

I myself fell in love with fairies when I was little girl. My Mother placed Cicely Mary Barker’s fairy wallpaper on several walls in my room, one of which was by my bed. Every night before I fell asleep I would stare at the fairies and wonder what would happen if they all of a sudden sprang to life and started talking to me. I would imagine what they would eat and where they lived. I come from a very large family ~ 11 children and was often caught with my nose buried in a book. As I grew older, I played dress up and imagined myself in far away places. Now, as I create fairies I hope to inspire other little girls (and women who are girls at heart) to dream of places where there is love, light and laughter. I hope my fairies become “real” and bring a spark of magic and delight to those who collect Emily’s Fairies.

History of how I started sculpting:

When I was 16 years old my mother owned a small consignment clothing store and I would spend hours there behind the counter, waiting on customers. I was always quick in my work and easily finished the work that was assigned to me hours before the store closed. Also we lived about 30 miles away from where the store was located and since my father was my only ride to work I would be dropped off anywhere from 2-3 hours before the store opened. You can imagine the hours I had all to myself and since my mind is always active I invested hours of drawing (I was infatuated with faces), and pouring over doll magazines. One day I came across an article in Doll Reader about Linda Kertzman and her dolls that she sculpted from polymer clay. I was extremely interested, walked to the craft store, and purchased my first box of clay. =) Of course my first attempt resembled an old lady troll, but since my Grandmother was so excited about it and praised me so much, I had thought that I did a wonderful job and attempted a second doll that turned out a little bit better. I believe that I sculpted a total of 15 dolls over the next couple of years and tried to sculpt at least one doll a year for my Grandmother to give as a gift at Christmas time. When I turned 18 I was able to get a job at the Bon Marche as a display artist (dressed the mannequins, create shelf displays, and so on), I did that job for 3 years then since management changed I decided to try my hand as a count rep. at a medical billing office. I stayed there for 1 1/2 years and then became a secretary at a machinist shop (hated every second!!!!) I tried my best to my job there but I was not meant to be a secretary and was fired after 3 months. I was horrified since I had always kept my jobs! I went home and cried and then picked up the clay. I started sculpting every second and by November (I was fired in August of 2000) I showed a couple of my fairies (by then I had applied wings to my dolls) to my relatives when they came over for Thanksgiving. They thought they were wonderful (of course they still resembled trolls), and someone mentioned I should sell on eBay. I was horrified and thought who in the world would EVER buy my stuff! But by the time January rolled around I was ready to place one on and on the 11 of January 2001 I placed my first fairy on eBay.

I’ve been selling fairies on eBay now for 6 years. I am a married stay at home mommy with two sweet little boys. I sculpt in my spare time during naps and at night while they sleep. I still love sculpting and try to improve with each new sculpture. Sometimes I improve, sometimes I don’t ~ most of all I just enjoy the creating process!