This was a commission project for baskets to hold jam jars and goodies for Christmas presents.

Knowing an artist friend chuckles at cute woodland creatures like the reindeer, I got inspired to create these little gnomes when she asked for companions for her reindeer.

I had so much fun that I made a pair for my mom too. She is the source of my love for little magical creatures of nature who lived in many of our German story books when I was growing up.

I started with the hat as an upside-down tree and then changed the colour of the willow for a face. A butt end of a weaver gets snipped as a nose.

The arms are a stick that gets wrapped into the weave. The legs are the ends of the original stakes.

The beard is a tuft of wool pinned with red-topped pin as a mouth and the eyes are pin heads easily stuck through the willow and snipped off at the back. The lady gnome’s hair is a clump of the Willow inner bark scraped off the pieces I used for her face.