They go by various names: little people, twig people, fairy folk, wee folk, or woodland creatures. Forest Folk. Are they just imagination, or does a whole society of little people live on the fringes of human comprehension?

When you see the personality these little nature art creations possess, you just might wonder. Each one is unique. Each one portrays individual personas.

Well,  I’m sure true Forest Folk exist. At least in my mind. So I’ve decided to start crafting twig people to life and call them Wild Ozark Forest Folk.

First I started with the acorns and oak twigs, along with bits and pieces of other botanical items. Then I discovered the thrill of using our native clay, fired in the wood stove, to make some of their body parts.

Click here to see all the photos of the ones I’ve made so far.

Below is a pic of one of my favorites. The photo links to the page about this ensemble.

What are Forest Folk?

Forest Folk are a type of Nature Being. The exist in the liminal space between our world and the world of the Fae.

To the unbeliever, they’re just those fantasy human-like creatures that live within the world between pages of books.

Believers, on the other hand, think it is the folly and arrogance of man to believe that we humans are the only high-intelligence, thinking, speaking, and communicating creatures on earth.

Quite the contrary. There are entire civilizations and societies of other forms of life on earth who think and act like us in many ways. It’s just that these life forms have the uncanny ability to avoid humans when they want to.

Some of them really don’t like humans much.

Fairies, gnomes, dwarves, elves, pixies, trolls and sprites name a few of the more well-known types of Forest Folk.

Acorn, gumball and hickory folk are a few of the local species here at Wild Ozark. I’ve only recently become acquainted with the Acorn Folk and have yet to meet a Hickory Folk. Elemental Folk invoke of all the elements during their creation- wind, fire, earth, and water. These are the ones with body parts made from the native clay.

Forest Folk are Tricky

Forest Folk can assume temporary invisibility. They have a full-time corporeal existence but do from time to time like to cloak themselves when it comes to avoiding predators and humans.

Some of them can alter physical attributes at will. Like height or girth. It is sometimes useful in the course of a Forest Folk day to need that extra girth to lower center of gravity and keep from rolling downhill while carrying a heavy load, for example. There are times when being exceptionally tiny is useful. Or vice-versa.

Nature Beings

All Folk (ourselves included) are part of the natural world. There is nothing that is not natural world when you get right down to it.

Types of Forest Folk

For every terrain on or within earth, and extended to the rest of the terrains in the universe there are Folk. Here on earth you’ll find desert folk, plains folk, city folk, subterranean folk, volcanic folk, mountain folk, ocean, lake, pond, river, and creek folk.

Some of the distinctions between the various types of folk is small to undetectable except among themselves. They’re even further broken down in to vocational classifications – kitchen folk, gardening folk, and any other vocational kind of folk you can imagine.

There are Spirit Folk, Animal Folk, Elemental Folk, and other types of folk I probably can’t even conceive. The possibilities are as endless as the Universe itself.

Relations with Humans

Some people are able to see and interact with Folk.

I’m more attuned to the Forest Folk, because I live in a heavily forested place where Nature and Spirit is alive and very present.

Want Your Own Forest Folk?

I make these to order. If you like any of the ones pictured, let me know and I’ll make another. It won’t be exactly like it, but very similar. I’ll send you photos of the finished product to make sure you’re happy with it.

Email me to Inquire

You can see more of them by visiting this post where I have more photos of the Acorn Folk I’ve made so far.

Was this Post Fact or Fiction?

Maybe both.

I’m a storyteller and artist, and things that exist in my mind don’t always exist in the minds of ordinary people. I think this is true for most creative people.

I’ve always operated with one foot in reality (as most people would define it) and the other foot somewhere else out there.

There’s no way to prove the existence of any of it. But I believe in a world of things that can’t be proven.

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Author/Artist Info
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Madison Woods is a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. In 2018 she began experimenting with watercolor painting, using her local pigments. She calls them Paleo Paints. In 2023 she began her journey into the world of oil painting with those same pigments. Her paintings of the Ozark-inspired scenes feature exclusively the lightfast pigments foraged from Madison county, Arkansas. Her inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction and regeneration. Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery end of life out here.

Online Portfolio

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First and foremost, apart from being an artist and author, Madison is a nature enthusiast. She enjoys using local resources in every aspect of her life and considers the land she and her husband live on as partners in life. They care for the land and the land cares for them. She’s an herbalist, gardener, and wildcrafter of medicinal plants.

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