For decades, textile and botanical artist Elaine Falbo-Lowe has made fairy-inspired art for her booth at the Oregon Country Fair.
When Falbo-Lowe was juried into her first fair 40 years ago, she was a young mother and skilled basket weaver. Now a grandmother at 71, she reflects on how the fair has shaped her life and career making an array of whimsical, handcrafted goods.
Year-round in the Irvington neighborhood of Northeast Portland, Falbo-Lowe runs her boutique Bella Flora Studio, which is more wonderland than shop. She offers everything from embellished vintage clothing, wreaths, baskets, dried flower hair garlands and fairy furniture (tiny chairs and tables meticulously crafted from twigs and flowers).
But for two weeks every June, Falbo-Lowe disappears from urbanity into the woods. There, in a quiet cabin south of Tillamook, she prepares for the Oregon Country Fair.
“I need to come into the woods and get my work done because it’s very blissful — I have too many interruptions when I’m at my shop or at home — I need to get away,” she said.
Falbo-Lowe hauls a carload of vintage fabrics, silks, tulle, dried flowers, feathers, millinery, and willow branches out to her family’s cabin in the woods and works without distraction, making merchandise for her fair booth Sorella (which means sister in Italian).
“I tackle the big stuff first and then do the tiny work,” she said. “And the whole time, I’m gathering, I’m walking outside, I’m finding things for my fairy furniture. Nature directs me where to go and what I need to do. And nature guides what I have to do in my mind each day.”
Falbo-Lowe crafts nature’s wonders into all of her pieces. On the morning she spoke with OPB, she witnessed three deer chasing what appeared to be two bobcats and took it as a sign of protection, alone in the woods with only her imagination, handiwork and a little bit of music. She works long hours listening to The Three Tenors, Crosby, Stills & Nash and whatever local radio signals she can get.
By the time fair begins, she will have made 250-300 pieces for sale including dresses, headpieces, baskets, fairy furniture, decorated vintage hats and a limited number of fairy wings.
“I can only make around 25 wings — they’re very time consuming,” she said. “It takes a lot to do this. But I love it.”
Oregon Country Fair started in 1969 as a benefit for an alternative school. For the past 56 years it’s hosted an annual three-day festival offering entertainment, hand-made crafts, foods, music and story sharing. About 45,000 people attend the fair each year in Veneta, Oregon.
“It’s for everybody. People should at least come once,” said Falbo-Lowe.
Falbo-Lowe has had three different booths since she started coming to the fair. She had to rebuild her last booth because a tree fell on it. “God willing, if no more trees fall on me, I’ll do it as long as I can,” she said. “And I’d like to do it for 50 more years. It keeps me young. It’s very magical.”
This story was written and reported by Kate McMahon, edited by Jessica Martin and digitally produced by Meagan Cuthill, with photos by Jeff Kastner.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
