Nestled in the thicket of Glen Lake Rotary Park, three small pods hang gently from the branches. Listen carefully and you’ll hear soft coos and lullabies floating on the breeze. Welcome to Sweet Pea Birth Center, where skilled midwives Eliza Dewlittle and Robin Goodspell welcome the newest members of the Bumblewood Thicket community … of fairies.
Whimsical arts organization Random Acts of Silliness hosts an annual “fairy village” event late each summer for Gallatin Valley residents to partake in fanciful fun. Bumblewood Thicket, as it is known, contains fairy homes and businesses created by local artists and designers. This year, Hennebery Eddy’s Bozeman team joined the ranks of official “Fairy Architects,” dreaming up a place inspired by the mothers on our staff.
Through the Bozeman studio’s regular design charettes, we conceived and refined the fairy nursery concept, which Random Acts of Silliness selected from close to 50 proposal submissions. Our plans follow the sophisticated design guidelines that make Bumblewood Thicket a thriving fairy community, scaled to their 4-inch height and constructed of natural materials.
Sweet Pea Birth Center provides fairy mothers and babies a nurturing place to recuperate while being pampered and celebrated. Here, new parents can also learn swaddling, feeding, and burping techniques from Eliza and Robin, who live on site in the apartment above the nursery. The delivery pod features a songbird “ambulance” landing and clay birthing tub, while the nursery pod has tiny milkweed pod bassinets. Running between the pods are clothes lines filled with diapers, onesies, and bibs for the new arrivals.
The birth center’s pods are primarily constructed of hop vines, coconut, and mortar paper mâché over a hidden metal frame. Mica, moss, cottonwood sticks, and other found greenery create the finishing touches for these cozy and magical structures. “Foster delight” is one of the firm’s guiding principles, an acknowledgement of the power of design to spark joy (for humans and non-humans alike). Our Fairy Architects lovingly built out the birth center over the last few months, foraging organic materials, growing hops in the studio courtyard, and assembling each piece in evening build sessions. Now installed in Bumblewood, Sweet Pea is ready for visitors.
Bumblewood Thicket Fairy Village is self-guided, free, and open to all from 5am to 9pm. It runs Aug. 30 through Sept. 22 at Glen Lake Rotary Park in Bozeman.