Forest Rogers' "The Tinderbox"

The Tinderbox (tinted, finished) by Forest Rogers

Another lesser known fairy tale we adore, thanks to the amazing and awe-inspiring magical dogs with eyes of gigantic sizes, The Tinderbox (Hans Christian Andersen), has gotten some special treatment, care of one of our favorite sculptors, Forest Rogers.

She's been sharing her work-in-progress via her Facebook page, as well as her blog but just this month, finished it with a lovely tint method that complements it beautifully.

We admit some envy, along with congratulations of course, for the new owners. This might be our favorite piece of hers yet!

Forest Rogers at work

We're going to include an excerpt from Wikipedia here, on the sources and influences on Andersen when he wrote this literary fairy tale, because they're fascinating and we rarely hear about these other things. Not only that - it's interesting to see just how many fairy tale associations the story of Aladdin had, especially as the tale comes back into pop culture circles again, via the new season of Once Upon A Time.

Although we wish we had time to research these more for you and provide a fleshed out article, time is against us in the ticking past of so many fairy tale news stories. We hope this excerpt will inspire you to delve a little deeper yourself.

Enjoy:

"In-progress" although it looks stunning this way too.

Andersen based “The Tinderbox" on the Scandinavian folk tale "The Spirit in the Candle". In the folk tale, a soldier acquires a magic candle which has the power to summon an iron man to do his bidding. The soldier uses the candle to visit a princess, and summons the iron man to save his life when he is sent to the stake for doing so. In the preface to the second volume ofFairy Tales and Stories (1863), Andersen indicates he heard the tale as a child "in the spinning room, and during the harvesting of the hops."
Andersen knew The Arabian Nights, and "The Tinderbox” bears some similarities with "Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp". Both tales feature a supernatural being inveigling a mortal to enter an enchanted area on promise of rich reward; both tales feature three chambers filled with riches; both tales have heroes refusing to part with a magic luminant and then winning a princess through its use.
The story of Aladdin had a special emotional significance for Andersen. As a poor grammar school student in Copenhagen, he was invited to stay with a prominent Copenhagen family in the Amalienborg Palace. There, he was given a Danish translation of Shakespeare, and wrote in his diary on 12 December 1825:

"It's going for me as it did for Aladdin, who says at the close of the work as he stands at a window of the palace:Down there I walked when just a ladEach Sunday, if I was but allowedAnd gazed with wonder at the Sultan's palace.

Andersen was familiar with and widely read in folk and fairy lore. The princess locked in a tower in "The Tinderbox" has its counterpart in "Rapunzel"; the trail of flour mirrors the trail of grain in "Hansel and Gretel"; and the doors marked with chalk recall those from "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" – another tale from The Arabian Nights.

Forest Rogers Wins Gold Spectrum Award!

Venetian Harpy  by Forest Rogers

The 22nd Spectrum Awards (for science fiction and fantasy art in all mediums) were recently held and one of my favorite fairy tale illustrators and sculptors, Forest Rogers, won a gold award in the Dimensional category, for her stunning and amazing Venetian Harpy (see above).

Congratulations Forest!!

Note: I should also mention that Scott Gustafson, who has illustrated many a fairy tale picture book, received the Grand Master Award!

Though Forest Rogers doesn't exclusively work on fairy tale subjects she has made, and continues to create, many memorable fairy tale-based pieces, and from little bits I pick up around social media, she's looking at continuing/completing the Vasilissa illustrations she began many years ago (before she got into sculpting) and, off and on, has been researching The Crane Wife, as she'd apparently like to create a sculpture based on the Japanese fairy tale as well. (!!)

Below are some of her other fairy tale works to date, and perhaps you can see why I love her work so.

Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga's Hut

Vasilissa with her mother's doll

Baba Yaga (still being dressed) & Vasilissa

Baba Yaga, Vasilissa and the Chicken-Legged Hut together

Snow Maiden as she melts

Banshee

Yuki Ona - snow spirit

East of the Sun (inspired by Kay Neilsen's illustration)

East of the Sun (2nd sculpt)

Swan child in progress

Hans Andersen's Little Mermaid

Silvershod (aka Silver Hoof) & his friend Cat (Russian tale)

Red Riding Hood in progress

Red Riding Hood & Wolf
(Something about this evokes Perrault and Dore and other early illustrated versions of LRRH to me.)

Vasiliss'a Mother gives her a doll before she passes away

Vaslissa enters Baba Yaga's forest

Baba Yaga tasks Vasilissa with impossible tasks

Vaslissa talks to her doll (and the doll talks back)

Baba Yaga in a rage

One of the horsemen Vasilissa sees on her journey

 You can see much more of Forest Roger's work on her website HERE and follow her on Facebook HERE and Twitter HERE. She also has a great set of boards on Pinterest HERE.