Our Story: About The Fairy Art Gift Shop
The Fairy Art Gift Shop is run by the artist behind the artworks on the vast majority of our products: Kirstin Mills. Kirstin is an Australian artist, writer and designer who began offering her artworks and gifts of fairies and fantasy to the public in 2007. Since then,
The Magical World of Kirstin Mills has grown to include many projects, including the unique and innovative Fairy Inspirations series. In 2010 The Fairy Art Gift Shop was established to house and showcase all of Kirstin's art and gifts of fairies and fantasy in their own special place, while her website www.kirstinmills.com went on to act as a link between the many different realms of Kirstin's
Magical World. Below you can read more about The Fairy Art Gift Shop, The Magical World of Kirstin Mills and our business, ethical and environmental practices.
About the Art: A Personal Insight from the Artist
Kirstin Mills has always been "a drawer"- she drew on everything she could find from the moment she could hold anything that would make a mark. Many items of furniture throughout her house while she was growing up felt the effects of this tenacious desire to draw, not to mention countless papers and pieces of card which she squirreled away in her big art scrapbook. A precious and treasured memory-house for her today, that scrapbook serves to remind Kirstin of her humble beginnings and the truth behind her art and her insatiable need to draw and create. "For me," says Kirstin, "Art isn't about gaining a reaction from the people I show it to, though the feedback I receive has always been deeply appreciated and humbling. Instead, art for me is about the moment of creation: the spark and excited zing of enchantment and magic as I furiously work to capture that magical essence- my inspiration. I find it hard to create artworks to a formula or to a specific purpose: often if I try, the artworks will have a habit of steering the course their own way, and tend to end up completely different to the way they were intended. To this, I can only shrug my shoulders and surrender to the way of inspiration. To do otherwise would be to ignore an important part of who I am and what I love in this world- life, spontaneity, imagination, magic, love and truth. This is the reason that I rarely take commission work. I find that when a painting wants to be painted it will find a way of painting itself, and there is little I can do to force it otherwise." This is also the reason that Kirstin's work stretches across so many mediums, genres and styles, ranging from delicate watercolours and soft graphites to bold inkworks and striking contemporary pieces. Never the kind of person to be tied down by anything, Kirstin's free spirit dances with the spirit of the artwork she creates, painting or drawing it in whatever form, medium or style it "needs" to be painted in. She says, "should you ask 'Why did you paint it this way?' my reply will always be 'because it had to be painted that way' (my mother informs me that this was always my answer, even when spoken from tiny, pouted lips at the indignity of such a question!). My artworks represent little pillar stones along the journey through my imagination: sometimes this journey has taken a wide and scattered course, but all of it connects with the deep magic of life and the true essence of inspiration. Now, through my website, I share this journey with those who wish to accompany me and I welcome them to share in the magic that I enjoy so much. The thought that any of my creations can resonate with another person brings me great joy and speaks of the common magic spread throughout all of us. Should anyone like my art enough to purchase any of the art or gifts offered here, I am truly humbled and I thank them deeply."
About The Magical World of Kirstin Mills
The Magical World of Kirstin Mills is an Australian company based around the original artworks of Australian artist Kirstin Mills. Kirstin runs the majority of this business herself directly out of her Sydney-based studio, personally creating the vast majority of these products using the highest quality materials and environmentally-friendly methods. Apart from being a wonderfully enjoyable task for her, this is to ensure the consistent high quality of her enchanting giftware and collectible items: Kirstin delights in ensuring a beautiful product every time as it leaves her hands to go to its new owner. Kirstin knows her fans adore the magic and enchantment of opening a beautiful package just as much as she does, so she always aims for the most beautifully packaged and presented products, often using beautiful gift-boxing and gift wrapping. When she doesn't create or design the products herself, she chooses only to license her artworks to quality manufacturers who will uphold the magical essence of her beautiful artworks. Her art can now be seen across the globe in the form of cross-stitch patterns, on beautiful perfume oils and in collectible card games, as well as in the many different gifts and products from her own range being adored by people everywhere.
A wonderful helper for Kirstin when she is busy is her partner Ash, who occasionally helps out where needed with order filling and product manufacturing. A like-minded and very creative soul himself, Ash makes a brilliant team with Kirstin to bring you the most magical products direct from her studio! Ash is also the brilliant mind and musical talent behind the Fairy Inspirations relaxation music on the Fairy Inspirations CDs, a project that he and Kirstin absolutely love working on together!
Kirstin first brought her art to the wider world through a very small website in mid-2007. Having painted and drawn her imaginary, enchanted worlds ever since she was little, Kirstin was so excited and proud to be sharing her creations with others! Encouraged by the positive responses to her art, Kirstin continued to develop a range of artworks and related gifts that she could be proud of and that reflected her ethos of magic, inspiration and enchantment. Since that day, The Magical World of Kirstin Mills, a name evoking both the endless imagination of Kirstin and the artworks and products she creates, has continued to develop and grow. Her website and product range has undergone several upheavals and evolutions in her persistent quest to offer only the best products to enchant her customers and fans: by October 2008, with the launch of her new-look website and a much more extensive product range, the entire business has refined into a beautiful reflection of the magical energy of Kirstin's art and imagination. Kirstin wants her visitors to feel enchanted and uplifted when they browse through her pages and view the beautiful gifts within, an enchantment she always tries to carry through into the products and the packaging themselves. Consistently humbled by the adoring and appreciative feedback she receives from her customers, Kirstin is always inspired to create more beautiful and magical images and gifts for people to enjoy!
The Magical World of Kirstin Mills and the Environment
The natural environment has always been a big passion of Kirstin's and is a constant source of inspiration for her art. As such, we take every care we can to ensure that our business and products run in the 'greenest' way possible. Here are just some of the steps we take to ensure the reduced environmental footprint of our business: all of our backing boards included with our prints are made with 100% recycled materials that are also acid-free. The paper we print our invoices, receipts, sales slips, vouchers and promotional material on is also 100% recycled. Any scraps that are cut off are saved for Kirstin to sketch her many ideas on or for note-making! Several of our products are also made from beautiful, high quality 100% recycled and handmade papers, such as our Journals and Notebooks. These are also a fair trade item, which helps take care of our global cultures and the wonderful people who deserve fair rewards for their efforts. In the rest of our products we aim to maintain a level of quality and endurance that means our beautiful products will be kept a lifetime, meaning less landfill and waste! We want you to treasure your items forever! While much of our business requires running computers and printers and other electrical equipment, we try to reduce power usage by only turning equipment on while we need it, and taking care to turn off lights, printers and computers when they are not in use. We also aim to help promote some worthwhile environmental causes through information and links on our portal website, as well as membership and donations to those organizations that help us bring back a better world. These are just some of the steps we take to ensure a continued magical future for all of us!
The Magical World of Kirstin Mills supports Fair Trade
Here at The Magical World of Kirstin Mills, we are working towards putting the 'fair' back in Fairy! Several of our products are labeled "Fair Trade", which means they are made with materials sourced from organisations that help promote local economic and environmental sustainability. Many journals, books and papers on the market today are produced cheaply and suffer in quality, while the manufacturers, often underpaid workers in low-economic areas of developing countries, suffer very little compensation for their work. To avoid this lack of quality and ethics in our products, many of our Stationary products, including our Journals, Notebooks and Photo Albums, are made with only the highest quality "Fair Trade" certified papers that are also 100% handmade, natural, recycled and acid-free. We work with an Australian company that sources the highest quality Fair Trade papers to ensure not only a quality product, but one that was created and bought under ethical and fair conditions. This means that when our paper is being made, it is providing jobs and stable incomes for many families and communities in developing countries while helping them to achieve more empowered positions in the international economy and trade. The paper is made with basic raw materials such as waste paper, waste cotton fabrics, and agricultural waste like banana fibre and straw. The paper is lifted manually and dried in natural sunlight before being handmade into the form of our beautiful Journals, Photo Albums and Notebooks. We think Fair Trade is a very important quality in the international economy and help to support it where we can by choosing to only offer you the highest quality, ethical and treasurable items that we know you will love and appreciate for years to come.
To help you in determining when a product of ours uses Fair Trade materials, we use the symbol below, so that you know when you are buying a beautiful product that actually helps our world become a better place.
