Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

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One of the venues the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild exhibits members work is in the lobby of the Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton Michigan. This year I was inspired to create a felt wall hanging based on one of my stories.

Once upon a time….

There was a girl, who lived at the edge of a vast forest. At night, after the days’ work, the adults sat together to tell their stories. The sound of muffled voices and laughter drifted through the air to the dark room where the girl slept, enticing her to quietly leave her bed and crouch unseen in the shadows to listen.

Her favorite stories were about the forest and the ones who entered in the light of day or the ones who were reckless and daring enough to brave the dark of night. As she listened, she was puzzled, for she heard no stories of the ones who entered the forest at the twilight hours for that was the time the forest called to her.

When she asked why this was so, the ones who went in the light of day quickly answered, “It is not safe. Twilight is the time when those of the fairy realm walk the forest paths, moving in and out of shadows, speaking in whispered voices and they are not to be trusted. They lure gullible dreamers into their realm; and then turn on them. All who have gone into the forest at the twilight hours, the time when day meets night at dawn or dusk, the dream-time, none have ever returned.”

Now the ones who were reckless and daring enough to brave the dark of night took her aside and said, “The shadowy figures are NOT to be trusted but it is possible to gain safe passage during the twilight hours IF you possessed something they want or you are able to prove that you are stronger.”

As she grew older, the girl began to slip away at the twilight hours to secretly sit at the forest’s edge. There she saw figures moving in and out of the shadows and she heard whispered voices.

–an excerpt from The Forest – an original fairy tale
(c)1999 Barbara G. Schutzgruber
Ladies’ Night Out CD
Online ordering & payment is available in the Storytelling section
on the Store page under “Media”

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Into the Woods
31.5 in x 35 in / 80cm x 89cm
Felted wool, stitched yarn with Embroidery embellishment

Into the Woods will be on display the month on September at the Village Theater.
Here is a sample of the nearly 50 works of art that make up the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild exhibit.

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