Peter Pan Shadow

Peter Pan Shadow Ornament

ne can research the meaning of Peter Pan’s Shadow to your heart’s content, but I leave it to you to arrive at your own conclusion. In my eyes, if it were not for Peter Pan’s Shadow, the Darling’s adventure to Neverland would have never happened. So I elevated the status of the shadow to that of an “unconventional character.” For this reason I decided to create the Peter Pan Shadow ornament.

Peter Pan Shadow Ornament Design Process

The idea

Having decided that I needed to add Peter Pan’s Shadow as a character to the collection, I was challenged by the best way to capture its essence. First, I tried pointing a light onto the already completed Peter Pan character so it would cast a shadow onto a paper. I tried many angles, but the distorted shape was unrecognizable. It was then I realized that the shadow needed to be a recognizable silhouette of Peter Pan since it existed on its own without Peter Pan’s body. That’s when the whole idea of this unique ornament came together.

A Bit of History

The story of Peter Pan is set in England sometime between the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Creating profile portraits of people performing their daily activities was a common artform in those days. That being the case, I took inspiration for my Peter Pan Shadow ornaments in these elaborate, and beautifully detailed silhouettes. Just like in the Victorian and Edwardian days, I hand cut all the shapes with very tiny sharp scissors. This was a painstaking, mind-numbing, and literally finger-numbing task which gave me a totally new perspective and respect for this artform.

The Design

Peter Pan’s Shadow is framed with an oval shaped basket wooden base. To begin, I represented the shadow’s magical essence with a coat of black glitter. Next, I placed Peter Pan’s Shadow under the “Second Star to the Right,” which guides him and the Darling boys to Neverland. In addition, I included Tinker Bell fluttering around reminding us of her possessive relationship with Peter Pan. The beads that trail Tinker Bell represent the pixie dust she leaves behind as she darts through the sky. Most importantly though, these beads also signify the magical thread that Wendy uses to stitch Peter Pan’s Shadow onto his feet.

Specifications

Year Designed

2020

Size

Actual size may vary, approximate 3.5” x 10.0” x 0.5”

Materials

Paper, wooden ovals, glitter, glass beads, wire, charms, notions, paint

Note:  Given the handmade nature of the ornament, all ornaments are different.  The pictures depict just one sample of the ornament.