Fairy Dancing on a Spider's Web

A commission to Shay Carmichael in 2024 for a favourite image from my teens, with a very restricted colour palette (although not the one on the 1970s poster). It is an illustration, 'Fairy Dancing on a Spider's Web' by Arthur Rackham, one of many illustrations from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. JM Barrie published the novel in 1906, before the famous play containing the lost boy.

The jigsaw pieces are thick (some are 3D-enhanced) and the print has a golden-bronze lustre. Whimsies include Shay's personal trademark swan, a spider, fairy, dragonfly, bird and cricket. Scrolling shapes decorate all four corners. Some pieces also bear the traces of dead-end cuts, so I knew there was one or more sliver dropouts to discover during assembly. These turned out to be a violin, a clarinet and a scrolling stave with musical notes, floating above the 3D-enhanced dancing fairy. In fabulous attention to detail, Shay has created an enhanced spider whimsy, spinning the image’s line of web that the fairy is dancing on. A masterwork indeed!

Artist: Arthur Rackham
Date: 2025
Brand: Shay’s Puzzle Workshop
Material: Plywood
Nationality: American
Number:
Pieces: 571
Size: 15 x 19in
Theme: Insects, Children’s Books, 3D-enhanced
Title: Fairy Dancing on a Spider’s Web