OWNER & ARTIST

Along the quiet beaches of New England and wandering through the forests, Samantha Barlow-Beamer grew up closely with nature on her doorstep.  It was during a trip to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine when her creative inspiration for building fairy houses and designing jewelry really took off.  Monhegan Island has one rule which five-year-old Samantha never forgot and still follows today: You must only make fairy houses with natural materials which have already fallen to the ground. 

for the next 30 years or so she did just that; at the bases of trees across the US and Costa Rica where she lived for a summer, Samantha built little fairy houses in the hopes to keep her childhood magic very much a part of her life. The one place she had trouble building fairy houses was in New York City where she lived and worked for ten years as a sales director for a UK based corporate consulting firm and later at a different consulting firm where she developed and launched a software integrated with AI. Trees are hard to come by in New York City so she packed up her sticks and beads and moved back to the shoreline where she found her husband. 

Now with their three cats and their toddler, the family travels through New England gathering natural materials for her fairy houses and visiting antique stores searching for beads to repurpose for jewelry.  Samantha's art is designed to remind collectors of the beauty of nature and inspire them to continue to do what they can to preserve our incredible planet and respect our natural ecosystems.

It takes a village

Little Small & Co. wouldn’t be remotely possible if it weren’t for a great many people in my life who don’t find my big dreams to be “silly,” which If I am honest, was my biggest fear.

“I make fairy houses,” I would say as people’s eyes darted around followed by, “Oh…. that’s nice.” I admit I used to feel a little embarrassed talking about all of this because I was once a very serious, corporate-minded person in high pressure sales leadership positions. I was only as impressive as the money I brought in. And as a woman in a male-dominated position, I had to be cunning, clever and extremely competitive to stay at “the (proverbial) top.” Going from that world to a purse full of twigs and waddling around in the woods wearing sweatpants with a glittery little fairy house to show for it was a leap. what I didn’t realize at the time was that it would be the single most meaningful, genuine and rewarding professional move I would ever make.

What I see now is that this is what I was always working towards in the first place.

but it doesn’t happen overnight, and I wouldn’t be able to do this on my own.

First, I’d like to acknowledge and thank my husband who gave me the space to stop working for someone else and instead, use my imagination and work for myself. He is the first to see all of my creations and gleefully meets each new piece with enthusiasm. He also trusts my business decisions, full stop. James, thank you for dancing next to me when I need space to be “me” and dancing with me when I stop living in my head and can be present in the moment!

Following my launch, it was my aunts who were among my first collectors and loudest supporters. At first, I only made fairy houses and jewelry but as my line expanded, so did the cheering section and I want to thank my early collectors who bought my first round of fairy houses with such gusto, even though they were very lumpy and lopsided. You were good sports about it all and even though I was well into my 30’s, you followed the same acceptance mindset of when I was a kid. Thanks for that!

A very special thank you to Spectrum Art Gallery who were the first to believe in my artistic vision and expose me to their audience. This was followed robustly by The Florence Griswold Museum who invited me to participate in the 2024 wee faerie village and sell my works in their giftshop. And to the village herbery who cleared out an entire cabinet for me to display my full line of work for the holiday season and beyond, thank you.

to my friends. Especially Holly, Mel and Kristin who gave me such a boost and attended every single one of my events in 2024. And who also, along with my aunts, help me collect materials. Seriously, I don’t even have to ask and there’s a package on my doorstep from Maine, Vermont or New Hampshire filled with bark, pinecones, dried flowers or someone has dropped off a box of sticks or is shoving a bag of leaves through my car window! The majority of my incoming text messages are just pictures of piles of assorted shells and bark which will inevitably make their way into my studio and I think that’s one of the greatest things about all of this…

And finally, to my child who thinks every single thing I make, even the lumpy things I end up dismantling and repurposing, are the single most glorious things they have every laid their bright brown eyes on. Your never-ending, “wow! It’s booful, mama!” are what keep me focused on growing this business and living in the moment. I hope very much that I am making you proud. I love you, tiny one!