If you’ve been to the Garden lately, you probably ran into some of our new Troll friends. These Trolls are part of our latest exhibit Thomas Dambo’s Trolls: Save the Humans. These six young Trolls have one mission – to save us humans by reconnecting us to nature. To get their message to more humans we started a Troll of the Week series where we highlight one Troll and their unique personality. This week we are featuring Ibbi Pip, the Birdhouse Troll. 

Ibbi Pip is an optimistic Troll who is friends with all the animals and is a great builder. When the other Trolls were discussing how they would help connect humans back to nature, Ibbi was thinking of a way to show humans how to share space with animals safely. Then she had a brilliant idea – birdhouses! By placing birdhouses in trees, humans and birds can be neighbors and live next to each other. The other Trolls felt like the birdhouse symbolized their mission so much that they painted a birdhouse symbol on their flag. 

The other Trolls figured that since Ibbi Pip came up with the birdhouse idea, the journey should start with her and her Playhouse. Ibbi Pip used her fantastic building skills and turned the pavilion into her very own playhouse filled with more than 150 birdhouses and 2 human-sized nests. Commemorate your visit by taking a picture in the Playhouse then share it with us and the Trolls by using #scbgTrolls when posting to social media. And don’t forget to sign the Trolls’ Guestbook located at the Playhouse exit so the Trolls can know how far their message traveled. 

Fun Facts: 

  • Ibbi Pip is 15 feet tall and is carrying a bag of colorful birdhouses.
  • You’ll find Ibbi Pip hanging up birdhouses on the trees outside of her Playhouse.
  • Ibbi Pip actually got the idea of birdhouses from humans! She noticed how some humans put these tiny houses up to bring birds closer to their homes. 
  • She hangs birdhouses everywhere she goes to re-awaken our compassion for animals and keep in mind that our spaces should be shared with animals.

If you are inspired by Ibbi Pip and want to create something so you can be closer to nature, join us on October 28 for Crafting Creations: Creating Bird Feeders Workshop (Inspired by Ibbi Pip). Classes are available from 10 – 11:30 a.m. and again from 2-3:30 p.m. Learn more here.