MODERN life doesn't throw up many opportunities to lord it in your own folly. But self-styled "folly smith" Jayne Tarasun is offering people just that chance, writes Sarah Pitt.

With wonky roofs, windows at odd angles and painted any colour you fancy, her follies will have you throwing off the shackles of responsibility, for a little while at least.

Jayne constructs them in a workshop in her garden in Gweek on the Lizard in Cornwall.

"I think essentially I came up with the idea of making them because I have always rather wanted one," she says.

"In the process of researching it, though, I realised that a lot of people have these urges for their own private space where they can listen to their own thoughts and be creative."

Her very first folly was created for the grounds of the nearby stately home Trevarno, where its wackiness is complemented by the peacocks that strut around.

She has since had several commissions, including one for Jenny Toft who was smitten when she saw Jayne's purple Joseph folly at the Hidden Art Cornwall art fair at Godolphin House in August.

Jenny, 67, was looking for something decadent on which to spend a legacy from her best friend. The folly seemed to fit the bill.

"My very best friend died and left me some money and always wanted me to do something with it that I would never have done normally, something that is totally, totally different and that is very personal to me," she says.

Her folly has now been installed in her garden in the village of St Keverne on the Lizard, where, from the mezzanine, she can look out through the windows at her favourite view.

"It is positioned so when you open the windows you are looking right over to the church," she says.

"We thought quite a bit about where to put it in the garden."

Now the weather is growing colder, she is planning to hole up with a pile of blankets on the mezzanine, which is reached by means of a wooden ladder, adding to the fairytale feeling of escape.

She may even bring out a portable electric heater, escaping building work going on in the home she shares with her husband.

Jayne offers three choices of folly; the Gilbert, the "more traditional folly" made from oak or cedar with a copper roof and shingles, the Little Jo for children and the Joseph, a "contemporary" folly made from plywood with a metal roof and all joinery finished in oak.

"If you have got a particular view in your garden you want to see, you can drop in a window anywhere," says Jayne.

"They always have a mezzanine because it is something which is out of the ordinary. When you sit on it, you start thinking differently than if you were walking on the ground or sitting in a chair."

Jayne's next folly will be for her nine-year-old daughter Esme, to go in their garden backing on to the Helford River. It will be constructed on stilts, because the garden floods.

"Each one of my follies is custom made and I can build each one according to each person's requirements," she says.

"My dream client would be someone who wants a folly in the middle of a lake. That would be perfect seclusion."

Prices start at £12,000 for the Joseph and Gilbert follies and from £3,850 for the Little Jo child's folly (which comes in three different sizes). For more details visit www.folly-smith.com or contact Jayne Tarasun on 01326 221750 or jayne@tarasun.co.uk.