closeups (wheels)

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Salley Mavor

Working in miniature, there are many objects available for wheels; buttons, washers, snaps, key rings, etc. This series of images are mostly from my earlier work, starting with a detail from a piece I made in 1986. The wire bicycle is less than 2 inches long. Looking at these, I’m amazed that I had time to do all of the stitching because I had a baby and a preschooler to take care of. I remember working every evening after they went to bed.

The button wheels in this detail (below) from “Fall”, 1987, are about 1/2″ in diameter.

Skip ahead 10 years for this detail from the Sidewalks poem in my 1997 book, “You and Me: Poems of Friendship“. The car hub-caps are fancy coat buttons and the tires are made from black insulated wire. The stroller wheels are 1/2″ buttons.

Here’s a detail from “The Hollyhock Wall”, 1999. The car hub-caps are made from regular sized snaps.

The bicycle wheels in this detail from “You and Me” are made from the smallest key rings I could find, about 1/2″. The bicycle spokes are metallic thread and the helmets are painted acorn caps.

This is another detail from the same Fast Friends illustration in “You and Me”. That’s my husband Rob in the truck.

16 years later and I’m still making ice cream trucks. This 2″ embroidered one is from a baby quilt I’m in the process of making for a friend. Stay tuned for more quilt images!

Closeups: Spring

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Salley Mavor

Today is the Spring Equinox! Let’s celebrate the coming of warmth and the promise of the growing season. Here are some spring-inspired closeups of my artwork, starting with a house and tree, which I guess is from the first grade. Skip 50 years, to a group of details from some nursery rhyme illustrations in Pocketful of Posies. If you have the book, you can look carefully and pick them out.

Close-ups (Cats #2)

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Salley Mavor

Cat pin circa 1980

It’s about time I showed more cat pictures because there are so many to choose from. Cats were the subject of the first post in the Close-ups series, back in 2009. This brown cat pin is over 30 years old. Read about my pins here. The baby leopards are from “Rana is Born”. The piece was the inspiration for Judy Richardson’s story, Come to my Party, which I illustrated in 1993.

detail from “Rana is Born” fabric relief 1992

This costumed cat is a detail from “On Halloween”, which is in my 1997 book You and Me: Poems of Friendship. The whole illustration is printed as a poster, which is available in my Etsy Shop.

detail from “On Halloween” 1997

This seated cat is from my 1999 book The Hollyhock Wall.

detail from “The Hollyhock Wall” 1999

This kitty is part of the faux tile frieze in my kitchen. Read about that here.

Faux Tile 2001

And this cat topiary is from the verse “Molly My Sister and I” in my book Pocketful of Posies. Autographed copies, plus a poster are available in my Etsy Shop.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Closeups (sleep)

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Salley Mavor

This close-up of a wee milkweed baby is also pictured in my newest card, which you can see in my Etsy shop here. She’s less than 2″ long.

The best bedtime stories end with a sleeping child. This is a detail from the last illustration from my 2001 picture book, In the Heart.

“Go to bed second, a golden pheasant.” detail from Pocketful of Posies.

This sleeping bird is from my first book, The Way Home. Read about the making of this book here.

Little Boy Blue is asleep under the haystack. detail from Pocketful of Posies.

“To bed, to bed”, says sleepy head. Detail from Pocketful of Posies.

A slumbering fairy on the warm rocks. He’s 2″ long.

One shoe off, the other shoe on, deedle, deedle, dumpling, my son John. Detail from Pocketful of Posies.

Are the children in their beds? Detail from Wee Willie Winkie board book.

Close-ups (chairs)

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Salley Mavor

It’s been a while since I’ve shown some closeups, so here’s one about chairs. See the archived posts from the Close-ups Series here.

I use chairs as perches for my little dolls. The trick is making the chairs in shallow relief, so that they don’t stick out too far in my pictures. The first photo shows a girl sitting on a chair made from milled wooden pieces that are used in doll house miniatures.

detail from “The Storyteller” 1998

George’s chair is made with old worn upholstery fabric. The chair’s feet are sculpted with Fimo. Read about and see more pictures from “The Storyteller” and “George’s Chair” in another post here.

Detail from “George’s Chair” mid 90′s

Mary’s mother sits knitting in this detail from Mary Had a Little Lamb. I only had to show a board in the back and one chair leg to achieve her pose.

These little women from The Hollyhock Wall are about 1 1/4″ tall, so their chairs are tiny. They were made of wire wrapped with grey embroidery floss.

The yellow high chair is made from miniature doll house wooden parts. It’s in the kitchen scene in my picture book In the Heart. I was able to get some copies when it went out of print, so I’m offering autographed books for a good price in my Etsy shop.

detail from picture book “In the Heart” 2001

Here are a couple of details from Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. The girl is sitting in a wicker chair made with floral cloth wire.

Detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Scallop shells serve as a hat and chair back for this character in “Posies”.

Detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Close-ups (sheep)

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Salley Mavor

It’s time to bring back the Close-ups. I started the series 2 years ago, when I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist. Using one hand, I wrote about and showed pictures of past projects, organized by theme. It helped me get through the 4 month recovery period, when I couldn’t sew. See the whole Close-ups series here.

Right now, I’m in hibernation, making parts that will be used in an animation my husband Rob and I are doing. This “little” project is growing into more than a winter activity, though, and it will be a long while before we’re finished. I want to wait until we have a finished film (probably a few minutes long) before we show anything, including process photos. I’ve got other art related commitments to take care of this year, so I’ll soon have to put the animation project aside until I have more time to get totally immersed.

Back to sheep–which are giving birth at this time of year. Maybe it’s their expressions, or their ears, or their white fluffy body balls with stick legs, but sheep are very satisfying to portray. This first image at the top of the post is a detail from my picture book Mary Had a Little Lamb. See more pictures from the book here. The one below is part of an embroidered piece I made in art school in 1974.

These sheep from my 1986 Noah’s Ark fabric relief, show the beginning of my love affair with French knots.

Here’s a simpler, appliqued version, which decorates a felt purse in my 2003 how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

Then, there are several details from nursery rhymes in my 2010 picture book, Pocketful of Posies.

Close-ups (winter solstice)

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Salley Mavor

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

Salley, age 8

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.

detail from "One Misty, Moisty Morning" in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!

detail from "Little Jack Horner" in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.

detail of balsam pillow in "Felt Wee Folk" 2003

And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

detail from "Little Jack Horner" in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Closeups (barns)

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Salley Mavor

Houses are my favorites, but I also love to add barns my scenes. This first one is a detail from Picking Peas, which I made in 1986. I used the sewing machine to applique the door and window, but hand embroidered leaves along the ribbon tree branches. See the full fabric relief picture on this post.

detail from "Picking Peas" 1986

These barns are on the title page of the first edition of Mary Had a Little Lamb from 1995. At this point, I sewed everything by hand and no longer used a sewing machine. The “snow” is an old linen table-cloth.

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" 1995

Jump ahead 9 years to this illustration from the 2006 board book, Jack and Jill. I’m using wool felt, so the look is softer and more fuzzy.

: detail from “Jack and Jill” 2006

The last two barns are from Pocketful of Posies. The roof is a piece of bark and the door is driftwood.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

This barn from the Mary Had a Little Lamb rhyme makes use of hook and eye parts. The lamb is about 1/2″ long.

detail from Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Closeups (baskets)

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I love baskets and have included all kinds in my artwork since the beginning, like this Easter basket crayon drawing from my childhood.

crayon drawing, age 7

The elephant mother in my first picture book, The Way Home (1991), needed a way to carry bananas, so I made tiny (1/2″) wire baskets, wound in embroidery floss. Read my story about the making of The Way Home here.

detail from "The Way Home" 1991

Here is Mary, from Mary Had a Little Lamb, holding a basket of clay strawberries. This basket is also made with thread wrapped wire, but a little bigger at 1 1/4″. Real stones are glued in the garden.

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" 1995

This egg basket appears in Pocketful of Posies, in the illustration for the rhyme, Higgety, pickety, my black hen. It’s made by coiling and wrapping wire with embroidery floss. You can see glimpses of the green florist wire through the thread. I can’t for the life of me remember how I did the pattern on the top and bottom. The original is about 2 inches long and filled with 1/2 inch wooden eggs.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Also from Pocketful of Posies, Daffy Down Dilly’s 3/4″ basket is made the same way.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

This detail from Jerry Hall is enlarged quite a bit, with the original basket being less than 1″.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Closeups (shoes)

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Salley Mavor

JUST POSTED! Read my interview at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Blog here.

The shoes in this series of closeups are made of leather or felt, with a wooden one at the end. Mother and Child (1983) is from my transitional period, when I was moving from sculpture in the round to a baas relief format, which I later named fabric relief sculpture.

Mother and Child, 1983

In Jumping Girl (1985), I attempted to bring a sense of movement to the figure. That’s a piece of Chinese embroidery sewn onto the bottom.

Jumping Girl, 1985

This shows off the girl’s shoes from my picture book ”In the Heart” (2001). The leather came with the checked pattern stamped onto it and there was barely enough to make all of her shoes in the book.

detail from "In the Heart", 2001

Jill’s felt shoes are about 3/4″ long.

detail from "Jack and Jill", 2006

I made this shoe for the rhyme, One, Two, buckle my shoe in Pocketful of Posies. It’s modeled after those cute mary jane style chinese shoes. While I was working on it, I noticed that my watch band had the perfect sized buckle, so I took off my watch, cut off the buckle and added it to the illustration.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

This wooden shoe sign is hanging over the cobbler’s shop in the picture for the rhyme, Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe, which is also in Pocketful of Posies. I used a jig saw to cut out the shoe and made the cobbler’s work apron from leather.