News Flash! My interview with Jules at the Seven Impossible Things blog was posted today. Just a warning though– there are tons, I mean tons of pictures in the article!
This series of couples begins with a detail from Vineyard Family, which I made in 1985. During the 80’s I experimented with flattened dolls on embellished backgrounds and came up with the term fabric relief to describe what I was making. See other details from this scene here and here.
These gingerbread cookies are appliqued and embroidered on a wool felt balsam pillow. This project is in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.
And the dish ran away with the spoon in my board book version of Hey, Diddle, Diddle! The dish is formed out of polymer play and cut with a scalloped edged biscuit cutter. The silver spoon is beat up and old, but he strikes the dish’s fancy.
This detail is from my 2007 piece, Self Portrait: a personal history of fashion. My husband, Rob joins me for the year we were married (1981) in the spiral of 52 dolls, which age from birth to 52. I made our full size wedding outfits in 1981, too. See a post about the Self Portrait here.
This detail from Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes shows the last part of the Jack and Jill rhyme when a wounded Jack “went to bed to mend his head with vinegar and brown paper”.
Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.
SALLEY MAVOR 
Hi, Salley,
When I see your art, I see love. It is love which gives you the power to take such care with every stitch, with the faces, and with details like the scalloped edge of the dish. Your love glows through. Beth
Beautiful. Seriously beautiful.
Great theme…
Salley,
I enjoyed looking at “Vineyard Family” because it shows so well what was available to work with at the time it was made. When I was trying to find 100% cotton solid colored fabric for a quilt I was making during the same time frame I remembered I could only get a few, the rest had to be a poly. blend. Things have changed a lot!
I hope I can see your work in person someday, it is incredible!
That was a great, in-depth interview! It was so well done and had so many wonderful photos of your work in it. Really excellent! Loved seeing your work area and learning more about the process. Congratulations to the artist–and to the interviewer!
Salley – somehow I think we are all represented here! I don’t know how or why – but you have captured each aspect of a relationship – playful, settled, comfortable, close, honest – warm – endearing….. and that’s just in the Dish and Spoon. LOL Still in love with your work!
You have a playful way of documenting our lives journals. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
Thanks for the closeups and all the images in your fabulous interview – hard for me to get enough! I feel so relieved/encouraged to see that you’ve struggled with some of the same issues I’ve had trouble with as a 3-D illustrator, like finding materials (and fabrics) that work in different scales. I also enjoyed the photos of you at work in your studio – I’m always trying to figure out how to keep everything organized and at least tidy enough to keep working while in the middle of a book. I appreciate your sharing so much!