When you enter my exhibition at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, you will be greeted by about 150 little dolls which form the Wall of Wee Folk. It’s a small part of the exhibition, but the collection of wee folk set the stage for the rest of show, which includes over 75 bas-relief scenes that span 25 years of my career.
The Wee Worlds of Salley Mavor will be on view through January 7th, 2024.

On the wall are a whole cast of characters, including public figures like RBG, Greta Thunberg and Abe Lincoln. Many of the dolls are sample projects from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. Over the past 20 years, I’ve accumulated quite a collection, which I purposefully haven’t sold, so they can be exhibited along with my wall pieces.

They are usually displayed in cases, but for this show, I tried a new kind of presentation, which you can see in this video. I understand that it will be very tempting for both young and old to touch the dolls. However, I’m willing to take the risk. It’s important to me that visitors have an opportunity to look closely at my work without a barrier, since just about everything else is protected behind glass.

I’ve thought about displaying a group of dolls directly on a wall for a long time, so when I visited the museum to get a sense of the exhibit space, I envisioned a wall dotted with wee folk. I just had to come up with a way to hold them in place.

This photo shows what the gallery looked like when Rob and I were helping install the exhibition. The Wall of Wee Folk is straight ahead, on the distant wall behind stack of boxes that the artwork was transported in.

Many of the dolls are ltd. edition Blossom Fairies I used to make, including a sleeping fairy in a nest I made out of grass.

My solution to how to affix them to the wall involved tiny clear plastic clips with a pin backing. These were given to me by Alison Crites, who helped curate the show.

In preparation at home, I spent a few evenings sewing the clip/pins to the back of each doll.

Also ahead of time at home, I arranged the dolls on a white sheet on the floor to get an idea of their spacing.

Once in the museum, we drilled small holes in the gallery wall and stuck the pins in, with a little Goop to hold them in place. Hopefully, they won’t take a walk!

In the coming weeks, I’ll share more photos of the exhibition. Here I am, standing in front of the wall with Anne Corso, the museum’s executive director and Alison Crites, the manager of exhibitions.

The Wee Worlds of Salley Mavor will be on view at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, through January 7th, 2024. Besides the Wall of Wee Folk, the exhibition includes a wide array of original picture book illustrations spanning my career, including BEDTIME STITCHES, the touring exhibition of artwork for MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World. Also on view are pieces that explore cultural diversity, migration, fashion, the natural world, and a range of social narratives, from the everyday to topical subjects.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.