About Salley Mavor

I make 3-dimensional fabric relief pictures that are photographed and used to illustrate children’s books. I sew together different materials to create fanciful scenes in relief, much like a miniature stage set, with figures imposed on an embellished fabric background. My work is decorative and detailed, full of patterns from nature and found objects, all sewn together by hand with a needle and thread.

Wedding Banner: Kat & Devin

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Last Sunday, we had the pleasure of attending Kat and Devin’s wedding.The bride’s family and my family have been closely connected through several generations. Kat’s grandparents and my grandparents were next door neighbors in Woods Hole in the 1940’s and our families have shared our love of folk dancing, folk music, sailing, and art ever since. Kat is an artist and her husband seems to be a free spirit. Here’s a picture of the dancing wedding couple.

As usual, I made them a wedding banner for a gift. I really lucked out with the felt colors I chose, since the wedding’s predominant color was purple/lavender. I bent wire into the letters of their names and then picked out some decorative objects and beads. The pinkish square object in the center, between their names is a cool leather button I bought years ago.

I then wrapped the wire letters with embroidery floss and stitched the square wavy edged name panel with variegated pima cotton.

I sewed the wire letters and objects to the felt piece.

Then I stitched around the outside edge of the felt banner piece and sewed the square panel in place. I added some fun “dalmatian” stone beads in a zig zag pattern.

I added some bead and shell embellishments to the scalloped bottom edge and sewed the wrapped wire wedding date to the felt.

I picked some metal beads from India that I thought would bring an interesting texture to the hanging part of the banner.

A section of a strangled bittersweet vine serves as a hanger. I screwed in tiny metal eyes and hung the banner. I hope Kat and Devin like the banner. It was a lovely wedding and I wish the bride and groom many years of happiness!

To keep up with new posts, subscribe to this blog (top right column on the home page). If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Rabbitat (stitching details)

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Salley Mavor

The Rabbitat film has been viewed over 4000 times (update: 18,000 in November 2015) since it was posted on Vimeo, 9 months ago! To celebrate, I’ve put together a selection of process photos, most of which have not been posted before.

Etsy shop open for business

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Salley Mavor

I’ve finally joined the rest of the world by opening an Etsy shop! It’s taken a while for me to figure out what kind of items to sell, since I’ve given up mass-producing dolls and kits, etc. I could have really used a service like this 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago. At the moment, I’m happy to offer three brand new posters of some of my more popular fabric relief pieces; Self Portrait: A Personal History of Fashion, Rabbitat and On Halloween.

The 18″ x 24″ posters are high quality reproductions, printed on sturdy 100 lb. paper. My sister, Anne Mavor did a beautiful job with the graphic design–so tastefully done. I’m very excited to be offering these, so please visit my shop!

Polly hikes Green Gulch

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Salley Mavor

On our last day in the bay area of California, we visited beautiful Muir Beach. We met our friends from home, Judy and Phil Richardson, who are renting a house in Berkeley for a month. Judy and I created 2 picture books together (read about our book, The Way Home here). This was an opportunity to see Green Gulch, Phil’s boyhood home. For years he has talked about growing up on a cattle ranch that was later protected from development, when the property was given to the San Francisco Zen Center and a nature conservation organization.

Polly came along, while we hiked through the Zen Center and up to the top of the hill, which overlooks Muir Beach. What a spectacular view!

Leading up to our special day, we had gone out to Green’s restaurant in SF earlier in the week, which is run by the Zen Center. Here, Polly is inspecting my dinner, a delicious grilled polenta that was served with butternut squash and sweet potato gratin.

Little Red

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Local photographer, Dorene Sykes needed a model for a project, so she asked me to come over to her home studio with some of my dolls. I brought a basket of possible wee folk and we decided that Little Red Ridinghood would show up the best. She took this sweet picture of me holding her out front. The purpose of the exercise was to literally focus attention on an object in the foreground, with an identifiable, but less clear person in the background. Dorene and I had a lot of fun trying out different poses. I really like that way this one came out, especially the flattering extra “soft focus” effect, since I’m feeling aware of my age ( 57 yesterday).

RISD reunion in SF

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Ashley Wolff, Salley, Julie Downing

We’re back home and the snow peas in the garden have grown an inch. It’s going to be the earliest harvest yet! One of the highlights of our trip west was a visit with some RISD classmates in San Francisco. Rob and I had such a great time catching up with Ashley Wolff, Julie Downing and her husband Scott Slotterback. I swear, we didn’t plan our coordinated blue tops and jeans. Earlier in the day, I gave a talk at the Academy of Art University, where Julie teaches illustration classes. In the evening we gathered at Julie and Scott’s art-filled house.

RISD grads, Salley, Julie, Ashley and Scott

Julie and I figured out that it’s been 29 years since we’ve seen each other. Ashley came to visit me last summer, which I wrote about here. Even Polly Doll made new friends. We took her picture with the little boy from Julie’s book, White Snow, Blue Feather and Miss Bindergarten from Ashley’s book’s.

Julie presented me with my old RISD meal card mug shot. I have no memory of the card, but apparently we were too unreliable to carry cards on our persons and had our pictures displayed on a board in the cafeteria. She had kept it all these years in a folder with other RISD memorabilia.

I look like a mixture of Pocahontas and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Thanks for such a good time, Julie! All these years, we’ve all been caught in the family and career vortex, so it’s great to finally reunite and still have fun together!

Polly tours San Francisco

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Salley Mavor

We walked along the waterfront, where Polly gazed at the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

These amazing purple blue flowers were growing around the marina.

After climbing Telegraph Hill, we went inside Coit Tower and were drawn into the WPA Depression-era murals, which depict California’s economic and political life.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog (top right column on the home page). 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 and/or Instagram

Polly goes to Chinatown

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Polly came along on our visit to San Fransisco’s Chinatown yesterday.

I bought her a souvenir parasol.

Polly goes to Portland

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Polly Doll has been traveling with us. I made her last week, the day before we left for the west coast. On Saturday, we went to the Portland Art Museum and saw some impressionist paintings.

My sister Anne helped me take pictures of Polly at the museum.

Here she is, on a moss and fungi covered Oregon rock. We’re ready to explore San Fransisco tomorrow!

Gossamer talk

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Yesterday’s talk at Gossamer in Portland, OR was really enjoyable. We set up chairs in every available spot, amongst the wool roving, felt and yarn. The shop was full to capacity and Rose (above) was tickled pink to have so many people in her shop. I met the nicest people and several blog followers came, including Kristin Shields (below). Thank you to everyone who helped behind the scenes, including my sister Anne, her husband Dennis, and my husband Rob. We went out to a fabulous Peruvian restaurant afterwards! I’m off to San Fransisco tomorrow and will talk to illustration students at the Academy of Art University this week. Too bad that the presentation isn’t open to the public, or else I would have announced it. I’ll try to post something from S.F. later in the week.