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.

My Studio 2009

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Salley Mavor

I’m often asked how much time I spend in my studio. Well, my husband Rob would say,”When Salley’s not eating or sleeping, she’s up working in her studio.”

: my studio in 2009

I moved into this studio above our garage about 6 years ago. Before we fixed it up, it was an unfinished space with bats flying around. Rob had been working on me for years to consider making the area into a studio. I loved my work space downstairs, which was a room conveniently located just off our living room. When the boys were young, I could work and keep an eye on them at the same time, but now they didn’t want or need me to keep an eye on them. At first I thought the 24′ x 24′ room would be too large a space for me to feel comfortable working in, but now I’m glad for the extra room. I like cozy spaces and my actual working area is quite small, but I need room for storing my materials and for displaying all of the things that I like to have around for inspiration.

my work table in 2009

Picking colors for the walls and trim was important. I wanted the feel of being inside a cantaloupe, with green trim, like the inside layer of rind right next to the orange fruit. I tried out different shades of paint , buying quarts and painting sheets of foam core board to hold up around the room, in different light. I ended up with a light peachy shade for the walls and a light green for the window trim. The painters looked at me funny when I showed them my choice, but later they said, “You know, this came out pretty good”. I also painted an old chest of drawers to match with brighter shades of orange and green. The paint had names like pumpkin seed, summer town and prairie splendor. I wonder whose job it is to come up with paint names!

display area in my studio, 2009

Rob calls my studio “Kit Peak” from the years when I cranked out a steady stream of Blossom Fairy kits. I gave up the kits a couple of years ago in order to finish illustrating my new book, which is a hefty 72 pages. Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes is now in production and will be released next fall. It takes a whole year after the artwork is delivered for a book to get to the bookstores. The pieces are photographed, the type layout is designed and corrected, copy is edited and corrected, printing proofs made and corrected, printing and binding done and then the books are sent via a container ship back from Hong Kong. I just saw the newest layouts of the book and Houghton Mifflin is doing such a good production job that I can hardly contain my excitement!

display table in studio, 2009

Thanksgiving Offering

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Salley Mavor

Fairy bringing a pie for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful to all of you who have come to see and read my blog this past week. It’s been a pleasure to hear from so many of you and I am energized in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time. Ideas are coming fast, the scanner is warmed up and working overtime and the posts are queuing up. Please keep visiting!

Thanksgiving Dilemma, pen & ink by Salley Mavor 1976

I’ve been looking through my old portfolios from art school and came across this drawing of a Thanksgiving turkey dinner gone awry. I had forgotten how much I liked to draw before I started using mixed media techniques. I rarely draw now, except to work out designs for my illustrations. Needle and thread have replaced the pen and become my tools of choice. In future posts, I’ll be showing some more early work with the intention of pointing out common themes and styles in my evolution as an artist, regardless of the method or technique.

I made this soft sculpture stove 30 years ago, the first year out of art school. It is made with white satin, covering a padded cardboard structure. I remember spattering paint with a tooth-brush onto the black fabric which lines the inside of the oven. I can see velcro circles on the oven door. The oven rack is made from hair pins, the knobs from buttons and the clock is the face taken from an old wrist watch. It looks like the burners are key rings fashioned with hooks from hook-and-eyes. I don’t remember what the frying pan is made from, but it must be cloth as that is my material of last resort. And the pie crust lattice is likely made from kid leather. This stove has a refrigerator to match, which I’ll show another time.

Stove, 5" tall, fabric sculpture by Salley Mavor 1979

Walnut Shells

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Salley Mavor

There’s nothing like the sight of a sleeping baby. I’m constantly on the lookout for natural objects that can be used as beds for my dolls. A baby can curl up in a cradle made from half a walnut-shell.

This walnut is bigger than most that you can buy in a bag at the super market. I usually pick out the larger ones during Thanksgiving season, when the stores sell them in loose bins. I am a curious sight, digging through the box, determined to find the biggest ones. To make the nuts more easy to split open, bake them in a low oven at about 200 degrees for a few hours. They start to crack along the center seam and you can then break them open with a knife. You can also cut the shells open with a fine saw. In the above illustration from my up-coming book, Pocketful of Posies (Sept. 2010), I sawed half a walnut-shell in half again lengthwise, so that the side could be seen in relief.

This blue suited baby is lying on real reindeer moss in a walnut-shell. He is part of an illustration from my board book, Wee Willie Winkie, on the page that says, “Are the children in their beds?” This image is available as a note card in my Etsy Shop. I edged the felt leaf with wire to give it a curvy, raised lip that fits the shape of the walnut. You can glue the shell in place or drill holes and sew it like a button.

detail from “You and Me Poems of Friendship” 1997

Inspiration from France

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Salley Mavor

This fall, I traveled in France, on a barge in the canals of Burgundy. What a beautiful area, with lots of appealing doorways, ivy covered walls and even morning mist off of the canal. I’m drawn to doorways and entrances. Here are some photos I took of the sights and places I saw.

Cuisery, France

garden gate, Pont-de-Vaux, France

Cuisery, France

dirt road in the morning

Morning mist on the canal, Cuisery, France

Fairy Camp

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Salley Mavor

A few years ago Judi DeSouter sent me this photograph, enclosing a note that said, “These remind me of your fairies, but without the wings. Enjoy!”

Fairy Camp, unknown location

These girls seem transformed by their costumes and their personalities really come through in the picture. The amount of detail in the outfits is impressive, with each one being unique, right down to the little caps. I love the baggy knees on the cotton stockings. This must have been taken about 1920, judging by the hair and clothing styles. The crepe paper basket being held by one of the girls is similar to some party baskets that I found in my grandmother’s things.

holding crepe paper basket

Crepe paper baskets from my grandmother

Apple Orchard

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Salley Mavor

This piece from 1992 was inspired by some metal apple crate tags which I found on our property on Cape Cod.

APPLE ORCHARD, fabric relief by Salley Mavor, 1992, 22" x 27"

detail from APPLE ORCHARD

An apple orchard was here about 100 years ago and all that remains are these tags that appear from time to time on the ground in the woods. The metal is stamped with the names Fall Pippin, Baldwin and McIntosh. I’ve used them to frame the border, along with a kid leather lattice pie crust in a silver bracelet pie dish. The woman’s pig fabric apron is made from a childhood dress of my mother’s from about 1930.

Metal apple crate tags, pie with leather lattice crust in a silver bracelet

Apple Crate tags

Over the years I’ve accumulated kid leather gloves from my grandmother and great aunts. It seems like ladies from their era could not have too many gloves. The leather is thin and easy to cut with scissors. It can also be painted with fabric or acrylic paint.

kid leather gloves

New Ltd. Edition Fairies

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Salley Mavor

Wild haired Dahlia dolls before braiding

After a long hiatus, some new Fairies have arrived in my studio! I’ve enjoyed making this group of dolls after a break of a few years while I finished the illustrations for my new children’s book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, which will be published in Sept. 2010. I’ll be showing more about the book in the future, but for now see Mimi Kirchner’s blog for a sneak peek. Here are some photos of fairy making in progress.

fairy making parts ready to be assembled

a gang of Myrtle & Moss fairies

Dahlia, ltd. edition of 25

Myrtle & Moss, ltd. edition of 16

Joining the Blogging world! Selfportrait

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Salley Mavor

detail from Self Portrait : A Personal History of Fashion 2007

This blog is an opportunity to share my creative life with you, whether you’ve seen my illustrations in children’s books, have made projects from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, or are a lover of embroidery and textile art. I will share pictures of my studio and work in progress, along with images and artists that I find inspirational. After years of quietly working in my own private space, I feel compelled to communicate with like-minded people, who have a passion for stitching. I plan to present current work as well as dip into the past, showing early works made during my 40 year career. It may take a while for me to become comfortable sharing my ideas and reflections in writing, as I am more content to make and show than explain in words. So, rest assured that I will be posting lots of images!

Self Portrait: a personal history of fashion, 2007

I made this piece for a self-portrait invitational show in 2007. It shows a spiral of dolls, one for each year, starting with my birth date in the center. Each figure is dressed in an outfit I would have worn that year, taken from memories, family photos or imagination. The dolls are a variation of the wee folk and fairies in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

Self-Portrait detail

I made many of my original dresses and recreated them here with smaller scale fabric and embroidered wool felt. My husband, Rob, appears the year we were married and my sons, Peter and Ian, are included through the years when they were little and physically connected to me. The tatting around the outside of the circle was made by my late grandmother, Louise Salley Hartwell. The wool felt spiral is mounted on upholstery fabric, which I embellished with multicolored french knots.

When the piece is not included in one of my exhibitions, it is on semi-permanent display at the Woods Hole Public Library, Woods Hole, MA. My husband Rob and I made the following film set to music I remember hearing through the years.

Self-Portrait detail

Posters and cards are available in my Etsy Shop here.

Poster – Self Portrait

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