book signing at the Danforth

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I met some really nice people at the book signing last Sunday at the Danforth Museum. There were 2 women from Utah, here in Boston on a business trip, who made the trek out to Framingham. I met another pair of women who have followed my work for years. One invited the other on a “surprise outing” and they ended up at my show! The children’s librarian from Framingham Public Library brought some wonderful dolls that she made using my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. One doll looked like a “little maid from school” in the Mikado. In the photo below, I’m signing a copy of Pocketful of Posies for Horn Book editor Martha Parravano (seated), whom I was delighted to meet for the first time.

Margaret Raymo, my editor at Houghton Mifflin came, too! This was the first time we’ve seen each other since “Posies” came out. We’ve been working on this book for 5 years, so it was great to celebrate together. I am grateful to Margaret for doing the opposite of micro-managing and trusting me fully. Margaret always said, “take as long as you need” and didn’t balk when told her I couldn’t finished the illustrations in time to make the original pub date of 2009.

Salley with Houghton Mifflin editor Margaret Raymo

The Danforth had art activities set up for children that day, including this fabric and found object collage workshop.

art day activities at the Danforth

I gave a short gallery talk about the artwork, explaining the process of illustrating a book and telling about how I made the pictures.

Children and their parents did a scavenger hunt for different animals and objects in the illustrations. They looked closely at the artwork and searched around and around the gallery, holding miniature magnifying glasses.

The exhibit will be on display in the children’s gallery at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA until January 23rd, 2011. The Pocketful of Posies Traveling Exhibit will tour for 3 years.

Close-ups (couples)

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Salley Mavor

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.

“Posies” makes Horn Book Fanfare!

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Salley Mavor

OK, it’s time for celebration! I just got word that my new book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes has been put on the highly respected Horn Book Magazine’s Fanfare list of best children’s books of 2010. Martha Parravano, The Horn Book’s executive editor, said in an interview with 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast that my book “features scene after stunning scene created in embroidery – which sounds quite static, and yet the pictures are not only gorgeous but also full of life and movement and story.” I love this description because my main focus was to bring as much life and movement into this book as possible, given the limitations of the technique.

Posies has also been given a Platinum Best Book Award by the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. Their web site says, “The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio is the only independent consumer review of children’s media.” Apparently the Oppenheims talk about children’s toys and books on programs like the Today Show, but living in a cocoon without TV for most of my adult life, I hadn’t heard of them. There is something special and symbolic about a seal. Maybe this isn’t a big deal, but I thought it was nice that such a mainstream group would even notice my book. Yeah!

Jumping Joan (detail from "Pocketful of Posies")

Shoo fly don't bother me from "Pocketful of Posies"

Reminder: Original illustration from Pocketful of Posies are on display in the children’s gallery at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Mass. until Jan. 23rd, 2011. I will be giving a short talk about my work at 2:00pm at the museum on Sunday, Dec. 5th and signing copies of my book from 1:30-3:30.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies"

Pocketful of borders: Little Boy Blue

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn; the sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.

Here is the original fabric relief illustration for the rhyme, Little Boy Blue, from my book, Pocketful of Posies. The embroidered piece is first mounted on a foam core board for the photographer. Afterward, I stitch a felt border, remount, and frame each piece, making it ready to hang.

illustration of “Little Boy Blue”

I tried out some different shades of upholstery fabric for the background and selected this warm brown with a vine pattern. Then I cut the border sections out of wool felt.

I used variegated pima cotton to edge the pieces with blanket stitch. Later, I added chain stitched curly cues with variegated embroidery floss.

Sheep are so fun to make, with their curly fleece. Yes, these are all french knots, but they are spaced out a bit, compared to the dense knots in the lambs from my Mary Had a Little Lamb book. (see lambs here)

The haystack is padded with wool stuffing and the texture is stitched with tapestry wool, with real pieces of straw sewn in, too.

Little Boy Blue’s hat is made from thread wrapped wire and his horn is a cactus thorn.

This original illustration was one of 50 pieces of artwork from the book in the touring exhibit, Pocketful of Posies from 2010 to 2015.

Note: See other posts from the Pocketful of Borders series here.

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Pocket Lady & giveaway winners

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Salley Mavor

The Pocket Lady came by when I was signing copies of Pocketful of Posies at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod’s Holiday Faire on Saturday. My neighbor, Joy, was playing the role and letting children pick out small presents from a pocket for the price of a ticket. I made the pocket lady costume about 20 years ago, when I was a parent in the school. It’s adapted from a nightgown pattern and made out of red velveteen, with upholstery fabric pockets and lots of bells. I’m glad to see it continue to be used every year!

Pocket Lady

And now for the giveaway winners! Three people have been picked at random from the 80 who left comments. Congratulations to Domestic Diva, Marabilys (from France) and Emma (from Australia), who will each receive a hardcover copy of In the Heart. The book is out-of-print, but my local bookstore, Eight Cousins Books sells autographed copies (508 548 5548).

In the Heart, 2001

Danforth opening

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Last Saturday, the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA, had an opening reception for their new exhibits, including my show in the children’s gallery. The original fabric relief illustrations will be displayed here until January 23rd, 2011. I really like the way they hung the artwork, clumped together in tight group-lets, with one above the other. That way they could fit more pictures in the space – 45 out of the 51 illustrations from my new book, Pocketful of Posies.

Pocketful of Posies at the Danforth Museum

The museum’s director, Katherine French, worked up to the last-minute, transferring the title onto the wall.

It was great to see my friend, artist and doll maker, Mimi Kirchner at the opening! We’ve known each other for 30 years and her long-standing and popular blog Doll was the inspiration behind starting one of my own a year ago.

I met a museum docent, a young fellow who had not been exposed to these nursery rhymes during his childhood in India. He was so taken with the artwork, that he wanted to learn all of the rhymes from the book. He asked me about my use of wavy borders and commented on the soft curves and lack of straight lines in the pictures. He said, “Looking at these pictures makes me happy.”

I felt honored that Betsy Groban, the publisher of Houghton Mifflin Books for Children came to see the artwork. She had seen some originals briefly a few years ago when I brought them into the office in Boston, but hadn’t seen them since. She let me know how pleased she was to be publishing my book, which really made me feel great!

The book’s designer, Sheila Smallwood also came, with her husband and daughters.

Many saw my work for the first time. They had come to the museum for other exhibits and just happened to come into the children’s gallery. It was fun to watch people of all ages look from a distance and then be drawn in to examine the pictures more closely. It is most satisfying to see grown men’s delight in viewing the work. In the years that I’ve been stitching, I’ve become conscious of the tendency to put textiles in the “women’s work” category, as if handwork wasn’t worthy of recognition. I say that stitching is just a technique and a way of translating ideas. After meeting and talking with people, I feel as if this book has jumped through age and gender barriers.

This woman walked around the room, singing the rhymes to her child. I hope that some of you will come see the show!

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 and/or Instagram.

In the Heart giveaway

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Salley Mavor

This blog is a year old today! See the first post here. To celebrate, I’m offering a giveaway (international, too) of my 2001 picture book, In the Heart. Please leave a comment by Nov. 21st and I will pick 3 people at random to each win a copy. The book is out-of-print, but some are still available at my local bookstore, Eight Cousins Books. Call them at 508-548-5548 to order autographed copies.

detail from page 9, "In the Heart"

Don’t think I knit these sweaters and pants! They were cut out of socks.

detail from page 16, "In the Heart"

last spread from "In the Heart"

Waldorf School Holiday Faire

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I’ll be signing books at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod’s Holiday Faire on Saturday, Nov. 20th from 12 noon to 2pm. When my children attended the school 20 years ago, this event was our pride and joy. Then and now, parents, faculty and students put months of creative energy into making the day memorable for all who attend. The poster I designed years ago is still being used. I want to see the popular Excalibur Challenge, where children meet Merlin and have a go at pulling the sword from the stone!

There will be craft vendors and lots of activities for children, including crafts and games. The school’s store, Kindercraft, sells the naturally dyed wool felt that I use in my artwork. I’ll be writing more about this felt in a later post.

wool yarn and felt at Kindercaft store

This year’s fair will be at the school’s new location in Cotuit. Last winter, I helped color the walls with the lazure method of applying paint like watercolor, in graduated hues. Here are some classrooms all set up after we painted them. The whole building will be transformed into a magical environment for the Holiday Faire on Saturday.

Waldorf School of Cape Cod's Grade 1 classroom

nursery classroom

Reminder: I will be doing a story time at the Sandwich Public Library on Tuesday, Nov. 16th at 10:30am. I’ll also be talking about and signing copies of my new nursery rhyme book, Pocketful of Posies.

“Posies” front cover

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Salley Mavor

detail from “Pocketful of Posies”

When we first started talking about the front cover for Pocketful of Posies, the editors and I didn’t yet have a title. We were a few years into the project when one of the members of the production team suggested that I incorporate the title and byline into my artwork, thereby stitching the letters instead of dropping in the usual type set words. After going back and forth with title ideas for several months, someone from Houghton Mifflin came up with a name we all liked, Pocketful of Posies. We added the subtitle A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes to emphasize that this was a collection of rhymes, rather than a story book.

My first drawing for the cover had a circling group of characters from the book, echoing the ring around the rosies theme. I presented it to the powers that be and it and was asked to try again. No problem, I needed try something different. The design was too balanced and straight forward and, well, too boring and static for a cover, which should be dynamic. When it comes to sales, books are judged by their cover, especially picture books. People should feel the compulsion to open the book and look inside!

I decided to keep some of the characters, but had them doing different actions in a natural environment. I played around with angles and curves, adding large leaves to separate the sub-title and by line. I decided to enclose the action with a border and bendy, circular vines, which move your eye around inside the picture.

Some of the characters were removed in the process of translating this final sketch into the finished sewn illustration. I never know how things are going to turn out until I start cutting out shapes and constructing dolls. I made sure that both boys and girls were represented, as I didn’t want my sewn artwork to come across as too girly centric.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to make the letters, but I wanted to try something that had depth, so that the title would pop out. I figured that if it didn’t work, the graphic designers could always type set the words. I found some titles done in a nice flowing script in a book my mother had as a child, Chimney Corner Stories, by Lois Lenski. I liked the way the P looked, which featured prominently in my title, so I used this lettering as a guide.

from “Chimney Corner Stories” 1925

Using green cloth-wrapped florist wire, I wrote out the words by bending the wire to form the connecting letters. I then wrapped the wire by hand with 2 ply variegated embroidery floss. I don’t really remember how I finished off the ends, but probably made knots at the back (no glue). The picture below shows my first attempts at bending and wrapping. I had to try different ways of compressing the U and Y, so that the words could all fit on the leaves. I also changed the floss color to something lighter, so there would be more contrast with the green leaf background.

Besides the title, the cover illustration has a lot of other thread wrapped wire. The stems, vines and every leaf are edged with wire, making it possible to bend and shape the parts, tweaking until the last-minute, when the photograph is taken. See other posts with wire lettering here and here. I used red felt for the background, so that the green leaves and vines would stand out. Also, many of my recent books have had blue covers and I wanted something different.

Pocketful of Posies is sold in my Etsy Shop and includes a free bonus copy of my 2001 book In the Heart.

detail of “Pocketful of Posies” front cover

talk at Sandwich Library

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Titcomb’s Bookshop has arranged for me to come and talk about my books at the Sandwich Public Library on Cape Cod next week. The event will be held on Tuesday Nov. 16th, from 10:30am to 11:30am. I will read from my books and talk about my illustrations. I’ll also bring along some original fabric relief artwork, including some from my board books, Hey! Diddle, Diddle and Wee Willie Winkie.

Detail from Wee Willie Winkie, "Are the children in their beds?'

Titcomb’s Bookshop will be selling Pocketful of Posies at the event, which I will be happy to sign. One person has said, “This is a nursery rhyme book to keep until you’re old and doddering”, so it’s not just for children!