Close-ups (rabbits)

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Salley Mavor

“Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” Zen saying

With spring comes hope and eggs and rabbits. This series begins with a childhood drawing of a rabbit hauling an Easter egg in a wagon. Then there’s a wool tweed rabbit from a 1986 piece called “Picking Peas” (see on earlier post) and a painted faux tile that’s in my kitchen. See all the faux tiles in another post here. A rabbit tucked in bed from my book, In the Heart, comes next. Two projects from Felt Wee Folk appear; a felt pin made with a rabbit button and an appliqued felt purse.

crayon drawing by Salley, age 6

detail from “Picking Peas” 1986

faux tile 1993

detail from “In the Heart” 2001

felt pin from “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

felt purse from “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (windows)

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Windows are opportunities to go from one world and into another. They are like mini stages, complete with curtains. I also like the way they provide a structure for bringing pattern and color into a scene. This series of window close-ups are all from children’s books I’ve illustrated. The first one is from You and Me: Poems of Friendship. There are clay “brick” beads framing the window and the ones on the wall are painted on gray felt.

Illustration from "You and Me: Poems of Friendship" 1997

The next two are from the board book, Wee Willie Winkie. The window box is made of wire wrapped in embroidery floss and the fence is a row of budding branches.

Illustration from "Wee Willie Winkie" 2006

The last group are closeups of illustrations from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.

Illustration from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (mittens)

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Mitten (n.) A covering for the hand, worn to defend it from cold or injury. It differs from a glove in not having a separate sheath for each finger.

Even though Spring is around the corner, we still have cold snowy weather. Here are some mittens that have appeared in some of my pictures, starting with a detail from the tempera painting “Laplander”, which you can see here. Then there’s a boy with red mittens holding a kitten from You and Me:Poems of Friendship. The cozy father and daughter scene is from In the Heart, where red mittens as well as hearts show up throughout the book. The balsam pillow and felt purse projects are from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects. Last is a boy dressed for winter from Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, which will be published in September.

detail from “Laplander” 1977

detail from “You and Me: Poems of Friendship” 1997

detail from “In the Heart” 2001

detail from the balsam pillow in “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

felt purse from “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (Mary’s lamb)

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Salley Mavor

It’s lambing season, so the closeups are all from my 1995 children’s book, Mary Had a Little Lamb.

The 32-page hardcover first edition is out of print, but Mary Had a Little Lamb has been re-released as a board book. (sorry, it too is out of print) Read further to learn how some of the illustrations were made.

The barn wall is made from an old weathered shingle and the straw bed is a mixture of real straw and embroidery floss.

The lamb is made of wool felt, then covered in wool french knots. Mary’s dress is made of a cotton sock and the furniture hinge is a hook and eye.

The lamb’s ears are made from kid leather and the garden wall is beach stones glued in a circle

The tree trunk is wool tweed and Mary’s toes are made of wire, wrapped in embroidery floss.

The leaves are cut out of artificial leaves and the wood pile next to the house is made of wooden beads.

This scene inside the schoolhouse has desks sawed out of wood and a real slate black board.

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (snow)

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Salley Mavor

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

by Christina Rossetti, English poet (1830 – 1894)

drawing by Salley. age 6

With snow falling and lingering in many parts of the country this winter, I’ve found some snow pictures to show you. First, here’s a crayon drawing saved from my childhood by my mother. Then we skip ahead to 1995, with a detail from the title page of the 32-page edition of Mary Had a Little Lamb. It’s the scene where Mary, her brother and her father are trudging through the snow to visit the lamb in the barn.

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" 1995

The next scene is from the illustration for the poem “Snow”, which is in the poetry anthology, You and Me: Poems of Friendship. The snowman is made of felt, painted with an acrylic based bumpy liquid medium. In the background is an old linen tablecloth.

detail from "You and Me: Poems of Friendship" 1997

Here are some wee folk dolls that were brought out to play in the snow.

Wee Folk in the Snow 2002

This snowflake covered bed spread is part of an illustration from Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. The bed frame is made from some hollow dried plant parts, maybe thorns, with the sharp points cut off. I bought them a long time ago in a bead store. The original illustrations will be shown in a traveling exhibit when the book is released next September. Find out about it here.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (hearts)

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Salley Mavor

This selection of hearts begins with a sleeping cat on a heart covered bed spread from my book In the Heart. Then there is a felt balsam pillow and a heart pin covered in french knots, both projects from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. The last two are a chain stitched heart that’s part of the endpapers and a heart tart from “The Queen of Hearts” nursery rhyme (see in this post) from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies (Sept. 2010). The original illustrations will be shown in a traveling exhibition which you can find out about here.

detail from “In the Heart” 2001

balsam pillow from “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

pin from “Felt Wee Folk”

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (winter houses)

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Houses appear so frequently in my artwork that I’ve divided them up into categories to show you in this Close-ups series. When you think about it, the shape is just a square with a triangle on top that can be depicted in any color and style to bring mood and stability. And houses are strong symbols of security that I seem to want in my pictures. This collection of winter houses starts with the winter section of a 4 seasons drawing I made at age 7. Then there’s a detail from a fabric relief piece called “Skating”. The next three are from the books, You and Me: Poems of Friendship, The Hollyhock Wall and Pocketful of Posies, which will be published in Sept., 2010.

by Salley at age 7

detail from “Skating” 1986

from “You and Me: Poems of Friendship” 1997

detail from “The Hollyhock Wall” 1999

from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Recovery

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Here’s an update on my recovery from last week’s fall. My left wrist broke in a complex way, so as to require surgery to repair my poor bones. Luckily, I was referred to an excellent orthopedic surgeon in Boston who specializes in hands. On Wednesday, the doctor operated and it looks like everything went very well. She used a metal plate and some screws to hold the bone fragments in place. So, now airport security will never be the same!

I have my version of the “pain scale faces” that are displayed in hospitals.

This is how I feel without pain killers:

detail from "Pocketful of Posies", to be published in Sept., 2010

This is what I look like with some pain killers:

detail from "Pocketful of Posies", to be published in Sept., 2010

Here’s what it looks like with too many pain killers:

fairy sleeping

I can’t say how long the healing process will be, but I feel like the worst part is over and my body will mend at its own pace. Now that I’m taking fewer pain killers, I’m more alert and noticing things around the house. I watered the house plants before they died and emptied the dish washer, using one hand. Taking a shower with an arm cast is becoming routine and my husband is able to do a bra clasp without saying, “Why are these so tricky?”

We had to throw out last night’s dinner. My husband spent hours making a squash and chicken casserole, which looked so good. He even made homemade croutons to mix in! We found out that our garden grown acorn and butternut squash was so bitter it was inedible. It didn’t look rotten, but must have something very wrong with it.

We don’t have TV service, which normally is not an issue, but at first I wanted to watch something, for the distraction. We’ve been borrowing movies from the library and watching them on an old TV set with a Dvd player that broke the other night. The disk was stuck and wouldn’t come out, so my husband took the whole thing apart and got the disk out, so we could return it. We haven’t the nerve to try another Dvd for fear it will get stuck. For now, I’m listening to books on tape because reading is still difficult since my concussion. Right now I’m enjoying Alexander McCall Smith’s Morality for Beautiful Girls, which is in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I love listening to the narrator’s lilting Botswana accent.

So, that’s it for now. Thank you for your kind and encouraging words. Keep tuned: I’ll be posting new stories that I wrote before the accident.

Close-ups (foxes)

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Maybe it’s because of their warm color and their pointy ears, noses and tails, but I find foxes appealing. This group of foxes starts with a detail from “Laplander”, a tempera painting on brown paper, which I did in art school. Then there’s the tail portion of a wooden toy I made in 1986 and a “faux” tile I painted in my kitchen in the early 90’s. See all of the faux tiles in another post here. Next is a felt purse, which I used to sell as a kit about 10 years ago and then a detail from my 2001 children’s book, In the Heart.

detail from "Laplander", 1976

detail from wooden toy fox, 1986

detail of faux tile, 1993

Fox felt purse kit, 2000

detail from the book, "In the Heart", 2001

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Close-ups (the Moon)

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Salley Mavor

This series of moons are all details from some of my children’s book illustrations. The close-ups are from The Way Home, You and Me: Poems of Friendship, In the Heart, Wee Willie Winkie and Pocketful of Posies and Hey, Diddle, Diddle!.