This father and child pair is included in my winter themed display that is currently on view at Boston Children’s Hospital. The exhibit, which I wrote about in a previous post, is in the Mini-Museum in the Hale lobby, not far from the main entrance to the hospital at 300 Longwood Ave., Boston, Massachusetts through March 15th.

The hospital’s art program manager requested that I make a little adaptive sled for riders with disabilities to include in the snow scene. For reference, she sent a link to this futuristic looking contraption. At first I balked at the idea because of such short notice during the holidays. But, I decided to give it a try, as long as she understood that it would be a naturalistic wee folk version.

I knew it would take at least a couple of days to make, so I pushed aside other impending deadlines and focused entirely on the sled. I picked out a father and child from the collection of sample dolls I’d made for the Winter Play chapter of my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

I studied the photo of the adaptive sled and and made sketches of its basic structure. I measured the figures and bent wire to form the seat, back frame and handle bars.

I wrapped embroidery floss around the wire frame, making several passes until the shiny metal was thoroughly covered and the thread looked smooth and even. Wrapping is the most time-consuming part! You can’t really rush the process, otherwise it comes out lumpy and crude looking.

I formed the lower frame and runners out of wire and bound it to the seat frame with thread. At this stage the wrapping was quite fussy, with lots of maneuvering in and around joints.

I added arms to the seat with a finer gauge wire.

Up until this point, I hadn’t chosen exactly how to finish the seat – felt or floss or a combination. Since the sled was looking more and more like an old fashioned caned chair, I decided to go all out and weave the seat. I’m not sure how warp and weft apply here, but I basically set up a loom.

In this video, you can see the weaving process from the top and the bottom.

Here’s a video of the installation in Boston Children’s Hospital.

I’ve already been contacted by several people who saw the display while going to a doctor’s appointment with their child or grandchild. Hearing their reactions warms my heart and makes it feel like the effort was worth it! If you’re in the area, please stop by the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Mini Museum.

I’m excited to announce that a winter themed display full of my wee folk characters is on view until March 15th at Boston Children’s Hospital, which has been named the country’s #1 pediatric hospital for 9 years in a row.
UPDATE: Good news! The show has been extended until March 27th.

The 8 ft. long case is located in the Mini-Museum in the Hale lobby, not far from the main entrance to the hospital at 300 Longwood Ave., Boston, Massachusetts. The exhibit, which is sponsored by the Art Program at Boston Children’s Hospital is for patients and their families, staff, and visitors to enjoy.

I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to show my work in the hospital and hope that it provides a bit of comfort and joy to the children and their families who pass by on their way to appointments and treatments.

The snow scene is populated with sample dolls from the Winter Play chapter of my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures. The book includes instructions for making the dolls and stands like the ones I used in this scene.

After being invited to show my work and consulting with the hospital’s art program manager, I drew up this sketch that showed how I envisioned the display case. We agreed that placing the 3-dimensional snow scene at child height on the bottom shelf was important.

I constructed wood and chicken wire supports for the snow bank and trees, which I tested out on the big oak table in my studio. Bayberry branches, with their densely packed branches are the perfect scale for a scene like this.

For the free-standing trees, I made weighted stands from plastic wire spools and a stack of metal washers, which I padded with stuffing and covered with white felt.

This video shows the practice set-up of the winter scene in my studio.

I packed everything up and drove to Boston to set up the scene. Some of the figures aren’t really dressed for cold weather, but they wanted to come along anyway!

Also in the case, above the snow scene set up, are printed enlargements of Frosty Morning, Winter Play (from Felt Wee Folk) and Snow. All 3 are available as cards in my shop.

Here’s a video of the installation in Boston Children’s Hospital.

Most of the figures and houses are from other projects, so I was able to reuse them for this display. I did make something new, though – an adaptive sled for riders with disabilities. I took lots of photos of the process of creating the sled, which I’ll share in a future post.

I’ve already been contacted by several people who encountered the exhibit while going to a doctor’s appointment with their child or grandchild. Hearing their reactions warms my heart and makes it feel like the effort was worth it! If you’re in the area, please stop by the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Mini Museum.

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