The 3D Appeal of Stumpwork

Posted on April 12, 2026 by Salley Mavor

Raised work on the lid of the embroidered casket, Martha Edlin, 1671, England.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Fifty years ago, an encounter with an unusual and historical style of embroidery steered the course of my artistic development, leading the way to a career in children’s books. This is the story of how it happened:

Salley Mavor at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1975

In the mid-1970s, during those early impressionable years in art school when I was searching for inspiration, I came across a distinctive 17^th century English raised embroidery technique known as stumpwork. Although I cannot recall the circumstances that led me to discover a book with photographs of this oddly named type of needlework, I clearly remember the impact it had on me.

Embroidered casket, Martha Edlin, 1671, England. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The elaborately embroidered panels and padded keepsake boxes created over three centuries ago piqued my curiosity more than any other form of art I had encountered up to that point. It was not just their remarkable technical skill that drew me in; these pieces contained sculptural and narrative qualities that completely blew me away. This introduction to stumpwork marked a major turning point in my artistic growth, as embroidery would before long turn from a sporadic interest into the full-blown obsession it is today.

This stumpwork casket is in a collection of embroideries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It was made by Martha Eldin in 1671, when she was just 11 years old! The V & A’s website shares this bit of history about Martha’s casket: “Caskets like Martha’s were produced in England between about 1650 and 1695. The decorative needlework panels were worked by young girls as part of their needlework education.”

In 1975, just before discovering stumpwork, I embroidered Old World Musicians for an illustration class. At the time, I was already interested in pictorial subjects and enjoyed experimenting with various textural embellishments in my work. However, seeing examples of stumpwork opened my eyes even further to the creative opportunities within needlework.

What intrigued me most about stumpwork was that it showed how embroidery could literally rise above the surface and add depth to otherwise flat, traditional textiles. By elevating certain components and creating a dramatic interplay of light and shadow, I realized that needlework could become far more engaging than mere decoration. It could be transformed into an immersive visual experience, complete with objects shaped like animals, human figures, and other familiar elements that invite the viewer to take a closer look.

Fascinated by the three-dimensional aspect of stumpwork and its storytelling potential, I was eager to adapt the concept in a way that matched my own artistic style and abilities. Unlike other textile processes with pre-planned designs or grids—essentially functioning as color-by-number projects—stumpwork allowed ample wiggle room to make changes as I worked. This freedom to manipulate and rearrange parts midstream made this method especially appealing to me, as I typically began with a simple sketch and refined my work as I progressed.

Illustration from the picture book, Mary Had a Little Lamb, 1995, Salley Mavor.

While my artwork was inspired by stumpwork, my techniques, materials, subject matter, and presentation were entirely different. Even if I could have found instructional materials for learning traditional techniques from the 17^th century, I doubt I would have had the tolerance to follow the patterns and directions as prescribed. My creative process has always been more self-guided, involving a lot of experimentation until I discover something that works. When asked what my medium was called, I hesitated to use the term “stumpwork”, concerned that it sounded too homely. I soon labeled my new work ”fabric relief”, a name that I thought more accurately described my art.

In the fifty years since I first encountered stumpwork, this distinctive form of embroidery has undergone an extraordinary revival. Its renewed popularity has led to numerous books, instructional classes, and online tutorials. For those eager to explore the many facets of stumpwork, I highly recommend Mary Corbet’s Needle ‘n Thread, which offers book reviews and information on various techniques.

At this early stage of my artistic evolution, I was primarily concerned with finding ways to bring my imagination to life, oblivious to what might be required to take it to the next step professionally. I wasn’t thinking about the realities of photographing and reproducing three-dimensional illustrations. It was only years later, as I began to seriously contemplate illustrating picture books, that I recognized the practical advantages of working in bas-relief rather than sculpture in the round. From both a lighting and focusing perspective, positioning all characters, props, and scenery on a single plane with a shallow depth of field simplifies the composition and makes it much easier to photograph. To see a list of my books, please visit this page.

The summer after graduating from RISD in 1978, I went on a pilgrimage to London to see the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection of stumpwork in person. Considering the impact that this historical artform has had on the course of my career, I will forever be grateful to the English women and girls of the 1600s who created these unique and charming pieces. Because these works were treasured and safeguarded for more than three hundred years, we are able to be inspired by their beauty and ingenuity today.

Salley Mavor in 2021, finishing Mossy Glen, the spring scene in her series of seasonal landscapes.

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, Instagram and BlueSky.

Summertime: Part 6 – rose vine

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Salley Mavor

Part 6 in the series of posts about making my piece Summertime features photos and videos documenting the process of creating the rose vine.

For a more comprehensive understanding of my process, I encourage you to explore other posts in this series: Overview of the piece, Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems and branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, Part 8 – stitching flora, Part 9 – moss, sky and stone wall, and Part 10 – wee folk.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of four seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. Posters, note cards, prints, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025. The show includes recent work, as well as rarely seen early pieces on loan from private collections.

ROSES
I learned how to make basic felt roses like these years ago from Mimi Kirchner’s blog. Mimi’s tutorial is available here. I love how deceptively simple the process is, starting with a circle of felt and folding it like origami to make a rose shape. Watch the following video to see how I finished off the raw felt edges with blanket stitching and folded the circle to make a rose.

Felt Rose

LEAVES
To cut out the sharp-toothed edge around the rose leaves, I used pinking shears. The following video shows how I stitched wire around the outside of a felt leaf and embroidered its stem and veins.

Felt Rose Leaf

I twisted wire to make a central vine and added the roses, leaves, thorns, and curly tendrils. Besides felt and embroidery floss, the most common material in my artwork is wire. Felt alone is too floppy and needs structural supports. I used Parawire in a range of gauges, from 24 to 32, to build up the thickness and strength I wanted.

The last step was disguising the shiny metallic wire with embroidery floss. Part 3 in this series includes videos of wrapping wire stems and branches on other foliage in the Summertime piece. I wound 1 or 2 strands of floss around and around the stems until the surface was evenly covered. It was a bit tricky to make the thorns look sharp!

Stay tuned for Part 7, where I’ll share photos and videos documenting the process of making the raspberry plants in Summertime. 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, Instagram and BlueSky.

Summertime: Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body)

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Salley Mavor

Part 4 in the series of posts about making my piece Summertime features photos and videos documenting the process of creating the Baltimore Oriole’s body, including its breast, wing and tail.

See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor at the Albany Institute of History and Art

BALTIMORE ORIOLE
I chose a male Baltimore Oriole for the summer scene mostly because of its flashy appearance. They also epitomize the season for me. Pairs of orioles are frequent visitors to our yard in early summer, when we lure them with orange halves and grape jelly. I hadn’t made a bird this size since Birds of Beebe Woods (2012), which you can get a glimpse of on the wall in the following video.

First, I looked at photos of orioles and made a simple drawing that showed its size and proper proportions. Then, I cut the basic shape out of acid-free matte board and padded it with thick felt (which is similar to how I made pins early in my career). Throughout the process of making the bird, I referred to photos, especially when selecting colors and stitches for the body, wing, and tail.

I wanted to make the bird realistic enough to be recognized as a species, but patterned and abstracted in a way that made it fun to stitch. It ended up being something between a stylized bird and a biological illustration.

BREAST
For the oriole’s distinctive orange breast, I embroidered different combinations of fly stitches that are reminiscent of Faire Isle patterns. It brought me back to a dozen years ago, when I stitched the crow’s breast in Birds of Beebe Woods.

I used cotton flower thread, which has a matte finish that’s different from the glossy sheen of cotton embroidery floss. DMC flower thread is no longer available, so if you’re interested, Dutch Treat Designs has some of the discontinued thread in stock.

Watch a Stitch Minute video of embroidering the oriole’s breast with fly stitches.

WING
I usually work freehand without marks, because it’s hard to draw on fuzzy wool felt. In this case, I was able to make chalk pencil lines on the black felt wing.

Watch a Stitch Minute video of embroidering the bird’s wing.

TAIL
So much of a bird’s personality comes through in the angle and pose of its tail. Doing the stitching was the easy part. Positioning the tail and attaching it to the body took more patience and perseverance.

Watch a Stitch Minute video of embroidering and attaching the bird’s tail.

Stay tuned for Part 5, where I’ll share photos and videos documenting the process of making the Baltimore Oriole’s head and feet. If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Harvest Time – Part 2 (turkey tail mushroom)

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Salley Mavor

In Part 2 in the series about making Harvest Time, I share photos, commentary and a stitch-minute video about creating the turkey tail mushroom overhanging the doorway in the stump. In the coming weeks and months, I will post more stories that focus on different aspects of the process of making the fall scene, including the toad stool mushroom, wee folk figures, tunnels, roots, stones and foliage of all kinds.
The overview introduces the Harvest Time piece.
Part 1 features moss making.
Part 2 is about making the turkey tail mushroom.
Part 3 shows the construction of felt leaves.
Part 4 gives a peek at embroidering the plants.
Part 5 is about making the toadstool mushroom
Part 6 shows the process of making the underground

Harvest Time is the fall scene in a series of seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world, both real and imagined. Harvest Time and the other scenes I’ve completed and written about, Summertime, Frosty Morning and Mossy Glen, are available as note cards and jigsaw puzzles in my shop here.

Harvest Time Puzzles are available in my Etsy shop.

Turkey tail mushrooms or shelf fungi are found all over the world. They usually grow on dead hardwood stumps and downed hardwood trunks or branches.

I love how Glen Carliss used shelf fungi for the roofs in “Glendell Towers”, which he made for The Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall, an outdoor exhibition that I curated in 2015. Glen told me that he’d been eyeing the mushrooms growing on trees along his road for years, imaging what to do with them.

I didn’t use actual mushrooms in Harvest Time, but I was inspired by their fanciful appearance. My photo search came up with multiple color combinations, from earthy hues to shades as garish as 1960’s fashion. I chose a more subdued mixture of fall colors for the mushroom roof.

To make the striped concentric pattern, I chain stitched rows and rows of different shades of green and orange DMC cotton flower thread to a piece of felt. It took two tries to get the shape and colors the way I wanted it.

In this Stitch Minute video, I demonstrate chain stitching the stripes and adding wire.

After we filmed it, I wasn’t happy with the overall shape and color combo, so I started over and made a new one that was more curvy and included orange and yellow.

I stitched wire around the outside edge and covered it with white embroidery floss.

Then I made a smaller mushroom and a really little one that looked like a pompom on top of a hat. It’s been a year since I started working on this piece, so my memory is a bit foggy. I can only guess at how I formed the layers into a roof shape and attached it to the driftwood. I do remember that the mushroom wasn’t very cooperative and I had to torture it into shape. Most likely, I glued felt to the wood and then sewed the mushroom to the felt.

During the process, I constantly measured the depth of the trunk to make sure that it would fit behind the glass when the finished piece was framed. After the mushroom roof was added, there was just enough clearance!

My use of found objects is mostly limited to individual items that are sewn in place and incorporated into embroidered scenes. This trunk was different because it was made up of several driftwood parts that created a fairly large mass that stuck out from the background. Its depth and breadth would determine how I created everything else in the landscape.

Now that the trunk was finished, I could start building the other parts of the scene, including the ground at its base.

Part 3 will show the process of making the felt and stitched foliage growing on the ground at the foot of the tree trunk.

Summertime: Part 3 – leaves, stems, and branches

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Salley Mavor

As promised, I’m picking up where we left off last year and continuing the series about Summertime, the fourth of my seasonal landscapes. Part 3 features photos and videos documenting the process of creating the leaves, stems, and branches.

See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

LEAVES
Some of the foliage in this piece are realistic interpretations, like the leaves on the rose vine and raspberry plants (which will be covered in future posts), but others are pure fantasy. I wanted the scene to look believable, without being completely true to life. It’s not biological illustration; I was more interested in creating a unique ecosystem where little people could live alongside birds and berries.

I made the leaves with 3 basic materials – wool felt, wire, and embroidery floss. The following Stitch Minute video demonstrates how to make a simple leaf, edged in wire.

Stitch Minute – leaf

STEMS
Wire is literally the backbone of my work. I use it as a structural framework to keep floppy materials (like felt) firm enough to exist in space, above the background fabric. In this piece, I used copper wire made by Parawire to edge the leaves and form their stems.

The trick is to cover all of the shiny metal with floss. It takes many passes around the wire to make a smooth surface.

This video shows how I wrapped the wire stems on the central tree in the Summertime scene.

For me, making curvy stems and bending them around is like doodling with wire. I’m never sure how a vine is going to grow and climb. This purple bush was calling out for something extra, so I made a curly vine to wrap around its trunk.

In this Stitch Minute video, you can see how I wrapped the curly vine, including its little corkscrew tendril.

BRANCHES
After years of developing ways of making tree branches, my preferred method these days is forming wire armatures and covering them with felt or embroidery floss. I usually embroider a textured “bark” pattern onto the felt before sewing it around the wire. Thicker tree trunks involve a different process, which I wrote about in Part 1.

In the following video, you can see how I stitched felt to cover the section that branches off into 3 separate wire limbs.

Stay tuned for Part 4 in this series, which will be about the Baltimore Oriole. If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Summertime Poster!

Posted on September 6, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m thrilled to announce that 18″ x 24″ posters of Summertime are now available in my shop! This frameable poster is the closest thing to seeing the piece in person, which I realize is out of reach for many of you (visit this page for current exhibitions). The original bas-relief embroidered scene is just an inch larger than the printed reproduction, so the scale of the wee folk, raspberries, and thousands of stitches is very similar to their actual size. If you’ve seen my other posters, like the one of Birds of Beebe Woods, you know that the photography and printing quality is very good, too.

Will the other scenes in the series, Frosty Morning, Harvest Time, and Mossy Glen be made into posters as well? It really depends on how much interest there is. I’d like to eventually offer all four seasons, but first I’m testing the market with Summertime posters to determine if it’s worth the financial investment. I’m excited to be adding Summertime posters to the list of books, notecards, puzzles, notebooks and bookmarks now available in my shop.

Enter Salley Mavor’s Etsy Shop

Summertime is one of four seasonal landscapes that will be icluded in my solo exhibition, Works by Salley Mavor: To Every Season at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 27, 2025.

The Four Seasons series is included in “Enchanted Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor” at the
Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, NY.

Enchanting Threads opens!

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m excited to share photos of my new exhibition, which opened last weekend at the Albany Institute of History & Art. Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor will be on view for 7 months, through March 2, 2025. So, there’s plenty of time to plan a trip to Albany, NY with your friends and family! For those who live too far away to visit, I’ll try to give you an idea of how the show looks.

The museum’s exhibition team did a fantastic job designing the layout and hanging my artwork, which is spread throughout 4 galleries. It’s one of the most artful and tasteful presentations of my life’s work that I’ve seen!

For the first time, visitors will see both original embroidered artwork and 8 ft. tall printed enlargements of some pieces, including Summertime, from my series of seasonal landscapes. I’m glad that Rob took hires photos, so that the blown-up reproductions are clear enough to see every stitch. It feels as if you could step inside the scene and pick raspberries!

The framed 24″ high originals in the four seasons series are displayed together. Over the past few years I’ve documented the process of making Mossy Glen, Summertime, Harvest Time, and Frosty Morning with photos, videos and commentary.

Enchanting Threads includes just about everything in my personal collection, from the doll house I made in 1975 to Birds of Beebe Woods. Past exhibitions have included several pieces on loan from private collectors, but I figured that borrowing artwork from their owners for 7 months was too much to ask.

The show features over 100 framed tableaus, original picture book illustrations, and sculptural objects from the past 40 years, including fairy houses, walls crowded with wee folk dolls, and the cast of characters from my stop-motion film Liberty and Justice.

Characters, props and scenery from the stop-motion film, Liberty and Justice.

Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibition of the entire collection of original illustrations for my most recent picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World, is included, too. To find out where Bedtime Stitches is going next, please visit the Exhibitions Page.

I had an opportunity to walk around the galleries with museum staff and docents, and answer questions that they thought visitors would be curious about, such as how long it takes to make a piece (2 to 6 months) and if everything is really hand stitched (it is). I’m looking forward to returning to Albany to give a talk about my work to the general public in early December (date TBA).

At the opening, I had the pleasure of meeting Janny Mironchuk, a long-time fan, who is responsible for bringing my work to the Albany Institute of History & Art. At my urging, she contacted the museum’s curator and suggested that they consider hosting an exhibition of my work. I’m grateful to Janny for approaching the museum and helping to set the stars in alinement for this exhibition to happen!

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that landing an art show is an art in itself, with no sure path to getting there. For me, attracting the attention of exhibition committees and curators hasn’t been easy. I’ve sent out countless proposals that go unanswered, but every once in a while, I hear from a venue that wants to work with me. These opportunities often involve fans who are passionate about my work and want to see it in person, close to where they live. A personal recommendation from someone who is part of a museum’s local community can sometimes convey enthusiasm better than an artist’s own entreaty can, especially if one’s art is not easily defined. Happily, plans are underway for two solo exhibitions in 2025 and 2027, which will be listed on the Exhibitions Page when their locations and dates are confirmed. That being said, I certainly welcome inquiries from museums and art centers who are interested in hosting future exhibitions.

I believe that my embroidered pieces have the most value when they are put on public display, where people can become emersed in their detail and 3-demensional quality up close. That’s why I’ve decided not to deplete my supply of original artwork by selling it. (Books, prints, cards and puzzles are for sale in my shop.) Otherwise, it would take many years to create enough new pieces to fill an exhibition space. Now, I always have a body of work available to show. After 50 years of single-minded dedication to making art, I feel a shift taking place. Instead of stitching every spare minute, I’m happy to take time to play with my grandchildren and weed the garden. I don’t know what’s coming next, but my wish is to keep living an artistic life and to share my vision with the world.

Summertime: Part 1 – Tree Trunks

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Salley Mavor

Part 1 in the series about making my piece Summertime features photos and videos documenting the process of creating the tree trunks, which provide the framework for the whole composition. In this post, I reveal what’s inside the trunks and show how I covered them with felt and embroidered embellishment.

UPDATED LIST of the complete series: Overview of the piece, Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems and branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, Part 8 – stitching flora, Part 9 – moss, sky and stone wall, and Part 10 – wee folk.

Before threading the first needle, I pictured the scene in my head for months, mostly while taking walks or riding on the bike path. During this early stage of the process, I made a lot of thumbnail sketches and worked out the basic design. Once I could clearly see a path forward, I enlarged a drawing to the full 19″ x 24″ size and used it as a simple guideline. All of the color choices, design changes, and stitching details would come later, as the piece evolved.

I formed the structure of the tree with insulated electrical wire of different thicknesses that I found at the hardware store. To make forked branches, I stripped the plastic coating at the ends and wound the exposed copper wire around the adjoining branches. The whole idea was to make an armature that was flexible and strong enough to bend and manipulate as needed.

To build up the thickness of the tree, I wrapped the wire with cut strips of cotton quilt batting, which I roughly stitched in place.

The next step was to cover the padded wire with wool felt. I started by stitching felt pieces to the back of the tree trunk and branches, making a flat surface that would eventually be sewn to the background sky.

Then I stitched pieces of felt over the curved front. The photo below gives a view from the back, as I overlapped the front strip of felt over the back piece. The messy seams will all be covered with embroidery and hidden in the back.

After covering the tree with felt, I stitched a zigzag “bark” texture up and down the branches with pima cotton.

At first, I liked how the pink and tan variegated thread looked, but soon realized that it alone was too subtle and needed more saturated accent colors to help it pop in contrast to the sky background.

I added bright turquoise and then decided to go even further with hot pink, which I also used to create a cross-hatched effect along the sides of the trunks.

I used finer gauge wire to form the smaller branches and wrapped them with embroidery floss.

I sewed some glass beads that have been stored in my stash for 20 years to the tips of the branches. It felt so good to finally put them to use!

Stay tuned for future posts in this series about Summertime. In Part 2, I will show how I made the thatch-roofed treehouses nestled into the tree trunks. If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Summertime overview

Posted on June 2, 2024 by Salley Mavor

With warmer weather approaching, it seems like a good time to begin a new multi-part series about making Summertime, the fourth of my seasonal landscapes. It feels so good to have completed all four seasons in this project! I started making them during the pandemic as a way to focus on something positive and healing.

UPDATE: For a more comprehensive understanding of my process, I encourage you to explore other posts in this series: Overview of the piece, Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems and branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, Part 8 – stitching flora, Part 9 – moss, sky and stone wall, and Part 10 – wee folk.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will share photos, videos and commentary about different aspects of the project, from raspberries to tree houses and their inhabitants to a life size Baltimore Oriole.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world.

Posters, note cards, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen, and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

The following video shows how I arranged different parts of the scene before sewing the pieces in place.

I know that you like to see my fingers in action, so I took videos of different parts of the process. Sometimes I weeded the garden and stitched on the same day, so I hope that my dirty fingernails aren’t too distracting! Here are 2 previews of making the bird’s beak and sewing raspberries. There’s lots more to show, so stay tuned! If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Cover Madness at The Horn Book

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Salley Mavor

UPDATE: I just received word that my 2012 cover was voted the winner of The Horn Book Magazine’s Cover Madness contest in the January/February category! As part of this year’s centennial celebration of the magazine’s founding, this “very-subjective, not-serious event” will continue with more contests to pick covers from previous issues published in March/Aril, May/June, etc. By the end of Cover Madness, 6 different covers will “emerge as winners”.

What a wonderful surprise this is! Even though the children’s book community has always been very supportive, I sometimes feel like an imposter because of my singular vision and nontraditional illustration medium. So, I’m especially honored to have my work recognized this way. Of all the groups my work is lumped into, from embroidery to doll making, the storytelling genre of children’s books is where I feel most at home. I hope that you enjoy this account from 2012 about how I made the cover!

This is an edited and republished version of a post that was first written in 2012.

The Jan/Feb 2012 issue of The Horn Book Magazine is out, with my illustration on the cover. This issue has many wonderful articles and book reviews, including the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award speeches, which were delivered at the colloquium on Sept. 30th, 2011.

In this post, I share the process of making The Horn Book cover illustration, which I worked on for about 6 weeks this past summer. The original size of the scene is about 12″ wide and 18″ high. The original piece was purchased by an art collector who is connected to the children’s book world.

As the Horn Book Award recipient for Pocketful of Posies in 2011, I had the honor of illustrating a cover for the magazine. You can find out more about my award here. Signed copies of the book are available in my Etsy Shop.

THE TREE
I first found a twisted vine to use as the central tree and made a sketch with the Horn Book logo and child characters. I then drilled holes on the vine where wire branches would go.

To form the branches, I covered wire with felt and embroidered them to match the real vine/tree trunk. This coiled branch has thread-wrapped wire thorns attached.

The Horn Book logo was rendered in wire branches and found objects. For one of the O’s, I sawed the back of a walnut-shell, so that it would lay flat and not stick out too much. The O in the word Horn is a nest-like acorn cap from an oak tree in Iowa and the B’s spiky acorn caps are from northern California.

THE FELT BACKGROUND
I thought that a solid color background would looked too plain, so I stitched together scraps of naturally dyed wool felt to make a more interesting field for the action.

I made a little fairy to fit in the walnut-shell.

THE CHILDREN
I didn’t want the characters to be animals, but children dressed in animal costumes. So, I made every effort to make them look like children by giving them bangs, ponytails, hands and shoes. These figures are made with similar techniques found in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

During the process, I changed some of the characters in the original sketch and substituted a boy in a dinosaur costume pulling an acorn cap wheeled wagon full of books.

I printed out the words on acetate, so that I’d be sure to leave enough room at the bottom edge. I then embroidered plants and leaves to the felt background.

This little child/mouse is getting red shoes.

The Horn Book staff suggested I include a reading child, so I made a felt book for the face-painted mouse.

All of the parts piled up as I worked. It’s a miracle nothing got lost!

It was really fun thinking up costumes to make for these kids. I wanted to create a scene of children immersed in imaginary play and story.

I added a sun to the upper left corner and embroidered a wavy chain-stitched border. Then, I sewed the felt background to a sheet of foam core board, pulling it flat and straight.

Then, I stitched the tree, characters and other props in place, right through the foam core board. After everything was in place, I took it to the photographer, so he could take its picture. After that, I removed it from the foam core board and remounted the felt background and all of the parts on a cloth-covered stretcher. It is now framed behind glass and was recently bought by a collector. It was a joy to work on this project with Lolly Robinson at the Horn Book Magazine! Having my illustration on the cover will be a great opportunity for many people to discover my work for the first time.