Category Archives: Fabric Relief

show at the Brattleboro Museum

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I’ve been so busy that I’m just now getting around to writing about our wonderful visit to Brattleboro, Vermont for the show opening on July 15th. The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center is housed in the old train station right in the middle of town.  It is a beautiful facility and during this rotation, most of the galleries are showing exhibits of work that “explore the boundaries between fine art and fine craft”.

My show, Sewn Stories, will be on display for 2 rotations, so it will be up until February 5th, 2012. I will be returning on Sat., Oct. 15th to give a talk at 3:00 pm.

My work is in a cozy gallery in the former ticket office area. They’ve kept the dark wooden trim and ticket window in place. Inside, there’s a small TV where my Rabbitat film is shown.

The original Rabbitat is on display, along with a variety of illustrations and other fabric relief pieces that I’ve made over the past 15 years. There are several original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies, too.

Self  Portrait: A Personal History of Fashion  and The Storyteller and George’s Chair are included in the show.

All of the galleries in the museum were packed at the opening and I saw several people whom I’ve met through e-mail.

The curator, Susan Calabria did a fantastic job preparing for and hanging the exhibit, which will be visited by groups of children over the next 6 months. She came up with a simple, sweet, stitched felt leaf project for all ages.

I hope that some of you will find your way to southern Vermont to see the show!

Rabbitat film premiere at Woods Hole Library

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Rabbitat film by UnderCurrent Productions

This is a week of waiting for delivery trucks to pull up into my driveway. Eleven boxes full of artwork from Pocketful of Posies are in transit from Iowa and a stack of UV Plexiglas is loaded in a truck barreling down some US highway between Illinois and Massachusetts. It seems that no matter how well one plans ahead, everything happens at once, at the last-minute.

I’m confident that by Sunday, July 10th, the artwork will have arrived, so I can display it at the Woods Hole Public Library reception as advertised.  (Update: they’ve just arrived) The UV Plexiglas isn’t so important because I can always put a temporary piece of regular glass in Rabbitat’s frame. I ordered UV Plexi for every piece that will be in the show at the Brattleboro Museum and was hoping to replace all the glass before driving the artwork up to Vermont next Monday. Confused yet? Without boring you with any more logistical details, let’s just say that this is a very busy week with 2 events occurring back-to-back, with no time for breathing (or stitching) in between. I did manage to finish a wedding banner for my son’s friend, which I’ll show in a future post. Also, my friend Terry and I made cookies ahead and they’re in the freezer. The good news is that the 7.25 minute Rabbitat film is finished and ready for its premiere at the Woods Hole Public Library Reception.

And yes, I’ll eventually put the Rabbitat film on this blog and/or my website when I have time to figure out how. (Update: See the film and read related posts on this new page) 

Here’s the schedule:

Sunday, July 10th 5:00 – 7:00 pm. Woods Hole Public Library, Woods Hole, Massachusetts,  Reception to celebrate the Boston Globe Horn Book Award and Golden Kite Award for Pocketful of Posies. Original illustrations from the book will be displayed and I’ll give a brief talk. A short film about the making of my newest piece, Rabbitat will be shown.

July 15, 2011 – February 5, 2012 – Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont,  Salley Mavor – Sewn Stories. (exhibit includes 8 original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies , 11 other fabric relief pictures and the Rabbitat film)  

And later this fall:

October 15, 2011 – 3:00 pm, Brattleboro Literary Festival, Brattleboro, Vermont. I’ll give a slide talk about my work at the Brattleboro Museum.

Rabbitat – part 2 (topiary)

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Continued from Rabbitat – Part 1 (driftwood house)

Back in December, when I started making this new piece, I had no definite plan, but knew that the scene would include topiary of some kind.  I had so much fun using animal shaped topiary in the Molly my sister and I rhyme illustration in Pocketful of Posies that I wanted to make more.

Molly My Sister and I, from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

I thought about animals with distinctive forms that could be identified easily and envisioned a rounded, contained rabbit with ears poking upward. I cut separate parts out of dark green felt and started embroidering branches and leaves. The eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers are wire wrapped with embroidery floss. I also sewed wire along the scalloped outside edge, so that the pieces could be bent and shaped. Two glass leaf beads make the eyes.

The body, head and limbs are all constructed separately and stuffed on the back to raise them up.

While I was working on the  topiary, I decided  that rabbits rather than people would live in the driftwood house and started constructing a rabbit family.

I also decided to turn the scene into a vertical picture and enlarged the dimensions enough to create a yard in front. Since this is not an illustration with size and type placement specifications, I was free to change things around as I went along.

This is how the rabbit topiary looks in the finished piece.

To be continued.

Here are some opportunities to see the original picture:

Rabbitat will be hung in my show at the  Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont from July 15, 2011 to March, 2012.

Rabbitat will also appear at this reception before traveling to Vermont:

Woods Hole Public Library, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Sunday, July 10th 5:00 – 7:00 pm. Reception to celebrate the Golden Kite Award for Pocketful of Posies. Original illustrations from the book will be displayed and Salley will give a brief talk. A short film about the making of her newest piece, Rabbitat, will be shown. See the film here.

new page added-FAQ

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Salley finishing “Rabbitat”, May 2011

The same questions keep coming up about my work,  so I’m adding a page of Frequently Asked Questions. Things like, “Do you use a sewing machine?”or “Will you write another how-to book?” or “May I make and sell dolls from your book, Felt Wee Folk?” I’ve already written about most of the issues on this blog, but I can’t expect everyone to spend hours combing through all 233 posts.

See the FAQ page here.

weekend in Muscatine, Iowa

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I spent the weekend in Muscatine, Iowa, giving a doll making workshop and attending the reception for the Pocketful of Posies Exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center.

The 50 original fabric relief  illustrations fit perfectly in the museum’s modern exhibit space, which is an addition built onto an old mansion. The lighting was so well done that it looked as if there was no glass protecting the artwork. Thank you to Katy, Barb and to the other staff at the museum who made the show look so good! My artwork will be on display until June 19th.

In Saturday’s workshop, we spent all day wrapping pipe cleaners and sewing little felt clothes for our dolls.

Everyone made at least 2 figures, with fairies being the most popular.

In the past, I’ve learned that my students get stressed over painting the faces, so I brought bead heads that I had painted ahead. That way we had more time to sew. 

This well dressed little guy is being fitted with shoes. We had a great time working and chatting together. Marcella found out about the workshop on this blog and drove all the way from Wisconsin to make dolls with us! Sorry, but there are no more workshops planned.

At the reception on Sunday, I met Elaine and her 2 daughters, who came the longest distance–from Texas! She saw on this blog that the Iowa location was probably going to be the closest to her, so she planned a trip around coming here. This home schooling, children’s book loving family also toured several  Little House on the Prairie sites in the midwest, including ones in Wisconsin and S. Dakota. Impressive!

Closeups (barns)

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Houses are my favorites, but I also love to add barns my scenes. This first one is a detail from Picking Peas, which I made in 1986. I  used the sewing machine to applique the door and window, but hand embroidered leaves along the ribbon tree branches. See the full fabric relief picture on this post.

detail from "Picking Peas" 1986

These barns are on the title page of the first edition of Mary Had a Little Lamb from 1995. At this point, I sewed everything by hand and no longer used a sewing machine. The “snow” is an old linen table-cloth.

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" 1995

Jump ahead 9 years to this illustration from the 2006 board book, Jack and Jill. I’m using wool felt, so the look is softer and more fuzzy.

detail from “Jack and Jill” 2006

The last two barns are from Pocketful of Posies. The roof is a piece of bark and the door is driftwood.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

This barn from the Mary Had a Little Lamb rhyme makes use of hook and eye parts. The lamb is about 1/2″ long.

detail from Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Rabbitat – part 1 (driftwood house)

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After working all winter long, I’ve finally finished Rabbitat! It’s large, compared to my book illustrations, measuring 24″ x 30″ , with a depth of 1 1/2″. I’m waiting for professional photographs of the finished piece, so for now I’ll just show pictures I’ve taken during the process. It’s got lots of parts, which I’ll be showing in several posts. This piece was unlike my book illustrations, which have to meet size and subject specifications and are planned out ahead. I let this project evolve by itself and just followed where it led.

To start, here are some drawings from my sketch book. My first ideas include a vine-covered house, which could be a topiary. A bunny showed up, too.

Then, the house became a structure made of driftwood pieces, with a rabbit topiary outside. I didn’t know who’d be living inside yet.

I combed through all of my driftwood and selected pieces which I could see as a roof and side beams and a doorway.

And carved them in spots, so that they fit together and lay down as flat as possible. I don’t know how the little chair appeared in this picture. Some of you may recognize it from another scene–the Driftwood Clan in my book, Felt Wee Folk.

I drilled holes at the joints and glued wire pins into the holes. That way the parts are held together, but the wire joints keeps the structure flexible. I don’t know if this description is clear, but I essentially use wire in place of dowel pins because I don’t want the joints to break while I’m manipulating and working on the house. I’m always adjusting things until the last-minute, so the joints need to be somewhat bendable.

I decorated the house walls with an embroidered chain-stitched vine pattern on felt. The green mossy patches have lots and lots of french knots.

At this point, I’d decided that rabbits live in the house, so I made a father and son to sit on the bench outside.

I told my husband Rob that I was making a habitat for rabbits and he immediately said, “Oh, it’s a Rabbitat!”

Continued at Rabbitat – part 2 (topiary)

See the Rabbitat film here.

See all of the Rabbitat posts here.

Closeups (baskets)

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I love baskets and have included all kinds in my artwork since the beginning, like this Easter basket crayon drawing from my childhood.

crayon drawing, age 7

The elephant mother in my first picture book, The Way Home (1991), needed a way to carry bananas, so I made tiny (1/2″) wire baskets, wound in embroidery floss. Read my story about the making of The Way Home here.

TWHbasketWM

Here is Mary, from Mary Had a Little Lamb, holding a basket of clay strawberries. This basket is also made with thread wrapped wire, but a little bigger at 1 1/4″. Real stones are glued in the garden.

MHALLsrawberriesWM

This egg basket appears in Pocketful of Posies, in the illustration for the rhyme, Higgety, pickety, my black hen. It’s made by coiling and wrapping wire with embroidery floss. You can see glimpses of the green florist wire through the thread. I can’t for the life of me remember how I did the pattern on the top and bottom.  The original is about 2 inches long and filled with 1/2 inch wooden eggs.

blackhenbasketWM

Also from Pocketful of Posies, Daffy Down Dilly’s 3/4″ basket is made the same way.

marycontraryfairyWM

This detail from Jerry Hall is enlarged quite a bit, with the original basket being less than 1″.

jerryhallbasketWM

book giveaway at Living Crafts

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Jerry Hall, he is so small, from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Living Crafts blog is holding a giveaway for 2 of my books, Felt Wee Folk and Pocketful of Posies. The deadline to leave a comment is April 17th, 2011. Details are at the end of the interview, My Life My Craft: SALLEY MAVOR here.

Also, I’ve recently written a story for C&T Publishing’s blog about the symbiotic relationship between my how-to book and my children’s books here.