Pocketful of borders (crooked man & black sheep)

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Crooked Man from "Pocketful of Posies", Houghton Mifflin 2010

The borders for the illustrations from Pocketful of Posies are coming along faster now and I don’t always remember to take pictures of the process. Here are two finished pictures, starting with the “Crooked Man” rhyme, with all of the crooked things from the verse. In the book, the words from the verse will be printed on the orange felt background, traveling all around the center illustration clockwise.

detail from "Crooked Man", "Pocketful of Posies", 2010

I’ve added a crooked line of tube beads to the border sides. The inside border of purple rick rack has a hand stitched edging of dark orange embroidery floss.

detail from "Crooked Man", "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Here’s the crooked man, with his crooked cat and mouse.

detail of "Crooked Man", Pocketful of Posies" 2010

This is the illustration for “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”. I made the original small, about 75% of the printed size of 10″ square. It need a larger border to balance the larger stretched upholstery fabric background, so I made the side pieces bulge out to fit the space more.

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

To get an idea of the scale, the felt leaves are about 1″ long. These shades of orange and green are my favorite color combination. They’re definitely not my colors to wear (I’m a winter), but I find them pleasing to look at. See these colors in the post about my studio here.

detail of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

detail from "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

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

Close-ups (dogs)

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Ceilidh

I’d like to present this group of dogs in honor of my pet and studio companion, Ceilidh, who died last month. Her name, pronounced Kay-lee, is from the Gaelic word for a folk music and dance party. This is the last photo I took of her this past winter, just before she turned 14. She was a lab/golden mix and a real sweetheart who gave us many wonderful years.

The first picture in the series is a faux tile I made in 1990 for our kitchen. See all of the tiles on an earlier post here.

Faux Tile, 1990

This white dog is in the “Sidewalks” poem illustration from my book You and Me: Poems of Friendship.

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

Here’s the dog who laughed to see such sport in Hey, Diddle, Diddle!

detail from "Hey, Diddle, Diddle!" 2005

This little dog is made from a key, hook eyes and other found objects. See an earlier post about the whole piece, “Walking the Dog”, here.

detail from "Walking the Dog" 2005

This dog is dancing in a ring around the rosies from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

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

Pocketful of borders (Pat-a-cake, etc.)

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Salley Mavor

pages 18/19 from "Pocketful of Posies", Houghton Mifflin 2010

This double-page spread pictures 3 rhymes from my upcoming children’s book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. I’m preparing the fabric relief illustrations for a traveling show, which you can learn about here.

Illustration mounted on foam core board

I chose a border of dark felt to contrast with the light lavender background. The outside edges were blanket stitched with variegated pima cotton.

The corner pieces have the usual squiggles, along with my initials and the date.

The 4 side border pieces are green, with variegated embroidery floss loops. These pictures show the tea house, which illustrates the rhyme, “Polly put the kettle on”.

detail from "Polly put the kettle on"

Here’s the cobbler shop from “Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe”. I cut out the wooden signs with a jig saw and painted them. The shoe sign is a little over 1″ long. The cobbler’s apron is made of leather.

detail from "Cobbler, Cobbler, mend my shoe"

Here is the finished border mounted on the stretched upholstery fabric background.

pages 18/19 with the finished border

This shows the bakery for “Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake”. The baby buggy is made with floss wrapped wire, coiled around like a basket. Yes, I admit that it’s a bit obsessive.

detail of "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake"

detail, page 19, "Pocketful of Posies"

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

Close-ups (strollers)

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Salley Mavor

With the warm weather, parents are out in droves pushing their young ones in strollers. I went through my books and found some details to show you. The strollers are made with wire frames and button wheels. This first one with the red-haired mother is from my 1997 picture book, You and Me: Poems of Friendship.

Here’s a stroller from another page of You and Me with a baby that’s about 1″ long.

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

This mother and child is from my 2001 book In the Heart. Autographed copies are available here.

This double stroller is being pushed by the old woman who lived in a shoe, from my book, Pocketful of Posies. The children are about 1 1/2″ tall.

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

Pocketful of borders (Simple Simon)

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Illustration for Simple Simon from "Pocketful of Posies"

When I finished making all of the fabric relief illustrations for Pocketful of Posies, they were stitched onto foam core board. I added registration marks and then sent them to the photographer. Now that the book is being printed, I’m busy making the artwork presentable for their 2nd jig as framed pieces of art.

Each picture needs a different border to match. Strong, bright colors would compliment the illustration for the Simple Simon rhyme, with its fair booths. I made side and corner patterns and cut them out of felt.

I then blanket stitched around the outside edges of the felt pieces with some variegated thread. The Caron Collection has some great colors to choose from.

The inside of the border looked too abrupt, so I tried some rick rack along the edge, to soften the transition.

I chain stitched some loops, the date, and my initials in variegated embroidery floss. Since it’s hard to write on wool felt, I don’t use any guide lines for embroidery, but work free style. I decided to change the rick rack to a golden color, which set the border apart from the inside illustration. So, instead of softening the transition, I ended up giving it more definition.

There was space for a wider border, so I put some green open weave trim around the outside. I added some dark green bias tape underneath the trim, to give more contrast and show the holes.

There’s always a question of how busy a border should be and how many borders within borders to make, like ruffles on a skirt. It could go on and on and you could have a tiny image in the middle, with a huge border around it. Many quilts and fiber art seem to be made up of just borders, which is fine with me.

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

Pocketful of borders (back to work)

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Salley Mavor

pages 40/41, "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

It’s great to get back to work again and my wrist is feeling much better. I’ve been bicycling a lot and leaning on the handle bars is good therapy. The borders for the originals from Pocketful of Posies are coming along nicely and I’ve finished a couple this week. It’s like matting 2-dimentional pieces of artwork before they’re framed, only I’m creating felt edging to go around the perimeter. Here’s a double-page spread of several rhymes grouped in the same scene.

I added a dark brown rick rack around the outside of the felt border to help separate it from the background upholstery fabric. This shows Mary at the cottage door and Peter the pumpkin eater’s wife in a pumpkin.

Here’s Little Tommy Tittlemouse with his fishing pole.

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

This rhyme, Molly My Sister and I, has a little wider border. The artwork already has a lot of detailed embroidered foliage, so a plainer border seemed appropriate.

I added the green ruffled trim at the end, to echo the greenery of the topiary in the interior scene.

Note: See more posts in the Pocketful of Borders series here.

Close-ups (boys)

Posted on May 16, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I’ve spent a good part of my adulthood surrounded by boys; sons, friends and nephews. They have kept me grounded and brought a counter balance to all of this girly stuff I do, like sewing and fairy dolls. Having sons has made me sensitive to the male point of view and I make an effort to include images of boys in my artwork, even though it’s easier to depict females. This first picture is from “Vineyard Family”, a piece I made as a naive young mother in 1985 and shows a rather idealized docile child.

detail from “Vineyard Family” 1995

This pair of boys are from “Fall Children” (see more here), which I made 10 years later in 1995. At this point, I’m trying to bring more motion to my figures, perhaps a more realistic reflection of children. Their sweaters are made from cotton socks and their shoes are leather.

detail from “Fall Children” 1995

Here’s George reading a book in a chair made from old worn upholstery fabric. His clothing is also made from cotton socks. The full picture can be seen here.

detail from “George’s Chair”

This boy sitting in his real stick fort is from my book, You and Me: Poems of Friendship.

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

This is my favorite boy, “Dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill”, an unfamiliar rhyme I found and loved. His hair is made from a spiky acorn cap, which a friend sent from California. Even though I never learned how to crochet, I figured out how to construct his bag using a regular needle. Bill’s in an illustration from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies, which you can find out about here.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

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

Pocketful of borders (end papers)

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Salley Mavor

detail of end papers from "Pocketful of Posies"

I love the way end papers of a book can be purely decorative and bring a connection to the tradition of using marblized paper. There are no interfering words to accommodate and there’s freedom to work in a different way, but capture the essence of the book. For Pocketful of Posies‘ end papers, I used only flower thread and a background of wool felt, which is plain and simple compared with the other illustrations.

To make the border for this picture, I made patterns and cut out felt strips with a wavy edge. The four corners were cut out as separate pieces. The border sections were blanket stitched with my favorite variegated edging thread, Watercolours by Caron.

Since the illustration was such a simple, flat chain stitched pattern, I thought the border could use some jazzy up. I embellished the border with glass beads and silk ribbon embroidery.

I added some lavender rick rick to the inside edge of the border to help set it apart.

All of the border sections were then sewn together into one continuous strip.

Then, with pins, I positioned the border on the end paper illustration and stitched it in place on the upholstery background fabric.

Note: See more posts in the Pocketful of Borders series here.

Pocketful of borders (title page)

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Last week, I made a border for the title page from “Pocketful of Posies”. As I mentioned before, all 50 original illustrations need to be mounted and framed for the traveling exhibit this fall. Because the title page artwork was designed to bleed to the page’s edge and is without any kind of border, it requires a similar but different treatment than “Mary Had a Little Lamb” .

First, I picked upholstery fabric from my stash to stretch for the background. Then I tried out different felt colors and chose ones that I thought complimented the artwork. This process can be tricky because I have to try many color combinations before I’m happy with the dynamics. For this one, I chose a contrasting pale violet for the corners to give the border a strong visual impact, without overpowering the artwork.

Each border section was blanket stitched with 3-ply pima cotton (Watercolours by Caron).

I then chain stitched the year and my initials on the bottom left and right corners. The corners needed something to set them apart, so I doodled a chain stitch with 2-ply variegated yellow/green embroidery floss.

Now, the sides, top and bottom pieces looked plain, so I decorated them with some chain stitched loops of flower thread. There wasn’t enough contrast, so I outlined the loops with stem stitches, using 1 ply variegated pink/purple embroidery floss.

I sewed the corners to the side pieces, measuring to make sure they were even lengths. Then, using a corner ruler, I squared up the border and pinned it on top of the artwork.

I then sewed the border in place and sewed it to the upholstery fabric background.

This title page shows a landscape filled with different characters and buildings from the rhymes in the book. The title and other information will be printed in the open areas in the sky.

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

Close-ups (peas)

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Salley Mavor

My peas are starting to come up in the garden. Their vines are such a cheery sight in the spring and then the first food to pick in June. This series of closeups begins with a peapod pin made with velvet ribbon and green wooden beads. You can read the story about my pins here.

peapod pin 1977

Here’s a detail from “Picking Peas”, a fabric relief from 1985. The full scene is on another post here. The peapods are glass beads. I must have figured out how to knot the string to make the net or cut a piece out of an existing net.