Linda Lanese, who writes the Felting Crafts column for Craft Gossip, is offering a giveaway of my book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects. To enter, just go to the Craft Gossip blog and leave a comment, by Feb. 12th.
Doll projects from “Felt Wee Folk”
Word just in that Patty from My life under the bus has announced a Felt Smack Down 2010 “Challenge Alert”. The premise of the challenge is to make something based on my Felt Wee Folk book . Please visit her blog to find out details and to let her know if you are interested in participating, since she’s limiting the number of submissions. Patty has asked me to judge the projects, which really sounds like fun. This is giving me the idea of offering some kind of contest myself in the future.
Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects
The pods are light and almost have the texture of handmade paper. They open up in the fall, bursting with the most delicate, downy seeds and their boat-like shape and small size make a fitting bed for a little person.
This sleeping girl nestled in her milkweed bed is in my board book, Wee Willie Winkie.
For more ideas on wee doll bedding, visit my post about walnut shells here.
Fairy bringing a pie for Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful to all of you who have come to see and read my blog this past week. It’s been a pleasure to hear from so many of you and I am energized in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time. Ideas are coming fast, the scanner is warmed up and working overtime and the posts are queuing up. Please keep visiting!
Thanksgiving Dilemma, pen & ink by Salley Mavor 1976
I’ve been looking through my old portfolios from art school and came across this drawing of a Thanksgiving turkey dinner gone awry. I had forgotten how much I liked to draw before I started using mixed media techniques. I rarely draw now, except to work out designs for my illustrations. Needle and thread have replaced the pen and become my tools of choice. In future posts, I’ll be showing some more early work with the intention of pointing out common themes and styles in my evolution as an artist, regardless of the method or technique.
I made this soft sculpture stove 30 years ago, the first year out of art school. It is made with white satin, covering a padded cardboard structure. I remember spattering paint with a tooth-brush onto the black fabric which lines the inside of the oven. I can see velcro circles on the oven door. The oven rack is made from hair pins, the knobs from buttons and the clock is the face taken from an old wrist watch. It looks like the burners are key rings fashioned with hooks from hook-and-eyes. I don’t remember what the frying pan is made from, but it must be cloth as that is my material of last resort. And the pie crust lattice is likely made from kid leather. This stove has a refrigerator to match, which I’ll show another time.
Stove, 5" tall, fabric sculpture by Salley Mavor 1979
Fairy Camp, unknown location
holding crepe paper basket
Crepe paper baskets from my grandmother
Wild haired Dahlia dolls before braiding
After a long hiatus, some new Fairies have arrived in my studio! I’ve enjoyed making this group of dolls after a break of a few years while I finished the illustrations for my new children’s book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, which will be published in Sept. 2010. I’ll be showing more about the book in the future, but for now see Mimi Kirchner’s blog for a sneak peek. Here are some photos of fairy making in progress.
fairy making parts ready to be assembled
a gang of Myrtle & Moss fairies
Dahlia, ltd. edition of 25
Myrtle & Moss, ltd. edition of 16
SALLEY MAVOR 
