weekend in Muscatine, Iowa

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Salley Mavor

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)

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Salley Mavor

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)

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Salley Mavor

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.

Berry Family dolls

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I brought the Berry Family outside for an airing. They’re a bit moth-eaten–a downside to working with wool. For the last couple of winters, I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing all of my felt and felt clothed dolls outside when the temperature dips below freezing, hoping to kill any moths.

I made the mother, father (4″ tall) and baby members of the Berry Family in 2005, as a Ltd. edition of 25. They are based on the patterns from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. All of my Ltd. edition dolls are currently sold out and I won’t be making any more.

The Berry Family, Ltd. edition 2005

doll making supplies sent off

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I sent a box of doll making supplies to Iowa today. Instead of worrying about losing my luggage during the flight changes and being without the necessary workshop materials, I decided to mail them instead.

I can easily replace missing clothes, but I wouldn’t be able to buy these materials at short notice, especially my precious plant dyed wool felt. There’s pipe cleaners, embroidery floss, wool fleece and acorn caps, too. Everything you’ll need to make the little dolls from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

I’ll be using these supplies in a doll making workshop on Saturday, May 21st at the Muscatine Art Center in Muscatine, Iowa. Please contact the center if you’d like to come. I’ve already painted some doll heads, so we can spend as much time as possible constructing the figures and sewing their clothes. I’ll take pictures of our creations and show them to you!

book giveaway at Living Crafts

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Salley Mavor

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.

more Rabbitat

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Salley Mavor

For the past 4 months, I’ve been working on Rabbitat, a large (24″ x 30″) fabric relief piece. It started as a simple driftwood house, then I added a rabbit topiary and over time it grew into a lush rabbit habitat. I’m not showing much yet, just peeks now and then, because I want to show it later, when it’s finished. Here are some detailed shots of some rabbit characters.

A team of local filmmakers are gathering material for a short 5 min. film (see film here) about my work and specifically this piece. You can see an earlier post about Rabbitat here.

We want to show a time-lapse of Rabbitat being put together, so filmmaker Daniel Cojanu locked the camera and tripod in place with duct tape. He took a series of photos, one for each bush, tree, rabbit, or felt background piece that I added, until it was all put together.

Here are some parts laid out and ready to be set in place for the time-lapse photo shoot. Now that we’re finished with that, I can sew everything to the stretched upholstery fabric background and Rabbitat will be complete!

We want music in the film, so I asked local musicians Jan, Tom and Lisa to play some traditional Irish and Scottish tunes. We chose bouncy, rabbit-like music for them to play. I’ve known Jan since childhood and she is incredibly talented on the recorder, pennywhistle and concertina.

Elise and Daniel recorded them in my studio and what a treat to hear them play! Making this film has been so much fun and I can’t wait to see what they put together. We’re planning on having the film ready to show this summer at the Woods Hole Public Library. They’ve been kind enough to organize a reception to celebrate my Golden Kite Award for Pocketful of Posies on July 10th, from 5 to 7pm. Original illustrations will be displayed during the event and I’ll give a short talk. I hope that some of you can come. I’ll also figure out a way for everyone to see the film online. Stay tuned!

Closeups (shoes)

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Salley Mavor

JUST POSTED! Read my interview at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Blog here.

The shoes in this series of closeups are made of leather or felt, with a wooden one at the end. Mother and Child (1983) is from my transitional period, when I was moving from sculpture in the round to a bas relief format, which I later named fabric relief sculpture.

Mother and Child, 1983

In Jumping Girl (1985), I strove to bring a sense of movement to the figure. That’s a piece of Chinese embroidery sewn onto the bottom.

Jumping Girl, 1985

This shows off the girl’s shoes from my picture book “In the Heart” (2001). The leather came with the checked pattern stamped onto it and there was barely enough to make all of her shoes in the book.

detail from “In the Heart”, 2001

Jill’s felt shoes are about 3/4″ long.

detail from “Jack and Jill”, 2006

I made this shoe for the rhyme, One, Two, buckle my shoe in Pocketful of Posies. It’s modeled after those cute mary jane style chinese shoes. While I was working on it, I noticed that my watch band had the perfect sized buckle, so I took off my watch, cut off the buckle and added it to the illustration.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

This wooden shoe sign is hanging over the cobbler’s shop in the picture for the rhyme, Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe, which is also in Pocketful of Posies. I used a jig saw to cut out the shoe and made the cobbler’s work apron from leather.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Closeups (music)

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Salley Mavor

AWAY with funeral music – set
The pipe to powerful lips –
The cup of life’s for him that drinks
And not for him that sips.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The first image in this Closeups series about music is from an embroidered scene I made for an illustration class assignment in 1974. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to fill in with a chain stitch! The lute player’s hairdo appeared years before Princess Leia’s coiled braids in the 1977 Star Wars movie.

The harpist is a detail from a lithograph I made in art school at RISD in 1977. (see other lithographs here) I transferred a xerox copy of a harp image onto the limestone surface.

detail from lithograph 1977

This fiddler is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s father, who appears along with his family on a CD cover I made for “A Little Music on the Prairie” in 1994. And yes, I did cut out the wooden violin, with the help of a jig saw. The tuning pegs are seed beads. See another closeup from this illustration here.

from “A Little Music on the Prairie” CD cover, 1994

Here’s Little Tommy Tucker, who sang for his supper, from my book of nursery rhymes, Pocketful of Posies. Autographed copies are available from my Etsy Shop.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

This is one of Old King Cole’s fiddlers three , whose felt fiddle is about an inch long.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

And the cat and the fiddle play on.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

little standing animals

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Salley Mavor

Update (June 2014): Things have changed in the 3 years since this post was published. After emphatically stating I wouldn’t write another how-to book, I surprised myself this past year by working on Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures, which will be released by C&T in the spring of 2015. Read posts about it here. These animals will not be included in the new book, but there will be lots of other fun dolls to make.

I made this group of animals about 10 years ago, when I was gathering ideas for my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. They didn’t make the book’s cast, so the little critters have been waiting behind the curtain ever since. I’ve pretty much decided not to write another instructional book (read ahead for more on that), so they can come out on stage, now.

They are made with wooden forms that have a simple dowel on the bottom, with a turned ball on the top. You can find the wood shapes here. At about 2 inches tall and similar to finger puppets, these can stand up by themselves. The small wooden bead “paws” are a choking hazard, so they shouldn’t be added if a young child plays with them.

They look a bit like Halloween trick or treaters in felt costumes, with their hoods and painted faces.

It’s so wonderful to hear from readers who have enjoyed making the dolls and other projects in Felt Wee Folk and many have urged me to write another instructional book. The publisher is willing, too. So why can’t I say yes? I am clearly ambivalent, because I had a great experience working with C&T Publishing. It’s just that I’ve moved on to other things and don’t feel the same push to get it out of my system, like I did 10 years ago. It’s not that I don’t have any ideas for new projects, they’re just more complicated and personal. I’m resisting the pull to work on another book because I want to spend time exploring new ways of working, to experiment and grow as an artist. Just the process of formulating my thoughts for this post has helped me understand why I’ve been dragging my feet.

The trouble is, I know what it takes to produce an instructional book and I also know that I’m not up to it. It’s writing out those pesky directions that has me stumped. When I approached C&T with my proposal for Felt Wee Folk. I had a strong desire to share my ideas, enough to force myself through the quagmire of analysis and explanation. I’ve always had a problem with describing how to make what I do, even back in the days when I designed projects for Better Homes and Gardens. I know that I can do it, but I can’t bring myself to jump down that rabbit hole. I want to give myself over to the mysterious process of creating something without later having to give a detailed description of how I made it.

So, I’ll be sharing projects and ideas from time to time, but without patterns and instructions. Hopefully, my readers will feel inspired enough to want to try a hand at figuring out how to make something of their own!