Category Archives: Found Objects

Close-ups (winter solstice)

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The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

Salley, age 8

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.

detail from “One Misty, Moisty Morning” in “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!

detail from “Little Jack Horner” in “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.

detail of balsam pillow in “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

detail from “Little Jack Horner” in “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Autographed copies of Pocketful of Posies are available from my Esty Shop.

Rabbitat – part 6 (rabbit characters)

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Originally, I was going to make human characters living in the drift wood house, but I kept imagining long ears sticking up from their heads, so they changed into a rabbit family. Hence the name Rabbitat (see film here). The mother and father dolls are about 4 inches tall and made with a bendable pipe-cleaner armature. The heads are made from wooden beads covered with wool felt. There’s a seam down the front of the face, under the embroidered nose.

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As soon as I added front teeth, they lost their bland cuteness and took on personality, or should I say rabbitality?

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Maybe I just identified with them more, having been a buck toothed child.

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The faces are embroidered, with glass bead eyes.

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The ears have fine wire sewn around the outside edge, so they can be bent expressively.

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The baby carriage is made from this wire, which is covered with a bark-like natural material I found at a florist supply business. The wheels are acorn caps with holes drilled in the center.

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I embroidered a carrot motif on the clothing.

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And let’s not forget the biggest character of all — the rabbit topiary.

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To see more posts in this series and to view the Rabbitat film click here.

Rabbitat – part 5 (garden gate)

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I added the garden gate about half way through the process of making Rabbitat. Since I changed the design from horizontal to vertical, I needed something in the lower right to balance the rabbit topiary on the left. I also wanted to create  a transition from the foreground to the background and make an an entrance into the rabbit world.

I selected some driftwood and carved joints into the pieces. I then drilled holes in the joints and glued the pieces together with wire in the holes for reinforcement.

On a jig saw, I cut out a wooden rabbit shape to put on top of the gate.

I wanted bars in the gate, so I bent some 32 gauge cloth-covered wire and wrapped it with embroidery floss.

Then I had to figure out what to use for hinges and a latch. I got out my collection of little metal do-dads, but wasn’t satisfied with how they looked. Shiny metal didn’t seem to fit in the rabbit’s world. I ended up using clay tube beads for the hinges and wrapped wire for the latch.

I worked around the gate for many weeks, sewing the tree and constructing parts of the scene’s landscape.

I created a felt stone pathway leading to the gate, with french knot moss. Thinking ahead, I stitched my initials into the design on the right hand corner.

To see more posts in this series and to view the Rabbitat film click here.

Rabbitat – part 3 (title animation)

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Now that summer activities have slowed down, I can get back to writing about the making of Rabbitat.  This post will show the letters that I made for the film’s title animation. See  the completed film  here.  I was originally just going to spell out the word Rabbitat in found objects. Then the filmmaker (Daniel Cojanu) and I decide to try our hand at some spot action animation.

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I formed the letters with driftwood, adding embroidered felt vegetation to complete the shapes. One “B” features a roving, rounded vine made of felt covered wire. The thorns are thread wrapped wire.

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And a “T” is crossed with thread wrapped wire branches laden with felt leaves and bead berries.

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I found just the right beach stone for the other “B” and used a green mushroom, which is a florist product, for the rounded top of the “R”. For the filming we used a solid black felt background.

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We started with the word Rabbitat spelled out and then moved each piece about a 1/4 inch for each shot.

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Every piece had its own path to follow, so the 2 of us had to keep track of several objects at once. Instead of trying to construct the letters from a pile of objects, we deconstructed the word and then reversed the order of  the hundreds of photographs, so it looks like we built it in the film.

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When we were ready to shoot, I bought some vegetables to include; a carrot, a parsnip and a peapod.  It took us many hours to move and photograph the letters for what would become a 15 second title sequence. After working side by side for most of a day, moving little objects a tiny distance at a time, Daniel and I weren’t frustrated at all. We said to each other,”That was fun!”.

The next post in this series will be about my animated stitched signature from the Rabbitat title. For other posts in the Rabbitat series click here.

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wedding banner: Andrew & Mary

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I made this wedding banner for my son Peter to give to his good college friend Andrew, who was married last Saturday. The wedding was in Biddeford Pool, Maine and since the couple met sailing there, I gave the banner a nautical/seaside flavor.

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I wrote out their names in doubled up 32 gauge florist wire, since I ran out of thicker stuff. Then I picked out some variegated embroidery floss to wrap the letters.

I added 2 purchased red ribbon roses and then stitched some leaves around them.

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The had a whole bunch of shells with holes that came from a necklace my grandmother got in Hawaii about 50 years ago. The blue piece of felt is edged with metallic thread, which is nasty to sew with, but the sparkle looks good.

The felt banner is hung from a piece of driftwood, which was probably part of an old wooden lobster pot.

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I found some anchor buttons and a fish in my stash to add and some more shells to hang from the scalloped edged bottom. Best wishes to Andrew and Mary!

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See posts about making other wedding banners here.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog (top right column on the home page). 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 and/or Instagram.

wedding banner: Sky & Daniel

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It’s wedding season once again. For a gift, I like to give the bride and groom a felt banner with their names and the wedding date. Sky is an old family friend and we’re off to her wedding tomorrow. I’m sure that the day will be as unique and wonderful as she is!

There’s a lot of showing and no telling in this post. I’ve explained more about how I wrap the letters, etc. in earlier post about other wedding banners I’ve done. See the banners for Karen & Graham and Leigh & Brendan .

To keep up with new posts, subscribe to this blog (top right column on the home page). If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram.

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.

Bead Show

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I recently went to a bead show in the Boston area and saw some of my favorite venders, like Funky Stuff (sorry, no website). They describe what they sell as an international selection of beads, jewelry, artifacts & oddities. I’ve bought interesting things from them over the past few years, including some bone beads and pendants. These bone filigree shapes show up in several illustrations from Pocketful of Posies.

They add an accent, without overwhelming the picture. This is a detail from the rhyme One, two, buckle my shoe.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

And this is from The cock crows in the morn, to tell us to rise….

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

They had a strings of these bone beads hanging on the wall.

I used some 1 inch long bone tube beads in this clock from Hickory, Dickory Dock. The fabric covered rectangle is a belt buckle and the round clock is a curtain ring.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

It’s tempting to buy all kinds of wonderful beads and objects, not really knowing how they will be used, if ever.

I bought these glass beads from a Czech couple who import from home. I’m always on the lookout for leaves, but don’t have any immediate plans for these. The polka dot red ones look like they would make a perfect necktie for some extroverted little character.