Wedding Banner (Karen & Graham)

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Update: See other banners with wrapped wire lettering here.

This summer I’ve been invited to two weddings, with the first being held on June 25th on Cape Cod. Both the bride and groom are designers and I thought they would like something artsy and personal for a wedding gift. I started by writing out Karen & Graham in a flowing script and then enlarging it to a lower case height of about 1/2″ . Then, using long-nosed pliers, I bent some 32 gauge cloth wrapped wire, using the hand written lettering as a guide. This is a technique that I figured out while sewing the book cover design for my children’s book, Pocketful of Posies, which you can see here. I wanted letters that were raised enough to create shadows. And because the wire was a separate flexible piece, it was easy to move the words around for proper positioning on the artwork. After determining the size of the names and their placement, I cut out a square of orange wool felt and added my customary wavy edge and some cut out holes. I then wrapped the wire with 2-ply variegated embroidery floss, hiding the knots in the back. This is where I do most of my work, on an old ironing board. The light green floss wrapped wire didn’t provide enough contrast with the background, so I wrapped a single strand of dark green floss around the wire, candy cane style. The banner was cut out of a light teal colored wool felt that matched Karen & Graham’s invitation. Then I blanket stitched around the orange felt edges with pink variegated embroidery floss. I chose some fish beads and a heart made of bone to decorate around the wedding date. Then I made some tiny 1/4″ roses following Mimi Kirchner’s great instructions from her easy felt rose tutorial. Some silk ribbon leaves were added, too. After I figured out how much space to leave for the date and beads, I cut out the scalloped bottom edge of the banner. The outside edge was blanket stitched with some variegated pima cotton (Caron Collection). From my collection of stuff, I picked out some more beads and some beach stone pendants with holes drilled in them to hang from the scallops. I then stitched the floss wrapped wire words and numbers in place and sewed the beads and stone pendants to the banner. It needed some color on the bottom to balance the orange square on top, so I added another clump of felt roses and silk ribbon leaves. I made a sleeve of felt at the top and slipped a piece of driftwood through. After drilling 2 holes in the driftwood, I threaded some pima cotton through and braided a strap for hanging the banner. Here is the finished banner, which I hope Karen & Graham will enjoy for many years!

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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.

Mushroom houses

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Salley Mavor

These mushroom house have been packed away for over 30 years and earlier this spring I brought them outside and took some pictures. I made them for a story that was included in an elementary school text book. This was my first real illustration job after graduation from art school. I recently wrote about the project in a post about my first picture book, The Way Home, here.

The Great Cleanup was a story about some ecologically minded insects who organized a recycling effort to reuse the trash that was dumped on their neighborhood. I’ll show some pictures of the insects in a future post.

I was still using my Singer Featherweight back then, which was good for top stitching and maneuvering around tight corners. There was plenty of hand stitching, too, around the mushroom cap roofs and front landings.

The houses are 8 ” to 9″ tall and the stems are hollow, with walls of 1/2″ foam rubber. The caps are filled with fiber fill stuffing.

I can remember picking out textured and knobby fabric for the stems, caps and chimneys. It was good to dust them off and display them in the grass.

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.

Close-ups (snow)

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Salley Mavor

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

by Christina Rossetti, English poet (1830 – 1894)

drawing by Salley. age 6

With snow falling and lingering in many parts of the country this winter, I’ve found some snow pictures to show you. First, here’s a crayon drawing saved from my childhood by my mother. Then we skip ahead to 1995, with a detail from the title page of the 32-page edition of Mary Had a Little Lamb. It’s the scene where Mary, her brother and her father are trudging through the snow to visit the lamb in the barn.

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" 1995

The next scene is from the illustration for the poem “Snow”, which is in the poetry anthology, You and Me: Poems of Friendship. The snowman is made of felt, painted with an acrylic based bumpy liquid medium. In the background is an old linen tablecloth.

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

Here are some wee folk dolls that were brought out to play in the snow.

Wee Folk in the Snow 2002

This snowflake covered bed spread is part of an illustration from Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. The bed frame is made from some hollow dried plant parts, maybe thorns, with the sharp points cut off. I bought them a long time ago in a bead store. The original illustrations will be shown in a traveling exhibit when the book is released next September. Find out about it here.

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

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

Pink House

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I can still remember how much fun it was to make The Pink House back in 1995. I had finished the 2 year project of making illustrations for Mary Had a Little Lamb and was ready to burst out with something bold and unplanned. I sorted through boxes of objects that I’d been collecting, selecting parts to use.

The hair pins and costume jewelry were from grandmother’s things. The key and New York subway token were found in her desk drawer. I try to find things that can be sewn. Even the shells used for the breasts were earrings with convenient holes already drilled, making it easier to sew them down. I prefer to sew things in place and not use glue, which is messy and unpredictable. With stitches, if somethings doesn’t work, you can always rip it out and try again.

Some of the objects include a miniature silver lock, man and dog buttons, a girl with umbrella charm and a Bakelite flower button. The woman’s headdress is a pin made of a cluster of shells.

The Pink House was one of the first pieces I made with wool felt. The red felt is from an old maternity top my late mother had from the 50’s. The woman is holding a doll house sized plastic frying pan from my childhood. Queen With Duster is another piece I made with my grandmother’s found objects during the same period. You can see it here.

I’m so glad that my mother saved some of my artwork. I don’t remember this childhood drawing, which I just found when I was cleaning my parents’ house. I can’t help notice some similarities between this drawing and The Pink House. They both have a bold central figure in a dress, with arms raised, gesturing hands, a head-piece and circle cheeks.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog 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.

Close-ups (winter houses)

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Houses appear so frequently in my artwork that I’ve divided them up into categories to show you in this Close-ups series. When you think about it, the shape is just a square with a triangle on top that can be depicted in any color and style to bring mood and stability. And houses are strong symbols of security that I seem to want in my pictures. This collection of winter houses starts with the winter section of a 4 seasons drawing I made at age 7. Then there’s a detail from a fabric relief piece called “Skating”. The next three are from the books, You and Me: Poems of Friendship, The Hollyhock Wall and Pocketful of Posies, which will be published in Sept., 2010.

by Salley at age 7

detail from “Skating” 1986

from “You and Me: Poems of Friendship” 1997

detail from “The Hollyhock Wall” 1999

from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

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

Pins (part 3)

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Continued from Pins (part 2).

In an effort to meet people and to make more for my labor, I became a member of the Christmas Store, a seasonal cooperative in Cambridge and commuted from the Cape to do my work shifts. For a display, I built a fruit and vegetable stand with crates made out of popsicle sticks. Later, I made patterns and wrote directions on how to make the pins for the 1982 Holiday Crafts issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

After about 5 years of mass producing the pins, I moved on to other things, including motherhood. Since then, I’ve had several business ventures, which inevitably reach a point when I’ve had to make a decision to grow or stop all together. I’ve always chosen freedom, never wanting to spend all of my time running a business, even though I see the promotional part as an important element of a creative project. And it’s not as if I walked away from a gold mine. At the wholesale price, I was making so little for my time. Being an artist means coming up with new ideas and making the same thing over and over has therapeutic, although limited appeal. Even the idea of hiring others to do the work made me nervous. I knew that I would be a miserable boss, having to hold others to a high standard of workmanship at low pay. And, I realized that I am happiest while making things myself! I have no exact record of how many pins I made, but it must have been well over a thousand. Throughout, the peapod was a best-seller, which was ironic because it was the simplest and fastest to make of all.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. 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.