Close-ups (butterfies)

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I slipped in this moth (actual size 3″), even though it’s not a butterfly. He was a character in a story called “The Great Cleanup” (1979), which I wrote about in an earlier post here.

Moth from “The Great Cleanup” 1979

This close-up is from the endpapers for Pocketful of Posies, which is shown more in an earlier post here.

detail from endpapers in “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Here is another butterfly project, a felt purse from Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects. The shiny dots are nail heads.

felt Purse from “Felt Wee Folk” 2003

This tiny butterfly (actual size is 1″) is a detail from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. See the whole illustration for “Jumping Joan” here.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

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

Pocketful of borders (Jumping Joan)

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Here’s the latest picture that I’ve prepared for framing from Pocketful of Posies. It’s the illustration for the short rhyme, “Here am I, Little Jumping Joan/ When nobody’s with me, I’m all alone”.

"Jumping Joan" illustration from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

The original fabric relief is small (8 1/2″ square) and was enlarged to the printing size of 10″. Sometimes I want to have figures that are larger than wee folk size, so I have them blown up a bit. I made the original Jumping Joan as large as I could, using this technique (about 5″). The floss wrapped arms and legs don’t look right any bigger.

detail of "Jumping Joan"

I tried out 2 different of shades of variegated pima cotton for the blanket stitched edging and chose the turquoise one.

I then picked out some variegated embroidery floss to use in the chain stitching.

Here are the top corner pieces, with a chain stitched curly cue line.

I also chain stitched some loops along the scalloped side pieces. I wanted to give the whole border a lift, so I sewed on some 32 gauge cloth wrapped wire to the outside edge.

I wanted the outside edge to have a crisp, defined quality, so I wrapped the wire with dark blue floss.

I added my initials and the date to the bottom corners and sewed on wire, which was then wrapped with green floss.

With the help of the wire, the finished border curves up like a plate.

I thought it was finished and then my new order of upholstery fabric came in. I’m excited about using these shades in future projects.

I had run out of options from my stash, so I bought the minimum of 1 yard in a variety of patterns and colors. The people at the upholstery shop think I’m making pillows. It’s too hard to explain, so I didn’t correct them.

I changed the background fabric from the brown to this pink and am much happier with the result.

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

Poster Giveaway: Pocketful of Posies

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Look what came in the mail last week! The marketing staff at Houghton Mifflin had 18″ x 18″ posters printed to promote my up-coming book, Pocketful of Posies. It was a complete surprise to me, and to celebrate this along with the summer solstice, I’d like to offer a Poster Giveaway to 3 of my readers (international addresses included). Please leave a comment on this post by June 30th and the winners will be picked at random.

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.

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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.