Turkey (food)

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I’ve never seen so many pomegranates! On the streets of Istanbul, crates were full of ripe, red fruit, ready to be squeezed into juice.

The sweets were beautiful to look at.

I loved the patterns, colors and shapes created in the food displays.

In Bodrum, on the southwestern coast, we went to a market and shopped for food to take on our boat voyage. In anticipation of Turkey’s Republic Day, there were flags and pictures of the country’s first president, Ataturk everywhere. He was some handsome dude!

We stopped at a cove and met a family who were closing up their restaurant for the winter season. We watched the mother cook flat bread over an open fire, which she sold to us. What a treat!

Turkey (the country, that is)

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Salley Mavor

We took over 1000 pictures on our recent trip to Turkey, so I’m busy editing them down to a manageable number. I’ll be showing selected photos during the next month or so. Today’s group shows a variety of places we visited during our 2 1/2 week trip and is a preview of what’s to come. And Happy Thanksgiving or turkey day, as we say here in America!

NE SCBWI Illustrator Day

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Salley Mavor

My husband Rob and I had lunch at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, NH this past Saturday. We were in town, just about to head around the corner to the New Hampshire Institute of Art where I was giving a speech for New England SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) Illustrator Day. We found out that the Red Arrow is rated one of the top 10 diners in America. On the wall, we saw lots of photos of our waitress Elaine, taken with Presidential candidates during Primary seasons of the past. So, we thought it would be fun to take her picture during our visit. Our rosy glow is from a red neon sign next to our booth. Off to the right of the picture, you can just see a photo of her with Al Gore.

We were so busy setting up our presentation and meeting people at the SCBWI event, that we forgot to take pictures. I enjoyed meeting book designer Carol Goldenberg, who I’ve heard about for years. Her talk showed all that goes into making a book from a designer’s point of view. I was so excited when she showed the evolution of the cover design for Beth Krommes’ The House in the Night. Beth and I were both printmaking students at Syracuse U., before I transferred to RISD and we’ve kept in touch since. All of her books are wonderful! I scanned my copy, which I bought when the book first came out, before it won the Caldecott and had gold stickers put on.

I talked about my development as an artist from childhood to the present. I spoke about the challenge of fitting into the illustration world when your artwork isn’t the usual watercolor paintings. I used Melissa Sweet’s new book, Balloons Over Broadway as an example of someone who is taking risks with her illustration, combining collage, sculpture and watercolor painting. In this book, she tells the story of Tony Sarg, the puppeteer behind Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

She made toys and puppets to go along with the text and set up these delightful assemblages. Too fun!

I have a little break until the next event–RISD’s Holiday Sale, Rhode Island Convention Center, Saturday, Dec 3rd.

Connecticut Book Fair

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Salley Mavor

This past Saturday I gave a talk and signed books at the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair, which is held every year at the UConn campus in Storrs. It’s a big affair, with about 20 different authors and illustrators giving presentations. Just before my slide talk was about to start, I learned that the ordered cartons of my book, Pocketful of Posies, had not arrived. They had a few copies of Posies (from the UConn Coop), some Felt Wee Folk and Hey, Diddle, Diddle!, but that would be it. I was stunned for about 30 seconds and then decided that I wasn’t going to let this taint my weekend at the fair. People had come to see me and I would give my talk and spend time meeting them even if there wasn’t a stack of books to sign. I had brought posters, so I signed those instead of the Posies book. I met some really nice people and one woman told me that she drove 3 hours to come see my exhibit and hear my 10:15 am talk! And my husband Rob had a great time schmoozing with the other authors and illustrators and their spouses. Oh, see my new leather and carpet purse from Turkey on the table next to me.

The highlight of the evening banquet was seeing my former teacher, David Macaulay. He was one of the authors at the fair and I was hoping to have a chance to talk to him. It had been about a dozen years since we saw each other last, so we had a really nice chat, catching up and reminiscing about RISD days. I was surprised when he pointed to his lapel pin, which looked vaguely familiar. It was a stuffed cloth pyramid that I gave him when I was his student in about 1977! His Pyramid book came out around that time.

I had completely forgotten about making it. He knew I was going to be at the fair, so he wore it! I was so touched by his thoughtfulness. I spent the rest of the evening floating on air. Read about my pins here.

We saw the exhibit of my original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies on campus, at the Dodd Center.

Here’s the sign at the entrance to the gallery.

The space is perfect for small work, with lots of cases and good lighting. The curator, Terri Goldich did a great job fitting 39 illustrations into the gallery. There are some comfy chairs and a small TV at the back where you can sit and watch my Rabbitat film, too.

A visit to Mimi’s

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I’m still catching up on writing about last week activities and will soon get to last weekend’s Conn. Book Fair and also post more pictures from my trip to Turkey.

I visited the talented doll and pin cushion maker Mimi Kirchner in Arlington, Mass. As you may remember from previous posts, Mimi inspired me to start this blog. This is the first time I’ve seen her new studio since she moved in. It was good to see that she has totally taken over the room. Unlike her previous quarters in the attic, she has heat and windows to look out of! Like her attic space, it’s chockfull of materials and inspiring objects. Downstairs, her inventory of Wee World pin cushions in tea cups were lined up on the piano.

And some dolls were piled in a wicker baby buggy. You can read more about Mimi and her work on her blog here.

visit to The Horn Book

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Salley Mavor

Last Tuesday, I visited the Horn Book Magazine’s office in Boston. I went to pick up my original artwork, which will be on the cover of their January/February issue. Designer Lolly Robinson showed it to me on the computer and it looks great! Editor in Chief Roger Sutton and I held up the original for a snapshot before I took it back home.

UPDATE: See photos and read commentary about how I made the illustration for The Horn Book cover in this post.
The original piece is now in a private collection.

The whole staff had lunch together around the big wooden table and we talked about our common love–children’s books. There were many posters and magazine covers hung up around the space. I was happy to see my college friend Beth Krommes’ cover from her Caldecott winning The House in the Night. (top row, center left). Her new book, Swirl by Swirl is amazing!

Lolly took a closeup photo of me sewing a little hand. It’ll appear alongside my Horn Book Award speech, which will be printed in the January/February issue. I don’t have a picture of the thread wrapping process in such small-scale, so its nice to be able to show it here.

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Turkey (street vendors)

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Salley Mavor

We’re home from Turkey, still jet lagged and dazed by our experience. From now on, when hearing about Turkey on the news, I will picture the amazing sights, remember the taste of the delicious food and think of the friendly and playful people. I’m going through the hundreds of photos from the trip and will be posting them according to subject matter. Everywhere, there were vendors, from the streets of Istanbul to a remote rocky island with no habitation in sight. The first picture shows what looks to be a real live gnome sitting on a plastic chair. He was selling honey and jewelry on a desolate cove where we spent the night in our boat. We followed the sign to the restaurant, but found it closed for the season. The other pictures were taken in Istanbul, which throbs with commerce.

You could buy brooms, pails and mops…

drink freshly squeezed pomegranate juice…

eat roasted chestnuts and corn…

have your shoes shined…

buy fresh fish…

and nibble a pretzel.

Turkey – textile heaven

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Salley Mavor

This is our last day in Turkey and I have to share these images from the bazaars of Istanbul. There are textiles galore, with pushy carpet sellers at every turn.

I bought a few meters of this fabric to make into a shirt. I’ll be showing LOTS more pictures of Turkey when I return home.

Safe in Turkey

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Salley Mavor

Just a quick note to reassure you that we are safe in Turkey, far from the earthquake. A funny thing happened while waiting for our flight to Istanbul in the Paris airport. A blog follower named Nobuco from Columbia (S. America) recognized me when we sat next to each other while waiting for our respective planes. I didn’t think I was noticeable, but she asked, “Are you the blogger who sews?”. One thing I have noticed about women my age outside of the US (or New England), is that there are very few of us who keep our hair naturally gray, so we stand out.

Turkey is an amazing country and I’m taking pictures to share later. We’re eating lots of figs.

And Clementines.

Delectable Mountain

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Salley Mavor

I’ve heard about Delectable Mountain for years and finally got to visit this past summer. We’ve gone to Brattleboro, Vermont a lot lately because of my show at the Brattleboro Museum. We’ll be heading there again this Saturday, Oct. 15th for my talk at 3:00 pm. I was glad to find out that both the museum and Delectable Mountain survived the storm (Irene) in August.

Delectable Mountain is not your ordinary fabric store. Everything is beautiful and luscious; silk, brocade, buttons, trims. There are no bolts of cotton to be found.