Studio News

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Salley Mavor

On a recent glorious afternoon, I sat outside and stitched. It was one of those idyllic moments, when I felt truly at peace, doing something I value, in a place I love. Some people read books to immerse themselves in another world. I do it with a needle and thread. It’s embarrassing to admit that when given the choice of reading or stitching, I pick stitching every time. That’s a good thing, because otherwise I’d never get anything done! Right now, I’m in the middle of making a summer scene in my series of seasonal landscapes. I usually wait until a piece is finished before writing about it, but this one is taking so long that I’m giving previews, like the Baltimore Oriole Sneak peek.

Grandma Salley and 4 month old Elias

One welcome change in my studio routine this year are the almost daily visits by my grandson Elias, who is now 4 months old. As you can imagine, this little guy is bringing about a shift in my priorities.

In this post, I share info about 2 upcoming exhibits, as well as photos and videos of some special parts of the summer scene, including roses, raspberries, trees, and tree houses. But first, I’d like to let you know about a magazine article about my 45-year art career and a fun and entertaining podcast interview that just came out,

MAGAZINE ARTICLE
The summer issue of Art Quilting Studio features a 12-page artist portfolio about my work. I sent the editor a large selection of photos to choose from and to my surprise, they printed everything! The article covers a lot of ground and describes how and why I came to do what I do. I’m excited that more people will be seeing and learning about my artwork for the first time! This issue of the magazine can be purchased here.

PODCAST
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Julie Wake, the very personable executive director of the the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, for an episode in their series of Creative Exchange Podcasts. Listen to Salley Mavor / Staying True to Yourself and Your Work here.

EXHIBITIONS
The next showing of Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibition of original artwork for my picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World will be July 6 – Sept. 15, 2023 at the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA. To see the tour schedule, please visit the exhibitions page.

THE WEE WORLDS OF SALLEY MAVOR

SOUTHERN VERMONT ARTS CENTER, Manchester, VT
ON VIEW: Saturday, September 30, 2023 – Sunday, January 7, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, September 30 from 2 to 4 P.M.
GALLERY TOUR with the artist at 3 P.M.

SUMMER SCENE PREVIEW
When the summer scene is finished, hopefully in time for my exhibit in Vermont this fall, I’ll write a series of posts that go into more detail, with commentary and photos that document my process. It will be the 4th in my seasonal landscape series. You can learn about how I made the other three, Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time, in earlier posts on this blog. The images are printed as cards and jigsaw puzzles, which are available in my shop.

And now for the summer scene teaser!

Here’s a Stitch Minute video of making a felt rose. It’s an embellished version of a rose that Mimi Kirchner shared years ago on her blog.

I also made raspberries for the scene.

You can watch how I made them in this Stitch Minute video.

Here’s a close up of the tree, which is the main focal point.

I’ll leave with this little video of the tree houses in the summer scene. I just couldn’t resist playing! You may recognize the character peeking out as a member of the Woodland Family in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures. I’ll eventually make all new wee folk dolls to inhabit the landscape.

Tree houses in the summer scene.

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

Baltimore Oriole sneak peek

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Salley Mavor

I’m right in the middle of making the summer scene in my series of seasonal landscapes. Normally, I wait until a piece is finished before writing blog posts about it, but I just have to give you a preview of what’s to come! This scene features a flashy male Baltimore Oriole, which I’m excited to show.

It’s been ten years since I made a bird this size, like the ones in Birds of Beebe Woods. Back then, I didn’t take many pictures while I worked. This time, I documented every stage of the process with photos and videos, which I’ve shared on Facebook and Instagram over the past month and now here in this post.

The Baltimore Oriole will be perched in the upper branches of a tree that has little huts nestled at the base. Like the other scenes in the series, Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time, the summer landscape will be full of wee folk characters cavorting outside in nature. The first 3 seasons are available as Jigsaw Puzzles and Note Cards in my Etsy Shop. When its finished, the summer scene will also be reproduced as a card and puzzle.

Jigsaw Puzzles and Note Cards are available in my Etsy Shop.

I hope to finish the summer scene in a few months, so that all four seasons will be displayed together at my exhibition in Vermont this fall.

The Wee Worlds of Salley Mavor (includes Bedtime Stitches).
Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT
Sept. 30, 2023 – Jan. 7, 2024
Opening – Sat., Sept 30, 2 to 4 pm. Galley tour with the artist at 3 pm.

When the piece is completed, I’ll write my usual series of detailed posts about different aspects of how I work, like I’ve done with Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and am currently doing with Harvest Time.

For now, I hope that you enjoy looking over my shoulder, while I work. The following five videos are condensed versions of different steps I used in creating the bird’s breast, beak, wing, tail, and feet.

Making the Breast

The videos aren’t intended to be tutorials, but you can pick up a lot of my stitching techniques. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve probably heard my personal philosophy about sharing knowledge. Basically, I’m happy to give peeks at how I work, as long as the act of creating isn’t overly dissected, else it loses its magic.

This video shows how I created the beak.

Making the Beak

This video demonstrates how I stitched the wing.

Making the Wing

This video shows the process of making the tail.

Making the Wing

This video shows how I formed the feet.

Making the Feet

Now that the bird is finished, I’ve resumed working on other parts of the landscape. But, I have a feeling that this Baltimore Oriole, in all his orange glory will not want to share the stage with whatever and whomever shows up next!

Mossy Glen: Part 7 – Violets and Berries

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Salley Mavor

In this Part 7 of the series about making the spring landscape, Mossy Glen, I share photos, videos and commentary about how I created violets and berry bushes. Part 1 is all about stitching a moss-like texture, Part 2 gives a glimpse at how I made the cherry trees, Part 3 is about the stone walls, Part 4 shows how I made the forsythia blossoms, Part 5 features wire and felt leaves and Part 6 is about chain-stitching leaves.

winding wire stems with embroidery floss

Mossy Glen is the springtime scene in a series of seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world, both real and imagined. Mossy Glen, Frosty Morning and Harvest Time are available as puzzles and note cards in my shop here.

While I write this post, I’m in the midst of preparing for my upcoming retrospective exhibition in Kennebunk, Maine at the Brick Store Museum. Even though I’ve hardly picked up a needle and thread this spring, I’m still being creative, but in a different way. My approach to curating this show is similar to how I imagine and labor over my artwork. It’s all about taking a lot of small details and arranging them in a way that contributes to the story. The exhibition, What a Relief: The Art of Salley Mavor will tell the story of my evolution as an artist, from childhood to today. Just like my art, this exhibit will be very busy, with a ton of original 3-dimensional pieces to eye as closely as you like. As my husband Rob says, “With Salley’s art, more is more.”

Early work from the 80’s and 90’s on loan for the exhibition, What a Relief: The Art of Salley Mavor.

What a Relief: The Art of Salley Mavor at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, (June 7 – Sept. 11, 2022). I will be there on Sat., June 25th from 1 – 3 pm for a meet and greet and book-signing event.

The retrospective exhibition will feature a large selection of my artwork, spanning over 40 years, from early on to the present day. Over 100 pieces from my collection and rarely seen works on loan from private collections will fill walls a cases in multiple galleries on the museum’s entire first floor. Original picture book illustrations, including the entire series from my most recent book, MY BED will also be shown.

Now back to the patch of violets, which appear in the lower left foreground of Mossy Glen. I chose violets because I thought a dark leafed plant would bring some weight to the bottom of the composition. I also wanted something larger scale, to offset all of the itty bitty berries and leaves.

I constructed the leaves out of wool felt and wire and embroidered the veins.

You can see the process of making the leaves in this Stitch Minute video.

After sewing the leaves to the background fabric, I stitched flowers with silk ribbon.

I created stems with wire, silk ribbon and embroidery floss.

The silk ribbon was so fun to use that I couldn’t resist adding some “grass” to the bottom edge.

Scattered throughout Mossy Glen are berry bushes, which I make with wire, glass beads and embroidery floss.

You can see how I form wire and bead berry bushes in this Stitch Minute video.

Wire and glass bead berry bush

At this stage of the project, I picked out some upholstery fabric from my stash and used it to cover the stretcher frames. It hurts my brain to try to explain why and how it’s done, but the process involves cotton padding and lots of contorted hand sewing, kind of like upholstering a piece of furniture. In putting the covered stretcher on top, I’m basically freeing up an extra 1/2″ of depth that would normally be wasted behind the stretched fabric.

I then stapled the background fabric to the back of the covered stretcher and started assembling the pieces on top, inside the upholstered border frame.

Stay tuned for a final post about making the wee folk characters in Mossy Glen.
Mossy Glen (overview)
Part 1 (moss)
Part 2 (cherry trees)
Part 3 (stone walls)
Part 4 (forsythia)
Part 5 (wire and felt leaves)
Part 6 (chain stitched leaves)

Mossy Glen: Part 2 – Cherry Trees

Posted on February 12, 2022 by Salley Mavor

Flowering trees in the spring are glorious, aren’t they? Maybe we appreciate them because their showy display is so brief. In this Part 2 of the series about making Mossy Glen, I share photos, videos and commentary about how I created the cherry trees that sit atop the hillside, off in the distance.

The pink tinted trees against the blue sky remind me of the blossoming apple trees in this book jacket illustration for my 1995 book, Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Of course, apple and cherry trees are shaped differently and their flowers aren’t the same shade of pink. I also constructed them differently – the apple trees are embroidered directly onto cotton velveteen, whereas the cherry trees in Mossy Glen are made with a combination of wrapped wire and embroidery on wool felt.

I also made the cherry trees as separate objects that could be shifted around. That way, I could adjust their position according to how the surrounding parts came out. Over the years, I’ve found that keeping an open-ended playful element in my process is more and more important. The idea of following a set pattern or grid, without much wiggle room, such as in knitting, cross-stitching or weaving makes me feel trapped and constrained, without room to breath.

I formed the tree shapes with wire, using a finer gauge for the smaller branches. The loops on the ends were big enough to sew a needle and thread through.

I wrapped the branches with embroidery floss and covered the trunk with wool felt, which I embellished with vertical rows of chain stitching. This Stitch Minute video shows how I wrapped the wire and stitched the blossoms with french knots.

Stitch Minute – wire tree

This was the first time I can remember creating a tree with its own section of sky attached. Luckily, I had some pale blue felt that was almost the same shade as the cotton velveteen background sky.

After sewing the wire tree to the felt, I embroidered a few extra branches to fill in the gaps and added pink blossoms with french knots.

I made a patch of sorts, by cutting the felt around the contours of the treetop. At this point, I’d figured out where to put the trees, so it was okay to decorate the surrounding area. Watch this Stitch Minute video to see how I stitched some little bushes onto the velveteen background.

Stitch Minute – bushes

In the future, I’ll give a closer look at how I made the foliage on the hillside that’s positioned below and in front of the cherry trees.

Stay tuned for more posts about making Mossy Glen. Other parts in the series will focus on the stone walls, forsythia bush, embroidered embellishments and the wee folk characters.
Mossy Glen (overview)
Part 1 (moss)
Part 2 (cherry trees)
Part 3 (stone walls)
Part 4 (forsythia)

Making My Bed video

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Salley Mavor

My husband Rob and I are pleased to announce the release of our new 8 minute documentary about making the artwork for my picture book, MY BED. It’s an inside view into my process and motivations, showing in words, video, and photos how I approached the project from start to finish. I hope that you enjoy the film! Please feel free to share it with your family and friends.

8 minute documentary about how Salley Mavor made the artwork for her picture book, MY BED.

We had planned to produce the film earlier, to coincide with the publication of the book in September. But, there were so many other pressing things to do, such as prepare for the Bedtime Stitches touring exhibition, which included building frames for the artwork. Now that the exhibition has started traveling for the next few years, we could concentrate on the film.

Thank goodness for the quiet of winter! I don’t know how I would survive without the pace of the external world slowing down for a few months every year. Over the past several weeks, we focused our attention on writing and recording the script and sorting through a gazillion photos and videos. Our good friend Bonnie Simon, who produces Maestro Classics: Stories in Music kindly agreed to help edit the script and be the narrator.

We had about 3 years of material to review. I’ve documented the process in photos from the beginning and Rob took videos during the last year or so. I constantly pestered him to stop what he was doing and come take a video of me working on different stages of the process. He had to set up lights and other equipment, so it was no simple task. Even though it was a nuisance, he filmed some good shots that added a lot to the movie. The following photos appear in the movie at different parts of the storytelling.

To make the animated title sequence, we set up a camera facing down at a table top. We were a stop-motion animation team – I moved the pieces of thread little by little, while Rob snapped the camera.

We also filmed an arrangement of found objects from my collection. It was a simple slide, not stop-motion animation this time. That would be whole other movie!

Rob did a marvelous job editing the movie on his computer. He started with the speaking parts to set the timing and then added photos and videos that corresponded with the narration. After he had completed a draft of visuals and sound, we sent it to Matthias Bossi at Stellwagen Symphonette for the musical underscore. They wrote the music and sound effects for our film Liberty and Justice and we were thrilled to work with them again.

Rob and I are excited to share the fruits of our labor with you! The Making My Bed video can be watched and shared on YouTube here.
Autographed copies of the book, MY BED are available in my shop here.

DIY Cloth Face Mask Video

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Salley Mavor

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s been recommended that the general public wear face masks when venturing out of home isolation to hunt for groceries or medicine. And because of the shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment), surgical face masks need to be saved for medical workers.

So, to fill the gap, a brigade of sewers across the country are making cloth face masks. Of course, they are not as effective as the surgical masks, but they are better than nothing.

The internet is full of patterns and suggestions for how to make them and there’s a lot of discussion about what kind of fabric and how many layers to use. This article from the New York Times, What’s the Best Material for a Mask? is very helpful. It cites a study that compares the effectiveness of various combinations of materials, including both air filters and fabric.

Salley in her studio connecting via telephone, while filming the DIY cloth mask video.

I’ve made some cotton masks using a simple straightforward pattern from the New York Times, which you can link to here. My husband Rob and I put together a DIY video based on this design, which you can watch below. Besides a sewing machine, you’ll need tightly woven cotton, cotton flannel (or another filter) and 1/4″ wide elastic to hold it on around your ears, although ties made of grosgrain ribbon or flat shoe laces will work, too. And a pipe cleaner, if you want to make a nose bridge.

Salley Mavor shows how to make a cloth face mask.

There’s also a big discussion about the best way to wash cloth masks. These are some ideas; wash in bleach water (not if there’s elastic), boil in soapy water, press with a steam iron or zap it in the microwave (not if there’s elastic or a wire nose bridge) for 2-3 minutes.

I’m limited by the amount of elastic I have, but I’ve made enough masks for my family and friends. Here I am delivering masks to my friend’s mailbox, which is hidden in an overgrown wall. And, no, that is not their house pictured in the background. Stay safe everyone!

a virus-free wee world

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Salley Mavor

Are you wondering what to do while you’re hunkered down at home, staying away from crowds? I must admit that the concept of “social distancing” isn’t very different from my normal life, so it’s not much of an adjustment. But, I realize that closed schools and work places, as well as travel and event cancellations, is a hardship for many of you. So, to help keep your mind off the worrisome situation, how about immersing yourself in the virus-free fairy and wee folk world? In this post you will find a source list of materials to make projects from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. There are also lots of photos and videos that I hope will inspire you to make your own wee world!

When I posted this idea on Instagram, several people, including a self-described introvert, commented that they were already in making mode:

“‘I adore your wee felt folk book and actually hunkered down yesterday and made a little jester. I’ve decided to make more to give to friends during this crazy time💕
‘What a lovely idea! I admit, I’m more worried about craft supplies than toilet paper.”
“Introvert here reporting from a cozy studio! I secretly love a good excuse to stay in. I’ve got your book and will be making some fairies while we bunker down!!”

Many of the supplies needed to make the dolls, such as embroidery floss, paint, brushes, unvarnished wood beads, pipe cleaners and faux flowers can be found at craft stores. Online sources for the book, wool felt, acorn caps, and other materials are listed below:

Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures book – My Etsy Shop
Acorn Caps – Etsy shops
Wool Felt – A Child’s Dream
Faux Flowers – My Etsy Shop
Wool Fleece Fairy hair – My Etsy Shop
Unvarnished wood beads – A Child’s Dream

Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures, with bonus playing cards and flower skirts & wings

I’m keeping my Etsy shop stocked with wool fleece fairy hair and flower skirts & wings.

The dolls and their clothing are portable, so you can bring them where ever you want to settle in.

This is my work table on a random day, the way it really looks.

My Work Table on a random day

I made the Frost Family for a benefit raffle a few years ago. See more details here.

This is a little experimental video from a few years ago.

Of course, all of the dolls pictured in this post were made years ago and the raffles are long past. I just wanted to show you a variety of possibilities.

The Oakley Family was made for another benefit raffle. See the process of making them here.

And yet another fairy family raffle, which you see in more detail here.

I hope that the wee folk help keep your spirits up through this ordeal. Please stay safe!

Liberty and Justice – the movie!

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Salley Mavor

LIBERTY and JUSTICE: A Cautionary Tale in the Land of the Free

What happens when a pair of lost citizens wander in the deep dark woods in search of a new leader? In this satirical take-off of the traditional folk tale, “Hansel and Gretel”, the wordless story follows protagonists Liberty and Justice as they negotiate the challenges of today’s unique political landscape, while being shadowed by a persistent Twitter bird.

The film is a dark satire, made in the exaggerated style of caricature. It includes a dramatic scene with President Trump dressed in the uniforms of some of history’s most iconic dictatorial rulers. The comparisons are symbolic and are not to be taken literally. They serve as a warning, to look at history for guidance when confronted with a president who exhibits authoritarian behavior. The 13 min. movie is at the end of this post.

The film features an ensemble of old and new cast members from the Wee Folk Players theater troupe, who formed soon after the 2016 election. Other posts about the Liberty and Justice animation project include “Liberty and Justice” in process, All that Glitters, America First Lady, stop-motion in action, costuming despots and innocents and Animated Film Logo. In this Interview on WGBH TV, I reflect on my foray into political satire and describe how speaking out through art has affected my work and life.

After about a year filming in the basement, where our animation stage is set up, my husband Rob Goldsborough and I are thrilled to share the fruits of our labor! It’s the first large joint artistic/technical venture we’ve undertaken in almost 40 years together. We used stop-motion animation to create the narrative, spending countless hours manipulating and photographing the characters and props so that they appear to move on their own when the series of frames is played in fast sequence.

We each had our field of expertise – I made all of the dolls and scenery and did the animating, while Rob contributed his talents in photography, lighting, computers and editing. Rob, a retired engineer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has had a life-long interest in photography and film-making. He and I have wanted to bring my wee folk characters to life through animation for many years – we just needed a compelling reason to jump in.

For a framework, I drew a basic story board that grew and developed over time. Every night at dinner, we discussed ideas for different camera angles and how we were going to film the next shot. What was supposed to be a fun summer adventure, ended up becoming a big part of our lives for a whole year! The more we learned, the more invested we became in the project. Luckily, we are both detail oriented and not very chatty, so spending hours on end in silent concentration, filming what would become 5 to 20 sec. scenes was not a problem. I calculated that at 24 frames per second, our 13 min. 32 sec. animation is made up of almost 20,000 individual photographs. Even though the project was incredibly time consuming, we loved working this way and would like to make more animated films in the future. But right now, I have to get back to working on a new children’s book, which you can see progressing here.

A highlight of the project has been finding and working with the musicians who produced the original score for the movie. Rob and I filmed about 100 silent scenes, knowing all along that music and sound effects would be an integral part of the finished film. Through friends, we were lucky to connect with Matthias and Carla, a local Woods Hole couple who specialize in this kind of work. I mean, what are the chances of us living just a few miles from each other in a small town on Cape Cod?

We are thrilled with what they’ve created for the soundtrack! They took our movie and ran with it, blending together many layers and styles into a carpet of sound that propels the story along, creating the right mood for each scene. Their sound production company, Stellwagen Symphonette, creates evocative instrumental music for radio, film and computer games. Drummer and pianist Matthias Bossi, violinist Carla Kihlsted and guitarist and engineer Jon Evans bring together many years of experience writing, performing and recording music. If you listen to NPR, you’ve heard their music embedded in stories from time to time. Their clients include This American Life, The Moth Radio Hour, Atlantic Public Media, Transom.org and Frontline Dispatch.

Liberty and Justice was shown in the Woods Hole Film Festival in July 2018 and won the Audience Award for short animation.

I hope that you enjoy the movie! It can also be viewed and readily shared on YouTube here.

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.

Animated Movie Logo

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Salley Mavor

UPDATE: Liberty and Justice: A Cautionary Tale in the Land of the Free is now available to watch here and on YouTube.

Wee Folk Studio now has its very own movie logo! Rob and I filmed it to put at the beginning of our soon to be released short film, Liberty and Justice. The movie is very close to being finished and we plan to put it online in a week or so. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to go behind the scenes and show the process of making this logo. The sound effects you hear are just a tiny hint of Stellwagen Symphonette’s fantastic musical score for the finished movie!

To start, I made a mini me…

and painted a sign…

with colored pencil decorations.

I stitched foliage for the tree.

Luckily, I already had a little house from another project that was abandoned years ago. I found a gnarly piece of wood to hold up the sign.

I’m still a reluctant hot glue user, but it worked well to mount the sign.

To animate the growing flowers, I needed different sizes, from single stems to bunches with multiple blossoms.

We filmed the scene on the all black stage in the basement.

This LED lamp came from a dollhouse supply company.

“Liberty and Justice” in process

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Salley Mavor

Screen shot from “Liberty and Justice” animation

In this new year, I thought it would be a good time to bring you up to date on the stop-motion animation my husband Rob and I have been working on for most of 2017. I introduced the project a while back in this blog post. Yes, we’re still inching ahead, spending every spare hour filming in the basement. We’ve recorded 8 minutes of a 10 to 12 minute video and hope to have the filming part finished later this winter. Then, there’s the soundtrack, which is especially important for a wordless story like ours. For that, we’re commissioning an original score and sound effects from musicians and sound artists.

The movie, Liberty and Justice, a political take-off of Hansel and Gretel, is a cautionary tale about what happens when a pair of lost citizens wander in search of a leader. So, when will it be finished? Honestly, we don’t know, but we’re estimating that it’ll be ready to show sometime in the summer of 2018. Don’t worry, I will announce any particulars about where it can be seen, once it’s completed.

UPDATE: The 13 min. movie can be viewed and readily shared on YouTube here.

To give an idea of our process, here’s a video made up of several filming sessions from last summer. Rob set up a separate camera to take time-lapse photos while we worked in the basement. It looks funny to see our actions sped up into hyper mode, when in reality our movements are painstakingly slow and deliberate. I’m animating figures, using wire rigs anchored to black blocks, which are visible to you behind the set. The monitor near where I’m sitting shows the camera view, so I can check how the scene looks on screen. You can barely see Rob with his magnifying headset behind the camera slider, as he turns on a flash light to see the measurement for each photo.

Keeping in mind that this post could be a spoiler, I’ve selected a group of still photos that don’t give away too much of the good parts. You will surely pick up on some of the themes, though. Most images show our animation stage during the last month or so. At this point in their journey, the characters (who’ve just been through a lot of challenges) enter a kind of candy land.

It was so much fun setting up the scenes, which had to be adjusted according to the camera angle and movements of each shot. How do you make water for animation stage? Shiny blue fabric, jumbo glitter and mini LED lights, of course. It looks so cool when the swans move along!

When starting the filming process all those months ago, we knew that stop-motion animation takes a long time. And we’ve since learned that it requires many forms of patience. Not only do we need the capacity to deal with all the fussy parts pertaining to animation, we have to be patient with each other. This is the first large joint artistic/technical venture we’ve undertaken in almost 40 years together. Even though we’re used to working solo most of the time, working side by side has been an overall positive experience. We’re both meticulous workers and neither of us has a problem concentrating for long stretches of time. It’s not unusual to spend a 5 hr. stretch filming a 12 second scene. At 24 frames per sec., that’s 288 photographs, each taken separately, with camera motion and moving up to a dozen figures and props in between shots. Crazy? Yes, but it’s all worth it when you play back the movie and see the characters come to life!

I got carried away making props – searching for jelly beans, gum drops and small scale sugary treats to decorate with. As a rule, I don’t use hot glue because it’s messy and stringy, but in this case it was an effective solution. I like how actual candy with sparkling sugar crystals adds a realness to the fantasy world.

I lopped off the stems of mini sugar canes with a knife, saving the curved ends to build a border wall. Handling all of this sticky candy was so unappetizing that it felt toxic, like working in a sugar Super Fund site.

So far, no little critters have come out at night to nibble the edible set. This little campaign motorcade zooms along in the movie. I’m looking forward to hearing the sound effects!

It was a relief to get back to needle and thread for this sheep character.

He joined the brown and rainbow sheep for a cameo scene. I manipulated their heads, ears and tails during the filming process.

While doing the animation, I refer to a monitor (top, center) that projects the camera view. It’s tricky to move the bodies in small enough increments to make their movement look natural.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who take an interest in my work and read this blog, whether you’ve followed for years or just subscribed. Your support means a lot to me and it is an honor to connect with you and the world outside of my studio!