Dragons

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Here are 2 fabric relief pictures that incorporate the story of St. George and the Dragon. These pieces were personal projects and not made for an illustration job or to be published in a book. Both “George’s Chair” and “The Storyteller” illustrate the power of the imagination, one through reading a book and the other with storytelling.

The chair was made with worn upholstery fabric and sticks out about 1″ from the surface. It has a lace doily on top and the chair’s legs are polymer clay.

George’s chain mail hood is made from metallic fabric and his arms, legs and sword are wire wrapped with metallic thread. The princess has an acorn cap crown sprayed with gold paint.

Fairie Festival (wee folk studio)

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Wee Folk Studio went to the May Day Fairie Festival for a few years when we were still making fairy kits. We set up a tent and displayed many fairy related items. There were Blossom fairy kits, Ltd. edition dolls, note cards and books for sale. We don’t sell at fairs anymore, so we won’t be there this year, but I highly recommend going if you are at all interested in fairies and fantasy. The fair will be held April 30 – May 2nd this year at Spoutwood Farm in Pennsylvania.

Along with the 12 x 15 canvas tent, we transported a trailer full of trees, branches and vines to make an arched entryway. For me, decorating the tent , inside and out was as much an art project as making miniature dolls and illustrations.

Inside our tent, we set up tables and hung ivy and flower garlands. Here I am, early in the display phase, with the tree stump base.

We brought boxes of moss to use around the tree stump display, which I sprayed with water all weekend.

Some customers came in wearing these wonderful bark back packs. They said that they made them at a workshop.

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.

And the winners are…

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I had the pleasure of judging the Felt Smack Down 2010 “Challenge Alert”, which was organized by Patty from My life under the bus. You can see all the projects entered in the contest on her blog here. The premise of the challenge was to make something based on my Felt Wee Folk book. Here are the results! It was very rewarding to see such a variety of entries to the contest. Everyone’s felt project showed imagination and oozed enthusiasm, so it was fun to look at all the submissions, knowing that there was a lot of thought and labor invested in each one.

I looked for what I thought was the best character development, color choices, workmanship and presentation. I also was interested in how the projects from my book could inspire someone to come up with their own ideas and interpretations.

Prizes are for the following projects:

1^st prize- Alison of Acorn Cottage for her Little Bo Peep. See her blog here.

First Prize, Little Bo Peep made by Alison

Little Bo Peep with sheep made by Alison

2^nd prize- Caroline for her handsome fellow

Second Prize, Handsome Fellow made by Caroline

3^rd prize- Loralynn’s Cottage

Third Prize, Loralynn's Cottage

Thank you to Patty for organizing this contest and to all the folks who committed themselves and worked on projects over the last few weeks. That’s a lot of blanket stitches!

Bud and Ivy dolls

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Salley Mavor

I’ve recently (written in 2010) finished making a new crowd of boy and girl wee folk named Bud and Ivy. Here they are coming down the mountain through the snow. Directions for how to make these dolls are in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

Salley wrapping legs

Felt Wee Folk giveaway from Craft Gossip

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Linda Lanese, who writes the Felting Crafts column for Craft Gossip, is offering a giveaway of my book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects. To enter, just go to the Craft Gossip blog and leave a comment, by Feb. 12th.

Doll projects from “Felt Wee Folk”

Peter and the Wolf CD

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Salley Mavor

A good story told in combination with orchestral music is a special treat. I had the pleasure of working with my friends at Maestro Classics on one of their recent CD projects. They hope that families will be educated as well as entertained with their series of award-winning story and music CDs for children. The producers of the recordings, Bonnie and Stephen Simon, have a house in Woods Hole and we have known each other for quite a few years. I remember Bonnie talking about her idea of making recordings of the Stories in Music™ performances that her husband Stephen had conducted in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Well, they did it, and their company, Maestro Classics, now has eight CDs available, with more planned for the future. I was very excited to be asked to illustrate the CD box for Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

The Russian story was a perfect match for my folk art style and it was a joy to bring Peter and the animals to life. In addition to designing the cover illustration with Peter and the cat in the tree, with the bird taunting the wolf, I made a scene to be used inside the case. Here’s a sketch I made of Peter with his grandfather in their fenced in yard, which later was developed into a sewn scene. My layouts are usually simply drawn, with figures and other important features positioned in the space.

Sketch of Peter and his grandfather

Later, when I’m sewing, the color and details will start to emerge. The fence posts are made from some bone beads which have been sitting patiently for years, waiting to be useful.

inside illustration from "Peter and the Wolf" CD

I also made individual characters from the story, including the hunters to be used as illustrations in a little activity booklet of games and information that comes with the CD. Lately, I’ve been using painted bead heads for some animals like cats and birds. It’s almost like a child’s costume, with a painted face and hood with ears. But, the wolf needed to have a long pointed head. It was important that he be scary and imposing, not too cute, so I gave him teeth, intense eyes, and a shaggy mane. You can see and listen to Maestro Classic’s CDs here.

Felt Wee Folk Challenge Alert!

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Word just in that Patty from My life under the bus has announced a Felt Smack Down 2010 “Challenge Alert”. The premise of the challenge is to make something based on my Felt Wee Folk book . Please visit her blog to find out details and to let her know if you are interested in participating, since she’s limiting the number of submissions. Patty has asked me to judge the projects, which really sounds like fun. This is giving me the idea of offering some kind of contest myself in the future.

Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects

Milkweed Pods

Posted on December 27, 2009 by Salley Mavor

The pods are light and almost have the texture of handmade paper. They open up in the fall, bursting with the most delicate, downy seeds and their boat-like shape and small size make a fitting bed for a little person.

This sleeping girl nestled in her milkweed bed is in my board book, Wee Willie Winkie.

For more ideas on wee doll bedding, visit my post about walnut shells here.

Walnut Shells

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Salley Mavor

There’s nothing like the sight of a sleeping baby. I’m constantly on the lookout for natural objects that can be used as beds for my dolls. A baby can curl up in a cradle made from half a walnut-shell.

This walnut is bigger than most that you can buy in a bag at the super market. I usually pick out the larger ones during Thanksgiving season, when the stores sell them in loose bins. I am a curious sight, digging through the box, determined to find the biggest ones. To make the nuts more easy to split open, bake them in a low oven at about 200 degrees for a few hours. They start to crack along the center seam and you can then break them open with a knife. You can also cut the shells open with a fine saw. In the above illustration from my up-coming book, Pocketful of Posies (Sept. 2010), I sawed half a walnut-shell in half again lengthwise, so that the side could be seen in relief.

This blue suited baby is lying on real reindeer moss in a walnut-shell. He is part of an illustration from my board book, Wee Willie Winkie, on the page that says, “Are the children in their beds?” This image is available as a note card in my Etsy Shop. I edged the felt leaf with wire to give it a curvy, raised lip that fits the shape of the walnut. You can glue the shell in place or drill holes and sew it like a button.