My Bed Book

My newest children’s picture book, My Bed, Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World, brings readers on an international journey, showing children in varying cultures and home environments around the world. Each intricately rendered scene captures the spirit of a differnet place and way of life, all the while illuminating the universal theme of children sleeping safely in their beds.

Autographed copies of MY BED are available in my shop here.
Reviews like these are pouring in –
“(My Bed) is just stunning, calming and healing”, “ingeniously illustrated.”
“I am overwhelmed by the beauty and all the little details of each page.”

Watch this video to find out how I made MY BED.

See how Salley Mavor made the illustrations for her new picture book MY BED.

A Japanese translation of MY BED, published by Fukuinkan Shoten is now available in Japan.

A touring exhibition of the original embroidered bas-relief artwork that is photographed and reproduced in the book is now underway. Salley Mavor: Bedtime Stitches is traveling around the country, with bookings into 2027. More information about the exhibition (including a current schedule) is at the end of this post.

I shared the process of making the 3-dimensional bas-relief illustrations for MY BED on this blog, which involved stitching, embroidery and other embellishment techniques. Posts I’ve written about each page are listed here:

Title Page
Night Sky – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Afghanistan – part 1, part 2
Ghana – part 1, part 2, part 3
Holland – part 1, part 2, part 3
India – part 1, part 2, part 3
Iran – part 1, part 2, part 3
Japan – part 1
North Africa – part 1, part 2, part 3
North America – part 1, part 2, part 3
Russia – part 1, part 2, part 3
Scandinavia – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
South America – part 1
Mongolia – part 1, part 2, part 3
Home – part 1, part 2, part 3
Animals (spot illustrations) – Rooster, Camel, Parrot, Elephant, Goldfish, Cat, Duck, Sheep, Rabbit, Cow, Crocodile, Giraffe, Dog, Pony.

The book’s author, Rebecca Bond, wrote a poem that celebrates the diversity of children from around the world. As the illustrator, it was my task to bring these children to life and create their varying environments.

SALLEY MAVOR: BEDTIME STITCHES

A touring exhibition of original artwork for my picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World, has been traveling across the country. The show is an opportunity for the public to see up close the fine detail and 3-dimensional quality of my bas-relief sculptural embroideries. Since its premiere in 2020, Bedtime Stitches has been exhibited in a dozen museums and is booked into 2027. Interested museums are welcome to contact me for information about hosting the exhibition. Please use the contact form at the bottom of this page.

What’s being said about the exhibition:
“Bedtime Stitches Provides Cozy Respite From a Tumultuous Year”
The Falmouth Enterprise
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“The genius of Salley Mavor’s meticulously realized imaginative worlds is just what we need right now.”
Artscope Magazine

Throughout the book, there are spot illustrations of animals on text panels. To see how they were made, click here.

BEDTIME STITCHES TOURING EXHIBITION

Sept. 11 – Dec. 19, 2020, Cahoon Museum, Cotuit, MA.
Feb. 28 – May 30, 2021, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, IL
Sept. 14 – Dec. 31, 2021, New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA
Jan. 25 – April 10, 2022, International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, NE
June 7 – Sept. 11, 2022, Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk, ME, Bedtime Stitches is included in the retrospective exhibition, What a Relief: The Art of Salley Mavor
Oct. 15 – Dec. 31, 2022, Historical and Cultural Center of Clay County, Moorhead, MN
Feb. 1 – Apr. 30, 2023, Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum, La Conner, WA
July 6 – Sept. 15, 2023, Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum, Carrollton, Georgia
Sept. 30, 2023 – January 7, 2024, Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT. The Wee Worlds of Salley Mavor includes Bedtime Stitches.
Jan. 20. – May 5, 2024, Upcountry History Museum, Greenville, SC
July 27, 2024 – March 2, 2025, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor includes Bedtime Stitches.
June 10 – July 20, 2025, Mariposa Museum and Cultural Center, Oak Bluffs, MA
Aug. 1, 2025 – Jan. 4, 2026, Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center, Peterborough, NH. This location also includes a wide selection of other work by Salley Mavor.
Oct. 31, 2026 – April 18, 2027, Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA

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Visitors to the exhibition, as well as those of you at home with a copy of My Bed, can hunt for details in the artwork using the downloadable sheet below.

my_bed_hunt_printable Download

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The fairy making habit is hard to break. Time and time again, the urge to make these little dolls gets the better of me, even though I swore off making multiple copies years ago. Fifteen years ago, when the sale of the “last” set of limited edition fairies was announced, my intentions were good.

Looking back, banning mass-production in my studio was an important and necessary step to take, so that I could move forward and grow as an artist. But ultimately the desire to keep my hands busy during long stretches of travel time won out, resulting in new groups of fairies showing up in my shop every few years.

UPDATE: Thank you ~ the fairies sold out immediately!
I’m happy to introduce SAPPHIRE, the newest fairy! A Limited Edition of 24 Sapphire Fairies will be added to my Etsy Shop on Sat., July 18th at 10 AM (Eastern US time). The dolls will sell for $125 each, on a first come, first served basis, so please act quickly if you really want one! Sorry, no pre-orders ahead of time. Also, since the cost of shipping overseas has become prohibitive, my shop is only processing sales from the US and Canada.

Despite the decision to move on, I haven’t weaned myself entirely from making sets of lookalike fairies. I’ve had to put limits on myself at home or else I would make them all the time, instead of pushing myself to do new work. It’s such a nice relaxing, portable activity when traveling.

On a recent trip to Oregon to visit family, I brought along fairy making parts to work on in airports and during cross country flights. This arrangement allowed me to have a stitching “fix” while away from home, without it becoming a form of procrastination back in the studio.

For those of you who are new to my work, these fairies are similar to the designs found in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk . Sapphire’s hair is different, though. Instead of wool fleece, I used single ply, fingering weight Merino yarn, which is easy to braid. Unfortunately, Flying Finn Yarns, the small cottage industry I bought it from, is not currently in business.

I was able to complete many of the labor intensive steps while traveling, like wrapping the pipe cleaner bodies and stitching the little peplum jackets. But there were plenty of finishing touches to take care of after I returned. This video shows how I finished the fairies back in my studio.

It was fun revisiting the fairies after a two year gap, although the repetitive process did remind me why I rarely mass-produce products anymore. Now, I’ve got to switch gears and continue working on some new pieces for an exhibition in the fall of 2027 (dates TBD) at the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit MA. This may sound odd, but I look forward to the coming winter, when I can focus, without the distractions of warm weather!

Below are some of the fifty different limited edition fairies and wee folk dolls I’ve made since 2003. When all added up, that’s 1,250 wrapped pipe cleaner bodies, embroidered felt outfits, and painted wooden bead faces!