Bedtime Stitches opens in Minnesota

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Salley Mavor

Bedtime Stitches at the Cahoon Museum in 2020

In the two years since Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibition of original bas-relief artwork for my book, MY BED debuted at the Cahoon Museum, the show has been enjoyed by thousands of visitors at five different museums in Illinois, Nebraska and parts of New England. I’m excited that even more people will have the opportunity to experience the detail and 3-dimensional quality of my work as the exhibition continues to travel to other parts of the country during the next few years. You can see the schedule here.

Here I am at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, with a van packed full of my life’s work from last summer’s retrospective exhibition, What a Relief (which included Bedtime Stitches).

Artwork from last summer’s exhibition, “What a Relief” packed up and heading home.

Bedtime Stitches being installed at the Brick Store Museum in the summer of 2022.

I’m happy to announce that the next location of Bedtime Stitches will be the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County in Moorhead, Minnesota from Oct. 15 through Jan. 1, 2023. I’m envisioning carloads of friends making the trip north from Minneapolis and south from Winnipeg, across the Canadian border, to visit the show!

Opening Event – Oct. 15, 1-5 PM. Dr. Sandra Gordon will give a presentation about my life-long passion with 3-D embroidery at 1:00 PM. I am grateful to Sandra for suggesting that the museum host the exhibition. She is active in the Embroiderer’s Guild of America and has written 2 articles about my work for their publication, Needlearts.

Signed copies of My Bed can be ordered in my shop here. Watch this 8 minute documentary about how I created the illustrations for the book.

The collection of artwork brings the viewer on an international journey, showing children in varying cultures and home environments around the world. Each intricately rendered scene captures the spirit of a different place and way of life, all the while illuminating the universal theme of children sleeping safe in their beds.

After its time in Minnesota, the exhibition will be heading further west, to the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum in LaConner, WA, Feb. 1 – April 30, 2023. See the tour schedule through 2024 here.

Will Bedtime Stitches continue to tour after 2024?
I’m open to having the exhibition travel for a little longer, as long as museums are interested in hosting it. I would love to keep the series together for as long as possible and create more opportunities to view the original embroidered pieces in person, which is a completely different experience than seeing them on a screen or on the printed pages of a book.

I constantly hear from people who want to see my original work in their home territory, from Texas to Australia. I wish I had the power to just point a magic wand and send my pieces all over the world. But the reality is much more complicated. You see, there are all kinds of things that need to happen to make an exhibition possible, starting with an invitation from a museum. At this point, I’m more engrossed in making-mode than promo-mode and am no longer actively searching out locations. But, I’m very willing to answer inquiries directly from museums and curators.

Actually, the most effective approach has been for fans to reach out to their local museums and tell them about the opportunity to show my work. That’s how several bookings came about, including the one in Minnesota. Interested museums can contact me for details about the exhibition at salley@weefolkstudio.com.

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Sam and Louisa’s wedding dolls

Posted on September 25, 2022 by Salley Mavor

This summer, both my son Ian and Sam, his best friend from childhood, got married. Here they are at age 3 and at Sam’s wedding last weekend. So, I had the pleasure of making personalized cake toppers for 2 wedding couples! You can see the post I wrote about Ian and Liz’s dolls here.

Sam and Louisa hosted a heart-felt and whimsical ceremony and reception, full of do-it-yourself touches, at their home in Falmouth, MA. Sam is a radio announcer and reporter for WCAI, our local NPR station and Louisa teaches ballet and is also the handwork teacher at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod.

A few weeks before the wedding, Sam and Louisa sent photos of their wedding attire and accessories, including their shoes. As I teach in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, the figures are constructed from the feet upward.

I also asked them to send head shots, specifically with closed mouths – no toothy grins, which are difficult to paint. When depicting real people, I like to paint their likenesses way in the beginning of the process. That way, I feel attached to them. They aren’t just dolls, but individuals with unique characteristics who are dressing up for a special occasion.

After forming the bride’s limbs with pipe cleaners and wrapping the arms and legs with embroidery floss, I sewed felt around the torso and stitched on boob beads.

Then, I covered the torso and boob beads with a layer of cotton batting and stitched more embroidery floss onto the upper chest area. Dressing bride dolls is a challenge because so often they wear skimpy gowns that show a lot of exposed skin. It’s so much easier to make the groom’s suit out of wool felt!

To make Louisa’s hair, I stitched embroidery floss onto the felt “wig”, which I’d previously glued onto her wooden bead head (see photo above). I should mention that at this point, her head is not yet glued onto the neck. That came at the end, after her clothing was finished. I popped her head on and off throughout the process to check how it looked.

I found some white silk (or silk-like) fabric in my stash to make Louisa’s gown.

I formed Sam’s pipe cleaner body and he lay on my work table in his underwear, while I waited for photos of his suit.

Using photos of Louisa’s family heirlooms, I fashioned her veil and pearl necklace.

With Sam still in his underwear, I pressed forward and made the platform that they would stand on, which is basically a piece of wood covered with felt. I chain stitched their wedding date in orange and outlined the numbers in purple to make them more prominent.

I used a spider web technique to embroider ribbon roses, which I learned on YouTube.

I added more ribbon embroidery and bead embellishments.

I glued a piece of felt to the bottom of the wooden platform and stitched the embellished felt top piece to it around the outside edge. Then I edged the base with twisted memory wire and braid.

As soon as the photo of Sam in his black velvet jacket appeared on my phone, I got to work creating its wee version.

To make Sam’s floral bow-tie, I decorated silk ribbon with markers and stitched it to his shirt.

It didn’t take long to sew his jacket onto the pipe cleaner body, and glue his head on top. Now, he was all ready to get married!

For her bouquet, i weeded through my collection of miniature flowers, guessing what it might look like. In reality, it turned out that she held a bouquet of dahlias in a very similar color scheme.

Before covering the wooden base with felt, I had drilled holes for sewing their feet in place. I had marked the location of the drill holes on the felt, so it was easy to anchor their feet with a few stitches using a long sewing needle.

Here they are, atop their lemon poppy seed wedding cake, which was homemade by the bride’s sister. Congratulations and best wishes to Sam and Louisa!

Ian and Liz’s Wedding Dolls

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Salley Mavor

Before sharing the process of making wedding cake topper dolls for my son Ian and his new bride Liz, I want to remind you to sign up for a ZOOM Talk that I’ll be giving on August 25th at 2:PM (eastern time). “An Afternoon with Salley Mavor” will be hosted by the Brick Store Museum, where my retrospective exhibition is currently on view until Sept. 11. The Talk will be recorded so that those registrants unable to attend the live chat will receive the recorded version the next business day. I look forward to seeing your smiling faces, as I share the story of my life’s work, touching on where it came from, how it has evolved and why I do it. Have your questions ready! Please register HERE.

My first major retrospective exhibition, “WHAT A RELIEF: The Art of Salley Mavor” is currently
at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine until Sept. 11, 2022

Now back to Ian and Liz, who are as adorable in real life as they are in doll form. Their wedding, which took place on July 23rd in New Haven, CT on what could have been the hottest day of the year, was a wonderful and joyous event. Rob and I are thrilled to welcome Liz into our family!

Ever since they announced their engagement a year ago, I’ve looked forward to making Ian and Liz a personalized set of wedding cake toppers. Over the years, I’ve made wedding dolls for close friends (see them HERE) and samples for a chapter in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, but this is the first time in several decades that someone in our family has had a wedding to make them for!

I had a short window of time to work on them in late June and early July, after my exhibition in Maine was underway and when Ian and Liz could provide reference photos of their clothing, hair styles and other details. If you’ve made figures using the instructions in Felt Wee Folk, you’ll know that you start with the feet, so I couldn’t begin until I had photos of their shoes.

Ian chose a tartan tie (Buchanan from my mother’s side) that we bought for him on our last trip to Scotland. We have Scottish ancestors through many branches of the family, so there are a few different tartans to choose from, but those are never available in souvenir shops.

I matched the window pane weave of Ian’s suit with a stitched grid of embroidery floss and added a French knot boutonniere to the button hole stitched collar.

It’s been a while since I’ve made glasses, so I referred to my Cover Up poster to see how I twisted wire to form their shape.

Before painting his face, I asked Ian if he would be clean shaven or sport a beard on his wedding day. He carefully planned for a 3 day old scruff look, a favorite with millennials.

The bridal gown was so much fun to replicate in miniature. To get a womanly shape, I sewed a pair of boob beads onto the armature and then created the bodice with a combination of felt, embroidery floss and metallic thread.

The metallic thread was a pain to work with, but it did the job!

Liz sent photos of her hair in a low bun, which I copied.

To make the curly tendrils in front, I smeared glue on a few strands of floss and wound it around a piece of insulated wire until it dried.

When the dolls were finished, I moved onto their platform, which was an oval shaped piece of wood I found at Michael’s.

Planning ahead for when I would sew them in place, I drilled 4 holes (one for each foot) through the wood.

I cut out a piece of wool felt and chained stitched their wedding date in the space that would be in front of their feet. In the photo, the dolls aren’t sewn in place yet, just balanced there while I gauged the spacing.

I used a spider web technique to embroider ribbon roses, which I learned on YouTube.

It was a chance to use some of my collection of silk ribbon, which usually just sits in a basket looking pretty.

The dolls relaxed while I decorated their stand.

I glued a piece of felt to the bottom of the wooden platform and stitched the embellished felt top piece to it around the outside edge.

For a finishing touch and to add some visual weight, I sewed rows of braid and twisted red and green memory wire to the bottom edge of the stand. I had marked the location of the drill holes, so it was easy to anchor their feet with a few stitches using a long sewing needle.

In anticipation of the fact that the wedding couple would be placed on top of a frosted cake (it was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting), I stitched a layer of wax paper to the bottom to protect the felt. It was a good thing, because afterward the wax paper was a bit sticky when I ripped it off.

WHAT A RELIEF – first 6 weeks

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Salley Mavor

I’m overwhelmed by the response to my first major retrospective exhibition, WHAT A RELIEF: The Art of Salley Mavor. In its first 6 weeks, visitors have streamed in from all over to see a big portion of my life’s work at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine. There’s a lot to see – four galleries on the Museum’s first floor contain over 150 works that span 40 years (more if you count my childhood pieces), from early sculptures, to picture book illustrations to my recent foray into current affairs. If you’re considering traveling to see the exhibit, there’s still time, since it’ll be there for another 8 weeks, through Sept. 11th. I’d thought that people would drive in from the surrounding New England states, which they are, but I’m flabbergasted to hear that fans are actually flying in from other parts of the country to see my work in person!

I’m touched that so many of you’ve gone out of your way to see my work in person. It makes me feel that all of the effort that went into this exhibit was worth it! These are just a few of the comments coming in:

“Hands down, one of the most beautiful, inspiring and creative museum exhibits I have ever seen. I will remember this forever!” -Lucinda Shattuck, Dover, NH

“We are blown away with wonder and delight. We spent over three hours gazing up close at every inch of your amazing work. Best weekend ever!!’ – Julie Steller of Minneapolis, MN

“There is so much to feast your eyes on! I love that women, diversity, and politics all take center stage, too.” – Marty Lapointe-Malchik, Concord, MA

For those of you from the other side of the world, I’ll do my best to show what the exhibit looks like. In this video, I walk through one the galleries that contains original artwork for Pocketful of Posies and MY BED.

WHAT A RELIEF: The Art of Salley Mavor
Brick Store Museum
117 Main St., Kennebunk, Maine
June 7th thru Sept. 11th
ZOOM Talk, Aug, 25, 2 PM, Register HERE

I look forward to seeing your smiling faces (via Zoom) when the Museum hosts “An Afternoon with Salley Mavor” ZOOM Talk on Aug. 25 at 2:00 PM (eastern time). After my presentation, there will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions. Please register HERE. Don’t worry if you live in another time zone, the event will be recorded to watch later.

Visitors of all ages are enjoying the show. We hung the artwork a little lower than usual, so that children and short adults can see the detail more easily.

The wall of women has turned into a popular photo-op spot.

At the opening reception in June, I loved meeting people, signing books and

admiring a pair of adorable fairies made from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

This exhibit follows my career through many twists and turns, including my recent venture into political satire. The “Liberty and Justice” room holds the Wee Folk Players cartoons and the props and characters from our stop motion animation, Liberty and Justice: A Cautionary Tale, which visitors can watch on a video monitor.

Jim Newman of Woods Hole, MA wrote to tell me this tidbit:

“My favorite moment was in the Liberty and Justice room, where an elderly lady, bent over a walker, looked over at me and started a nice conversation with “EVERYONE needs to come see this.”

I want to thank the staff at the Brick Store Museum, particularly Leanne Hayden, who believed in me and supported the idea of a large solo exhibition like this. Let’s be honest, when your medium is embroidery, it can be a challenge to have your work taken seriously by the art and museum world. There is no question that Leanne viewed my work as art from the first time she saw it. After years of planning, it’s gratifying to have everything magically fall into place. I’m thrilled to share my work in such a warm and inviting venue!

Leanne’s kind words about the show left me speechless.

” It has been such a pleasure to work with Salley and host her first major retrospective. I knew it would be a great summer exhibit for the whole family but I never could have imagined the enthusiastic and heartwarming response we receive every day from visitors. I love to hear stories of visitors who have traveled from all over the country to see this exhibit. But my favorite reactions are from those who had never heard of Salley Mavor and are seeing everything for the first time. I have actually had visitors stop me in the galleries just to tell me that this is the best exhibit they have ever seen. Or to hear audible gasps from a particular piece. That is the kind of experience you always hope for when putting an exhibit together.”
Leanne Hayden, Collections Manager, Brick store Museum

WHAT A RELIEF installation

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Salley Mavor

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that my artwork runs the gamut from precious to poignant to provocative, making it hard to categorize. One thing is for certain, I love creating and sharing my vision with you, whether on social media, in books or in person! This summer, from now until Sept. 11th, there’s an opportunity to see over 150 of my bas-relief pieces and sculptural objects at the Brick Store Museum in the quintessential New England town of Kennebunk, Maine.

The retrospective exhibition, WHAT A RELIEF: The Art of Salley Mavor contains a large selection of my life’s work, showing everything from a folksy fairy world to full-frontal nudity (in the Garden of Eden). The exhibition spans over 40 years, from early in my career to the present day. Rarely seen works on loan from private collections fill multiple galleries on the Museum’s entire first floor. The show is laid out somewhat chronologically, so visitors can see the evolution of my style and techniques through the years..

Brick Store Museum block, Kennebunk, Maine

So what’s my connection to the Brick Store Museum? In 2019, my recent topical pieces, including Displaced and the animated film, Liberty and Justice were included in their exhibit “The Art of Cute”. The show, which was curated by the Illustration Institute, included a broad spectrum of art and products that could be considered “cute”, from endearing to edgy. My topical and political work were part of the Meta cute or “beyond” cute category. The museum received such rave reviews about my work that we immediately started planning a larger solo exhibit and here we are!

The Art of Cute at the Brick Store Museum in 2019

Curating a show of this size takes a lot of time and preparation. In addition to figuring out what to include, I’ve spent the past couple of years studying the museum’s floor plan and visualizing how my work could be organized in the galleries.

Since it is a retrospective exhibition, I needed to track down people who’d purchased my work decades ago. My records are spotty, so I don’t know where everything ended up, but I was able to contact several owners who live within a reasonable driving distance who were willing to loan their pictures for the duration of the exhibit. So, in the early spring, I personally picked up artwork from various locations around New England. It was wonderful to meet some owners for the first time and hear how much they’ve enjoyed living with the pieces for 25 to 40 years! After bringing them back home, I removed the artwork from their frames and cleaned the glass, as well as took digital photos. Keeping them protected under UV glass for all these years really made a difference because they were in excellent condition inside.

In addition to early work on loan, the exhibition includes more recent pieces that I’ve purposely not offered for sale, so that they are available to exhibit. One consequence of all this laborious hand stitching, is that it takes forever to accumulate enough work to have a solo show. For instance, I completed just 3 pieces in the past year and a half (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time), even though I spent every spare moment working on them. At this stage of my career, I feel that the value of my work lies in its ability to be shared publicly. So that means I’ll be holding onto my recent work for the time being. See a schedule of current and upcoming exhibitions here.

Two weeks ago, Rob and I stuffed a UHaul cargo van with crates and boxes filled with artwork and drove up to Maine to deliver everything to the Museum. We spent a few days helping the staff set up the show, which you can see in photos and videos further ahead in this post. We left before the installation was fully completed, so we’ll take more pictures when we go back for the opening event on June 25th.

WHAT A RELIEF: The Art of Salley Mavor
Brick Store Museum
117 Main St., Kennebunk, Maine
June 7th thru Sept. 11th
Meet the Artist on June 25th, 1 to 3 PM
ZOOM Talk, Aug, 25, 2 PM, Register HERE

Once the artwork was unpacked, the museum staff got to work installing the show. Here’s Leanne Hayden, the collections and exhibition manager hanging Noah’s Ark and a group of ornaments over the mantelpiece in the first gallery. I made the ornaments about 10 years ago for the Family Trees event at the Concord Museum.

One wall in the center gallery features enlarged photographs of women from my piece, Cover Up. Their faces are blown up to about 12 times the size of the 1″ wooden bead doll heads. I like playing with scale, taking something tiny and making it huge. They certainly demand your attention when you walk into the room.

Cynthia Walker, the museum’s executive director, skillfully hung the prints on the wall with sticky Command strips.

I was so impressed by how quickly everything went up. While I set up sculptural items in display cases, Cynthia and Leanne measured and hung the framed pieces.

Props and characters from the animated film Liberty and Justice.

In this video, I bring you around the room, pointing out what’s on display.

With her baby and dog looking on, Cynthia hung Bedtime Stitches. How impressive is that?

The Bedtime Stitches portion of the exhibit has been touring for the past 2 years and is scheduled at other locations around the US through 2024.

Video tour of Bedtime Stitches

It’s wonderful to hear that the exhibition is already attracting many visitors from near and far. I look forward to meeting some of you at the opening event on Sat., June 25th from 1 to 3 PM. And for those of you from very far away, we’ll take more photos and share them!

Mossy Glen: Part 8 – wee folk

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Salley Mavor

This is the 8th and final part of the series about making the spring landscape, Mossy Glen. All spring I’ve shared photos, videos and commentary about how I created the piece, from stitching moss to forming wire stems. I’ve saved the best for last – today’s post is about making the wee folk characters!
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, Part 6 is about chain-stitching leaves and Part 7 looks at the violets and berries.

Before delving into how I made the wee folk in Mossy Glen, I’d like to announce the opportunity to see a large selection of my work in person this summer. The exhibition, What a Relief, has been in the works for years and I’m happy to say that its doors are open to the public this week! For those of you who live too far away to come see the show, I’ll be sharing photos and videos of the exhibition in future posts.

WHAT A RELIEF: The Art of Salley Mavor
June 7 – Sept. 11, 2022
Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk, ME
Meet the Artist on June 25, 1 – 3 PM

This is the first major retrospective exhibition of my artwork, spanning over 40 years, from early on in my career to the present day. Rarely seen works on loan from private collections fill multiple galleries on the Museum’s entire first floor. The show is laid out somewhat chronologically, so visitors can see the evolution of my style and techniques through the years. Over 150 framed pieces and sculptural objects are on display, including the series of original illustrations from my most recent picture book, MY BED.

Wee Folk in Mossy Glen
Now, let’s turn our attention back to the characters frolicking in the Mossy Glen. I’m never sure who is going to appear in these landscapes. They just show up one by one and claim their spots. After many months building places for the wee folk to live, it feels satisfying to finally meet them and let them take over.

The figures are similar to the acorn-capped dolls in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, just smaller in scale. Instead of pipe cleaners, I made the armatures with 24 gauge jewelry wire. You have to wind a lot of thread around the wire to make the limbs look proportional and not too spindly. At least you don’t have to deal with pipe cleaner fuzzies poking out.

After wrapping the wire armature with either embroidery floss or tapestry yarn, I embellished the torso and arms with faux knitting. which is basically rows of chain stitching.

I first started experimenting with fake or faux knitting when I made Polly’s Irish sweater by embroidering patterns and textures on felt. I’m not very experienced with knitting or crocheting, so this seemed like a good solution.

Since then, I’ve left out the felt and stitched directly onto the thread wrapped bodies. It’s fussy for sure, but the clothing comes out looking the way I want it to.

Here’s a Stitch Minute video showing some of my faux knitting.

I know this fellow looks uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to hide what he endured for the sake of fashion.

I made this stroller out of wire, which I covered with embroidery floss. The wheels are beads. As usual, I was so absorbed in figuring out how to make it, that I didn’t think to take photos along the way. I’ll try better with the next scene.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this series about making Mossy Glen. Here’s a list of the different parts:
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)
Part 7 (violets and berries)

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 and the winter scene, Frosty Morning are available as 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 6 – stitched leaves

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Salley Mavor

Before delving into Part 6 in the series about making the spring landscape, Mossy Glen, Id like to give you a preview of Harvest Time, the fall landscape that I just finished making. For the past 6 months, I’ve documented its progress on Facebook and/or Instagram and I look forward to later sharing photos and videos about making the scene on this blog, too.

The fall scene shows a cutaway view, with a tree stump dwelling above ground and tunnel storage spaces underground. It took way longer to make than I’d planned, which may have to do with the insane amount of mossy French knots on the stump.

The 3 seasons I’ve completed so far, winter, spring and fall, will be included in this summer’s exhibition, 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. The retrospective exhibition will feature a large selection of my artwork, spanning over 40 years, from early on to the present day. Pieces from my collection and rarely seen works on loan from private collections will fill 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 Mossy Glen – In this Part 6, I share photos, videos and commentary about how I created the chain stitched leaves. 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 and Part 5 features wire and felt leaves.

To rest the eye from all of the 3-dimensional busyness in this scene, I mixed in flat chain stitched designs. They’re also busy, but the overall effect is calmer. While I work on a piece, I’m constantly aware of how its composition, color, texture and depth direct the eye. Maybe that’s why I never get bored – there’s always something to consider about the next step in the process. I’m often asked if I listen to books on tape while stitching, as if it’s a mindless activity. There’s no way I could follow a story and give my artwork the attention it needs. There are too many decisions to make along the way!

I chain stitched the leaf shapes with cotton flower thread. Its matte finish is different from the glossy sheen of cotton embroidery floss, which I used to wrap the wire stem. DMC flower thread is no longer available, but if you’re interested, Dutch Treat Designs has some of the discontinued thread in stock.

Watch how I chain stitched around and around the leaf shape with gradated colors in this Stitch Minute video.

Stitch Minute – chain stitching leaves

Sometimes I mark lines on the felt with a chalk pencil or basting, but mostly I eyeball the designs. Here’s another Stitch Minute video, showing the smaller chain stitched leaves.

Stitch Minute – chain stitching leaves

I also made ferns with strung together fly stitches.

To make the ferns pop, I underlined one side with a darker shade of green.

To see me stitching the ferns, including a fiddle head, watch this Stitch Minute video.

Stay tuned for more posts about making Mossy Glen. Other parts in the series will focus on other plants, embroidered embellishments and the wee folk characters.
Mossy Glen (overview)
Part 1 (moss)
Part 2 (cherry trees)
Part 3 (stone walls)
Part 4 (forsythia)
Part 5 (felt and wire leaves)

Mossy Glen – part 5: Leaves

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Salley Mavor

In this Part 5 of the series about making the spring landscape, Mossy Glen, I share photos, videos and commentary about how I created the leaves. 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 and Part 4 shows how I made the forsythia blossoms.

Spring is the season when nature shows its most attractive side, when every new leaf and bud is a delight to behold. The undergrowth is neat and tidy, with manageable mossy lawns and tiny plants just starting to emerge in the miniature landscape. It’s when I go scouting for places to photograph my wee folk characters outside, like Polly’s Washing Day, which is a note card in my shop here.

When planning out Mossy Glen, I pictured hillsides in different shades of light green, punctuated with 3-dimensional leaves.

I made separate leaves with wool felt and wire, which you can watch in this Stitch Minute Video.

Stitch Minute – Leaf

I made branches of wire wrapped with embroidery floss, which I embellished with glass seed beads.

To add more stability to the larger leaves, I made the center vein with wire. All of the wire is covered with thread to hide the shiny metal.

I made long skinny leaves to go around the pond.

Even though the leaves had wire all around the outside edges and along the center veins, they weren’t rigid enough to keep them airborne and separate from the background pond fabric. So, I sewed blue tube beads to the undersides of the leaves, giving them the needed lift. Then, I sewed the beads to the pond fabric.

I also made bushes with felt leaves, wire branches and bead berries.

You can see the process of making the bush is this Stitch Minute Video.

Stitch Minute – Bush

This bush was one of the last parts I made for the scene and when it was finished, I eagerly sewed it in place. But every time I looked at the completed piece, I felt that something was off with the color and contrast of the bush. It blended in with the background and didn’t stand out enough. So, I did what I’ve done many other times when I’m not satisfied with how something looks, I snipped the thread holding the bush in place and figured out how to improve it.

In this case, I brightened the leaf edges with yellow thread, which created a vibrant striped effect. I also outlined the leaf veins with light green to heighten the contrast. It was fussy work because the threads kept getting caught on the branches and beads. But, in the end I was happy with the results, which is all that mattered.

Mossy Glen – part 4: forsythia

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Salley Mavor

In this Part 4 of the series about making the spring landscape, Mossy Glen, I share photos and commentary about how I created the sweeping forsythia bush that arches above the hillside. Part 1 is all about stitching a moss-like texture, Part 2 gives a glimpse at how I made the cherry trees and Part 3 is about how I incorporated stone walls into the scene.

Before we escape into Mossy Glen’s land of innocence, I want to acknowledge what’s happening in the real world. The shocking and merciless attack on Ukraine by the Russian military is just too horrible to ignore. At times like this, I find it helpful to channel my distress into art. In this case, I already had images to work with. All I had to do was rearrange the photos and present them in context. So, this past week, on International Women’s Day, I posted the following image in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. The response on Facebook and Instagram was immediate and heartfelt, so I’m sharing it here as well. The group of portraits, featuring a Ukrainian in a traditional folk costume in the center, are some of the 48 women from around the world in my 2016 piece, Cover Up, which you can see and read about here.

Forsythia
One of the first signs of spring around here, besides snowdrops and daffodils are the telltale splashes of yellow forsythia bushes. They’re only noticeable for a few weeks, before leafing out and blending in with every other nondescript mass of leggy branches along the roadside. When forsythia are in full blossom, though, they are an important marker of the changing season.

Once I decided to make a forsythia bush, I had to figure out how to construct the different parts. The wire branches would be straightforward, but the flowers needed a new approach. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to replicate them perfectly, so I thought of ways to give the impression of delicate blossoms.

After experimenting with different threads and yarns and finding the flowers too droopy and clumsy, I tried silk ribbon. The petals perked right up and held their shape!

The process of forming the flowers was quite fussy. It’s much easier to show than tell how, so here’s a Stitch Minute video to give you the basics.

Forsythia

The silk ribbon I used is from Silk Road Fibers. They have a ton of different colors.

I filled the wire branches with about 100 flowers and buds.

Then I wrapped brown embroidery floss around the branches, covering the messy wire stems.

The stems were still a bit bumpy, so I wrapped more layers with 2 or 3 strands of floss, until they were smooth like this.

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