During our trip to Scotland, we spent a week in the Highlands, hiking along the Great Glen Way, from Fort William to Inverness. At 10 to 12 miles a day, it was a lot of work, but we saw some beautiful areas of wilderness that we wouldn’t have witnessed otherwise. At the beginning of the journey, it was too rainy to get out a camera. On clearer days, I found a new wondrous site to photograph at every bend in the path. We traveled through all kinds of woods, with moss in abundance. I could imagine fairy house neighborhoods everywhere! Speaking of fairy houses, the Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall exhibit opens on Sunday, June 28th, with an artist reception at 1:00 pm. I’ll be there, along with a fantastic collection of 32 houses and their builders. More about that coming soon!
It’s been a few days since we returned from Scotland and I’ve just now looked at the photos of our trip. As usual, I’m organizing them in my favorite categories, including doors, houses, store fronts, flowers, landscapes, Polly, etc. We visited cities, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness, but spent the bulk of the trip hiking the Great Glen Way, which follows the Caledonian Canal in the Highlands. The weather covered the gamut, with rain, strong wind, clouds and even a few days of sunshine. But, we managed to avoid the dreaded Scottish midges! We loved meeting the locals in the towns along the way, who all seemed to have time to chat–a welcome contrast to our experience at home, where we are so busy and preoccupied with our “important” lives.
Today’s collection includes photos of doors in the ubiquitous stone houses seen everywhere in the UK. The pictures of town houses were taken early one unusually bright morning in Inverness, in our B&B’s neighborhood. Stay tuned for more photo collections of our trip. I hope that you enjoy the tour!
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Abby Glassenberg for her popular series of While She Naps podcasts. In her podcasts, Abby talks with a wide variety of designers and makers about building their creative businesses. She is a savvy and personable woman, who has a natural gift for asking pertinent questions and keeping the conversation running smoothly. I’m happy that she paired me with doll artist extraordinaire Mimi Kirchner, as we’ve been friends for over 30 years. After recording the interview, we joked about feeling like wise old sages. Here’s Abby’s blog post. You can hear the postcast here. I hope that you enjoy our chat!
Polly is proud to show-off her new outfit, which she’ll be wearing during her next trip. She’s especially fond of her Glengarry bonnet! Polly will be visiting relatives in Scotland (my grandfather on the Mavor side was born in Glasgow) and hiking the Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness. She’s sure to bring back lots of pictures and stories of her adventures!
My Etsy Shop is closed during our trip and will reopen June 16th.
The whole Woodland Folk family recently ventured out into the bugle weed forest for some fresh air. Ever since they had the excitement of posing for my new book, it’s been dismal for them, all cooped up inside. The wee folk couldn’t get enough of the natural surroundings!
Many of you have made your own versions of these dolls by following the directions and patterns in Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures. I hope that you are having as much fun as I am! The book is available through your favorite book seller or from my Etsy Shop (autographed, with extra goodies).
I recently cleaned the glass which protects the Birds of Beebe Woods. While the piece was uncovered and exposed, Rob took some new photos. This time he didn’t aim the camera straight on. We thought we’d try coming from the side a bit, to emphasize the sculptural quality of the birds.
I think these photos better translate the experience of looking at the real piece. Of course, it’s best viewed without glass, but it’s necessary for protection from light and dust.
Printed reproductions in the form of posters and cards are available from my Etsy Shop.
Birds of Beebe Woodsis on display at Highfield Hall, Falmouth, MA until Sept. 15th. I’m also excited about the upcoming outdoor exhibit, Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall (June 28 – Aug. 31), which I’m curating again this year.
My husband Rob and I had so much fun putting together this 2 min. video to spread the word about the Fairy Family RAFFLE for the benefit of Highfield Hall. While I worked on the dolls, I kept having to pester him about coming to film different stages of the process, from wrapping their bodies, to dressing them, to painting their faces. Make sure that you watch long enough to see these process shots, as well as the animated close-ups of the fairies.
Here’s the info about the RAFFLE:
Take a chance to win a fairy family of 5, handmade by Salley Mavor. 3 tickets for $5.00. Tickets may be purchased online or at Highfield Hall and Gardens in Falmouth, MA, where the fairy family is on display. The Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall outdoor exhibit will be held from June 28th to August 31, 2015. The raffle drawing will be August 30, 2015. The prize will be sent to the winner anywhere in the world! Good luck!
The wee folk have been getting a kick out of seeing pictures of themselves on the pages of my new book, Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures! The brides, woodland and winter folk, and Mary and her lamb are tempted to walk back into their familiar scenes, but they have new separate lives now.
Supplies to make the wee folk dolls, including wool felt can be ordered from A Child’s Dream. I sell faux flowers to make fairies, as well as the book (with autograph and extra goodies) in my Etsy Shop.
I am excited to introduce my newest creation — a Fairy Family! All five doll-house sized family members, Mom, Dad, brother, sister and baby were specially made for a raffle to benefit Highfield Hall and Gardens in Falmouth (Cape Cod) Massachusetts.The raffle will be held from now until the end of this summer’s outdoor exhibit, the Fairy Houses of Highfield Hall, which I am curating again this year.
If you visit this blog regularly, you’ll know that I don’t sell one-of-a-kind dolls, so this is a rare chance to have a unique family of wee folk, all hand-stitched by yours truly.
To make the fairy dolls, I gathered faux flowers in a purple and blue color scheme. For the felt clothes, I cut out patterns from my new book Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures. The book also has directions for adding breasts to make shapely, more womanly fairies, instead of just flat chested nymphets. I used some unusual acorn caps that have been hanging around my studio for years. For the life of me, I can’t remember where they came from. Here are the fairies on my work table, before they were given wings. The children are already flying around and having adventures! It’s going to be quite the fairy summer on Cape Cod!
To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. 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.
I’m in love with wool felt! Aren’t you, too? Quite often, it’s my material of choice, along with embroidery thread. Once you use the wool variety, it’s hard to go back to handling the cheap acrylic type commonly found in craft stores. It’s like retiring your polyester pant suit in favor of cotton, wool or linen. Wool felt is seductive– it not only feels better, but has an integrity and durability not found in imitation fabrics. I primarily use wool felt that comes in sheets of different thicknesses.
detail from “Pocketful of Posies”
People inquire about wool felt all the time, so I’ll address that right away. The cottage industry that made the plant dyed felt I used in the illustrations for Pocketful of Posies and My Bedno longer dyes felt.
Pocketful of posies
Many online businesses sell wool felt, from garish commercially dyed colors to softer, plant dyed and “heather” shades. A Child’s Dream has a nice selection of premium quality 100% wool felt. Sweet Emma Jean sells a less expensive rayon/wool blend. The Olive Sparrow in Toronto, Canada offers a wide selection of wool felt. Of course, 100% wool felt is pricey, but it is certainly worth it. The doll clothes pattern pieces from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk don’t require very much material, so a little can go a long way. If you want to try natural dying your own colors, take a look at this informative blog post from Willodell.
I want to clarify something — I use felt (noun) in my pieces. I do not make felt or do felting (verb). I don’t know why it bothers me, but my work is often described as “felted” when it is not. Felting has a rich history and has been around since ancient times. The verb to felt involves the manipulation and meshing of wool fleece fibers to form sheets of felt or 3-dimensional felted forms. Needle felting is immensely popular now-a-days, so I can see how the noun and verb are becoming interchangeable in some people’s minds. I’ve tried felting and think it’s fun, but find myself more interested in embroidering and decorating existing felt pieces.
nativity project from Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures
from Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures 2015
Many of you have said that embellishing and stitching together little outfits is your favorite part of making the dolls from Felt Wee Folk. Women of a certain age have fond memories of sewing felt clothing for their Troll dolls during their first invasion in the 60’s. The later version of wide eyed Troll dolls where much cuter and not as appealing, in my opinion. I can still remember sewing snaps on my Troll clothes and trying to figure out whether to make the stitches jump from hole to hole or go outside the snap. I decided that it doesn’t matter which is the “right” way and tried both. Decades later, I’m still figuring out new ways to make and clothe little dolls and my early experience with making Troll clothes may have been what spurred me into writing how-to books.
project from Felt Wee Folk – New Adventures
To keep up with new posts, 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.
SALLEY MAVOR 
