Last month, during Holidays at Highfield, my friend Celeste and some other lovely young dancers spent an afternoon in their Nutcracker costumes, circulating among the visitors. Here she is, posed in front of my doll house and Pocketful of Posies tree. I’m happy to have Celeste back on this blog. She’s has been featured before; Celeste’s class visits Highfield, Dolls from Istanbul, Wee Yo Yo Ma.
Beginning this coming Saturday, I will be giving several talks about my artwork in 2014. Some presentations will be to quilting guilds and others are in conjunction with art exhibits. I hope that many of you who live close enough will attend an event. As well as telling the story of my artistic development, I plan to bring along my Self Portrait: A Personal History of Fashion. See the current schedule of events below:
Keep up with my schedule on the Events Page.
Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014, 2:00 pm, In conjunction with her exhibit, Pocketful of Posies (11/9/13 ~ 2/16/14), Salley Mavor will give an artist talk, “Once Upon a Thread” at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, Massachusetts.
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, 10 am, Plymouth County Cranberry Quilters, Carver Public Library, 2 Meadowbrook Way, Carver, MA. Members free; guests $5.00.
Tues., Feb. 25, 2014, 7:00 pm Bayberry Quilters ~ Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, Harwich, MA and Wed., Feb. 26, 2014, 9:00 am at Our Lady of the Cape Church, 468 Stony Brook Rd., Brewster, MA. Members free, guests $5.00. http://www.bayberryquiltersofcapecod.com/
March 29, 2014, 3:00 pm ~ Closing event and talk at Gallery 65 on William, New Bedford MA. Pocketful of Posies Exhibit is on display Feb. 27 ~ March 29.
Friday, May 9, 2014, 7:00 pm In conjunction with her Pocketful of Posies exhibit (April 5 – May 27), Salley Mavor will give a presentation about her work at the Cotuit Public Library.
July 4 – August 16, 2014 ~ Salley Mavor: Expressions in Stitches: Then and Now Falmouth Historical Society, Falmouth, MA. Opening reception and artist’s talk ~ Sat., July 12, time to be announced.
UPDATE: Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures was published in 2015. The following post was written in 2013.
I’ve recently finished making a group of wedding couples for the new edition of Felt Wee Folk (2015 pub date). While I was working on them, I imagined that the dolls would be photographed on a cake, lined up on tiered layers. As a prop, the cake didn’t have to be real, but I wanted it to look realistic. My friend Terry McKee provided technical assistance and moral support as we spent 2 afternoons in my kitchen working the problem. Terry and I have teamed up on a number of projects, including a real wedding cake and a baby quilt.
We quickly found out that the sharp edges of the Styrofoam cake forms tear through the fondant, so we changed our approach. We padded the sharp edge with fondant and abandoned the by-the-book instructions that called for draping the cake over the top and sides with one piece of fondant. We decided that a top and collar would work better, since we would be able to cover any seams with frosting later.
Here’s Terry rolling out the fondant collar. It took most of the afternoon to cover both tiers and the base.
I lined up the dolls to see if they would all fit. After Terry went home, I spent the rest of the afternoon decorating the cake with pieces of fondant that I cut out with leaf and moon shaped cookie cutters.
On day 2 we resumed work on the cake. Terry put her piping skills to work as she applied frosting around the edges.
I piped out some squiggles on top and voila, a wedding cake! Terry was a big help and it’s always more fun to work together as we tackle these new and unfamiliar projects. The cake should last a bit, being just sugar and styrofoam. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it after we photograph the scene.
Rob and I set up the cake in the light box, with a silk curtain behind and took photographs for the book. Autographed copies of Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures with extra goodies are available in my Shop.
UPDATE: In the years since the book was published, I’m made several custom wedding cake toppers for friends and family, which are in the archives.
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The 3 year Pocketful of Posies Traveling Exhibit was originally scheduled to end at the end of 2013, but I’m happy to say that it has spilled over into 2014. Sold pieces will go to their owners, but I’m holding onto about half of the collection, so that they can continue to be exhibited.
I just got word today that the show at the Cape Cod Museum of Art has been extended 3 more weeks, until Feb. 16th. Here’s the current 2014 schedule:
Nov. 9, 2013 – Feb. 16, 2014 at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, Massachusetts (25 pieces shown) Saturday, January 4th, 2:00 pm ~ Artist’s Talk, “Once Upon a Thread” by Salley Mavor.
Nov. 21 – Dec. 29, 2013 at the New England Quilt Museum, classroom gallery, Lowell, Massachusetts (25 pieces shown)
Feb. 25 – March 29, 2014 at Gallery 65 on William, New Bedford, Massachusetts (20 pieces shown) Saturday, March 29, 3:00 pm ~ Artist’s Talk by Salley Mavor to be followed by a closing reception. Right down the street, Birds of Beebe Woods will be exhibited in Fiber in the Present Tense 2014, at ArtWorks! during the same time.
April 5 – May 27, 2014 at the Cotuit Public Library, Cotuit, Massachusetts (20 pieces shown) May 9, 7:00pm ~ Artist’s Talk by Salley Mavor
July 5 – August 17, 2014 at the Lexington Public Library, Lexington, Kentucky (20 pieces shown)
More locations will be added as venues and dates are confirmed. Are you interested in hosting a future exhibit? Inquiries are welcome from museums, art centers and libraries with funds for shipping and insurance. (weefolk@cape.com).
With the cold of winter upon us, it’s been easy to get into the spirit of my next scene for the 2nd edition of Felt Wee Folk, which will be published in 2015. The set-up includes a snowy hillside and an icy pond made of paraffin. I built the hill with chicken wire and wood. Then, I covered it with old-fashioned fluffy “snow” fabric that drapes in a convincing snow-like manner. I sprinkled on a product called Buffalo Snow Flurries, which looks like plastic bag material chewed up into really small pieces. It falls and glitters like snow, but feels nasty and gets over everything. I added old fake pine trees that my husband’s family had and some real bayberry branches that look like miniature trees.
We’ve moved the photography operation into my studio and used a light box for the first time. With flood lights shining on the outside of its white walls, a softly lit space is created inside. Rob set up his computer on my ironing board and monitored the shots.
The dolls in the scene are skiing, skating, sledding, tobogganing and making a snow man. Even Jack Frost makes an appearance!
Since I was in her neighborhood yesterday, I dropped in on Mimi Kirchner. We had a cup of tea and chatted in her studio. If you haven’t seen her stuff, take a look at her blog here. She’s been really busy making her wonderful dolls and tiny world pin cushions. I loved seeing all of her half finished projects lying around.
Then I headed over to Lexington, where I spoke to the members of the Rising Star Quilt Guild. I love meeting and talking with quilters because, not only are they generally nice people, they get the fabric and sewing thing. Here I am, signing books after my presentation.
I am pleased to announce the the “Pocketful of Posies” tree has returned for another season–this year it is set up in the front entrance of Highfield Hall in Falmouth, MA. The tree, which is decorated with nursery rhyme themed ornaments/vignettes based on my book, Pocketful of Posies, will be on display during Holidays at Highfield (Nov. 29 – Dec. 8, noon ~ 4pm). My dollhouse and 5 original fabric relief illustrations from my book, In the Heart are also on display.
I made the ornaments for last year’s Family Trees event at the Concord Museum and I was happy to bring them back for this year’s event at Highfield Hall.
Here are closeups of some of the ornaments/vignettes.
The 10 day event got off to a great start, with lots and lots of visitors stopping by Highfield on Friday. The building is beautifully decorated upstairs and downstairs. I feel honored to be a part of such a fun and lively event!
My circa 1975 dollhouse is getting spruced up for the holidays. I was asked to bring it over to Highfield Hall and have it on display during their 10 day Holidays at Highfield event (Nov. 29 – Dec. 8, 2013). It’s been a while since the house has been out in public, so I thought I’d fix it up for the occasion. I added some green shutters and trim and decorated the plain pink triangle under the roof with a painted foliage design.
I made this dollhouse one summer vacation, between years in art school. Following a plan in a book, I cut the wood pieces and constructed it in my father’s workshop in our basement. I can remember being so engrossed in the project that would lie in bed at night thinking about how I would decorate the rooms. I remember feeling guilty, because I thought I should be focused on finding a boy friend, instead of dreaming about a dollhouse! Years later, I’m still dreaming about making art.
It was so much fun to make back then and it’s still fun to work on now. The doll house family is new–they will be included in my new book, Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures. As I’ve written before, I can’t show detailed photos of the dolls until 2015, when the book is published and my designs are protected by registered copyrights.
I’ve added evergreen garlands and Christmas lights to the house and the Small family is busy decorating their tree, cooking and wrapping presents. To keep little (and big) hands away, the rooms will be covered with Plexiglas. To see more decorations and who’s come to visit, scroll down to the end of this post.
My Pocketful of Posies tree (see a post about it here) will also be on display during the 10 day event. I hope that some of you will be able to join the festivities at Highfield this season!
This past week, Rob and I spent a day traveling down the Old King’s Highway (Rt. 6A Cape Cod), which is the largest historic district in America. The “old king” refers to whoever was king of England when the route was being settled by early colonists in the 1600’s. It was a beautiful day to drive through the villages along the way. Cape Cod is many miles long and I don’t often have a reason to travel down Cape from Falmouth, so it was fun to be a tourist for a day. We had a couple of places to go. First was the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, where I spoke to a group of docents about my Pocketful of Posies exhibit, which will be on display through Jan. 26, 2014. In this photo, it looks like I’m about to launch into a tap dance routine, which I wish I could do. I must just be answering a question or emphasizing some point. I gave some background information about my artwork and career, so that they would have some stories to share with visitors. The docents were an enthusiastic audience, with lots of great questions. They even took notes!
The artwork is hung low, so that all ages can see up close. I can’t get over how perfect the gallery’s golden wall color looks! And I really like how the frames are clustered together in group-lets. My only complaint is with the misspelling of my name on the wall, which they’ve promised to correct! Adding the “e” to Salley is a life time job.
Since we were going to be in the neighborhood, I arranged ahead of time to stop by Titcomb’s Bookstore in Sandwich and sign books. I posed with their Colonially dressed statue out front and noticed our matching coats and hair styles. I should have brought my tricornere hat!
Their store is in an old house crammed with shelves and tables full of books and incidental gifts for sale. I sat down at the old school desk in the corner and signed a stack of books they had waiting for me. The owner, Vicky Titcomb, has been sending customers down to see the exhibit at the museum. I hope that some of you will take a drive down the beautiful Old King’s Highway some time!
This poster/flyer announces 2 separate events happening soon at different locations in the Boston area; my exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA and my lecture with the Rising Star Quilt Guild in Lexington, MA. Do you want copies of your own? It’s available in a PDF file for you to print out on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Just request it in a comment and I’ll send you the PDF file via e-mail. Don’t worry, your e-mail address does not appear publicly.
I’d love some help spreading the word about these events to interested people, so please feel free to distribute and post the poster.
SALLEY MAVOR 