dollhouse decorated for Holidays at Highfield

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Salley Mavor

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!

day on the old king’s highway

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Salley Mavor

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!

Posies poster

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Salley Mavor

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.

Posies at New England Quilt Museum

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Salley Mavor

I am happy to announce that the Pocketful of Posies traveling exhibit will be displayed at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA from Nov. 21st ~ Dec. 28th. I’m planning to take down the show and pack up the artwork in the afternoon on Dec. 28th, so get there early if you want to see everything hung that day. But, don’t wait until the last day– go see it soon and then return with your friends! It’s also a good time of year for families in the Boston area to go during the Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations. As you know, this show is not just for children, but for all who delight in handwork and the imagination.

The original illustrations are being hung in the classroom gallery, which recently had museum lighting installed and it looks really nice. Half of the total collection of 50 pieces will be in Lowell, while the other half are currently being shown at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, in Dennis, MA until Jan. 26th, 2014. Both exhibits have been on the schedule for quite some time, so It’s feels good to finally have them up and running!

8000 views of Rabbitat film

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Salley Mavor

I am happy to say that the RABBITAT film has been viewed over 8000 times! Find links to blog posts about the process of making my piece, Rabbitat here. A great big thank you to filmmakers Daniel Cojanu and Elise Hugus from UnderCurrent Productions for encapsulating my work in such an engaging way for 7 minutes. For those of you who haven’t yet seen the film or want to look at it again, here it is:

Ireland 2013 (misc.)

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Salley Mavor

This is a selection of photos from our recent trip to Ireland that didn’t necessarily fit into one of the previous categories. They are taken on the streets of Galway, out in the countryside and in pubs and shops in various towns and villages.

Posies delivered to Cape Cod Museum

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Salley Mavor

On Monday, Rob and I drove to the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, Massachusetts, which is about an hour drive down Cape from Falmouth. We delivered 25 original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies, which will be displayed from now until January 26, 2014. My exhibit is in a gallery space just off of the main room of the museum. It’s an intimate, bright space, painted in a warm golden color, which is perfect for my small pieces. We placed the frames in groups on the floor in front of the walls, to be hung later by the museum staff.

I brought some dolls and objects to put in a nice display case in the corner. I wish that Rob had told me to pull down my shirt in back for the photo, but he doesn’t notice those kind of things.

I’m glad to have the opportunity to show some of my sculptural work in the case, which spans from 1979 to the present. Soon, I’ll be heading back to the museum, so that I can speak to the docents and give them some background information about the exhibit. At that time, it’ll be a good opportunity to take more pictures of the show all hung. And then, after the holidays, I’ll return to give an artist talk to the public on Sat., January 4th at 2:00 pm. I hope that some of you live close enough to see the show!

Studio peek-a-boo

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Salley Mavor

I just wanted to show that I am indeed working in my studio these days, a lot. Every day, if I can manage it. I’m so tempted to show what I’m making in detail, because it’s exciting and fun, but that will have to wait until 2015, when my updated version of Felt Wee Folk will be published. With design pirating in the news (see Mimi Kirchner’s post about the Cody Foster situation here), I have to be more protective of my ideas, so I’m showing pictures with the dolls at a good arms length. The book’s deadline is only a few months away and I have so much to do before then! There are more new projects to make, rewriting and adding more directions, constructing scenes for photographing finished dolls, as well as getting good photos. Phew! I’m getting nervous, just typing these words.

I recently put together a set to display a group of new dolls for the book. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what’s involved. As you can see, the domed hill top is an upside down wooden bowl, which is raised up with blocks of wood and covered with pieces of green felt. I brought the whole scene outside to have it’s photo taken. We had a short window of time to do the photography. The day before had been so windy that chairs were knocked over on our patio. Yesterday’s calm, cloud filled sky gave us even light, so I rushed to set everything up. It took about an hour to cover the hillside with moss and position the dolls.

I propped up a foam core board with felt attached for the background sky. Rob took photos of the scene.

Here are some more photos taken at a respectable distance. I’m reusing the precious moss in several scenes. As long as I keep working at this pace, I’ll get the book done in time.

Close-ups (birds)

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Salley Mavor

I’ve been using bird imagery to my artwork for a long time. The most recent is last year’s Birds of Beebe Woods piece, which has its own page here.

Let’s go way back. I embroidered the piece shown above in art school in 1974, when I was teaching myself different stitches. The little red bird below is from my first picture book, The Way Home (1991).

In the sequel, Come to My Party (1993), the bird is given a name: Harold.