Inspiration– Molas #2

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Last year, in a fit of organizing, I matted and framed a pile of my molas. They are from my mother’s collection and I’ve come to love and admire their meticulous and bold designs. A while ago, I wrote a post about other molas in my collection here. The black framed molas are now crowding the walls of our downstairs powder room. With no windows and damaging sunlight, it’s a good place to hang textiles. There isn’t a tub or shower, so humidity isn’t a problem, either.

Right now, the walls of the “Mola” room are white, but I plan on painting them a richer color to better compliment the frames. I could go wild, with borders and patterns, but right now I don’t have the time. It just feels good to have them all displayed together.

Baby Banner (Eliza Jane)

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Salley Mavor

My cousin John and his wife Mariana had a baby girl on March 1st, so I had to drop everything and make a baby banner for Eliza Jane. I took photos along the way, which give an idea of my process. It’s like the wedding banners I’ve been making for a few years. You can see all of them here.

I first made a simple pattern, with her name, birth date and weight written out. Then I cut out a smaller felt square and bent wire to form the letters and numbers.

I wrapped the wire with 2 strands of variegated embroidery floss, hiding the knots behind the curled ends. In this case, wire had to overlap to make the Z. I tried making the fancier lower case script Z, but it was hard to read, so I went with the simpler zigzag style. Below you can see how I made an orange stripe with another thread on top of the embroidery floss in JANE.

I like using variegated thread to edge the felt.

I made a narrow panel for a sheep button and some leaf beads.

Glass leaf beads and a chain stitched vine fill the space between the words.

I’ve had this ceramic sheep button for about 30 years. It’s so satisfying to put it to use in just the right place.

I braided some Greek leather that I bought at a bead show and made a strap to hang the banner. Working with the leather reminded me of making gimp projects at camp. Remember gimp? What a weird material!

Welcome to the world Eliza Jane!

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Turkey (people)

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Salley Mavor

I’m still combing through pictures from last fall’s trip to Turkey and put together this collection of shots with people in them. From shop keepers, to waiters, to our boat crew, we came away with a very positive impression of the people we met and found their playfulness and humor disarming.

Melissa Sweet wins Golden Kite!

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Congratulations to Melissa Sweet for winning the 2012 SCBWI Golden Kite award for picture book! Balloons Over Broadway is the wonderfully told and illustrated story of puppeteer Tony Sarg, the creative force behind Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. I had never heard of Mr. Sarg and haven’t seen the parade in New York, even on TV. The idea of watching TV during a family holiday was unthinkable while I was growing up. But, Melissa’s book has given me a new appreciation for the parade and the artistry behind it.

I love how Melissa combines watercolor paintings with collage and 3 dimensional objects. It’s encouraging to see sculptural illustration recognized this way. Melissa and I met years ago at a conference and I was struck by her unbounded creativity and willingness to experiment with all kinds of materials in her artwork. We’ve been in contact more recently, when I asked if I could use these images in my slide talk about the joys and challenges of 3 dimensional illustration. It turns out that we have the same publisher (Houghton Mifflin) and that both of our books were photographed by Rick Kyle of 5000K.

Reading and looking at the pictures in Balloons Over Broadway is a delightful experience. I’m so excited for you, Melissa!

Close-ups (sheep)

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Salley Mavor

It’s time to bring back the Close-ups. I started the series 2 years ago, when I fell off a ladder and broke my wrist. Using one hand, I wrote about and showed pictures of past projects, organized by theme. It helped me get through the 4 month recovery period, when I couldn’t sew. See the whole Close-ups series here.

Right now, I’m in hibernation, making parts that will be used in an animation my husband Rob and I are doing. This “little” project is growing into more than a winter activity, though, and it will be a long while before we’re finished. I want to wait until we have a finished film (probably a few minutes long) before we show anything, including process photos. I’ve got other art related commitments to take care of this year, so I’ll soon have to put the animation project aside until I have more time to get totally immersed.

Back to sheep–which are giving birth at this time of year. Maybe it’s their expressions, or their ears, or their white fluffy body balls with stick legs, but sheep are very satisfying to portray. This first image at the top of the post is a detail from my picture book Mary Had a Little Lamb. See more pictures from the book here. The one below is part of an embroidered piece I made in art school in 1974.

These sheep from my 1986 Noah’s Ark fabric relief, show the beginning of my love affair with French knots.

Here’s a simpler, appliqued version, which decorates a felt purse in my 2003 how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

Then, there are several details from nursery rhymes in my 2010 picture book, Pocketful of Posies.

Turkish Dolls

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Salley Mavor

I’m guessing that these 12″ dolls are Turkish, or I might be influenced by my recent visit there. (Emily just commented that she has one like the woman from Morocco.) They’re from my grandmother’s collection, which she accumulated in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I don’t remember her telling me about a trip to Turkey, but I know she traveled all over the world with her sisters after she was widowed in her early 60’s. As a child, I would gaze up at her souvenir dolls, which lived on high shelves in her living room, out of reach of young fingers.

Now, they are mostly packed away in boxes or crowded into my studio display cases.

The curious thing about these dolls is their hair. What’s with the blondish copper color? They look like Scandinavians dressed up in Ottoman costumes.

The dolls’ faces are sculpted with stockinette and painted. I find the man’s “fake snow” turban a bit bizarre, too. They certainly have a lot of character, but I find these more humorous than beautiful.

another bead show

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Salley Mavor

I’m always happy to go to a bead show. My friend Donna and I went to one at the Holiday Inn in Dedham yesterday. See last year’s post here, in which I show examples of how I’ve used some of the beads in my illustrations.

It must take the vendors forever to set up their displays. I love looking at the waves of strung beads.

Most of the beads are too shiny and glitzy for me, but they are photogenic. When I’m buying, I zero in on the few that are more in their natural state.

More sparkle and shine.

Wild Things exhibit

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Salley Mavor

"Little Miss Muffett" illustration from Pocketful of Posies

An illustration from Pocketful of Posies was part of an exhibit recently held at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. Every winter, the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod organizes an exhibit of work made by Cape Cod artists, with the purpose of exposing school children to art. There’s a different theme each year, and the latest was “Wild Things”. This exhibit ended a couple of weeks ago. Back in 2007, I made my Self Portrait for a show they put together of the same name. I try to participate every year, if I have something that fits the theme.

Local photographer Mark Chester took this B & W shot of a school group being shown the original fabric relief illustration for “Little Miss Muffett”. She held up my book, open to the printed picture and told the children how my work was used as an illustration. The tour leader is the Cotuit Center’s educational coordinator, Lenore Lyons. Mark had a photo in the show from his delightful new book of paired photographs, Twosomes. Thanks for sending over the photo, Mark! I’ll probably include Miss Muffett in the Mashpee Public Library display during the month of May and this July and August at the Mahopac Public Library, Mahopac, New York .

still animating, slowly

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Salley Mavor

My husband and I have been spending the winter learning about stop motion animation. Rob and I have been doing numerous tests, which are painstakingly slow. The patience required is a different kind than what it takes to stitch a field of French knots. You have to pay attention all the time and not zone out. The more we become familiar with the process, the more we feel like we are just scratching the surface.

We’re trying out the equipment on my fabric relief Self Portrait: a personal history of fashion (see it here), which I brought home from the show that just ended at the Brattleboro Museum. We are making an animation by rotating the piece on a lazy-susan, taking a series of close-up photos from overhead as we turn the picture incrementally. When we’re finished filming (I can’t say when), my Self Portrait will be returned to its semi-permanent home at the Woods Hole Public Library.

We’ve set up a work area in the basement. Rob is a retired engineer who loves the challenge of figuring out the technical stuff. He used to design camera equipment for remote under-water vehicles, so I’m lucky to have his expertise.

It’s hard to say when we’ll have something to show for our efforts. Right now we’re just playing, figuring out how to animate my artwork. While Rob is reviewing our new camera and learning the computer program, I’m making characters and sets for another film we’ll eventually make. As the weather gets warmer, it will be hard to stay in the basement, though. We’re taking the long view with this project–it looks like we’ll work off and on for at least a year before we have a finished film to share. Hopefully, our patience will be rewarded.

charming

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Salley Mavor

I found these charm bracelets while cleaning and organizing my studio. Some are passed down from my mother and grandmother and one is from my own childhood.

My idea of dressing up, was to wear a charm bracelet. For my 5th birthday party, I also wore turtles-in-a-row barretts.

I remember picking out these charms on our family’s trip to Europe in the summer of 1965. At ten years old, I was just old enough for our travels to make a lasting impression. We went to Greece, France and Switzerland.

The charms help me remember what we saw in Italy…

and Austria and Germany, too. Although my siblings and I spent hours in the back seat, cutting paper dolls from Archie comics, I remember the sights and experiences of this trip clearly. I think that I began to wake up to the world outside of my little village. I am thankful that my parents were willing to take us to Europe and caravan with another family for over a month. It made a difference in all of our lives.