Ojai House

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Last week I was in Ojai, California, staying at the wonderful Oaks at Ojai Spa. After a long hard winter spent mending my broken wrist and concussion, it was wonderful to eat healthy food and excercise in a beautiful place. I’m feeling rejuvenated and like myself again. It’s as if I went away for “the cure”. One morning, we went for an early brisk walk around Ojai and saw this most adorable house with a live oak in front. After we returned to the spa, I grabbed my camera and rushed back to take pictures in the early morning light.

Close-ups (owls)

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Owls have such distinctive shapes and characteristics that make them visually appealing. They can be identified by a simple silhouette or depicted in all their glory with every feather rendered in detail. This series begins with an owl (enlarged x 2) from an illustration for the Halloween poem in my book, You and me: Poems of Friendship and then continues with a felt purse from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. There’s the tiniest owl from In the Heart and then two from my upcoming (Sept./2010) book, Pocketful of Posies.

detail from “You and Me: Poems of Friendship” 1997

detail from “In the Heart” 2001

detail from endpapers in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

detail from endpapers “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Fairie Festival (costumes)

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Salley Mavor

People work all winter on their costumes to wear at the May Day Fairie Festival. Not just women and girls wear wings, but dogs and manly looking guys have them, too. These photos show a sampling of characters from around the fair and in my tent in years past. The Festival will be held from April 30- May 2 this year at Spoutwood Farm in Pennsylvania. You can see more photos and find out about the festival here.

Close-ups (mushrooms)

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Ah, the fascination of mushrooms, with their bizarre, alien quality. This group includes some real mushrooms I found and used as props and some I made. The first photgraph is of some mushroom houses that I made for a scene that was used in an educational reader illustration in 1979. To see more mushroom houses and read about the story in another post go here.

mushroom houses, 1979

Skip ahead 20 years to this photograph, which shows some of the first Blossom Fairies that I offered as kits in 1999.

Blossom Fairies on a mushroom, 1999

This is a pair of wee folk sitting in a cluster of mushrooms that were growing so fast that I had to run home and get my camera before they changed shape.

Wee Folk under mushroom, 2002

I molded the next mushroom from clay, glued kid leather on top and painted the leather red. For the photo shoot, I put some drops of glycerine on the mushroom to look like rain.

mushroom made from kid leather, 2005

This last one is from my up-coming book, Pocketful of Posies (Sept. 2010).

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Dragons

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Here are 2 fabric relief pictures that incorporate the story of St. George and the Dragon. These pieces were personal projects and not made for an illustration job or to be published in a book. Both “George’s Chair” and “The Storyteller” illustrate the power of the imagination, one through reading a book and the other with storytelling.

The chair was made with worn upholstery fabric and sticks out about 1″ from the surface. It has a lace doily on top and the chair’s legs are polymer clay.

George’s chain mail hood is made from metallic fabric and his arms, legs and sword are wire wrapped with metallic thread. The princess has an acorn cap crown sprayed with gold paint.

Doll Collection

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Among my family treasures is a doll collection that came from my grandmother, Louise Salley Hartwell. My first name comes from my grandmother’s maiden name. As children, we weren’t allowed to touch most of the dolls, but just gaze at them high up in shelves. She found many of the dolls in her travels and collected them throughout her long life of almost 100 years. Here is a photograph of my grandmother on her Gramma Lou’s lap, with one of her sisters. Gramma Lou lived with the Salley family in Orangeburg, SC and taught all 5 daughters how to sew.

my grandmother, Louise Salley Hartwell, on lap (1892)

Here’s a group shot of some of the dolls from the collection.

from my grandmother's doll collection

This wooden doll is about 10″ tall and most likely has been in the family its whole life. I have no information about her, but she looks very old.

Her face is painted simply, but with an intense expression and it looks like moths have eaten her wool felt hat.

Inside the silk dress hem is a cloth tag that has this written: 35-25:100-M in red ink. Her legs and arms are simple wooden pegs.

She has such a delicate little sliver of a nose attached to the wooden head.

Fairie Festival (wee folk studio)

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Wee Folk Studio went to the May Day Fairie Festival for a few years when we were still making fairy kits. We set up a tent and displayed many fairy related items. There were Blossom fairy kits, Ltd. edition dolls, note cards and books for sale. We don’t sell at fairs anymore, so we won’t be there this year, but I highly recommend going if you are at all interested in fairies and fantasy. The fair will be held April 30 – May 2nd this year at Spoutwood Farm in Pennsylvania.

Along with the 12 x 15 canvas tent, we transported a trailer full of trees, branches and vines to make an arched entryway. For me, decorating the tent , inside and out was as much an art project as making miniature dolls and illustrations.

Inside our tent, we set up tables and hung ivy and flower garlands. Here I am, early in the display phase, with the tree stump base.

We brought boxes of moss to use around the tree stump display, which I sprayed with water all weekend.

Some customers came in wearing these wonderful bark back packs. They said that they made them at a workshop.

Treasures (wooden rabbit)

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Salley Mavor

This wooden rabbit has been around since my childhood and may have been my father’s toy in the 1920’s. The front leg joints have been repaired with a knotted cord. At about 4″ long, it’s easily held and manipulated by a child. I love the simple and durable form.

The Way Home Giveaway Winners

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Salley Mavor

Thank you to all of you who read the 5-part story about my first book, The Way Home. Congratulations to the 3 winners of the giveaway! Nancy, Nikki and Carol have been selected at random and will each receive a signed copy of The Way Home. I had a lot of fun piecing together the past and would like to continue writing more stories about my other books, so keep visiting!

Close-ups (rabbits)

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Salley Mavor

“Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” Zen saying

With spring comes hope and eggs and rabbits. This series begins with a childhood drawing of a rabbit hauling an Easter egg in a wagon. Then there’s a wool tweed rabbit from a 1986 piece called “Picking Peas” (see on earlier post) and a painted faux tile that’s in my kitchen. See all the faux tiles in another post here. A rabbit tucked in bed from my book, In the Heart, comes next. Two projects from Felt Wee Folk appear; a felt pin made with a rabbit button and an appliqued felt purse.