I have a habit of buying wrapping paper that I like and keeping it for inspiration. I just can’t bring myself to cut it up. Some of this selection were actually saved by my mother, like the animals, the girl and the blue & white Amsterdam, which looks to be from the 1950’s. She used to hang up wrapping paper on the walls, a tradition I’ve continued.
La Seine-Cimera, printed in Spain
A Gordon Fraser Wrapper, printed in England
International Handprints, presented by Eleanor Finch, Clinton, Conn.
For as long as I can remember, my mother, Mary Mavor, was always knitting. In her lifetime she produced hundreds of hats, sweaters and blankets, offering them like warm hugs to her friends and family. She was most prolific with the hats, which had side flaps and a pompom on top. She started making them in the 50’s, when we were kids. The hats were not just for children, but for her adult friends, too. She’d find out what colors they liked and measure their heads, frequently testing the hat size half way through the knitting process. Just yesterday, I saw one of my mother’s good friends walking up Water St. in Woods Hole, wearing one of her hats. It’s such a cheerful reminder of her spirit.
My sons Peter and Ian in their grandmother’s hats, 1989
my son Peter in 1984, machine applique by Salley
Mum knitting, with Dad on the right, 1951
My sister, Anne Mavor, wrote a piece about our mother and her knitted hats for Interweave Knits Magazine’s Holiday issue in 2006.
Anne’s article in Interweave Knits Magazine, Holiday 2006
Here’s a sample from the article:
“Even though Mum never taught me how to knit this hat, I watched her knit hundreds of them. I know the click of the small double-pointed needles as she followed the pattern round and round. I know the curve of her hands as they lifted up a strand of blue yarn, wound it around the needle and then picked up the white. I can close my eyes and still see her hands moving, reading glasses balanced on the end of her nose, tongue working in her cheek.”
Anne with her husband Dennis and their son Rowan, 1990
Anne and Mum in 1952
Anne describes how after our mother died, she found Mum’s zipped knitting needle pouch and decides to learn how to knit the same hat with no pattern, just a sample hat to work from. She eventually figures out how to knit the hat and writes directions, which are included with the article.
She writes this at the end:
“The night before Mum died, I sat beside her bed listening to her labored breathing. She and I were suddenly not mother and daughter anymore. We were two women sitting in a nursing home bed-room, one dying, the other living for a while more. Two lives with intersecting circles that included a pouch of knitting needles and a particular three-colored hat with earflaps.”
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A good story told in combination with orchestral music is a special treat. I had the pleasure of working with my friends at Maestro Classics on one of their recent CD projects. They hope that families will be educated as well as entertained with their series of award-winning story and music CDs for children. The producers of the recordings, Bonnie and Stephen Simon, have a house in Woods Hole and we have known each other for quite a few years. I remember Bonnie talking about her idea of making recordings of the Stories in Music™ performances that her husband Stephen had conducted in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Well, they did it, and their company, Maestro Classics, now has eight CDs available, with more planned for the future. I was very excited to be asked to illustrate the CD box for Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.
The Russian story was a perfect match for my folk art style and it was a joy to bring Peter and the animals to life. In addition to designing the cover illustration with Peter and the cat in the tree, with the bird taunting the wolf, I made a scene to be used inside the case. Here’s a sketch I made of Peter with his grandfather in their fenced in yard, which later was developed into a sewn scene. My layouts are usually simply drawn, with figures and other important features positioned in the space.
Sketch of Peter and his grandfather
Later, when I’m sewing, the color and details will start to emerge. The fence posts are made from some bone beads which have been sitting patiently for years, waiting to be useful.
inside illustration from "Peter and the Wolf" CD
I also made individual characters from the story, including the hunters to be used as illustrations in a little activity booklet of games and information that comes with the CD. Lately, I’ve been using painted bead heads for some animals like cats and birds. It’s almost like a child’s costume, with a painted face and hood with ears. But, the wolf needed to have a long pointed head. It was important that he be scary and imposing, not too cute, so I gave him teeth, intense eyes, and a shaggy mane. You can see and listen to Maestro Classic’s CDs here.
Word just in that Patty from My life under the bus has announced a Felt Smack Down 2010 “Challenge Alert”. The premise of the challenge is to make something based on my Felt Wee Folk book . Please visit her blog to find out details and to let her know if you are interested in participating, since she’s limiting the number of submissions. Patty has asked me to judge the projects, which really sounds like fun. This is giving me the idea of offering some kind of contest myself in the future.
Announcement! Today, C&T Publishing’s blog is posting an article I wrote about my self-portrait. You can see it here. There are other photos of Self-Portrait: my personal history of fashion on my first blog post here.
This grouping of mother and child pictures starts with a piece I made while pregnant with my first child, in a naive style that’s also reflective of my inexperience with motherhood. Then there’s a detail from “Family Portrait”, which I made for a Christmas card in 1986, showing my son Ian in my arms. Next is a close-up from “Mother’s Dance”, a more active piece, with many gesturing arms and then a detail from a CD cover entitled “A Little Music on the Prairie”. The series ends with a nursing mother from “The Red Chair”.
detail from "Mother and Child", 1983
detail from "Family Portrait", 1986
detail from CD cover, "A Little Music on the Prairie", 1994
detail from "The Red Chair", 1994
Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.
This collection of sewing memorabilia has come my way via grandmothers and great aunts. Inside the Queen Marie needle book are several packs of gold and silver eyed sharps. Don’t you just love the idolized cover scene of 3 generations sewing together? I’ve used some of this rick rack and these hooks & eyes make hinges and door handles in my artwork. And, call me old-fashioned, but I always wear a thimble.
In the late 1980’s, my 97 year old grandmother died and we cleaned out her house in Bristol, RI. Along with drawers full of old keys and costume jewelry, I saved a stash of garter clips and kept them in wait for a future project. Their day came in 1995, when I started working on Queen with Duster.
“Queen with Duster”, fabric-relief, 10″ x 11″, 1995
I’m always on the lookout for small interesting objects that can be sewn down and I liked the pattern created with the garters lined up. The figure started out as a bride, but evolved into a queen when she was crowned with a bejeweled pin.
a collection of my grandmother’s garters
sketches for “Queen with Duster”
Her dress is made from an old wool petticoat of my grandmother’s that was washed so many times, it had become very thin felt. The silver hairpins were also my grandmother’s and she made the tatting on the bottom of the skirt. See “Pink House”, another piece made with my grandmother’s things, here.
detail from “Queen with Duster” 6″ x 4″
my grandmother, Louise (Salley) Hartwell in the 1920’s
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The pods are light and almost have the texture of handmade paper. They open up in the fall, bursting with the most delicate, downy seeds and their boat-like shape and small size make a fitting bed for a little person.
This sleeping girl nestled in her milkweed bed is in my board book, Wee Willie Winkie.
For more ideas on wee doll bedding, visit my post about walnut shells here.
Throughout her lifetime, my mother, Mary Mavor, made some beautiful Christmas cards,which she sent out every year. This selection spans many years, from the late 40’s to the 90’s. Some of her early cards were done in blue print, which she commonly used in the 50’s for reproducing small print runs.
by Mary Hartwell (Mavor), hand colored blue print, about 1947
by Mary Mavor, hand colored blue print, about 1950
SALLEY MAVOR 