my mom, Mary Louise Hartwell, about 1930

I saw the new movie, The Artist (see the trailer here) the other night and walked out of the theater thinking about tap dancing, which is featured at the very end. That got me thinking about my mother’s life as a girl during the movie’s time period (late 1920′s-early 30′s). She took tap dancing lessons and I still have her Bell Tone taps, which I sewed into this little hanging I made years ago. It’s a forerunner to the wedding banners I’ve been making lately, which you can see here.

My Mom was one of the lucky girls of her generation to have a Shirley Temple doll, which I now have. The doll has been stored in her original wardrobe trunk all these years.

Shirley Temple was discovered at the age of 3 and became a hugely popular movie star when “Talkies” began to replace silent films in Hollywood in the 1930′s.

 This is a sticker on the doll’s trunk.

I found Shirley inside, along with a closet and card board drawers full of clothes.

She looks in pretty good shape. I remember seeing the doll as a child, but thankfully, she was kept away from our grubby fingers.

The pile of clothes includes some home-made ones as well as some outfits with “genuine” Shirley Temple tags.

This doll is a treasure to cherish. I’m glad to have this memory of my mother and time’s past.

I’m still going through the 1000+ photos from our trip to Turkey last fall and have decided to post this group from Bodrum, which is located on the south-western coast.  We had this hill-top view from our hotel, where we stayed before we met up with our chartered boat and started cruising around the area. 

In the morning, we walked downhill into the town, past these white washed houses.

And walked over to see Bodrum Castle, which was built by Crusader Knights in 1402.

We saw suits of chain mail armor on display.

Inside the castle was a museum with ancient stone sculptures lying around the courtyard.

This statues looked better with a head (my husband Rob’s).

We saw amphoras stacked together, as if they were in the hull of a ship.

Then we walked along the pier, wondering which boat would take us out to sea. On top of this bright pink car, the sign says TAKSI. We learned that there is no X in their alphabet.

Fishmongers were set up on the docks.

The next day, we headed out on our cruise, which I wrote about here.

Self Portrait detail

My show, Salley Mavor: Sewn Stories will be at the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont for just 2 more weeks. It’s a wonderful little museum in a great town! Many people have seen the exhibit since it opened last July , but I know there are others who have been thinking about going, so now is the time. The show will be there through Sunday, February 5th, 2012.

The show includes several originals from Pocketful of Posies as well as illustrations from some of my other books. My Self Portrait: A Personal History of Fashion and Rabbitat are on display, too. After the show ends, the self-portrait will be returning to its semi-permanent home at the Woods Hole Public Library.

I don’t usually toot my own horn so loudly, but I want to share a few sentences from this review of the show, which came out in Art New England: 

“In astonishing detail, Mavor’s work above all conveys an artist who is entirely present. Beyond merely illustrating a story or poem, she brings us into it. Engaging with these works is like searching for stars in the night sky–at first we don’t recognize the extent of the delicate endless stitching, but as we keep our eyes focused, more and more appear. Surely her thread is gossamer, her fingers unimaginably nimble.”

I thought I’d come out of my blissful hibernation just long enough to show a few pictures of my studio in its current state of messiness (productivity). For some people, winter is to be endured, but I love this time of year, when I can spent hours working on projects, with less distractions. Last winter I spent 4 months working on the Rabbitat piece. See the short film and posts about it here. This winter, I’ve started constructing scenery and characters to use in stop-motion animation, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time. My husband, Rob and I are working together on the project and have started experimenting. We’re not ready to show anything or describe the story yet and are still in the early learning stages of the production. The process is incredibly time-consuming and we’ll be happy if we can put together a 2 minute film. I guess I wanted to show that I’m busy working!

We thought our “gulet’ would be a sailing ship, but the mast and boom held no sails or rigging. It seems that these traditional style boats are rarely seen under sail and are used primarily as motor boats.

There were 4 passengers and 3 crew, including a cook who introduced us to some wonderful Turkish food.

We had beautiful weather, without a drop of rain.

Our captain took us to some secluded harbors.

It was late in the season, so we didn’t see many other boats except for a few fishing vessels.

Some spots had trails which took us to inland homesteads, like this farm.

This cove is called “Cleopatra’s beach”. Who knows if she ever came here, but it’s on a little island with ancient relics all over the place.  

There’s an impressive amphitheatre…

with huge trees growing out of the stone seating.

And what is left of the town’s buildings.

The Mediterranean looked beautiful!

The hills in the background are on the mainland.

One time an ice cream boat came by!

A week on the water was a wonderful, relaxing way to be start our visit to Turkey.

We headed back to Bodrum (I’ll show more in a future post) and flew to Istanbul the next day.

David Wiesner (the amazing children’s book illustrator) and I were in the same class at RISD (1978) and he bought some of my pins back then. See posts about my pins here. He gave them to his future wife, Kim Kahng, who was a student at Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia during that time. At RISD, David and I were lucky enough to have David McCaulay as a teacher. See the pyramid pin I gave him here. Several years ago, David and Kim’s apartment was destroyed by a fire and everything was lost, including the pins.  Years passed and David was reminded of the pins when we recently got back in touch. He thought it would be nice for Kim to have a new pin. I found out that she is a pianist and since I had just returned from visiting Istanbul, where carpets are sold at every street corner, I made a piano flying on a carpet. The pin is about 1 1/4″ x 2″. As you can see I made use of hooks and eyes. David reports that Kim is wearing the pin every day! I’m amazed at how the pins I made 35 years ago still hold memories.

Drum roll, please. The winner is Marianne Monaghan! I’ll notify her by e-mail and find out where to send the poster. Anyone who’d like to buy posters ($7 within the US, $10 outside the US) from the Horn Book can call (Eastern Standard Time) or email any of the following:

800-325-9558 ext 7942,  614-873-7942,  info@hbook.com

I gave a poster to Woods Hole Library Director Margaret McCormick, to hang up in our library.

I just had to show you this picture of one-year-old Helen dressed as a lamb, which was in the most recent Woods Hole Library newsletter. Her mother, Kellie Porter was working at the desk in the library when I brought in the poster. Kellie and I were both surprised to see the similarity between her daughter/lamb and my little girl/lamb swinging from the tree in the poster. I made the artwork for the magazine this past summer and Kellie hadn’t seen the Horn Book cover until I showed her the poster, so the resemblance was unexpected. By the way, Helen’s costume is not homemade, but I think it could easily be copied. I wish I had thought to add a collar and bell!

As promised in the earlier post of Turkish Doorways, here is a selection of window pictures, which I took on my recent trip to Turkey.  My traveling mates learned to be patient while I stopped to click photos around almost every corner. What is it about windows and doors that makes me stop and look? They frame shapes, patterns and textures that reflect the style and culture of a place, as well as bring a mood of mystery as to what’s on the other side.

The Jan/Feb issue of The Horn Book Magazine is out, with my illustration on the cover. This issue has many wonderful articles and book reviews, including the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award speeches, which were delivered at the colloquium on Sept. 30th. Subscribers will soon be receiving their copies. You can read my “Pocketful of Posies” speech in the magazine or on the Horn Book website, which includes a close up photo of my hands making a tiny hand. They’ve  also printed a poster that will be given away at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas, TX, Jan. 20-24. So, if you’re a librarian who will be there or know a librarian who’s going, have them pick up a poster at the Horn Book booth. At the end of this post, I’ll announce a Poster Giveaway and also give information about ordering magazines or posters through the mail.

Read on to see the process of making the cover illustration, which I worked on for about 6 weeks this past summer. I first found a twisted vine to use as the central tree and made a sketch with the Horn Book logo and child characters. The original size is about 12″ wide and 18″ high. I drilled holes on the vine where wire branches would go.

To form the branches, I covered wire with felt and embroidered them to match the real vine/tree trunk. This coiled branch has thread-wrapped wire thorns attached.

The Horn Book logo was rendered in wire branches and found objects. For one of the O’s, I sawed the back of a walnut-shell, so that it would lay flat and not stick out too much.  The O in the word Horn is a nest-like acorn cap from an oak tree in Iowa and the B’s spiky acorn caps are from northern California.

For the background, a solid color looked too plain, so I stitched together scraps of naturally dyed wool felt to make a more interesting field for the action. 

I made a little fairy to fit in the walnut-shell.

I didn’t want the characters to be animals, but children dressed in animal costumes. So, I made every effort to make them look like children by giving them bangs, ponytails, hands and shoes.

During the process, I changed some of the characters in the original sketch and substituted a boy in a dinosaur costume pulling an acorn cap wheeled wagon full of books.

I printed out the words on acetate, so that I’d be sure to leave enough room at the bottom edge. I then embroidered plants and leaves to the felt background.

This little child/mouse is having red shoes made.

The Horn Book staff suggested I include a reading child, so I made a felt book for the face-painted mouse.

All of the parts piled up as I worked. It’s a miracle nothing got lost!

It was really fun thinking up costumes to make for these kids. I wanted to create a scene of children immersed in imaginary play and story.

I added a sun to the upper left corner and embroidered a wavy chain-stitched border. Then, I sewed the felt background to a sheet of foam core board, pulling it flat and straight.

Then, I stitched the tree, characters and other props in place, right through the foam core board. After everything was in place, I took it to the photographer, so he could take its picture. After that, I removed it from the foam core board and remounted the felt background and all of the parts on a cloth-covered stretcher. It is now framed behind glass and was recently bought by a collector. It was a joy to work on this project with Lolly Robinson at the Horn Book Magazine! Having my illustration on the cover will be a great opportunity for many people to discover my work for the first time.

OK, so here’s the scoop on the (signed) Poster Giveaway: Please leave a comment on this post (international, too) by midnight, Friday, January 6th, 2012 and a winner will be picked at random.

Magazine Orders: To special order the January/February issue of the Horn Book Magazine, go here.

Poster Orders: Please call Customer Service toll-free at 1-800-325-9558 ext 7942 (US only),  614-873-7942, Monday-Friday, 9:00 to 5:00 EST or write  info@hbook.com .  They accept MasterCard and Visa.  Or send your check or money order (made out to Horn Book Inc.) to Customer Service, 7858 Industrial Parkway, Plain City OH 43064. Be sure to specify which poster you want.
Price: $7 (includes shipping and handling) within the US, $10 outside the US

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

Salley, age 8

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.

detail from "One Misty, Moisty Morning" in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!

detail from "Little Jack Horner" in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.

detail of balsam pillow in "Felt Wee Folk" 2003

And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

detail from "Little Jack Horner" in "Pocketful of Posies" 2010