Salley Mavor will talk about her journey as an artist who tells stories with three-dimensional embroidery. The presentation will cover a wide range of creative endeavours, from illustration to doll-making to stop-motion animation, demonstrating that there are no limits to what can be expressed with a needle and thread! This is an opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes peek at Ms. Mavor’s innovative creative process, which is unmatched within the fibre art world.

Members, sign in to My EAC/Mon ACB to register for Salley’s informative presentation on Saturday, October 14.

• 4:30 pm Newfoundland Standard Time
• 4 pm Atlantic Standard Time
• 3 pm Eastern Standard Time
• 2 pm Central Standard Time
• 1 pm Mountain Standard Time
• noon Pacific Standard Time

Salley Mavor grew up in the village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts in a family who connected with their community through art, music and dance.  At home, there were always art supplies close at hand and a sense that time was available for creative pursuit. Drawing with crayons was never enough for Salley. She remembers feeling that her pictures were not finished until something real was glued, stapled or sewn to it. At a young age, she held an open-minded view of what constitutes art, writing in a 1964 school essay at age nine, “Art is everything… records, clocks, blackboards, people, snowflakes and everything. That is why I like art.”

As an illustration major at the Rhode Island School of Design in the 1970s, she left traditional mediums behind, preferring to communicate her ideas with sculptural needlework. For most of her 45-year career, she has followed this path, creating narrative scenes in bas-relief, much like miniature, shallow stage sets, with figures and props attached to embellished fabric backgrounds. She has spent decades developing her signature style and working methods, carving out her own niche within the children’s book world and the fibre art community.

Ms. Mavor has illustrated 11 picture books using her distinctive blend of materials and hand-stitching techniques, including Pocketful of Posies, which won the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the 2011 Golden Kite Award. Her popular how-to book, Felt Wee Folk is in its second edition, inspiring creativity in all ages. Her most recent picture book is My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep Around the World. She lives and works in her home studio in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

You can see more about Salley and her creations on her website at weefolkstudio.com.