Salley Mavor: Picture Book Illustration Golden Kite Award Winner

Sarah Stern says one of the reasons Salley Mavor's POCKET FULL OF POSIES won this year's Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration is that every single page is beautifully crafted and embroidered, lovingly and carefully worked on for years at a time.

Some quotes from Salley's acceptance speech:

It is a great honor to have my work recognized this way.... Since my first book, THE WAY HOME, was published 20 years ago, I've felt like an outsider paddling upstream—with a needle and thimble in a stream of watercolors. Now I feel I'm floating down a stream of possibilities.

Some people Salley wanted to thank:

Margaret Raymo, her editor, who was patient while Salley worked, sometimes for a year at a time, without showing Margaret anything.
Salley's husband, who has encouraged her work and never suggested she get a "real" job.

from her Amazon page

Quotes from Salley's about her art style, which she calls fabric relief, and how she began to create in fabric:

I say I am part of the "slow art movement."

Machines are no help, everything is done by hand.

Growing up crayons, were never enough... I'd spend hours creating scenes and clothing for my miniature dolls.

At RISD she rediscovered her love of 3D art and had teachers that encouraged her to work outside of the yoke of traditional illustration mediums. It's during this time Salley taught herself to embroider.

Salley is an active blogger and I love the photos she posts. Check them out here. Her work can be found in a touring exhibit AND you can even learn how to do fabric relief by picking up her book, FELT WEE FOLK.