Maggie’s Magical World of Mice
Candy Puterbaugh
50plus Magazine
MAGGIE RUDY DOESN’T MIND finding mice at her home in the woods. They magically changed her life at age six after buying felt ones from an English toy shop. Those timeworn mice later inspired a business of creating mice, mouse apparel, and whimsical settings — all to illustrate children’s books. She hopes the magic she felt touching those toy shop mice will touch the hearts of children.
A curving staircase lined with Maggie’s paintings leads to her colorful upstairs studio — a miniature mouse world dubbed “Mouseland.” There she creates daily, surrounded by wall-to-wall work and supplies: shelves, bins and drawers of felt and fabric scraps, paint, scissors, beads, thread, pliers, markers, and scenes in plexiglass boxes. One bin is piled high with clothed mice — in ballgowns, nightgowns, jeans, sweaters, even heels.
“I can’t wait to get to my studio every day!” she says.“I love the process of figuring out how to make something. Sometimes I lay awake at night with new ideas churning in my head — many from my childhood. In one scene I created a meadow because as a kid I camped in meadows. Sometimes an object turns into a scene. A jeweled purse looked like a bed, so I turned it into a scene of a mouse in bed.”
Her mice — all handmade so each unique — are made of wool felt with black glass-bead eyes. Dyed pipe-cleaner spines, arms, feet, and tails make them posable. Other woodland creatures include moles, frogs, lizards, and butterflies. Tadpoles are made of artificial grapes covered with foam packaging wrap.
“I go for walks in the woods daily with our dog Homer — my eyes to the ground — looking for interesting litter and natural objects,” Maggie says. “I recently found what’s called a ‘bird’s nest fungus’ on a tiny branch. Mostly I get ideas. Natural things like flowers are sometimes too delicate, so I often use artificial flowers.” Though she once made a tiny lamp using
a poppy pod and part of a jingle bell.
Her connection to nature and art is lifelong. As a child she resided in rural Lancaster, England, for two years, among many animals. Her mother and grandmother were artists, her father a marine biologist and naturalist who raised sheep and knitted sweaters from the spun wool. Growing up in Coos Bay, Maggie majored in art at Reed College, then attended art school in Italy.
Her creativity manifests in many forms: painting, quilting, writing, illustrating, photography, and, of course, making mice. When her two sons were in school, she sent mice to incoming kindergarteners with an assignment to ease their transition to school — a tradition that still stands.
The inspiration to make books came from a visit to Beatrix Potter’s farm on a third-grade field trip. She has written and illustrated four to date. Her book, City Mouse, Country Mouse, is the retelling of the well-known story. Another, based on Cinderella, is called Sootypaws. A huge scene from that book shows a castle with a mouse guard, and a tiny lighted carriage in front — lights fashioned from fake fingernails — pulled by green lizards and driven by a frog. That scene was once displayed in a bookstore window when Maggie gave a talk.
“I made my first felt mouse 35 years ago as a birthday gift for my son’s 5-year-old friend who dreamed of rainbow-colored mice!” she says. “I used my worn toyshop mouse as a pattern. Later, more mice followed, then a house for them, more environments, photos, and children’s books.”
“I feel lucky to have work that is so exciting,” Maggie says. “I’d love to have a mouse museum some day! I want kids to be excited about the natural world, to cultivate their curiosity through my books. Mice are a stand-in for little kids — small and clever. All kids take to mice. I love kids, and I’m more a kid myself here in my studio. I’ve never really grown up!”
Candy is a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, groan-inducing punster, writer, competitive runner, pet lover and tender of gardens.