sketchbook : week 10

April 25, 2015
by annwood

Week 10 in my yearlong sketchbook practice. 10 weeks, 70 little experiments. I started to lay them all out chronologically on the floor and realized I didn’t have enough space, it would take some time and it was going to be lots of fun. So I’m saving that for a while – maybe I’ll wait until I’m done.  Also in answer to a question – I use a variety of things for these- usually a mix of pencil, charcoal, acrylic, gouache and watercolor and the little  4.5 inch squares are cut from Arches hot pressed paper  – it’s my favorite.

experiments on paper

sketchbook week 10

sleepy lambs and goats : a sewing pattern

April 21, 2015
by annwood
lamb and goat sewing pattern

I’m so happy to finally publish this pattern! I hope you enjoy it. A dear little lamb and goat to sew.  What’s cuter than baby lambs and goats – nothing- absolutely nothing.

Please meet Smokey and Pearl:

lamb and goat sewing pattern
lamb and goat pattern

Pattern details:

Skill level is advanced beginners and above – requiring basic hand and machine sewing experience. If you don’t have experience sewing 3 dimensional shapes this is an opportunity to learn about darts and gussets. There are tips along the way for beginners, and the instructions are very detailed.

Included:

full sized pattern pieces
detailed step-by-step instructions
color photographs – there are 54 instructional photos
resource list with links
A small glossary of terms for beginners

lamb and goat sewing pattern

lamb and goat sewing pattern

lamb pattern page

lamb and goat sewing pattern

I hope you make lambs and goats! I feel like if you show up at a baby shower with your own handmade Smokey or Pearl you should be prepared to revive people – they are so sweet it’s almost too much.

P.S. – I’m having a sample sale at the end of the week of some of the many prototypes I made along the way  – check back for details.

*Update – sorry for the delay – the sample sale will be up tomorrow – 4/30.

lamb and goat sewing pattern

the makerie workshop and sweet paul magazine

April 16, 2015
by annwood
sweet paul magazine

I spent last weekend in Philadelphia teaching at the sweet Paul Makerie. I came home equally spent and inspired. The whole Makerie experience was fabulous – fascinating people, spectacular class line up (I would have loved to take all of them) and it had Sweet Paul all over it – every detail thoughtful and exquisite.

I taught Stitched Botanicals – seed pod forms in textiles. Teaching is new to me and I feel my feet under me more each time. I had wonderful, generous, open students – willing and enthusiastic about trying stuff – I was blown away with what people made.

botanical textile art

botanical textile art at the sweet paul makerieGetting out of my cozy bubble once in a while is so good for me, this was, among other things, a gathering of like minded women, there was such a feeling of belonging and I learned a ton. I came home with a bunch of new ideas and feeling like my world got bigger.

makerie students

I’ve been a huge fan of Sweet Paul since he began way back in olden times.  Before the magazine there was a blog and then a digital magazine and now the gorgeous quarterly print magazine.

sweet paul magazine

 

sweet paul magazine

It’s exceptional – the kind of thing you save. Paul came to visit last October and I’m featured in the current edition. I couldn’t be more excited – there is an interview and pictures of my place and work. It was shot by Colin Cooke whom I loved. I’m terribly awkward about having my picture taken and he taught me a fabulous technique I call “laughing to the side” – check it out in the feature or see it employed on my about page.

sketchbook : week 8

April 15, 2015
by annwood

Week 8 in my yearlong sketchbook practice. Sketchbook will be back to it’s regularly scheduled Saturday posting time this week – I was teaching in Philadelphia last week. I was super stretched and would have loved to blow the whole thing off  but I’m glad I didn’t. Getting it done the second half of the week was a little torturous and it feels pretty awkward to share things I don’t feel good about but it’s part of the exercise and this exercise has been incredibly good for me.

sketchbook week 8

my big creative year : permission to rest

April 14, 2015
by annwood

I took the day off yesterday, for reals, like I haven’t in a long time. I didn’t set an alarm and erased my agenda for the day. I had coffee in bed and got up around noon. It was not not exactly by choice – I was just useless.

I came back from teaching at the Sweet Paul Makerie in Philadelphia late Sunday night and I was completely out of gas. Even this morning my brain and various other important parts are just starting to work again. The weekend was fabulous and I’ll post about it after I get caught up on things – like getting last week’s sketchbook scanned, formatted and posted. This week is pretty discombobulated because of being away, and so very, very busy while I was away, but things will be back to posting at their regularly scheduled times next week.

For this week’s Big Creative Year post a couple thoughts on something I need to pay attention to: down time, rest, real rest. My inclination is to fill every space with something to do and ignore or under value the need for rest. It feels good to spend it all once in a while, to exhaust myself completely like I did this past weekend and it felt good to spend a day doing nothing yesterday. It was glorious, I had the afore mentioned lazy start and I hung out in the big chair, drank tons of licorice tea and looked at magazines for hours (I can’t recall the last time I did that).

the big chair

My bigger concern is my chronic need for some downtime – I don’t really take significant breaks – relaxing will happen at some undetermined time in the future when I’m less busy. That idea doesn’t work. My new plan, my new experiment is to find a way to take one day a week completely off. To plan for it and make it mandatory. It’s alarming that at this moment I can’t even imagine what that would be like. I’ll tell you more about how I plan to make it happen in next weeks BCY post on a subject I’ve been understanding in a new way lately : margin.

my big creative year : working and listening

April 6, 2015
by annwood

textile art seed pod

While I sew I listen and learn. I love a day with a big stack of sewing to do and no other distractions or obligations and a days worth of podcast’s, interviews, ted talks etc. to listen to. There are some episodes I return to again and again. I’ve chosen a few of my favorites to share with you below and I’ll add to this list  – please check back for more and if you have favorites to share please do in the comments. And listen with me today – at this very moment I’m packing kits for my Sweet Paul Makerie workshop this weekend and I’m about to tune in to Abby Glassenberg’s interview with Rebecca Ringquist. I’ve been looking foward to this one! I’m a huge fan of Rebecca and her work.

The Unmistakable Creative – writer  Esme Wang –  Diagnosed with devastating mental illness as teenager Esme talks about coping through writing – her story is powerful and she tells it honestly and beautifully.

Ted Talk – writer Elizabeth Gilbert – on genius, success, creativity, work and inspiration.

While She Naps – Jess Brown – I love Jess Brown’s rag dolls and enjoyed listening to how they came to be and the challenges, twists and turns in nurturing and growing a very personal business.

The Unmistakable Creative- MacGuyver creator – Lee Zlotoff – on creative work, ideas, and the power of your subconscious. I use the thinking tool learned here everyday.

The Unmistakable Creative- Founder of the 5 Minute Journal- UJ Ramdass – on the power of gratitude.

The Good Life Project – artist  Debbie Millman –  serendipity, fear and creating happiness.

 

 

pattern work : lambs

April 1, 2015
by annwood

I ran into a snag with my lamb pattern, a major do over, so it won’t be out this week but when it is ready (hopefully next week-ish) it’s going to be pretty deluxe. There will be a basic standing lamb pattern as well as a collection with a couple other sleepy four legged creatures. I’m also working on a reclining lamb – it’s something I’ve been playing with for a long time and I think I’ve just about got it. I’m pretty excited about my progress – it’s been driving me crazy but it finally started to come together this week.

lambs

One of the biggest challenges for me in creating patterns is getting the shape that I want while keeping the templates as simple as possible.  I’m great at unnecessary complications and the lamb needed some rigorous editing. I also wasn’t happy with his butt – the result was just a little bit inconsistent  – my last draft fixed that and now the pattern produces a consistent, properly round, lamb butt result.

lambs

I also finished a wedding party last week: mr. and mrs. and ten little attendants.

diane_wedding_party

wedding partyAnd just the ladies.

It occurred to me while I was making this set that this is the 10 year anniversary of these little birds. I first started making them in 2005.  The original birds were made for a shop holiday window display – I wish I had pictures.  I can’t even begin to imagine how many of these little creatures I’m made over the last decade.

sketchbook : week 6

March 28, 2015
by annwood
sketchbook - week 6

Week 6 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.  I get a lot of information about myself as I make these little experiments. I notice the grooves and paths in my thinking and impulses – colors and shapes, lines, moods and ideas I gravitate to. Sometimes that feels familiar and good, it feels like my natural vocabulary, and other times I try to push myself out of those grooves, just to see. The older I get the more interested I am in the murky uncharted places.

week_6

on my work table

March 26, 2015
by annwood
paper mache ship

I love fabric.  I do – I think I’m genetically predisposed and I’m attracted to the possibilities. I use mostly found and salvaged things, garments, quilts etc. but I get pretty excited  about a good solid fabric store too. My favorites in New York are New York Elegant Fabrics on 40th St. and Purl in Soho. Purl is so pretty – I stopped by yesterday for supplies for two of the new patterns I’m working on.

purl_fabricsI could have spent the whole day there and I wish I had taken a couple photos – the shop is beautiful, they are truly masters of display – the place makes you want to make stuff and buy stuff.  I’m working on a lamb pattern  that will be out next week and something new – that’s what the metalics are for – I hope I can show you the prototype for that the end of next week.  And I’m building ships, I always build ships in the spring.

paper mache ship

It’s a pearly grey day in Brooklyn – perfect for twinkle lights and twirling ships. This one is the large ship from the ship pattern collection – I modified the sides a bit – made it dip a little lower on the sides in the middle. You can get all kinds of interesting effects by playing with the side templates. I’m putting together a post of ships and boats made from the pattern- if you’d like to be included you can email photos to me at ann at ann wood handmade dot com.

 

sketchbook : week 5

March 21, 2015
by annwood

Week 5 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.  I really struggled to find the time this week – lots going on – but I did and was always happy  in that little drawing and painting part of my day. I was often  miserable thinking about doing it but not once I got started and settled in to it.  I don’t always, or even usually  love what I make but I do try to stick with them until I feel like I’ve gotten somewhere. This truly is an exercise and it is becoming a habit.

week 5