blog – Page 63 – ann wood handmade

forest ballet

August 28, 2012

by annwood

Earlier this summer, on another trip to the Adirondack park, I made and photographed ( in front of my favorite mossy stump) a little troupe of forest fairy ballerinas.

The ballerinas:

miss daffodil

miss fern

miss rose

The ballerinas will be available in my shop on Thursday at 11 am ( New York time). Lately I moved ann wood handmade to a new server and this is long overdue -my old one could not handle the spikes in traffic that come with shop updates so I have been unable to share the date and time of updates to try to keep it manageable. I have felt unsure about how to test my new server in any significant way but I thought of a plan while I was away last week : it’s a particularly quiet end of summer week and a holiday weekend ( in the US anyway) so I’m going to have a couple small shop updates and share the date and time – here , and with my mailing list and facebook – I’ll share the whole schedule and another preview (songbirds) tomorrow.

road’s end

August 26, 2012

by annwood

I spent last week in the Adirondack forest, by a lake. The house is called Road’s End and it is among other things, a former turn of the century cure cottage.

There are lots of sleeping porches ( to facilitate the cure) and I used this one for my work room.

It was glorious and I sewed a ton. And when I wasn’t sewing or sleeping or swimming or reading I hiked up things. The views were spectacular.

The view from Whiteface Mountain – a frightening 3,676 ft.

And I collected twigs and whittled some beaks.

The beaks were for two songbirds I finished and photographed there – here’s a peek at those:

It turns out vacations really are good for people. I don’t take vacations. I barely take breaks or days off- partly because it needs to be that way (so far anyway) and partly because I like to work and partly because I’m pretty compulsive. I did make things and sew my ass off but there were breaks and activities outside that and there was almost no internet – that may have been what was really vacationy. What a relief. A discomfort too – but less so after a couple days.

I came home with an organized and clear head; motivated and with something that was puzzling me figured out – I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

a seaside affair

August 7, 2012

by annwood

Introducing : The Shelleys! (mary and percy).

I never planned to make another cake topper, the birds ended up in the nuptials biz by accident. Earlier in the summer I discovered a vintage souvenir seashell doll at a barn sale. I love vintage souvenirs and this one hit all the right notes for me: a small and perfect memento of a special day , a time and place, a remembrance, sweet, a little bit sad and deeply nostalgic. It inspired these little figures and I tried hard to create that kind of sentiment – a memento of a happy day.

*available here*

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collection : linings

August 7, 2012

by annwood

Almost a year ago I got together a box of linings with plans to make things but not much happened after that. I’ve lately pulled that box out and I’ll be posting progress and previews of finished pieces here throughout August. They will be available in September. I love linings and they often end up being my favorite part of a garment.

I’m working on the usual suspects : owls, spiders and songbirds but this collection will have a couple surprises too. I’ve made the most progress on a songbird made from the printed lining of an edwardian bodice.

I spent the weekend with it – stitching, restitching, experimenting and not worrying about progress or efficiency. I’m allowed to do that on the weekends. Pretty vacationey.

This bird, the layering of this print, reminds me of tramp art a little bit and I think I’ll experiment more with that idea.

collection : fortuny

July 24, 2012

by annwood

fortuny owl

A long time ago, way back in 2010 I visited the Fortuny showroom here in NYC to talk about making some creatures with their exquisite fabrics. There have been fits and starts and interruptions in the process but lately solid progress has been made towards creating a full collection of creatures that will be available beginning this fall.

Working with patterns, large scale patterns, has challenged how I think about my owls in particular and some interesting things are happening.

More progress photos soon as well as information on where and when things will be available.

owl beginnings

July 17, 2012

by annwood

I’ve started several new owls including the two robust grey fellows below. The owl on the left is made from a silvery Fortuny pattern and the other from marvelous Japanese textiles courtesy of Sri.

I have also gathered a little pile of things for another fabric ship and owl captain – a moodier pallet than the last – I love the purplish tones – those are for the ship and the indigos are for the little captain. These are all Japanese and again courtesy of Sri. These are the colors I’ve been most attracted to for weeks now – silver, stone shades, and bits of violets and blues

I finished the quilt ship but I haven’t taken it’s official photo yet, this is an instagram shot of the very nearly finished ship and captain.

cake toppers : recent departures

July 15, 2012

by annwood

I finished several special orders for cake topper birds in the past couple weeks and I’m working on more this week as well as something brand new in the cake topper department that I’ll share soon I hope – I’m still missing an essential detail. Here are a couple photos of last week’s finished sets:

airforce!

Some fancy fascinators and boutonnieres :

And a family! Everybody is going to be on the cake – pretty sweet.

quilt ship in progress

July 10, 2012

by annwood

I found this great old quilt top upstate a while ago.

Unfortunately a lot of it is too damaged to sew but I love the colors and prints and there is enough for a couple boats and ships.

The pattern for this ship evolved out of my fabric sailboat pattern as I was revising it a little before teaching the boat making class at Squam. It’s just about complete now and I’ll photograph it later this week. There is a little gentleman sailor captain.

I ‘m pleased with the shape and I’ve already begun another ship in a kind of grayish hibiscus color that’s been on my mind lately.

getting organized

July 9, 2012

by annwood

I am. And getting rid of things. And rearranging. This is my newly appointed button drawer:

It was formerly my “drop in anything I don’t know what to do with and then never open again” drawer. I dumped it out and found a tiny hand-full of things I might actually need someday. It’s perfect for buttons and much better than searching in a bunch of jars and boxes and bags. Now that my buttons are all organized and in one place I’ll probably be a millionaire by the end of the week.

I’ve also been working on some special caketopper bird orders. This is the world’s tiniest garrison cap (airforce).

And the world’s tiniest boutonniere.

And a very fancy fascinator for his girl.

squam art workshop

July 8, 2012

by annwood

I taught a boat making class at The Squam Art Retreat in the beginning of June. It was my first time at Squam and my first time teaching anything ever. Teaching was a leap of faith sort of thing and I think it went well – I didn’t spontaneously combust or anything and everybody made truly great boats. I liked teaching more than I expected to, so much so I hope to do it again soon – maybe here in NYC . The class was held in the nature center – Sugar House – it’s a camp so all the buildings have names.

I had wonderful students – skilled, generous and lots of fun.

I have written a few tutorials but participating in other people’s very individual processes, feeling their enthusiasm and having a peek into their imaginations was an interesting shift in perspective. I left with some new energy for my own work and pretty fired up about teaching again .

And I made new friends including some from right here in Brooklyn : lovely and talented Jessica Marquez – she has a book coming out in October ( congratulations!) and Rebecca Ringquist , I have been a fan of her work for a very long time – she gave me two of her beautiful hand screened embroidery samplers.

I wish I had taken more pictures. I saw the biggest weirdest bug I’ve ever seen in my life marching up a dock and did not take a photo. The lake and the forest and the turn of the century cabins are astoundingly beautiful and so up my alley – not one picture. I was too busy having a fabulous time. Other people took lots of great photos though- there is a flickr group here.

(photo by Christine Chitnis)

new owls and spiders

June 4, 2012

by annwood

I’ve just added some new owls and spiders to the shop:

seaton

queen elizabeth II spider

green perching owl

(there are some others too)

owl work

June 1, 2012

by annwood

A new owl I’m working on:

Seaton

get the owl sewing pattern

I named him for a nice man who sold me tires a couple weeks ago. I’ve been working on him forever and he’ll finally be finished tomorrow.

There were ferocious thunderstorms on Tuesday – this is a photo of a thunderstorm gathering over a little pond upstate. I wish I had my big camera with me – It was spectacular:

I’m also working on new little boats made from quilt scraps and getting ready for my boat making class at squam next week. You can find the pattern to make your own stitched sailboat here.

* thanks for the helpful comments regarding the grey hair situation. I’m interested in hearing about other peoples experience with this. Mine is in a particularly bizarre two tone moment but I’m sticking with it.