toothpicks

September 24, 2010
by annwood

toothpicks

I picked up  a piece of an old fountain glass on dead horse beach earlier this summer ( I have lots of other treasures to show you soon) , it’s edges are  soft and the surface is  frosted – all seaglassed out. I think the shape is interesting, it’s lovely  in general and  makes an ideal toothpick dispenser – I use a ton of tooth picks for various tiny paint and glue situations.

The little tornado we had last week knocked out my internet and I’m using my neighbor’s wifi ( I asked). The signal comes and goes, everything interweb related is taking me forever but  it is a perfect opportunity to sew bats ( which also takes forever)  while I wait for shipping labels and other stuff  to load, it (almost) completely eliminates the frustration.

bats

scraps

September 14, 2010
by annwood

I’ve been making some birds from my littlest scraps, stuff I’m at the end of or favorite little pieces I’ve been saving forever.
scraps 9/14

I’ve just added these two to the shop and will continue to add one or two little birds everyday.

scrap birds

There will be a larger update (birds and sweethearts) later in the week and if you’d like to be notified when the new things are available please join the mailing list.

And something new in progress.

paper mache ship

I’m working on new ships,  bats, boats, ballerinas, owls and  lots of other things  – more  photos tomorrow.

fort tilden

August 31, 2010
by annwood

I spent a pretty ideal day out at Fort Tilden on Sunday. I’ve lived in New York for 15 years but just discovered it has a beautiful, swim-able beach this year. Straight up Flatbush Ave. Twenty minutes from my place (by car); it’s like opening a door that you always thought was a closet and finding a fabulous atrium or something.

tilden1One of last natural dune systems  in the city.

tilden3We built a little shelter – I would like to live in it.

tilden4And I sewed some little birds.

tilden2But mostly swam.

they float

August 3, 2010
by annwood

owls

I replaced my giant wooden work table with a much smaller iron table with a glass top.  It feels light and kind of unobtrusive in this little place.  Working on the glass top is sort of an odd sensation but so far I like it, if it starts to drive me mad  I can replace the glass or cover it with homasote or something.

change

July 22, 2010
by annwood

spaceI’m  in the midst of a major getting rid of. I’ve been wanting to make changes here for a while but  couldn’t see new possibilities until I started to clear stuff out. It’s taking much longer than I thought it would -I’m still very much in  the purge  stage – have been for weeks  – it’s kind of wonderful and kind of painful, no regrets though.  I’ll post more as the situation evolves.

And a peek behind the curtain:

peek behind the curtainMore coming soon, also, there will be  new things in the shop next week – please join the mailing list if you would like to be notified when they are available.

*Update:  I’m not going to update the shop until next week, the first week in August, but I’ve just added a couple campers.

camper7

dark owl progress

June 27, 2010
by annwood

dark owl

I was  sitting by a window working on an owl on Sunday- a new dark owl ( made from a variety of 19th century garments and the backing of an old quilt) and I heard an unmistakable sound outside, the clippity clop of a horse going by. I almost didn’t look because it’s never happened before and I thought I was imagining it.

clippity clop

I love horses and grew up with a big Shetland pony named Ginger.

ginger1969That’s me and my stylish father and Ginger in 1970. We were building bird houses. I was 4 and I  remember the day distinctly.  Ginger was an interesting character – he had very definite ideas about things. He lives on a beautiful farm for old horses now.

sri and the spider system

June 24, 2010
by annwood

I had a lovely time this morning with coffee, chet atkins and a big box of Japanese textiles. Stephen Szczepanek of Sri sent over another  surprise box of wonderful things.

japanese textile fragments

When stuff like this shows up I can’t think fast enough or sew fast enough. Thank you Stephen!!

sri fragments 2

And the beginning of the new spider system .   Spiders take me forever to make and that’s mostly fine, I like making spiders, but it isn’t practical.   As I make more I get better at it  and  things begin occur to me that speed up the process;  having the wire cut to length for each part makes a big difference and next I need to make  jigs for forming the leg shapes . I’ll probably need help with that.

spider leg wire

I’ll show you more highlights from the Sri box  later and maybe some new things in progress – I’m finishing some things over the weekend that will be in the shop early next week – some spiders, an owl or two and some little birds, if you would like to be notified when the new things are available please check back here or join the mailing list at my shop.
*p.s. -I’ll also be spending some time this weekend getting caught up on email and if you’re waiting to hear back from me  thanks for your patience*