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*

mudlarking

June 3, 2010
by annwood

Mudlarking – I like the word very much, I first encountered it here.  That’s me in the photo below, mudlarking my ass off at Dead Horse Beach.  I’ve been getting wonderful little bits and pieces found there from the bottle man at the park slope flea market for years, last Saturday I finally got out there myself with my friend Craig.  The history of the place is fascinating,  you can read more about it here and there is an article about the Barren Island fire of 1906 here.

photos by craig duff

ann wood at Dead Horse Beach looking for stuff

We were there when the tide was out revealing  a crazy  blanket of old  glass bottles  and all sorts of  other things  – everyday sorts of things – old timey trash.

deadhorse3

deadhorse4

I had a marvelous time.

spider work and a suggestion for your evening

May 10, 2010
by annwood

spider work

spider heads

I think the headless bodies are kind of  creepy – a band of mindless marauders.

** And also-  this is so up my alley – maybe yours too- tonight on PBS: “Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World”

“A fantastic sea adventure, a cautionary economic and environmental tale, and a mythic saga of man and nature, INTO THE DEEP: AMERICA, WHALING & THE WORLD will premiere on the PBS series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on Monday, May 10, 2010 at 9PM.”

the gulnare

April 28, 2010
by annwood

the gulnare

The  paper mache, birds, sweetheart and small things sections of the shop have been updated. A couple of the new birds will be available to order shortly  after what is available today has sold  so please check back.

And a couple recent favorite new things from the park slope flea market, some amazing vintage fabric, a little chair and a fantastic little anvil. The floral fabric is already a little bird.

chair and anvil

spring jolly



small things from dead horse bay

April 21, 2010
by annwood

small things 4/21Everything above was found on the beach of  Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn.     I’ve posted lots of other treasures from the bay before –  I’m fascinated by the objects, their history, their transformation and their refusal to be discarded.  These things will be in the small things section of the shop later on this week. *update:  due to technical difficulties I’m hoping to resolve over the weekend it will be the beginning of next week. You can see a preview of sailboat #8 here and here.

makersmark

The little salt shaker is sterling silver and stamped with a makers mark.

dark things

April 19, 2010
by annwood

spiderhand

Thanks to everyone who turned up at last weeks shop update ( part 2 later this week) -things went quickly and if you were disappointed there will be more very soon, I’m already working on several new owls and spiders  and bats including another bad owl.

badowl3

He’s made from the backing of an antique crazy quilt I’ll show you later on and bits of several garments.
blackbodice5

I’ve gotten several  really old black garments lately.

blackbodice6

I think the lace  cuffs  are going to  be spiders.

the line up

April 16, 2010
by annwood

lineup

The owls above and some other new things are available here now.

Between filling orders and new things I ‘ve made a crazy amount of stuff over the last few weeks and at the moment I’m kind of spent (I’m starting to think my boss is an  a**hole….)   so in the interest of not  losing my marbles , I decided to do the this shop update in  2 sections – today there are owls, spiders bats and ballerinas. Next week will be boats, ships, small things and birds,  a couple ships are previewed below and I’ll post other previews here soon.

ecship1

ecship2