Please meet Pietro – he’s mean, green and not afraid of pattern. Pietro is being auctioned to benefit The Alpha Workshops – you can find the auction here and more about the wonderful work that The Alpha Workshops does here.
And one other bit of news – I’m having a sample sale today – these are the sleepy lambs and goats I made while creating the sewing pattern – you can find them here. Or if you’d like to make your own the sewing pattern is here.
I’m working on several blue creatures including a solemn blue fox made from textiles courtesy of Sri Threads in glorious shades of indigo (except for his velvety nose – I used a bit of a midnight blue Edwardian jacket).
I’m also making plans for my botanical workshop at Squam this June. I loved teaching this class last fall – the specimens in the photo below were a gift from a student in last September’s class- treasures.
I collected inspiration for some new projects/experiments for the upcoming spring class at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (it’s spectacular) this past fall. This is an Eastern Shooting Star – gone to seed – strange and lovely.
And the remains of a Purple Coneflower.
I had never seen either of these before – if you know of other strange and wonderful botanicals please share – I’d love to see. I’m looking forward to the class and the time in the forest. It’s terrible to wish time away but I can’t wait for spring. Fiddleheads and frog chirps and mushrooms – all of it. And P. S. (a couple days early) – Happy Valentine’s Day!
Sun showers and foxes and secret forest weddings – I loved this project.
I spent the better part of the autumn working on something special with Fortuny to help introduce its first new fabric collection in more than two years. The collection plays with the idea of what is seen and unseen and draws inspiration from Japanese folklore of “The Fox’s Wedding”. The legend is that foxes marry in secret in the forest and only during a sun shower – far from prying human eyes.
From Fortuny’s creative director Mickey Riad:
“We decided upon the theme of ‘The Fox’s Wedding’ as we were playing around with halftones and production techniques,” “The way a sun shower can fool what your eye sees, Japanese legend attributes this phenomenon to foxes that often play tricks on humans. The idea that the new collection plays tricks on the eye fit perfectly with that theme, in addition to the pattern and color choices that were inspired by Japanese art and textiles. ”
The collection is being introduced in Paris today. Three foxes traveled to Paris for the occasion, another two will leave for Venice this week and two will remain in NYC at the Fortuny Showroom.
For the past few weeks I’ve lived with fox companions and it’s a little sad to let them go – they so inhabited this place.
I spent much of the last two weeks working on a large order for Fortuny Venice. It was a good excuse to replenish my fancy antique button stock and I found some wonderful stuff.
Cats! I love them so much I may never be able to use them.
I brought the whole group to the spectacular New York Showroom yesterday to be packed and sent on to Venice – these creatures have exciting lives.
(photos below by Meena Dimian)
a couple related notes:
* If you’re curious – Abby Glassenberg and I talk about my work with Fortuny ( and lots of other stuff) in episode 23 of her podcast.
* Stay tuned in January for a new Fortuny collaboration – I can’t wait to show you.
For weeks and weeks I’ve been occupied with lots of the things necessary to keep a making things business afloat and there hasn’t been much time for making things. I’ve worked on web stuff, book keeping stuff, teaching stuff, designed some things and did some press stuff (some fun things coming in the spring) among other things. All good and important things but I miss my time, my hours and hours in my place making things. This week I finally got back to it and made this dastardly fellow out of one of my favorite ever Sri Threads treasures – a thick striped gray wool flannel- just enough for one bad tempered owl. 
Also made from Sri Textiles – a curious spider, her legs are hammered iron wire – I use a little anvil. 
Skittering away with her bustle in the air. 
And new mushroom specimens – more of the signed and numbered edition. All these things and more will be in the shop in about a week- you can sign up for the mailing list if you’d like a notification. And I made a dress! My first ever – it’s a jumper / apron / pinafore / sort of affair. The older I get the more I dress like Holly Hobby and I’m OK with that – it’s contemporary Holly Hobby. It’s got pockets and french seams and I’m very proud of it -it was challenging and satisfying and I want to sew lots more clothes. I got the pattern here – there aren’t a lot of instructions but I was able to figure it out and I found a tutorial on french seams here. 
A little collection of new creatures – I’ve posted them on Etsy just now (7/31). I spent the morning re -shooting them, I was disappointed with yesterday’s photos ( on the up side I learned some things about aperture) so now I’ve got to roll right into Flamingo making – lots and lots of flamingos…
Dark Bird
Pecksniff (he’s got some fancy junk in his owley trunk)
Plum Songbird
Mr. Bittles
(beautiful fabrics courtesy of Sri Threads)
I started this dark bird months ago and he ended up becoming more complex than I originally intended.
His underside is stitched and stitched. I like to have this kind of project, this kind of compulsive, repetitive stitching to pick up sometimes. I like to have busy hands when something is percolating in my mind or when I’m searching for an idea or part of and idea.
On the subject of inspiration: I listened to a great episode of “After The Jump” yesterday – Grace Bonney talks to wall paper designer Katie Deedy about her creative practices, where she finds inspiration and how she develops ideas. I love hearing about other peoples creative process and I could relate to everything Katie said. The work of being inspired is a constant and consuming process for me. I enjoy all of it – even when it’s difficult – the thrill of the chase I guess. I’m so curious what might be next, what surprises and odd intersections might reveal themselves. I do some of my best thinking in the tedious or deeply repetitive work of hand stitching or paper mache and I’m sure that’s part of my attraction to those mediums.
I’m also nearly finished with a big gray owl – I’m photographing all the newly finished creatures today and I’ll add them to my shop ( temporarily on Etsy) tomorrow (7/31).
And progress – this is a sneak peek of the little boat pattern instructions that is part of the paper mache pattern collection (it’s nearly done!).
I’m working on some new owls – a new smaller owl shape for me with some new details. I’ll finish these tonight and photograph them in the morning . They are part of my “new creatures” update tomorrow ( friday 3/28 ) evening.
And onother new shape – a hummingbird – a bit larger than a real hummingbird but still quite small, she fits in the palm of your hand. The bird and owls are made mostly from Sri textiles – I love this muted palette.
Another new creature Laurent ( all my rats are french) and a blue owl.
He’s big and blue and bad, and has some junk in the trunk.
Wishing you a happy and merry new year,
ann
I started working on a new pattern in October.
It’s a long process for me – experiments and trial and error – I enjoy it immensely. I make piles and piles of prototypes and duds – learning a little bit from each. It wakes me up early and keeps me up late. This is the first finished lamb:
A Fortuny lamb – he was auctioned in November at The Littlest Lamb gala here in NY – The Littlest Lamb is an incredibly inspiring organization – they ‘re building an orphanage in Egypt.
The next lambs were made from vintage tablecloths.
I love vintage linens and I very particularly love vintage linens with roses. I had 2 that wanted to be lambs – both had some staining in areas making them not so desirable to use as tablecloths – otherwise I would have saved them for the country home I will ultimately have.
I also used a depression era drape I found upstate last summer and one little black lamb is made from edwardian garments. I’ve finished a little flock now and they will arrive in the shop tomorrow 12/18 (noonish EST).
Whenever I post about creating a new creature or pattern I always get a ton of email from people who would like to do the same – looking for a course or a book. I haven’t known of a great resource until lately: Abby Glassenberg has written a comprehensive guide to sewing in 3 dimensions and I’ll tell you more about it in my next post.
I’ve finished a group of new things and they will be in my shop tomorrow (11/1) at 2 PM (new york time).
Happy Halloween!
