ann wood

Due to a really unfortunate lack of heat (boiler broken since Sunday - being repaired right now) I’ve taken to my bed with the birds.

I think (hope) my website problems are sorted out and sorry again to everybody who was frustrated or got refunded and especially to the people in England and Australia and Japan (and other places) who got up at an awful hour to try to buy a bird. I will be adding more birds before the holiday but I can’t give you an exact time and date - if everybody shows up at the same time and starts refreshing I’m afraid It will crash again.

******An unexpected, unbelievable and overwhelming number of people turned up for the bird sale.  The website crashed and was unable to  control the inventory or update the orders and I was unable to log into the admin panel to shut it down.  I’m sorting it out as quickly as possible.

So sorry for the confusion and inconvenience.******

There will be new birds and caketoppers available in my shop beginning Monday December 10th at 12 PM EST and I’ll be adding new things regularly after that. A couple notes on shopping at my new website:

*You need to set up an account there to purchase; it’s quick and easy - just a password and your address.

*Most of the things I make are one of a kind or in tiny quantities and a bird is marked “sold”, and is unavailable to other shoppers, only after the transaction is complete.

*I accept credit cards through Paypal. It’s easy and secure. No Paypal account is required but having an account will speed up your purchase.

Johnson 179 Orchard St. Manhattan.

This years holiday window is brought to you by ann wood and dave doernberg. Among other things dave hand cut about a billion beautiful and detailed paper snowflakes. The picture doesn’t really do the flakes ( or the volume of flakes) justice.

Because I can’t help it, one too many

And something else entirely

The little birds in progress above are finished and I just dropped most of them off at Cog and Pearl here in Brooklyn.

* news on the next shop date coming next week*

* if you emailed recently sorry it’s taking a while to get back to you - I should be caught up on correspondence in about a week*

Little bird friends ready for wintery weather.

I’m working on lot’s of little birds and something for the Johnson Shop Christmas window - progress pics later.

Thanks to everybody who showed up at the bird sale on Tuesday - more little birds coming soon. Here are a few in cozy nests getting ready to travel.

And one of the new bride and groom sets I’m working on. They will be in my shop tomorrow at 2PM EST with at least one other set.

Nate has brought you flowers. He and his friends will be for sale here at 2PM EST today.

All the little birds in the photo will be available at 2 PM EST tomorrow. Since most of what I make is one of a kind or in tiny quantities I’ve had problems with over-selling which is frustrating for everybody. I’m having a new shop built that can accommodate one of a kind things and will hopefully make shop updates far less of a pain in the ass in general but it won’t be ready till mid December. For now I’ll be listing little birds ( and some other things) at etsy. You will need to register with etsy to make a purchase - it’s quick and easy - just a user name and password. I’ll still be accepting credit cards through Paypal ( no account necessary ). The cake toppers are still here and I’ll be adding a couple new bride and groom sets on Friday November 2nd at 2PM.

So new birds, tomorrow, Tuesday the 30th, at my etsy shop. I’ll start loading them at 2PM EST.

Bride, groom, attendants and honored guests, all part of one large order finished today.

I posted some experiments and failures over the summer but never the final product - a holiday card, boxed set, that (thanks to lorena, check out her new collages) will be published by Galison for the 2008 season. This was my first experience of this sort and Galison was great.

The birds are Martin and Catherine- something about the way the red bird is standing reminds me of my sister Catherine. I’m going to use this image and some others for gift tags and maybe some other stuff for the 2007 season.

I finshed my shore birds and an owl over the weekend for Tinlark to take to The Portland Art Fair. There’s more info on Tinlark’s new Blog.

american avocet

willet in winter plumage

and an indigo owl

The owl is inspired by beautiful boro textiles and the little indigo cotton prints are really old but were perfectly preserved in the intricate foundation of an otherwise ruined silk victorian bodice.

An american avocet still in the sculpting stage.

And later on getting her feathers.

Just like her friend the willet her feathers are made from the skirt of a thread bare, swiss dot, edwardian lawn gown. She’s lying on a piece of it here.

I have a couple shore birds in progress. This is a willet.

Here she is a little further along.

These 3 little birds, audrey, molly and dell are for eireann’s one in ten auction.

Here they are on a picnic in prospect park.

Each bird will come with a name tag and in it’s own box.

The auction is on August 19th please check the one in ten site for details.

a couple notes:

* I’m going to begin to tackle my huge backlog of email tomorrow so if you’ve been waiting to hear back from me don’t give up yet.

* If your question was regarding shop updates/ bird availability please join the mailing list at the shop. The birds will be back in the not to distant future.

I found this lichen, (I think it’s called trumpet lichen?) and another spiky sort, in a forest in CT last week. Don’t know what I did wrong lichen care wise but the last one I had dropped dead immediately. This time it’s in the terrarium and so far doing well and maybe even growing a little. I’ll keep you painfully up to date on my lichen’s progress and all the other very exciting things that happen in my terrarium.

I have not abandoned the birds. I made three for the one in ten auction that I’ll post here soon and I promise there will be birds available in my shop in a little while including new bride and groom pairs. I’m still getting through current cake topper orders. This set was for Amy of Seamsters. She sent fabric she printed herself and I love her patchwork idea. I’m working on some patchwork pirate birds now.

Another favorite photo from Tinlark. ( photographers name coming soon)

It makes me wish I could take better pictures. I’ve started looking at beginning photography courses in new york this fall and any recommendations are welcome.