red riding hood: selected scenes

new owls and birds

I’ve added  a little collection of spring birds and 2 new owls to the shop today.

skimpole

dark owls

darkowls_sm

The dark things collection begins appearing today with owls. ( I don’t trust the little one on the right).
The next updates will be this Wednesday and Friday – there will be spiders and bats and some suprises.

dark things

darkthings_annwood
Please join my mailing list if you would like to be notified when new things are available and check back here for previews of the dark things collection ( available on October 31st).

new in the shop

I’ve just added some new bats, perching owls and songbirds to the shop.

ivory perching owl

brown songbird

posterior

bats

perching owl

percher black

A new owl shape. He’s made from a variety of antique garments and his eyes are antique faceted glass buttons. (please join my mailing list if you would like to be notified when perching owls are  available in my shop )

perching owl

You can see the beginning of the thought for him  (and a couple other projects) in pages from an old notebook  here  (click the image  for a larger  version).

sketches 3

sinclair

sinclair3

* Update: sinclair and a couple other owls and spiders are available in the shop.

Sinclair is made mostly from this midnight blue antique wool and velvet jacket.

midnightblueI had hoped to make two or three owls  from this jacket but  it was too fragile – sinclair was kind of impossible and he will be the only one.

new owls and spiders in the shop

“He looked and smelt like Autumn’s very brother”

giles 2

Giles, 2 other owls and some new spiders are in the shop now.

gentleman sailor

sailing owl

He is made from vintage feed sacks and ticking using my new owl pattern. I intended to use these round little owls only as passengers in paper mache ships and boats but he was such fun to make I think I might make a couple stand alone fellows.

autumnal owl

autumnowl_sm

I’ve been saving the buttons for his eyes ( I only have 2)  for 3 years.  I started putting fabric aside for him  about a year ago – bits of quilts and blankets, a tiny piece of threadbare  russet velvet from a crazy quilt and linings from several garments. And just lately I found the last thing I needed, the heavy  dark brown cotton his body is made from, lining an antique walking skirt.  I’m hoping to finish him today.

mostly creepy shop update

spider vase(click for larger image)

There are spiders and lots of new things in the shop.

estella

Estella (bride of pip) is made from the edwardian ball gown.  And Melchior has fancy lining in his feathers.

melchior

Happy Halloween!

a beast and a ballerina

beast

silver ballerina

She is silvery. I feel like there should be a rule that if I get a little fabric bird to balance on her glittery toes I should be able to take the rest of the day off. But it doesn’t work that way. Today will be long and I’m making a big mess ( you can see a bit of it here) getting things finished and photographed for the shop.  You can join the mailing list or check back here if you’d like to know when new things are available.

curly horns

horns in curlers

Some owls in progress with their horns in curlers; I’ll finish and name them over the weekend.  And a havisham spider, the first thing made from the  ghostly ballgown .

havisham spider 2

Have a lovely weekend and if you are in NYC checkout  Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield – it’s wonderful and this is the last weekend.

owl work

owl work I’m working on several new owls including one made from mrs. browns skirt ( on the left above), a large black owl made from this jacket and a little grey owl  with green velvet horns and shoe button eyes.
owl work

I’m still  going through my little scraps and making one of a kind birds, I’ve just added the first two bundled up birds of the season to  the the shop and will be adding more regularly.

bundled birdsThere is another photo of the little plaid bird visiting an apple farm here.

I had a conversation with Suzie Monday ( thanks very much Suzie) over the summer and you can find the resulting article in the September October issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

cloth paper scissors

new birds in the shop

And  progress on a grey fellow.

grey fellow

I’ve just added some corsage girls, pirates, and  a new sweetheart set to the shop.

corsage girls

chums

chums!

new owls in the shop

ezichiel

And birds and spiders too.

scouts

bustled

*This week will be the last opportunity to order sweethearts for a while – I won’t be able to take new orders for the next few weeks (I will still be adding ready made sweethearts occasionally).  I will stop taking sweetheart orders on August  20th.

they float

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.

barnabas – shop update

barnabas

I’ve just put Barnabas in the shop and there are also some new  spiders -

pink bustled spider

and new pirates, campers and corsage girls.

polka dot bird

miss bird says hello