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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.
And a peek behind the curtain:
*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.
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.
I love horses and grew up with a big Shetland pony named Ginger.
I’ve been thinking about mobiles for a while, I love Hanna Sandin’s work and saw the Calder exhibit “The Paris Years” at the Whitney last year. I made this one over the weekend and hung it from the ceiling medallion in the center of my place. Everything I make starts in a box and then lives there until it’s done. The boxes are for organization – keeping the many little bits for many little projects together and they are also a thinking tool and most importantly a way to start, it is very easy to put things in a box.
I love Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit. Here’s a little of what she has to say about boxes: “The box makes me feel organized, that I have my act together even when I don’t know where I’m going yet. It also represents a committment. The simple act of writing a project name on a box means that I’ve started work”
I have different sorts of boxes for different sorts of projects. The clear plexi boxes above are children’s shoe boxes from the Container Store.
Ahoy, merry wobblers! May the wind always be at your bustle!
Paper mache sailboat #6 and lots of other things are in the shop now.
I made the photo above for illustration friday , the theme is “theater’. I finished the owl in the post below - rodrigo is in the shop now as well as a few more birds and a paper mache sailboat.
Deb of bonbon oiseau has assembled a lovely collection of things in a great basket that is being raffled to benefit the food bank of NYC.
I’m very happy to contribute a pair of birds – pearl and minter
pearl has a fancy corsage.
You can get all the details about the basket and purchase a ticket (ten dollars online and five dollars in person) right here. You have until 5pm on December 21st to enter.
I finished my second cardboard castle and it’s in the window at Johnson at 179 Orchard street. There are also some doug rhodehamel style mushrooms and a couple little creatures roaming around. I had lots of fun making it and it was good thinking exercise for my sometimes too buttoned up brain. I took some pictures of it here before we brought it over.
The back of the castle has some little holes you can peek into. I couldn’t really properly photograph what you see inside, there are ghosts at a ball in one, an enchanted horse in another and miss haversham is held prisoner in a tower (her picture didn’t turn out at all).
The castle will be in the window at Johnson until October 31st . Unfortunately this is my last window for Johnson, Mrs. Johnson is closing at the end of the month. I’ll really miss doing her window. I started doing it for fun and it ended up changing my life in interesting and good ways, Thank you MJ.
This past Tuesday a shiitake mushroom log showed up unexpectedly – a surprise from dave ( thank you very much, I love it). It came out of the box a weird bumpy, lump and it was kind of fuzzy in places too. Stuff started happening almost right away and just 5 days later it’s producing mushrooms like nobody’s business. Fascinating. You can get your own at http://www.farwestfungi.com. Sails for a new boat and a couple merry wobblers.
( You can click the image for the full photo.) I just got a great box of old fabric, it’s very old- 1900-1910 but most of it is unused. The pieces are cut in pattern shapes so I’m guessing it originally came from a tailor’s or dressmaker’s estate. My estate has a lot of birds in it. Anyway, it found it’s way to me and I love the little prints, especially the black and whites. The one on the lower right makes me think of Lena Corwin’s blog ( as always,you can click the image for a better view).
And something else: little bird couples all dressed up and waiting to have their official portrait taken.
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. It’s horribly awkward and distasteful to talk about and I hate doing it here – but in terms of recourse this is really all I’ve got. My birds are being produced and sold in Australia. Not by me, without my permission and until a couple days ago, without my knowledge. There are minor differences in the details but it is unmistakably my pattern. This is one of the offenders.
I inquired with the parties responsible who shall remain unnamed for the moment ( I’m still thinking about that one and also want to give them every opportunity to correct the situation without any unnecessary discomfort or embarrassment). They deny copying and they claim the similarities are just a coincidence. In an email responding to my inquiry they offered a vague story of how they came up with their pattern. They also reported that they followed the links to my websites that I provided and acknowledged that upon seeing ( they inferred it was for the first time) my birds that they are ” exceptionally similar ” but maintained it is simply a coincidence. I suppose technically that’s possible, but pretty unlikely – here’s why : * In December of 2006 they purchased one of my birds at The Johnson Shop in New York. * The pattern they are using does not deviate from the pattern of the bird they purchased at Johnson at all, not one iota, including my very particular method of making wings and a slightly different tail pattern than the one I use now. It’s not really a sensible way to make the tail and I only used it on a couple birds including the bird they purchased. Sure enough “their” pattern uses that tail. * In their response to me they not only did not mention the purchase but inferred they had never seen my birds before. * They copied my little name tags too.
So, coincidence? I don’t think so . There are plenty of people out there making birds, making them well and in their own distinct way : abby glassenberg, stephanie barnes, tamar mogendorff, florence forrest, and lauri faggioni are a few I admire. None of their birds or patterns are exactly like mine or each others . I did not seek these women out and I take no pleasure in embarrasing or discrediting them. This was brought to my attention by a number of emails I received letting me know my pattern was being used. I think these are talented and creative people who made a mistake, an error in judgment and they should make it right. I’ve looked at as much of their other work as I could find as well as photos they sent me -its lovely- really elegant and unique and I wish them lots of luck with it – but hands off my birds. |
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