ann wood

I got a wretched rag of a quilt ( almost for free). I love how absolutely ruined it is.

I planned on using it just for little bits of frayed color on owls and bats and things but there are enough usable bits to make birds as well. This is jasper.

He is the first in a small series of birds called woebegones- birds who have had problems but have persevered.

I bought a couple big boxes of old lace and trim and stuff and I’m having fun sorting through it and washing it and ironing it and thinking of things to make.

The photo above is just some highlights ( you can click the pic for details), there are tons and tons of good things.

I know someone who makes wonderful wool bears ( and other things) who’s name begins with E.

I think the little E. monograms (love the dot) would make a perfect signature for them.

On a rainy day. Lot’s of it. Bird supervised.

I’ll have birds for sale in the very near future in my shop and etsy as well. This next update will be a little different and I’ll tell you about that soon.

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.

says hello.

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.

A magnificent mini iron and trivet I got at at the park slope flea market yesterday.

And nice winter light here this afternoon.

in which the willet discovers a thimble in a snowy forest.

Happy Holidays and good wishes in general,

ann wood

This is progress on a pillow I’m making for snow flake dave from a beautiful piece of boro textile he got at at Sri Threads.

I love these and I’ve talked about them before. I’m adding some patches and some “eccentric mending” to what was done many years ago. I like being an eccentric mender; it might be the thing in life I’m most qualified for.

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.

My new shop is up!

There will be birds and caketoppers available there on Monday. More on that later as well as some info on the nice people who built the new shop for me.

A finished paper mache teacup with flowers and snowflakes and

progress on an owl.

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*

The Johnson Shop holiday window is up and I’ll post too many pictures of it later this week. I got a polaroid camera at the flea market a couple weeks ago and took some progress pictures with that, this is my favorite:

and there are a few more here.