ann wood » thanks

the new artisans

annwood — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:07:06 +0000

I can hardly believe I’m included in this book – it is magnificent in every way. I think Olivier Dupon has created something very special. In less expert hands this wealth of information might have been overwhelming or the spirit could have been lost but Olivier presents it with simplicity and real elegance – you are never distracted from the central idea: that this is a book about love of craft, process and materials or Olivier’s true affection for the subject.

Find the book: http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/new/fall11/551585.htm

on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Artisans/108346249261751

Olivier’s blog: http://dossier37.tumblr.com/

“This book captures the new mood – a return to a preference for the unique and the handmade. Design expert and acclaimed blogger Olivier Dupon has sourced the cream of the contemporary design world from all over Europe, Australia and the United States, profiling 75 artisans who use craft techniques, rather than mass-production methods, to create stylish, whimsical, covetable objects. Hundreds of colour photographs feature a huge variety of crafts, including art, ceramics, furniture, glasswork, jewelry, lighting, metalwork, papercraft, textiles and woodwork. Complete with a directory of products, and Dupon’s personal recommendations for inspiring shops and websites to visit, this is the perfect resource for discovering unique and beautiful objects made by new, talented artisans from all around the world.”

paper mache teacup pattern

annwood — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:42:40 +0000

A paper mache teacup pattern to mark the 5 year anniversary of my blog, my experiment. A perfect time to say thank you and give you a present.

There is a template you can download here. And lots and lots of photos and instructions. If you do make teacups I’d love to see and you can upload a photo here if you like or leave a link to your photo in the comment section below.

What you need:

Click here to download the template
paste – I use golden harvest wheat paste ( wall paper paste)
light cardboard – cereal or frozen pizza box is great and a bit of thicker cardboard for a base
newspaper – it’s nice to have different colors
scotch tape ( not the invisible gift wrap stuff- the shiny sticky stuff)
glue – elmers, glue stick, hot glue - whatever you like
pencil, scissors, exacto knife, and paint and brushes, glitter, fabric – whatever you’d like for decoration.

Click the photos for larger images.

Cut out the templates for the teacup, handle and bottom and trace them onto your cardboard. I had the best results with a Kashi frozen pizza box. Cut out your pieces and very lightly and gently score the the teacup where the dotted lines are on the template with the BACK of your exacto knife.

Make a very tiny snip - really tiny -just a 16th of an inch or so where the sections meet. Next bring the bottom sections together one at a time and tape together on the outside (the printed side). Then turn it over and taper the bottom inside. Do this for each section – always taping both sides…….

When the bottom sections are all taped join the top together and tape – inside and out. Next push the seams out from the inside and tape on both sides – go all around the teacup – shaping the seams with your fingers and taping both sides.

Tape in the bottom. It should be looking pretty teacupish now. If you would like a base you can make a little ring of cardboard and tape it in place or trace the bottom onto some thicker cardboard and cut it out just a little larger and glue or tape it to the bottom.

Your ready for paper mache! I usually start with the bottom and one layer is fine but you can do as many as you like.

You don’t have to paper mache the handle – you can paint it or glitter it or something. If you do paper mache it use very tiny pieces of paper and curl it into a handle shape before it dries. I tried something new on the black teacup above – painting paper mache while it’s wet - and I like the effect. I used black newspaper and then black watercolor over the wet paper.

When your teacup has dried glue your handle in place and decorate as you please. I painted a little ship on a stormy sea on one and I like putting a dusting of mica or glitter on the inside - it’s fancy.

The End!

I hope you make teacups!

treasures from sri

annwood — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:01:10 +0000

Stephen Szczepanek of Sri Threads sent over another surprise package of magnificent things. Exquisite, inspiring things, thoughtfully chosen and gathered and kept for me that just magically appear on my doorstep. Here are a few highlights.

There are fragments of garments with wonderful surprise linings.

And beautiful wear and eccentric mending.

I already have owls in progress and I’m thinking about using the blue silk bits below for spider bustles and some new flowers I’ll show you soon. Thanks you, thank you Mr. Szczepanek!

goodbye 2010

annwood — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:51:18 +0000

I hope 2010 was a fabulous year for you and wish you a happy 2011. I’ll end the year with photos of a few favorite treasures I discovered on deadhorse beach this year.

A tiny perfume bottle and a bit of sea green net,

a wonderfully detailed little spaceman,

and a pretty ceramic shard.

Happy New Year!!!

(and thanks for showing up)

juxtapoz handmade

annwood — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:25:49 +0000

Cover - ana serrano – wonderful.

Juxtapoz Handmade is in stores now.

I’m flattered to be included with so many of my favorite artists :

clare crespo

Sara Escarmilla

Souther Salazar, Saelee Oh and so many others. I love the book. Love it.

sri and the spider system

annwood — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:34:26 +0000

I had a lovely time this morning with coffee, chet atkins and a big box of Japanese textiles. Stephen Szczepanek of Sri sent over another surprise box of wonderful things.

When stuff like this shows up I can’t think fast enough or sew fast enough. Thank you Stephen!!

And the beginning of the new spider system . Spiders take me forever to make and that’s mostly fine, I like making spiders, but it isn’t practical. As I make more I get better at it and things begin occur to me that speed up the process; having the wire cut to length for each part makes a big difference and next I need to make jigs for forming the leg shapes . I’ll probably need help with that.

I’ll show you more highlights from the Sri box later and maybe some new things in progress – I’m finishing some things over the weekend that will be in the shop early next week – some spiders, an owl or two and some little birds, if you would like to be notified when the new things are available please check back here or join the mailing list at my shop.
*p.s. -I’ll also be spending some time this weekend getting caught up on email and if you’re waiting to hear back from me thanks for your patience*

tuesday morning

annwood — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:31:39 +0000

Beautiful day, first open windows day since December I think.

new birds and diy gift tags

annwood — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:02:31 +0000

You’re getting 2 presents this week. The first is DIY gift tags (download tags here).
(I added some glitter to his acorn cap after I cut them out).

And I’ve just added new birds to the shop.

scraps

annwood — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:07:32 +0000

The incredibly generous Stephen Szczepanek of Sri sent over another package of marvelous bits of kimono and other amazing and inspiring Japanese textiles.

Check out the ” trans generational “ boro futon cover on his blog.

feather

annwood — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:30:49 +0000

I got another surprise package from Stephen Szczepanek ( sri threads) yesterday, so many treasures it’s too much to think about all at once but I’ll share a couple: A single exquisite feather – the picture doesn’t do it justice – it is so soft and iridescent it seems almost liquid, it makes me think of this quote from “The Rings of Saturn” :

“I have always kept ducks, he said, even as a child, and the colors of their plumage, in particular the dark green and snow white, seemed to me the only possible answer to the questions that are on my mind.”

Some impossible blues – already being made into something. Thanks very much Mr. Szczepanek.

And something else – progress this morning on a new ship.