Ashley Anna Brown / Fern Animals

Hello, Updates, and Such

Hello! I'm sorry. I know I have not been very good at keeping everyone up to date on here lately. I keep meaning to take a bit of time to make a post, and then I just put it off, over and over again.

I started a new part time job last week, at a family-owned UPS Store. I actually like it a lot! I just get to pack boxes all day! It's funny because I felt so lucky to be able to support myself with my art for the past six months or so, but, boy, what a relief to know that I'll have a nice little paycheck with my name on it tomorrow! I have been trying hard to stock up animals for the Renegade Craft fair, but it's difficult when there are bills to pay. This new little job has already helped me to relax and set some animals aside while still selling a few in the shop every week. It has been tiring pumping these little ones out, since each one is completely one of a kind. I feel much better this week being able to make them because I love making them and they're cute, instead of needing to calculate how many animals will pay the rent. Especially during craft fair season.

I'm getting really excited for Renegade! I've been taking photos, and planning out my new postcard sets, and magnet sets. And cutting out bodies and stacking them according to color. It's funny, every time I have a fair coming up, I suddenly have all these ideas for other stuff I want to have to offer (stuff other than animals), but the fair creeps up so fast that it's hard to keep myself on track. Last year I brought about seventy five animals to Brooklyn with me. This year I need at least that many. Right now... I have three -YIKES!!

The thing about craft fair season is that it is also spring, and sunny and beautiful outside, and it's hard to come in and work in my studio instead of hanging out with friends in the sunshine.

Last weekend I took a few days off to drive down to Philadelphia with Justin and a couple of our favorite professors from college, Ethan and Sarah, to visit our friends Bill and Jessica and their little baby Lincoln Bear, and to see Bill's MFA Thesis Show. It was amazing! And a very much needed trip. But, now, back to work!! (Except for tonight, because another friend, Josiah, has an opening at Umass... so I'll have to take a break and come back for a very late-niter afterwards.)

I seem to be having a hard time staying on track with this blog post even... but I wanted to let everyone know that tomorrow I will be updating my shop with probably about three animals (depending on how much work I get done tonight). This little purple one pictured below will be there. The others I have started are still missing heads and faces and tails, so I will photograph them once they've pulled themselves together.

So, I hope everyone has been enjoying beautiful weather! See you tomorrow in my shop at 4pm EST.

Tonight!

Teeny tiny shop post! 6:30 pm EST!

Shop Post Time Today:

I will be posting two or three or, who knows, maybe even four (!) new animals in my shop today. There will be spring colors, hooded suits and beards! 3:00 pm EST.

In my shop today:

This weeks updates, and a new postcard possibility

This week my schedule is a little all over the place, so, after going back and forth trying to decide what day and time would be best for a shop update, I decided I wouldn't have an official one this week. I will be making new animals, though, I already have made some new ones. I'll just be posting them as I finish them. Today I listed three new ones, and tomorrow I will hopefully have two or three others.

I wanted to get a chance to take the animals that were in my shop last Friday outside for a photo shoot before shipping them off this morning, but it's been raining, pouring! Now, of course, the sun has come out. Oh well! There were some good ones in that post, though, some new favorites. I need to be better about appreciating and documenting each animal fully before sending it off to its new home. I miss them all so much!

The photograph above is from a little outing I took some animals on a couple weeks ago, when the sun was shining bright. I am working on figuring out which images would work nice for a new spring postcard set. This is one of my favorites from the shoot.

Well, I need to get back to sewing now, but please keep checking in with my shop and my Flickr. I'll be posting periodically.

Just a little promotion for my friends:

Hello again! I just wanted to take a few minutes to mention some great things that my friends have made recently. Peter Mack and Nick Criscuolo have both made animations for the In Rainbows Radiohead music video contest at Aniboom.net. Their animations are amazing and far better than any of the other videos that have been submitted to the contest. (I've only managed to watch a few, and my opinion is probably bias because these are my friends, but, really, the others I saw were really bad... I mean, text-across-the-screen-like-lyric-captions bad. Really, there's one like that.)

So I have put the videos below for you to see, but you should take a few minutes to go to the Aniboom website, create an account (super quick and easy!) and vote! These videos are sketches, but winning would give them the funding to finish them. Help them win because they deserve it!

Video Tape By Peter Mack

Rough Ideas for Videotape By Peter Mack (his first animation submission)

Nude at the Office By Nick Criscuolo

Please go here to sign up, then follow the link above each video (located on my blog, not the Aniboom wedsite) to vote on their video. Thanks!

For Friday:

In my Etsy shop, Friday April 25th at 4 pm EST. See you there!

It's hard to stay indoors when it's so sunny outside!

Hello! Sorry I have been missing from the internet for the past couple of weeks! It suddenly became summer outside, and it has been so hard getting myself to stay in my studio to sew, let alone work on the computer.

I found out recently that I have been accepted to the Renegade Craft Fair again this year (Yay!), so that means it is crunch time again! I need to start sewing double duty, plus attempt to get a little time in to work on some commission projects on the side. It is so hard when the sun is begging you to just blow it all off and spend the day at the park!

I fumbled a lot these past couple of weeks with my shop posts - I was away visiting friends and family, first in Philadelphia, and then New Hampshire, so I wasn't able to stick to any kind of a schedule. But this week we are back on track! I will be posting brand new animals in my shop this Friday, April 25th at 4pm EST. The spring fawn shown above will be there along with some other new little friends. I haven't made a fawn since January, and it felt good to sew one up and trade in the scarf for a little pink flower.

I'm going to try to get outside a little bit today, and photograph some animals in the grass and sun for a new postcard set I have been dreaming up. I'll post some pictures of our little outing this evening. Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather!

Spring-y colors!

These little ones will be in my shop today, April 4th, at 4pm EST, along with the lions below and one or two others.