Ashley Anna Brown / Fern Animals

For Zoe

This is Victor. He is a twin of Jack. I think he is lovely.

Custom Order / Bird No. 34 / Completed November 2009

 

DIY Wedding Contest results are in...

And my Wedding Birds won! I can't even explain how excited I am to see them on The Storque and MarthaStewartWeddings.com! There were so many amazing submissions, I am speechless... Thank you Martha Stewart and Etsy for this awesome opportunity! 

In case anyone is wondering, I am currently accepting orders for custom wedding birds for 2010 - just email me at ashleyannabrown@gmail.com. Check out all the birds I have previously made to get an idea of what I could do for you here. I'd love to work with you to create something special! 

For Bryn and Chris

 

 

Custom Wedding Birds / Completed October 2009 / with names and wedding date embroidery

Many things in the works...

Sorry I've been somewhat absent from here for the past couple of weeks. I've been meaning to write up a decent post for days. I've been busy sewing up custom wedding birds, working on a new project with a friend, and designing a new animal. Oh, and spending time with Justin now that he's finally back in Northampton! 

I'll start by showing you my most recently completed wedding bird orders - I'm really happy with both!

And here's the new animal:

A fawn that is the most fawn-ish fawn I have made! It is also the largest animal I have ever made - standing about five inches tall! (Still really small, though!) I am really happy with this design. It took a while to get it right - actually I have been trying to make this for months, but kept not having the patience to follow-through! I think the hardest part was making the second one after I had altered the first by hand. My pattern still isn't exactly how I want it to be, but it will take a few of these to work out the kinks. I'm really excited to be able to make these for the holidays. 

I was never really satisfied with my previous "fawn" design - never even liked stating they were fawns, because they were more like a mixture of a few animals - much like my regular Fern Animals - cat/bears. Sort of. I felt a new motivation to work on this redesign a couple nights ago when I couldn't remember how to make a decent head for the previous "fawn" - it kept coming out horribly out of proportion with the body, and not even close to being a deer shape. I figured it was time to just give up on that design altogether (much like what happened to my "fox". I never really liked it, so, even when people would request I make more, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.) 

I'm going to start working on my third fawn tonight to see if I can get her body closer to the first with out too many hand alterations after she's stuffed. What do you think of this new little doe? I'd love to know! I'm also excited about this little body because the very first version of the first one had a too-long neck which got me thinking about giraffes... hmmm... maybe a few of those could come next? 

On a completely different note, I have a very serious matter I have been wanting to write about here for weeks, but I'm not sure I can get into it tonight. Sorry to leave you hanging like that! But it is important so please check back here to read it. I want to write it when I can focus on the subject to make sure everything comes out right. I'll make this a priority on tomorrow's To Do List. Until then... Good night!

For Melanie:

Custom Order / Completed July 2009 / made using Danielle Smeets Protea fabric, yellow on birch (I love it!!)

For Margie

Custom Order / Completed July 2009

Patchwork fawn made from Margie's favorite Liberty fabrics.

She also requested branch antlers, and I couldn't stop thinking of these. Mine are very much inspired by Nicole's, though perhaps simplified. Maybe that's were Margie's idea came from too? 

Of all the animals I have made, this fawn is easily one of my all-time favorites. Thanks for the materials and direction Margie!

For Michele

Custom Order / Completed June 2009

For Grace

Custom Order / Completed May 2009

This animal has been the most requested custom order that I have ever had (with and without antlers) - new people are asking about it every few weeks. Glad I bought that fabric even though I was thinking twice about it at Osgood's! Hopefully I can find more because it's almost gone!

Slight change of plans today...

Good afternoon! I left to head up to New Hampshire this morning, but made myself stop first to get a very over-due oil change (I find so many reasons to put this kind of thing off all the time!). So I dropped off my car and walked up to the post office to ship out some orders. As soon as I got in line, the garage called to tell me that I needed four new tires! The mechanic said that I absolutely could not drive two and half hours to NH without getting new tires put on because at least one of them (if not two or three, or all four) would blow out because they were so worn down. Of course. A $20 oil change quickly turned into $300 ordeal.

Well, although it cost me a few hundred dollars more than I wanted to spend this morning, and caused me to loose nearly a full day of work, I am glad they checked for me. I don't even feel that upset or frustrated at this point about the money because really, it's just funny the way things always seem to work out like this. First I have to pay hundreds of dollars to the government in taxes, and then I can't drive my car to work (to try to make back some of that money!) without spending another few hundred dollars. What can you do, right? Instead I am just thinking about the fact that, since I had to wait a few hours for my tires to be replaced, I got to enjoy this absolutely beautiful day and walk around downtown. I'm pretty sure I even walked past Dianne Weist today on Main Street. She was alone, and smiling contently to herself, and I am almost positive it was her. 

I was thinking today as I was walking around that I am ready to take some custom orders again. And, no, I am ready not just because I need to make back some of that money I had to give away this week, but because I am finally completely caught up on my past orders, now that I finished the wedding cake toppers. So I will be accepting custom orders for two weeks only, starting today. If you have been dreaming about a special Fern Animal or waiting for me to make and list a specific kind and I just haven't, be sure to email me (ashleyannabrown@gmail.com) by May 1st, and we'll see what I can do! 

If you want, take some time to look through my archives, and pick out your favorites. Email me with the title of the animals you like (the title is almost always a month and number - be sure to let me know which year it was from) and if you'd like a near-exact replica, or a similar style but in a different fabric. I'm excited to hear what people have in mind! Taking custom orders always brings up new interesting color/material/animal shape/style combinations. The original patchwork fawn, for example, was a custom order - dreamed up not by me, but by one of my customers - thank you so much for that wonderful idea Steph! What have you been dreaming of? A bird with antlers? A fully embroidered furry fawn? 

Alright, I officially need to head up to New Hampshire now, and get to work! I'm glad it's a beautiful day for a drive! Have a great weekend!

For Adrienne

Custom Order / Wedding Cake Toppers / Completed April 2009

Justin and I saw The Great Lake Swimmers in town last night. It was so nice to be able to take a break from working and see one of my favorite bands play just five minutes from my house. The show was great. 

Hope everyone has a nice weekend! I am off to New Hampshire once again, to work with my sister and brother-in-law. Ugh. I'm not terribly excited about working super long hours all weekend, but after filing my taxes, I have no choice! Plus I will hopefully get to see my niece a little bit (though last time I worked with them, we worked such long hours that we left before she woke up, and got home after she went to bed.) Well, see you next week!