Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I saw Lily's white collar and she moved her head and one blinking eye appeared in the camera on Monday; that's the only thing I've seen except that expanding and contracting back for 3 months.
So I was totally shocked when I hit the Play button and Baby's bawls screamed out at me! Forgo the speakers were on... Wow does that youngun have lungs!

I had no idea the den was so shallow.
Lily was apparently not too far away; within 5 minutes she was back. I think the baby relieved itself then. She removed' all traces and scraped new dirt over the bedding while the baby nursed and the settled in for the night.
I'm captivated too.

I'll be out-of-the house tomorrow, but will be watching as much as possible in the next week, as I expect the den will soon not see their return....

Lily's out of the den and baby's bawling her head off... wobbling around...

LOL!!
Michelle, I've met you several times in person, so I KNOW that this isn't true, but in seeing your images just now and comparing the one of you in your mohair stash to your avatar, it would appear that you have a 'Bear-Making Uniform'!!  :crackup: :crackup:  :crackup:

It depends upon the acquisitive nature of the designer... how much stash do you need to feel comfortably supplied!!

Denise, no matter how small the space, every image has color and flowers or something from nature included - even the long bamboo poles - I like that!!!

Lynne - I'm feeling most at home in your space... all of those wonderful boxes and bags and nooks and crannies and corners holding wonderful surprises yet to be discovered by a visitor—or re-discovered after purchasing in a long ago sale somewhere and packed away for 'Some Day'....
I LV the possibilities stored here. So many ideas spring from seeing disparate parts stored near each other, which one wouldn't normally think of when fabric is over there in a closet and ribbon is on this rack and buttons & embellishments are in that drawer....

Right now I'm searching for 2 papers for tax work, because my  studio and work stations around the house don't even look as neat as Lynne's, though they used to.

Yes, I totally agree, Peter, his idea is really cock-eyed. The teddy hits at the core of innocence & childhood. We do wish he'd chosen another symbol...
But what I'm mostly up-in-arms about is this: (IF THESE ARE WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE) - What a rip-off!! To trade on someone else's work, be it an artist's work or a manufactured bear doesn't matter - this is total 'material' plagiarism!
Whoever this 'author' is, he should be severely castigated for using others' work.
The least he should have done is create his own bears.
One needs to give credit when using someone else's work: I'm not sure if I'd like to have my work identified if one were mine!!

Nice work!
Nutria (to me) has always felt like the finest, silkiest of nothingness!
This looks as though you'd feel the slightly firmer guards hairs, yes?

Oh Oh - I know this one!! (hand waving madly in the air)
It's not me but a good friend - Susan McCay in Diagonal Iowa!

http://www.bluebonnetbears.com/bears-artist.html

She—and the amount of detail she gets into her micro-sized 1" - 3" tiny treasures—is unbelievable, and it's about 95% sewing machine - absolutely astonishing!  Her prices are excellent too, considering the amount/number of animals in each little piece here, but she feels that it's commensurate with the amount of time spent, as she can work more quickly than a hand-sewer and lose none of the quality.

Thx so much Tammy and Shane, I'll check out both.

The size I'm getting now is about 1/8", now that I've actually measured. I can manipulate them a bit to make them a bit more oval than round but as you can see here, they're still too big.

This polar's hind paw pad is about 1/2 inch wide and the 5 claws take up a bit less than that. The toe pads are supposed to line up underneath each claw but I just cannot squeeze them in any closer than this: I debated leaving off that end pad completely but decided that might look even more odd....

And the desk hole punch I have doesn't clip through the suede-like backing sharply so there are fuzzies around the underside edges. This is/was a beautiful leather skirt I bought in a resale shop for $10; I have paw pads for 17,000 lifetimes!
But this whole process just adds more and more time to an already too-lengthy method.
I'm open to any suggestions!

Anyone using that set of disk cutters - can you tell me the name/brand?
And how small the smallest disk that it cuts is?

I've got a regular hole puncher (somewhere between an eighth and a sixteenth inch) but it's not cutting cleanly through a thin glove leather. I'm hoping that this disk cutter that other artists have used to cut out the whites to back their bears' eyes with, will give me a better result.

Thx!

Wow - is that ever a change!! I haven't listed on eBay since early in the winter, but if you put your website link in the listing, that was (is?) a huge No-No!!
Reasoning: it took sales out of eBay's realm and they didn't get a piece of the transaction.

Perhaps it was only if it was 'reported' as they certainly cannot monitor every auction..... it can't be that they they're wising up, because they've lost so so many Sellers due to their bad choices in the last 2 years.

I wish we'd had MUCH more lead time for this magazine article than 14 days...

For those who understand the nature of Needle Felting, it usually takes the average of at least a week to produce a good quality needled piece, and that's if you already have the concept worked out and all of the materals on hand.
Add more time to that if there are accessories to make, materials to purchase—with shipping time (too few of us yet have local suppliers), etc...etc...

Could you please give us a larger lead time the next time you have a feature like this planned? Perhaps a month or 2? I'm sure that your feature deadlines are worked out months in advance.
Artists must meet other obligations and deadlines planned farther away than 2 weeks and Life with its emergencies get in the way - - I'm sure I'm not the only one is needling as quickly as possible but who just might not meet the deadline.

Ahhh Thx Cyndee!! I was just about to plan our regular Fish Chowder for supper tonight; I think I'm going to try one of yours instead!

What's your blog's url?

I was one of two Moderators on Rita's Teddies & Friends list for years, but it went inactive a few years ago with the proliferation with so many others. like this one.

I have always believed that a group remains as viable and active as the Owner and Moderators are: i.e., as 'present' as they are seen and heard to be involved in the running of any group. When things seem to be running smoothly and the owners feel they can step back and relax their duties and oversights, that's exactly the wrong time to become lax, because that's when interest wanes, a member has another idea for a slightly different version of the group, and many of the same members rush off to enthusiastically join the 'new' group, which then repeats the same pattern, time & time again.

I have seen this cycle happen through more than a dozen miniature teddy groups in the past decade, yet it continues again & again. Very few groups sustain the same level of enthusiasm for more than a few years.

Rita Harwood had either gone into regular employment or added outside employment to her bear-making lists (it's been several years and I've forgotten)
The group languished after the owner stopped posting. During its period of activity it was like TT - THE spot to go to find the Best artists  posting the latest info on techniques, show info, resources, etc..
I had to cut down on my list duties last year and reluctantly resigned, after we had almost no monthly postings. I'm sorry that I've lost contact info for Rita...

Essentially silent, cargo arrives right GELATINOUSLY on time.

My first time ever playing this...I wasn't ever going to get into this..........I've got work to do.........................
I'm late for a Dr's appt............................................... bye

Yes, Becky, they have WI pretty well covered with their products but only come down into the Chicago area for out-of-staters.
I, too, love the idea of sending along a little something extra, Daphne, though with miniatures, these are the same size and even heavier than our pieces! But the element of Surprise and going that extra distance is what counts.

Special people, especially repeat customers, deserve a little Thank You now and then. I like to send them just before Thanksgiving.
Daphne's choice of the two different products for domestic and international shipping makes sense and I like the idea of a local New England product.
I use the best I've thought of - a shiny new Land-of-Lincoln Penny - and I try to get them dated in the year I created each bear.

I surely don't wish to denigrate Rit, nor step on any toes of all of my friends here, and I do recognize that Rit is the most widely available dye in the States (except Kool-Aid!!) but it is a Union Dye, which is a class of dye attempting to cover all bases.
The problem is that in targeting all types of fibers, it has materials in there which you've paid for but are being lost in the process because they aren't accepted by the fiber you're using it on. Or don't give as full or as long-lasting effect as you would expect to result.

We order different materials for our work all of the time—fabrics, clays, accessories, etc..—it's no more difficult to order a dye for the type of fabric you're working with. You really will save money because you will use so much less of the product.
http://www.google.com/search?client=saf … 8&oe=UTF-8
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/typesofdyes.shtml
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/faq.shtml

I have been dealing with some lovely Wisconsin folks, a family business who sell honey (Gentle Breeze Honey) and a number of Bee's Wax Candle products. I found these DARLING candles at Whole Foods and have decided to send them as Gifts to special ppl & customers. They are the perfect size and price and thought that some of you might also like to know about this family.

I wrote to them to ask if they would be equipped to deal with us (small orders) here is a bit of our correspondence. I can vouch for both their Great customer service and wonderful communications!

Me:
Your items which I'm purchasing are so unique, and such a perfect item for friends of mine in the bear community to also use as I will be, because they are non-fragile yet small & light for shipping, hand-made which is highly valued in our field and just an all-around perfect item for us to send along with purchases of our hand-made bears or as gifts and Thank You-s to our clients, that I'd love to be able to pass on your name/contact info/website but wouldn't do so unless I knew that you were equipped to handle 'small orders' like mine.

Please let me know if you have minimums or how you would handle this type of marketing - or if you would prefer not to! - as my fellow artists are spread across the country and indeed around the world, on one list in particular.

This is the main list, reaching thousands of readers (I sent them the link to come here to view Teddy Talk)—artists and collectors alike—which you can check out:  you'll see that it is broken down into several different categories. I would like to post a note, with whatever contact & sales directives you'd like to be known & pix of these 2 which I have and your other candles under the 'General' category, which is read by the most visitors to the site.

So please LMK if you'd allow me to let my friends know about these darling little Beehive and Beehive Bear Candles!
Others use bee's wax to wax build up layers over the stitched noses of their bear to give them a glossy sheen: they purchase little 1" x 1" x 3" blocks for this purpose. Some of your smaller Floating Star candles look perfect to get into tight little corners for waxing!
(The Woller's website is: http://www.gentlebreezehoney.com/our_products.htm )

The Wollers, in bits from different emails:
The bear with hive is available for $2.50 and the large beehive votive is $3.75. 
What quantity would you be interested in?  Please let me know how I can be of further assistance.

Hello again.  We are pleased you’d like to let your friends know about our candle offerings.  We’d love to have you do that and feel we are equipped to handle the small orders.  They just need to be aware we are a small family business and are not set up with credit cards, etc.  We request checks with their orders which has worked for us up to date.  We also have bulk beeswax in small blocks and also ½ # and 1 # blocks. 
We trust you will be happy with the product and let us know if we can help you in the future.  Again, thanks for your encouragement and support.  Donna

Me:
I'm off to pick up my order of Beehives and Beehives with Cubs today (the Wollers are in Wisconsin but they delivered it to one of their daughter's business in an IL town nearby to me!) but I wanted you all to know about this family business.
Wonderful customer service and they're great communicators!

The Beehives are 2 & 3/4" tall and the ones with the Cub are 2 & 1/2" tall.

The Pix:

It would be of interest to you to read Paula Burch's site on Dyeing different Fibers with the different types of Dye stuffs:

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/aboutdyes.shtml
Wool:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/aciddyes.shtml

Click on all of her links - you will learn SO much about Dyeing and the different textiles!

Also -
http://www.prochemical.com/directions/MX_Immersion.htm
http://www.prochemical.com/directions/M … onWool.htm
http://www.pburch.net/
Also these Google sites:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wo … gle+Search

http://www.textilelinks.com/dye/natinfo.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKMw-5B1 … ed&search=

http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolai … chart.html

http://www.wrappedrocks.com/koolaiddye.html

Can you tell that I have many many links saved on Dyeing???
This is a very tiny sampling...

I wrote to the CONTACT US link on the Art & Craft Online@jaminmark.com last night and received this reply just now:

I'm VERY pleased!

If you would be willing to take a VERY short (one minute) survey on business trade name recognition, would you please contact me at
bbbinquiries@att.net?

Thank you very much for your consideration!

Oh I'd be so pleased to see that!

My favorite story is of an artist who purchased one over a decade ago after seeing Cubblet at a show. She wanted to make a harness/necklace and wear him at shows. (I was retailing them at the same time I was selling the kits) She really didn't want to sew the kit as she made nothing smaller than about 15" - 18". I couldn't talk her into saving all of that money and purchasing the kit (I was really pretty tired of spending time sewing a well-selling ted when there was no time fr new ideas. We can all relate to that: take the money or take a chance and satisfy our artistic souls!)

But she was fully prepared to pay retail price for it, no matter how long she had to wait. So about 2 years later I finally sent it to her, just about the time I stopped traveling.

Well, you cannot imaging my surprise, when I accompanied my friend, Berta from Holland, to a show here in Ohio, in Aug 08, and the artist was not only exhibiting at this show - - she was wearing my CUBBLET! And he is the most woebegone, careworn, worn-out, loved little bear you'd ever want to see!

And it is with deep relief I saw that the integrity of my hand-sewing and seam-sealing (unless the artist will state here that she's done massive repair work!!) has held up beautifully and he looks like he will go another decade or two. His nap has worn off perfectly, in all the right spots, consecutive with constant and consistent wear, showing that he has indeed traveled many many miles with her. That she even still even wears this 'dear little one' is such an honor to me, as he certainly does look like something out of the furthest reaches of the attic, alongside her fancy show clothes!

I took many many pix of him, but there were many unexpected upheavals that happened the week after I returned from that trip and it will take me a bit of digging to find them.

I've only just remembered that I even had them, when you mentioned having some packed away, Linda. I'll add one when I find them.

As it happens I found that I had turned this one fabric pattern, out of my 6+ dozen patts in the fabric line, into a PDF and have only this one on my computer. I think I used it for a Challenge in a group since 2000 for some reason...

There are 4 tiny darts here - the blackened area between the 2 legs and the 3 all-differently-shaped darts (which I sew as curved-line-darts instead of straight-line-darts) along the bottom seam. Those, along with its curving back spine line do make a nicely rounded 'bottom'.

THX Linda - I'll bet that was from Adele? She carried my fabric kits years ago in Australia. I actually had the devil's own time pulling the back feet through the narrow ankles; my Cubblet up there has one more dart on each quarter piece and measures a bit shorter than 2", so I eliminated one dart on each side and enlarged him a bit for the kits.
I'm glad you told me this, because you are a true artist and I'm most flattered that you'd pick my kit - I'd love to see your rendition of him!

But I'm writing to comment on your statement Sophie  about using regular (broadcloth) fabric first, when trying out a new technique. That's an excellent idea! The nap will always add its own features to the outcome but when you really want to see what is happening to the foundation, it helps to eliminate all of the extraneous materials like the 'hairy bits' and just see if the darts are adding the fullness or roundness exactly where you want it. Good thinking, Girl!!

Oh - somehow I missed this discussion last year. After 7 years off the show circuit, from which I took a break after being on since 1984, I'm in 3 shows this year. So this post of yours caught my eye, Daphne. I was curious enough to go back and read all of the posts since early in 07... wow, am I impressed!
And do I ever wish that there was a program out there like this for us Mac users!

This form is probably more important than any other bit of information we artists can have at a glance - to be able to print out reports like this and post right in front of our eyes - to continuously track where are we in ordering our supplies/filling out applications/following up on contacts/etc.. with the Answers proactively marked as Applied For/Registered/Pending/Planning/Apply/etc.

And the Reminders of what needs to be done for each and every upcoming Events or Projects - all on one compiled list instead of having each on their own page and needing to track them down separately; the Tasks needed for them, Starting and Due dates, Status and Priority Levels and most importantly (to me!) a count down of number of days remaining until all of these MUST be completed for each Event! Seeing this all listed together is MOST helpful.

I work best under pressure and this prompt alone makes my priorities fall into natural positions of which job needs to be done next!

I sure wish we had this for Mac-ers....

I so agree: Darts are much easier to deal with than full seams running throughout the head!
With darts, you can control which way the nap of the fabric will lay - this direction will change the direction that the nap faces and this is MOST important in a head that is less than 1" across.
Even in larger heads, the seam allowances of the gusset are sometimes allowed to both lay together behind one side of the fabric rather than being spread apart, which causes all of the nap on some mohairs (especially that of the short-bristly types) to bend over to one side and leave bare spots showing along the high side of the seams.

This isn't the same as a bare spot of wear & tear, just a bare spot of a designer not paying attention to details (when stuffing). But with darts, one can lay the whole thing over where you'd like it and hold it in place with the stuffing. It's much less work while stuffing to hold one smooth dart than it is to hold 2 very narrow curving seam allowances apart1

At least this is the input from a miniaturist... I have a patt for a seated polar bear called Cubblet, (Body just 4 main pcs)  in order for his tiny rump to form properly filled cheeks 'cheeks' between his out-pointing paws ) - about 2" apart - there are 3 darts one each side of the one main seam on the 2 Back pieces and 2 more on the each side of the Front main piece. This is a lot of darts (all approx 3/8" long) within 1" of the two main seams, but it's the only way to get cupping and roundness of a tush' and incurving of a lower belly into such a tiny Ted.
Here is Cubblet, just under 2" tall and wide, sorry I don't have a side shot to show his profile curves -