Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

My jaw just drops, like his!, whenever I stare and drool over your newest works! You always come up with new & innovative pcs & techniques. Amazing....

This is a fine example of all of the new work being done by the new needlers!
Great start in Needle Felting!!! Love him (or her!)!

Do those judges not realize how LONG it took to keep every single bit of colored fiber in its own place and off of the white? Someone should have given them (and EVERY SINGLE other judge of Needle Felting in the future!) a minimum  half lesson in needling... and perhaps they'll have a better appreciation for the excellence of work like yours!

That darling giraffe especially can move into my house any day!!!
"It's a keeper"!

SOOO tiny - and for your first! Congrats!! Can you count the tiny stab holes in your fingertips (evil grin!!!)
Keep it up - we're all pulling for you -

Ab Fab! And do let us all know about the outcome - what happens when the fundraiser comes up and what becomes of all of them, Pls???

Joanne - I've just found your newest tutorial - on double-jointing, wedge necks - and I must commend you on your work: it's the finest one I've ever read & seen on explaining!! THANK YOU!

All of the others SAY what to do, and yet invariably they do NOT do as they say - use the correct/different sizes of disks underneath each of the different areas to support the flat sides of the wedges.

Or they don't sew separate sections of non-pile fabric over these disk sections but instead they draw the wedge fabric across in a gathering thread as one usually closes a neck. This leaves the most ugly bump there and the wedge is SO obvious: no position smoothes out the neck curve into a natural line....

If you hadn't put the pins into position it would be impossible to find your seams Thank you THANK YOU for your MOST generous time put into this tutorial!

A true treasure which I hope will find a home in Boston.
I love love LOVE the slim flat profile of your polar's feet - you nail those!
And all of the fiddly bits with the appliqued paw pads.. you're the King of Realism, w/o a doubt.
2009 has been a stellar year for you Kelly and ALL of your work belongs in Fine Art Galleries!

And I've both heard & read that it does take about 2 - 3 weeks for full protection and effectiveness to kick in.
Sorry you didn't make it past your Sell-By date!
At least you've got DOUBLE protection now; the vaccines and your own built-up immunities.
Just had my H1N1 today, the first day they're available to the general population in metro Chicago.
Hope it'll be working OK at full strength before some surgery 3 weeks from today - that's cutting it too close for comfort!

I don't understand a word of Swedish, but was directed to this blog yesterday from another list; it's been running all month:

(Bobbie: I found the 3rd to be a real 'cliff-hanger'!! Yikes!!)

I'm loving the continuing blog entries for the Days of Dec -
http://elsasjulkalender2009.blogspot.co … finns.html

Such a clever (Textile Artist) Lady!

(BTW - clicking on the first un-numbered heart on the left appears to introduce the characters [?])

Ah Ha! I found a Google Translate on her home page, and now can read more of the story as it unfolds! What a refreshing bright spot every other day's posting is: I can hardly wait for today's installment!

Well that's good to know that they're pretty tough.
And that the books are backed up just like having everything in your main Library in iTunes.

Hmmmm.... I still like the idea of being 'read to' however, i.e., having put everything on the iPod has it on a much smaller machine which goes into my pocket or clips onto my waist, because I am then hands-free.
I use it when working, when working-out, when driving, when falling asleep (with the timer).
It's basically on me 24/7 unless I'm in the shower or it's recharging.

I still read 'real' books, in fact have several going at once, so an ebook would help out this situation, but that's still more costly than my self-set price of purchasing at Amazon Used (paperback) books..

Don't mind me while I sit over here musing to myself, weighing the options.
Like everything else—the first hand calculators over $125 and VHS machines for $1200—both of them now priced at less than 50¢ and $75 to start, with time - this technology too will come waaaay down in price.
But I'll probably be too feeble by then to hold it steady enough to read from one, though!!!
(and my iPod 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking'....)

I too would not use Peta alone, here in the States it DEFINITELY stands for PETA - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals - and there are VERY strong factions on both side, for & against.

I Like Randy's suggestion of an accent mark, this may deflect any suggestion of a connection.

Of all of these ways of pronouncing the letter 'e', which is the one that is used to say your name? That addition alone to the e in Peta would be enough to break the eye from seeing 'PETA', which I always have when I see your name (though it has a lot to do with having 2 grandies who are vegan/vegetarians)

Even 'Peta Smart Originals' still doesn't define what it is that you do, though you may be choosing this non-connection on purpose, just as I did when I chose the trade name Creative Design Studio 45+ years ago, because it has covered me in my trained profession of cosmetologist, as well as the glass work that I've done, many other endeavors since and the more recent custom knitting and bear-work.

My website has the bear word in it, because it is specifically dedicated to bears: if I did another 'craft', I'd design another, second site. And if I had family to include, I'd put them onto another, different site or a blog, as I don't care for the combination of family with business.
It is a lot to consider, but you are absolutely correct in your thinking that this is the ideal time for changes.
Just go slowly and think them through for the long-term; don't do them retaliatory.

Good Luck to you - - and Happier Times in 2010 and Beyond!!!

What is the situation for bumping and (horrors!) the eventuality of dropping one of the ebook readers, whether out-of-your-hand or while it's in a tote bag or in a purse?

That's one of the things that's holding me back and staying with uploading from our Library book collection on MP3 / CDs  and Aubible.com.

Well, yes, Tammy, I think/suppose that in some instances I'm sure that there must be some instances of suspicions being raised about 'bomb scares/perps/things-inserted-that're-dangerous-to-kiddies...' and that's a sad commentary on today's world.

But for the most part, I think that if it's approached in the right way, say - getting prior approval of letting the ppl involved (i.e., the Library, grocery store, food pantry, or the favorite spot you've chosen to leave a stuffie bagged in clear plastic and marked with these chosen, international 'Toy Society' words etc) then eventually I should think that most of them would get into the hands of a child who will really appreciate it/them.

For several years I've been doing something else along this line: I purchase all of my books (paperbacks) as Used on Amazon and they look brand new. After reading them once I like to pass them on. I slip them into a zip-lock bag, with a note inside, another sort of Pay It Forward, saying that this book was purposely left on this bench/in this spot/etc for whoever finds it and if interested in this author or this subject,
to please feel free to take it with them to read and when finished, if it's still in good condition, to again include a note like this, put it inside a waterproof bag and leave it in a public place to be enjoyed by someone else.

Authors of course would like sales of individual books but even paperbacks now cost over $15 but I can no longer afford that so I frequent the online used book sources; and I can't see just throwing them away or putting them all into the recycling bin, the Library's resale table or the charity resale pick-ups at the house.
I like knowing that each book might be enjoyed by one individual person, one-at-a-time!

I know!
And the cute little items are such simple shapes and designs. We could make so many of these.
I was just writing to another member: some of these would no doubt be taken advantage of, but judicious placement near spots where families and/or parents would see them - near local food pantries, libraries/children's sections, grocery stores, etc, would all be places where they would attract the eyes of those would could legitimately use them,  as well as spark the idea in the minds of many for the idea of 'Pay It Forward', which I feel that this is the principle of.
(that's convoluted but you know what I mean!)

Am I the last one to learn about this or has this never been discussed here before?
I think this is a fabulous idea too!

In that we all know how to design and construct quite complex creations and that we've all got huge stashes of material that's "too good to throw way and too small to do anything with..."

The Toy Society is a brilliant idea - or maybe I've been sprinkled with the pixie dust that always gets to me at this time of the year... but seeing these simple shapes and spreading a little extra kindness, when it costs me almost nothing.. and the idea of doing it anonymously just hits my heart.
I'm going to be doing this now and in the future - I LV this idea and 3 cheers to the Aussie person who got it going!!!

OK, who else is going to be going the effort in 2010????

http://www.thetoysociety.blogspot.com/

Are there any friends in Germany who have seen these cookies/biscuits in your grocery shops and would be willing to purchase some for me for Christmas in the next week or 2?

We can get a smaller version of them (pictured below) through German Deli.com in Texas and the cookies are about 2.5" - 3" across but up until a few years ago, our German cousins had been sending us pkgs of them at Christmas time, which were larger and packaged slightly differently. We believe they were up to 4" or 5" across and possibly fewer in the package. Our recipients swear that they tasted a little different and would really like to have some of the others. While these have been ordered online, we'd really like to surprise them with they larger ones, straight from Germany.

Has anyone seen these cookies, called 'Contessa' by Bahlsen, on your grocery shelves, and would be willing to purrchase several pkgs for me. I'll pay instantly for them, shipping and your time & trouble by Paypal.

http://germandeli.com/contessaschoko.html

As we all know the artist from NH (!!) who made six Whimseys for that movie: I was looking forward to seeing Fantastic Mr Fox, which we did last night.
While the movie was a little choppy in it's 'flow' I was fascinated as an artist in looking at the construction of all of the different animals.
They were called puppets in the credits, but coming from the fabric-construction world, they absolutely nailed getting exactly the right fabrics for each animal: otter, fox, mole, rabbit, rat, etc...
Even to getting the leather eyelids inserted (though Mr F's eyes are set into his face crookedly/out-of-balance/correct planes with each other) for eyes to be able to blink.

It appeared to have been created in England/Europe; London & Paris credits were featured. Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders (sp?) were the names given under the generic name of 'puppets' for all of the animals. While they're not especially known in our bear-making circles I thought someone might know of them more locally?

For a bear maker, it was quite an interesting movie!

And I will add a HUGE Amen! to your comments, Kim! I cannot agree more!
We always stair-step on the backs of the workers ahead of us, as will those behind us on our experiments; it's on the collective experimenting of each & every one of us - and SHARING that gained knowledge - that we ALL advance!
And the speed of advancement is accelerated, in every field of endeavor, from bear-making to computers to agriculture through every other thing that humans have tried.

Now that reads like something out of a 'worthy tome', but I didn't mean it to come off so High Brow!
I was leading up to a short TY acceptance for a TOBY which I gave a decade or so ago which addressed this very thing, and oddly enough is sitting right in front of me, because I came across it last week in another purge before company came from the holiday:

The first half is a Henry Ford quote -

"Coming Together is a Beginning,
Working Together is Progress
and Staying Together is Success."

My friend and I (this was the bear that had won) thank the Artists who have gone before us for laying the groundwork -

And those bearmakers to follow for pushing us to new heights.

and you should have see the thick woven plaid upholstery fabric I bought (for 2 & 3" patterns) when I first began in 1990!
:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:
I should have bought enough and re-upholstered the couch!

Most bear makers just won't use stretchy fabrics for the actual ted, Kynthia. They are too much trouble. There are of course ways to line the fabric and tack it in place to stabilize it, which comes with experience, but it's difficult to express all of the possibilities in the limited amount of space given here, and in the abstract - not knowing the particulars of each fabric.
If they really love the fabric they'll find a use for it in clothing or accessorizing.

Did Julie recommend coating the entire fabric with sealant?

I've worked with Julie in the past in one of her books (may even be on the one you were reading) and found her to be a thorough researcher.

The times early on in my career that I thought to coat the whole fabric in advance of tracing and cutting out - turned out to be disastrous, because I found that I had lost all of the natural biasing of the fabric when I was stuffing.
As a beginner, one tends to 'just stuff'. But later on, one realizes that very judicious placement, especially using the curved tipped forceps/hemostats allows one to slide just that bit extra stuffing between already-firmly-stuffed-ted & fabric into all of those extra places that were built into the pattern pieces - to bell or bow out to bring out the character that was designed into the creation.

Sealing the fabric up into a totally non-biasing fabric wasted several yards of fabric, as I tended do whole sessions of just drawing out pattern pieces, then cutting out and stringing together teddies in sewing-together-order, bagging them up and then always having some ready to grab & go. It wasn't until the 'grab & go' stage that I realized what a mistake I'd made!
Don't coat the entire backing! If you're using a really fragile fabric and feel the need to stabilize it with another fabric underneath, glue still isn't the way to go!

PVA is the same as the Aleene's brands we have here in the States, though we don't need to dilute it, just use it straight from the bottle, which makes it really easy and less messy to apply.
I too used the white grid backed fabrics but sewed virtually on-the-edge, so I needed to seal all of the edges in advance of cutting out and sewing.

I always felt the the amount of stuffing (the degree of firmness) was sort of the determining of factor as to whether or not one should seal or not. If the creation was to be very firmly stuffed, it would almost seem to be a no-brainer that eventually all of that pressure from the inside would pop a seam somewhere, as one couldn't how a recipient might handle or treat the teddy over time. It's just better to be prepared in advance as it's impossible to fix afterwards.

If you leave enough in seam allowances, say - 1/8" - 1/4" or more, then you probably wouldn't need to seal them.

But how WONDERFUL!! It seems like I still have a very old email to you in my Drafts folder, yet to be followed up on, that we were conversing with each other about 8 or 9 months ago - - about "What's wrong with my work? What am I missing here? "

And I had yet to write - NOTHING!!
You just hadn't quite been noticed by quite the right ppl - - - yet...
We all get our opportunities, sooner or later.

The first time I won an TOBY award, my speech opened like this:
"The Lord provides the right type of seed for every type of bird, BUT he doesn't toss it into the nest!
It's just the same with bear competitions: you can design and create the World's Most Perfect Teddy, but unless YOU get the word out there and put in onto competitions and into the public eye, it may as well stay in your Studio."
_________

It's really hard for the shy among us to push ourselves forward, but if not into competitions, then when?
And, Andrea, this clever use of co-ordinating color and the perfect matching at all points, shows that the judges appreciate the time and experience you've got under-your-belt, refining your excellent bear-making skills.
Toot! Tooting your Horn for you!!!

Hi SueAnn,
Are you using 'fray check' as a verb? I sure wouldn't wish to fly in the face of reason here - we were typing at the same time - and your work turns out beautifully. But we work with such different sizes and materials that I get the feeling that you are saying that certain/particular fabrics need 'sealing' no matter what size design one will create with it.
Is that closer to what you are thinking??

This may be more a question of - how closely do you sew to the edge of your fabric?

I always sew my minis approx 1/16" in from the edge, hardly even worth calling a seam allowance, and I need absolutely NO fraying out.
In some instances, I've had to sew in as far as 1/8" but that seems like a huge honking large seam allowance to me, as my sewn work is rarely larger more than 3", so overall size of your work is also relative and very much part of the equation.

All that being said, if you are sewing miniatures and/or need to sew anywhere near where the sealing is, the brand 'Fray Check' is the last one I'd recommend. (Please don't sling too many arrows; I need all the energy I have for company & cooking this week!! LOL)
I've found Fray Check turns too stiff after drying to stitch through, it bleeds into the fabric instead of staying put along the edge and is too difficult to apply with applicator tip as supplied.

I prefer the Aleene's line of white glues: they dry clear and flexible, can be hand-sewn through easier and don't wash out even after machine washing & drying before stitching (accidentally left in a pocket...)
'OK To Wash It' or 'Stop Fraying' are both excellent products.
I transfer it into the Monoject 412 craft syringes
http://www.kitkraft.biz/product.php?pro … DAodHTyPmw
because the curved tip is really great to let you see where it's going.

To seal the end, push out a drop of glue and insert one of those plastic T-hangers that sox or gloves are displayed on.
They're the perfect size to fit inside the curved tip to keep the glue at the tip from drying out and curing. After pulling off to use the next time, just squeeze a bit more glue down inside that little blob and push the tip back into the blob again. Eventually it builds up to a point where you'll begin again with one small blob.

Trace your pattern pieces on fabric and then 'draw' around the lines with a very fine bead of the white glue. Blot with a piece of paper /kitchen towel very firmly. This will remove most of the excess glue, push the glue into the fabric backing and slightly spread it onto both sides of your drawn line.
Allow all pcs to dry TOTALLY (overnight if possible) and then cut out your patt pcs and you will never have one bit of fraying no matter how you twist and turn the pcs or how much strain is put on the pcs as they are sewn and pulled right-side out and stuffed.