Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I love the bear in your avatar Frances he's gorgeous! Your bears are amazing you should be proud of your self.

Finally worked out how to post pics, here's my first bear: Noah. He's 5" tall standing from another artist's pattern. He's the only bear I've ever made from another's pattern. I now design all my own.

Here's an example of my work now (a thread I've posted on here):

http://www.teddy-talk.com/viewtopic.php?id=43289

Well done Frances your yorkie is gorgeous. You mentioned he was small, how small is he? Just wondering as I'm imagining cuddling him lol. Love him he looks so much like a yorkie too   :clap:  :clap:  :clap: Great job!

Well done, Oscar is gorgeous. Very neat appliqued foot pads too especially for your first attempt! Bravo!  :clap: Well done Frances you will be perfecting advanced techniques in no time (well you already are lol, so there's not much more to say other than that you certainly have the bear maker's talent!)

Awwwwwwwwww I must have missed him on Bear Pile again lol. Darn. I love hoodies and I love this bear! Oh well, next time :):)

I love Joanne's blog too Frances, and I look at your workroom Joanne and wish mine looked like that! Mean while if I spent as much time tidying our own studio as I do drooling over everyone else's, it would be spotless by now lol.

Glad you found the answers you were after Frances

Wow what a great thread. I have spent my whole morning reading it while doing other things about the house and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now thanks to all of you my new series of vintage/antiqued pirate bears are going to have to have a long lost brother who perhaps didn't take the typical pirate path but rather ran off into a steampunk era or something lol. In other words you've inspired me to add another bear to my list of bears I want to make.

Sheryl I would love it if there was a steampunk swap ~ that would be fantastic fun! I'd be in. I also may be biting off more than I can chew so hopefully it would be sometime early next year as I'm so swamped with bears right now! But certainly interested

Again, what a great thread and I love everyone's creations just amazing and SO inspiring! :D:D

I thought this too Joanne ~ it's such a gorgeous bear full of such personality. I too can't believe it is only bear #2. Well done Frances :):) Can't wait to see bear #4, #5, #6 and infinity! LOL :D:D

Yay! Yippee! *Does a little happy dance* Very excited, can you tell? :D:D

Awwwww I wish I could come I want Thomas!!! Have a great day and find great homes for your bears

Awwwwwwwwwwwww I adore little Benvolio and what a gorgeous mug!!! Hope I posted my comment correctly. This is my first entry into a blog giveaway, I'm very excited!

Hi and welcome to the forum,  I am only just going in the direction of realistic creatures with my style of bears. Since starting making bears years ago I wanted to go into ultra-realistic animals. I'm currently making a double-neck jointed polar bear and a fully armatured lion cub who is meant to be as realistic as I can possibly make. I also love dragons and would love to have a go at one one day.
However the one thing that stood out to me was your mention of a hypogriff. I have already made a custom ordered hypogriff (actually it was more of a griffon) for a lady a little while ago. It is not featured on my website as yet as it was a very specific custom order and OOAK. I am however working on another similar creation to put on my website. He's described with only minor hints on my "coming soon" page. I am currently swamped with custom orders for Christmas gifts etc but when you're thinking of ordering some pieces I'd be very interested in making you something.

Most of my bears/animals/creatures are custom orders, they're what I make the most of. I design lots of pieces for companies to use as their logos and mascots etc, I design them from the pattern up with all the color specifications etc that the customer is looking for.

I love the HP books and movies too however I don't have much interest in making a spider lol (although I do know somewhere you can get one immediately that's probably the most realistic you'll find lol) or many other "Scary" pieces as I like my creatures to be as endearing as possible in their own way. I am very interested in dragons and griffons and hypogriffs though so I'd love to give making one of any of them a go. I've always wanted to make a dragon, so you may see one on my website next year some time

Anyway that's enough from me, I just thought it was worth mentioning I love ultra realistic fantasy creatures. Feel free to contact me whenever you'd like if you're interested in my creations.

My website is here by the way - http://gjoyfulbears.com/main.html

It is a work in progress though and does not carry as many photos of as many of my bears and creatures as I would like, so keep checking back.

I pack my smaller bears in a gift box with bubble wrap first then the post parcel or box. Everything about the bear etc is in the gift box part.

I have to say I won't name names of some of the artist bears I've received that were poorly packed but I will say that Silke Borrmann's bears ("The Mountaineers") are not only stunning bears and so professionally made, but they are packed SOOOOOOOOO amazingly for their new owners. She puts them in a very large post box with lots of bubble wrap, and the actual bear is wrapped first in nice tissue paper and then in a stronger red or other colour tissue paper (the non-tear, paper like kind). This is gathered at the top near the head of the bear, and tied with grass reed-like ties (amazing string-like stuff) and then she has stars, flowers and other beautiful cut-out shapes with holes in the center that sit around the gathered and tied tissue. It's absolutely stunning. I am always eager to undo the package and see the bear but I can never help myself when I receive one of her bears, I have to sit and marvel just for a moment at the wrapping of the package.

Oh and to the bear's wrapped up package she attaches with a little wooden peg, a photo and business card which just finished off the whole presentation. I love un-wrapping her bears and when they arrive I'm always so excited

And of course I love her actual bears too lol - passed all that amazing wrapping is always a stunning bear

Thank you Themla, Latte is a love. His new mum actually posts regular videos on Youtube about him called "Latte's Adventures" which are very cute

Francy I'm glad you like MacKenzie. I have a few more of him on their way to the site for adoption. MacKenzie I gave to my mum on mother's day.

And Jessie ~ I'm sorry there are no descriptions! I am ultra busy at the moment and when I posted them last night it was very late and also trying to locate a missing bank card lol. I just wanted to get the majority of my bears on here for people to view quickly, and since there are so many it's quite difficult to write so many descriptions for them. I will write some later for you OK? I am just flat out at the minute with so many things..... overwhelming!

Glad you like the pics girls

Now that I have finally worked out how to post pics here, here are some bears I've completed this year. I've made quite a lot this year but these are some of my favorites. Enjoy

Here is Latte, who has been adopted however I have more of his fur so I think I'll be making him an open edition as he's so cute

Here is Vanilla Fudge & Latte together, (Vanilla Fudge is like Latte's brother lol)

MacKenzie the Hedgehog who earned himself a blue ribbon and 93/100 points at a recent show (we're very proud of him)

Miriam, one of my favorites as she's not quite antique but still has the darns and stitches. In my mind she is a bear who has spent many years in the attic however she still likes to maintain her lady-like appearance. She's such a lady too She now lives all the way in California

Locksley, one of my favorite foxes (I make lots of foxes but not all are shown to the world, Locksley is one of my favorites I just love him).

One of my mother's bears (we make our bears together) Tripple Chocolate Mudcake.

Another of mum's bears, Jeremiah the shy boy lol

Another of mum's girls, Maya a BIG bear at 24" tall (that's big for us)

One of my fav bears as he's so unique - The Entertainer. What a special fellow

Logie, a custom order another big girl standing at 17" (again that is big for me, I like smaller and medium sized bears usually. I only ever hand-sew so this is the only reason why lol. Takes weeks and weeks of sewing to create such a large bear by only hand-sewing. I know I'm not the only one that only hand-sews, we should make a club! LOL) :D:D:D

And little Apple Crumble, who recently came first in an online competition

If anyone would like to see more photos or view our bears for adoption etc you can see them on our website: http://gjoyfulbears.com/main.html

Hope you enjoyed my pics. It's so hard to choose favs for each year when I look back at photos as I love them all, but I can't load them all here for you to see lol. If you do want to see them all you may visit our website, some of the bears above are still available please check the site to see if you are interested. Enjoy your day/night and week!

Hugs
Gabriele and the bears

In my bears I collect though I like whatever seems to suit the bear the best lol. This depends on the style of bear I find.

Andrea I think your noses are pretty amazing lol! But I can see what you mean Paula's noses are just WOW

As an artist I chose a nose medium based on the bear I'm making. I'm doing quite a few realistic bears and animals at the moment and polymer clay or epoxy works the best for me, however on my "bear bears" I use embroidered noses and I have to say these are one of my favourite parts of bear making along with shading. I just love embroidering noses and shading faces on bears, I find it relaxing and it tends to take me less brain-power to create them lol. This is a nose I created on a bear called "Logie." It is embroidered and shined. And please congratulate me this is my first successful photo upload on TT! :D:D

Oh no!!! Awwww poor Beau  How could someone do such a thing. I agree with Karon, how could you enjoy owning and hugging a bear you had stolen? Every time you'd look at it you'd know how you got it. I suppose we are all such honest people that thought alone would put us off entirely.... in fact we're such honest people here that the thought of stealing someone's hard work and gorgeous bear would not even cross our minds in the first place. How awful. I hope you find Beau. Someone must have seen him, you just need to make sure they see your poster.

A friend of mine has fold up cabinets that are locked at her stands at shows for tiny bears like Beau. Could be an idea for future shows?

I hope you find him. Please let us know how you go and what happens with Beau's "missing bears case."  Would you mind if I put your poster up on other forums and sites? It couldn't hurt to spread the word.

Oh that fur would have been SOOO much fun to sculpt!!! I bet that was your favourite part lol. I love this bear absolutely gorgeous. You mentioned the fur was good to paint, do you actually use paint or do you airbrush or shade with prisma colour markers or similar? I've been wondering about using paint on bears..... what kind of paint do you use?

Love this bear absolutely well done!  :clap:  :clap:

Awww how gorgeous is that! Love them!     

Thelma I'd never thought of that idea for shading! I love shading it is my number one fav part of bear making. All through every step of making a bear I'm basically just hanging out for the shading at the end I adore it. But my mum, Robyn who is the other creator in GJOYful Bears, hates shading it scares her to think she may ruin it as it can't come off (this thought never occurred to me I was too enthusiastic lol) so I will let her know what you do it may help her build up some confidence in the shading department (I have been shading her bears for her so far lol).

I mark where one limb should go (the disc should sit flat at the base of the body just inside the seam) then poke a doll's needle through the marked position and mark the other side so they're identical. Never fails for me. Let us know how you go.

Awww he's beautiful and to be totally honest with you so you know I'm not just saying it, he's absolutely gorgeous for your second bear. Did you design the pattern yourself? He's gorgeous regardless of whether you did or you didn't. I also love perm curlers as armatures they're fantastic and work wonders. Big thumbs up he's a gorgeous bear, and I have to say not many bears look so gorgeous completely white with not many contrasting features - I never use totally white without colourful accessories etc to contrast but this bear looks gorgeous and you've really captures an amazing expression in the face. Well done, be proud of yourself!

P.S - your noses will improve. Everyone's noses start out uneven, trust me

I would also try to contrast with the nose and pads. Best of luck and be sure to share pics of your creation when finished!

LOL I like the sound of that book. All my dogs had weighted water bowls when they were puppies for exactly this reason My Great Dane is still a puppy technically (10 months old) and still tries her hardest to move the bowl. She also has an awful habit of burying her toys in REALLY deep holes in the garden (and being toys for a Great Dane they're very expensive toys lol - I'm not amused). I live on a property and all the dogs have this annoying habit of literally hurling their toys into the really deep damn. They get a thrill from the splash and that's the end of it lol. Toy never seen again as they always choose the heaviest ones so they can get the biggest splash. My lab who passed away used to go in and collect the toys (she loved water and duck-diving) for me and bring them back to me not the other dogs lol - but now the toys just disappear and never come back

Enjoy the puppy days they're really special, sometimes annoying but it's the annoying things you remember.