Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

What a cutie.  I can't wait to see him in his tree.

Congrats :clap:

I am very lightly treading in here because I make child safe bears and with these come plastic eyes and plastic joints and I think there are more of these type of bears being made by others.  I would love to enter competitions but my bears fall more in the manufactured category and I don't belong there or any where else that I can see. 

I do think there should be more categories and additional animals categories because, like what was said before, how can you judge a cat from a dog and size really matters here too.  The Master catagory like Paula said I think would help more people trying to enter the competitions.  It also would be nice to see lower entry fees.

Not really wrong.  It all depends on whether the pattern had a seam allowance added to the pattern or not.  They come both ways.

You did a wonderful job on the bears.  Their personalities come though and you just can't help but smile.

Cute!  Cute! Cute!

Paula, another cutie.  Your dolls all have the best faces, so expressive.

After years of working with all kinds of faux furs, I have found that I sew the gusset from the eye area to the nose first on both sides, then pin and sew from the back of the head to the eye area that it keeps the gusset even.

I didn't get a list either so I have just been sending the cards out as the card arrive.  Some of you will be getting the cards late.

Made up this funky looking bear for a girl in Los Angles.  Will probably be doing more for her from some different types of fur she uses in her clothing that she makes.

I am addicted to bears!  I have been making them for 30 years and I just love making them and seeing them come to life.  Every room in my house has some type of bear in it and I even have a wooden bear that sits outside the front door.

Cute, looks like my cat when he was younger.

This is my newest puppy design.  This 3 inch faux fur is super soft but it sure did give my fits working with it.  The puppy is 8 inches tall and 9 inches long with an additional 9 inch tail that is wired.  (I used one of those perm curlers in the tail that Joanne told me about and it works wonderfully.)  It has child safe eyes and nose and felt paws.

I was on Etsy for a while and never sold anything.  I didn't pay the extra for the feature.  It got too time consuming to update with new items.  I have had some luck with ArtFire but it too is getting a lot more items just like Etsy.  ArtFire is only about 2 years old.  I still get more traffic to my website by being active on several forums and posting my items there.  Sales are greater too as these people get to know you and your work.

So small and so cute.

Thank you all ladies, you are so kind.

Bobbie is all ready for Valentines' Day with his heart neck tie.  He is 10 inches tall, made of faux fur, 5 way jointed and is child safe with plastic locking black eyes and nose.  He is available on my website.

He is so cute!!!!

What little sweethearts.  Wonderful!

Alison, stay warm and our warm weather will be back sooner than you know.  We have been pretty lucky up here with only somewhere between 2 and 3 inches of rain and no high winds.  We don't have many closed roads except in the foothills.  It is raining again this morning.  Love you pictures.

Thanks Joanne for remembering me as the person  who makes child proof bears.  And Daphne, that is okay that you forgot my name.  This is mainly what I make is the child proof bears and have for the last 30 years. 

Tami, what are you looking for in a child safe bear?

What a sweetie!

He is sweet and I like the pink.

Now nobody laugh....

This is Rusty a 12 inch puppy with open mouth.  This is my first attempt in about 15 years to do an open mouth animal.  I know this is not very good but I just wanted to show the newer bear makers that sometimes us old bear makers can't get everything right.  I have got to work on this pattern some more and maybe, just maybe the next time will be better or start all over with designing a new pattern. 

So all of you who are just starting out.  Keep working at it and you will get better.  Then there will be sometimes when you get something like this and say WHAT?  But keep trying as we all make mistakes no matter how long we have been at it.

Enjoy your rain.  I know, living in the desert of Arizona USA, we love the rain.  We only get about 6 inches a year  in the part where I live.