Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Marie--no such thing as too many posts, keep them coming :D

Me Too, Laure. I never knew what to do with a doll except figure out how it worked. The animals I played with and loved.

I'm so glad everyone's ok. We have so little scary natural activity here in Toronto that we can't even imagine.
I remember hurricane warnings in Houston--tape the windows, fill the tub with water--but I never actually experienced one.

Eileen

Oh, My Ears and Whiskers! I'm Late! :D

What a wonderful topic, wonderful stories, wonderful people.  Wonderful animals goes without saying.

I LOVE a multi-species family. Couldn't live any other way. I get really unhappy if I spend too much time in a people-only world. And I would just about trade my children in for a HORSE!! Never give up.

Lately I've fostered litters of squirrels (ate all the knobs off my washer & dryer and chewed up the window frames) and kittens for the Humane Society, and brought home any critter I found abandoned in a nearby park, including a rabbit (Oscar the Grouch, now deceased) , a blue budgie ([SPAM], still going strong), 2 kittens (now living in a very exclusive condo with a lake view and two adoring new parents). I rescued a little tiny mouselet last winter from my compost bin. I'm sure the mother had shoved hiim out of the nest, because he was ice cold. Little Rufus lived several days on kitten milk supplement, slept in my hand much of the time, and at least died knowing he had a mommy who loved him.

The rest of my current animal family includes

Lucy, a 14ish collie/shepherd mix that looks like a border collie
Dana, a  6ish Jack Russell/Spitz mix, originally my daughter's
Rose, a 17ish calico female cat--runs the house, helps me make bears, sheds all over my keyboard
Knightly, a 6ish gentleman cat, looks almost exactly like Kirsten's, same moustache
Phoebe, 8ish, black and fluffy, a former foster, lovable only on her terms
Oscar, almost 3, a three-legged ginger tabby, former foster
Emma, 5ish and possibly the most beautiful cat in the world, black/white longhaired silky tuxedo style
Toby the bunny, fawn and white, former foster, very sweet, loves living under a sofa when not in hutch
Lily, also fawn and white bunny, a terror--she T-bones any cat rash enough to enter her room
Isis and Ishtar, 2 siamese gerbils
Charlie, Phantom and Shimmy, veil-tailed goldfish, all huge

We've had many other rabbits and cats and guinea pigs and gerbils and rats and hamsters over the years. Velvet the rat was a close companion. She loved the basement, so I moved her cage down--she spent her later years happily collecting and discarding little stuff, and generally rearranging the whole basement bit by bit.

A lot of my foster kittens were sick when they came to me, and some died in my hands. Very, very hard.

Shelli, I had a leopard gecko for years--Strangely Brown, named after a character mentioned by Hugh Laurie in a WWI episode of Blackadder. He had eyelids, so didn't need to lick his eyeballs. He only ate live crickets, yuck. I tried to raise crickets, but the little ones got away and ran all over the house.  I loved that chilly little dude!

Eileen

Could the shipping cost be included in the reserve? Or do higher reserves kill auctions?

Eileen

Hugh Laurie definitely does the best American accent ever. I first heard it in the Stuart Little film. I'd watched him for years on Blackadder, and couldn't believe my ears!

Chocolate--THAT's what I need, esp after two hours on A Streetcar Named Desire. Last night I finished off the last of the chockyfudge ice cream, so we're completely out.  Chocolate might even cure cranky computers :rolleyes:

Eileen

Thanks, SueAnn :D

I tried, but the second port doesn't do it.  I'm totally stumped. The only other thing I can think of is to uninstall the 'toy' camera that came with the computer, and reinstall the Canon again. They might be fighting.

But first I've got to tutor a gazillion kids today . . . I'm tempted to fake my own death, but I just gave in and bought a yard of that lovely string mohair on Intercal !!

Eileen

Weep! I'll never make it so far south on my budget, but . . .

If anybody's coming up for the Toronto show in August, plan to bunk here. I'll throw the kids out!

Eileen

Winney,

Earphones for Father's Day? :D

My kids like their music loud and their TV low, so low that the the Old Dears can't hear at all!

Eileen

Laure,

It was crisw's website suggestion, not mine, but you're welcome and me too! :D

The website mentions that this stuff can be used for all sorts of applications, including small aquariums :/
Which makes me wonder if it might be available from a place like Home Depot or Lee Valley at a somewhat lower cost. I've got a grey drill extender thingy that's made of the same stuff.

Eileen

Hey, lets not diss Bugs. He gave me my first exposure to Mozart--remember the Bugs the Barber cartoon? A classic! Steinbeck, eh. Makes perfect sense. I knew I'd read it somewhere . .  . like 40 years ago Speaking of knuckledraggers, does anybody remember the cartoon where bugs keeps turning into a gorilla thing, as in Jeckyll and Hyde. That scared me silly.

Apologies, Louise --I read too fast, and thought you were saying George was an adorable girl!! Duh.

Sue Ann--I had a look at the metal swivel joint on Edinburgh--$20 or so, depending on size, yikes. It looks like the doll head joint that I've heard about. I understand that one metal 'bowl' is sewn onto the head through the little holes in its circumference, and one onto the body. But I can't for the life of me figure out how the bowls are then held together.  Anybody understand how this thing works? It seems to me that something similar could be made out of cardboard and glue in several layers.

About the pictures--I'm frustrated enought to gnaw my own left foot off!!! I managed to take some trial pics and install the software ok, but for some reason, when I plug the camera (Canon Sureshot A40) into my USB port, and try to download the pictures, my stupid computer won't recognize the camera. I've uninstalled and tried again, but nothing works. I'm totally stumped. Anyway, little George's details will have to wait until my son-in-law gets back Monday and bails me out.

Daphne, I'm a veteran credit-card misplacer. Did you order pizza? Look by the phone. Did you shove it into your pocket? Use it as a bookmark in a catalogue you were ordering from? Wrap a receipt around it and stash it into the wrong compartment of your bag? My next-best trick is spilling all the change out of my bag in public places!!

Eileen

Beautiful Avatar, Rita--well done (again), Shelli! :D

Eileen

It's not that I'm NOT a TV addict--I love it. Latest passions are Stargate SG1 and Monk, old favorites are all the Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama and Southpark they can throw at me in reruns!

Since I'm online-tutoring and bearmaking at the same time most days, I bought myself a subscription to Audible. I can download novels, plays, poetry--most of the time whatever my students are working on.

This way, I don't have to put down my bear to "read"  . . . :D

Eileen

I finally got 'round to checking the website crisw (sorry, I don't know your name!)suggested ( www.artistique.us/index , and it offers one-eighth inch loc-line (!!)  at $1.50 a foot. Unless I missed it, Edinburgh didn't offer that size when I last ordered.

Anyway, the 1/8inch looks exactly like the larger loc-line, and I can't see why it wouldn't be as strong. The standard doll armatures I've seen in craft stores look more like the pop-beads people wore in the 50s--not strong.

Eileen

I used a double neck joint at first, but it looked so bad that I took it out, and just jointed the head to the body with one disk in each. Problem is, he can now look from side to side, but still gazes up a bit too much. Trying and failing to justify this.
  Maybe he's watching the swans in flight? I might try the double-neck again, and try to do better.

Laure, I love the ball joint idea. Do you use wire or lockline in the 2-part limbs? I'm having trouble picturing it. Could the large bead joint be used in the neck somehow?

I'm thinking that if the bear had a lockline spine and loose enough skin around the neck, the head and body wouldn't have to be separate pieces. I haven't tried this,  but it should be possible. After all, real bears can't turn their heads all the way around Exorcist-Wise. :D

I have read (somewhere) about a common neck joint for dolls. It's apparently a pair of shallow nesting cardboard 'bowls', one in the head and one in the body.  Anybody ever tried this? Or know anything more about it?

Louise! How on earth do I do a sex-change operation on a bear????? :lol:

Eileen

Best of luck, Kirsten, let's hope!! :D

And Daphne, tell your husband he's just a kid at 43!!  My husband was 44 when we had our youngest, and he had the time of his life with little Alexandra. Still does with big Alexandra.

Like a lot of things, Daddying is actually easier when you're older and wiser.

Eileen

Thanks again, all Still swamped with students to tutor, but I'll get the photos asap.
Very frustrating, but tutoring pays for my supplies! Almost :rolleyes:

Dilu--little George is not Ugly ugly, he's supposed to be The Ugly Duckling (Bear Version) from Hans Christian Andersen's story. He's a little swan chick (cynet) that hatches by mistake into a family of ducks. They call him ugly and awkward and geeky till he runs away. He survives a hard winter. Next spring, he realizes that he's grown into a beautiful swan, joins the other swans, etc

2005 is Andersen's Bicentennial. Denmark is issuing special stamps, fans are going wild, etc. I'm thinking of making more bears based on his stories.

In Central Park, there's a wonderful statue of Andersen reading to the UD at his feet--

Eileen

I've used mink oil on boots--fantastic stuff.

Also on mink, trying to revive a scrap of a dull collar I'd bought. Just a mere whiff on the back of the pelt, and a merer whiff on the guard hairs. It seems to work for me, but who knows? :/

I'm sure that if the mink oil penetrated to the undercoat, you'd have a gucky mess, but that's not what minks use it for, after all. I think they use it to keep their guard hairs groomed, but don't quote me.

Eileen

Thanks, Marie

That makes a lot of sense--I've got some leftover quilt batting around here somewhere

Eileen

Thanks for bringing up 'glazing', Winney. I've been wondering exactly what it is. :/

I DO remember, however, that when I ironed my overcurly hair in college (low heat), it really shone. While we're waiting for Nancy, I might try it on a scrap of fur--nothing else has the power to get me to the ironing board these days! :rolleyes:

Eileen

Pat, I love your bears, esp the curly one--Tibetan Lamb? Looks just like my daughter with those ringlets. :D

Mohair IS real fur, surely. It's fur woven into a backing, of course, not attached to a pelt, but if you don't soak the pelt, just airbrush the fur, I don't see how it could hurt.

Once the hubs has forgiven me for my last eBay purchase, Judi, I'm going to get myself an airbrush and sign up for your course . . .

Eileen

Rita,

What a perfect 'little boy' face! Innocent eyes, up-to-something mouth--I love him! :D

Eileen

I'm confused.

I've never sold on eBay, but I've bought (and bought, Lord knows). My buyer name is caniphile2. So if I decide to sell, say under the name BairdsBears, my buyer feedback will follow me so long as my REAL name stays the same? Or not?

Eileen

More pix fast as I can manage it--today, I hope. Lots of my high-school students need help with end-of-term papers and exam prep/practice right now.

George it is . . . and I'd love to see that poem!

Thanks again for your kind comments, lovely ladies! Coming from you, it means a lot!!

Eileen

Wow. Thanks, Judi and Laura :D

I ordered some Loc-Line, but couldn't figure it out either. But I CAN heat a nail.

I've got the electrical connection thingies too--is there some sort of gauge or other ID on the wire? The stuff I bought was too floppy.

Also, when you use armatures in a bear, how do you stuff? I think I overstuffed, trying to cover the armature. The arms are bendable, but they're too fat. Or do you just make thinner arms?

Eileen

Judi--

If the acrylics are permanent after they're heat-set, does that mean it's possible to remove them--say, after an experiment that goes bad--before they're heat-set?

I know what you mean about negative reflections in listings. The latest I saw was someone (not here) who pooh-poohed the idea of lining fur. If the skins are good, said this person, why bother. Surely that's wrong, right? :/

Eileen