Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Judi,

I'm so glad you shared that with ME!! Sometimes it's hard to tell which side of the lunacy line you're skating on, unless you know it's happened to someone else.

All night after my father died, I had weird visions/dreams--I know that I was at least partly awake, because I had a fussy wide-awake tot in bed with me, plus two other kids draped in various awkward positions on top of me. What I kept seeing were faces of various dear departed, as if at a cocktail party (didn't see any drinks, alas), laughing and talking--except that their faces were constantly shifting between old and young and middle aged, so that they seemed all one.

As I told my Sunday School teacher when 7 years old, 'If dogs don't go to heaven, I'm not going either!'--same goes for bears.

FOR EVERYBODY ELSE--keep those good stories coming!!

Eileen

Bless you, Judi,

You've got a really rare talent, and your incredible sweetness comes through even on MY monitor!!

I KNOW you'll see your sister and her family again. The moment my dad died, though I didn't know it at the time, I was out shopping, and I had a very weird experience. I checked my watch before entering a video store, and went into something like a sudden out-of-body interlude.. I was swept into the air by something and flown over the nearby streets (like Lois Lane!) then dropped back. I wasn't scared, I was strangely elated, and it was a thoroughly joyous experience. When I got home, my husband met me at the door and told me my father had died, and when--it was to the second. My dad always found it easier to make jokes than to express emotions, but I think this was his  way of saying goodbye. Nothing like it has happened to me before or since.

Eileen

:lol: Dilu, you are a riot, girl--made me drop my glass eye!!! :lol:

Actually, it's hard enough to brush my collie/g. shepherd (cats are ok), much less needlefelt her. She's very touchy about her fur (wonder why?). Her tail hasn't been properly brushed in 14 years! We just do a sort of combover to hide the tangles. This summer, however, she's going to a groomer for a serious trim, and I want the leavings.

Come to think of it, has anyone thought of asking a groomer for the shorn fur? I might even pick up a broom for that.

Eileen

Exactly! :lol:

Eileen

Thanks, Judi, I'll try 'er. Fortunately for my lacerated fingers, I've got lots of foam chunks left over from reupholstering. And the hubs asked why I didn't throw it away. Hahahaha. Vindication!!!   I guess it came as rather a shock to a reasonable man, when his wife announced out of the blue that she'd decided to become a bear artist, and started buying fur coats and glass eyes. He's doing pretty well, all considered.

I've been experimenting with carding, using 2 old dog brushes (vindication again!!). It seems to work. I'd like to be able to add accents to bears, not necessarily to make whole animals.

Judi, I think that if you're caring for 3 kids plus dog, cats, cows (love cows) and husband, PLUS making those glorious bears, you ought to get FREE housekeeping from somebody. I had a housekeeper for a time in another life (married to Mr. Wrong in Houston), but she wasn't altogether right in the head (played hide the can opener, etc.). Unfortunately, she was the only one I could find who would put up with a rather cranky German Shepherd.

Great advice about the guard hairs!! I'd hate to have to pick them out. Whiskers ditto?

Rabbits are the worst shedders, but long-haired cats are supershedders--they have the best-developed undercoats. I have one that's long-haired in the winter and short-haired in the summer. Two other long-hairs and two short-hairs. You can imagine the mess. At this season I dump enough hair from my vacuum cleaner to make a whole new cat . . . had to get a hardbody vac because the Jack Russell Terrorist kept attacking the fabric-bodied one.

Eileen

I've never actually needle-felted, but I've got some needles and wool roving. I need to learn more, though. I take it that guard hairs don't work, but I need to find out how short the usable bits can be. :/

Yes, it's a big house, built in 1911--we bought big 26 years ago, when the house needed a LOT of work and the neighborhood was very, very unfashionable--full of Eastern European immigrants who, in those days, scared the good citizens of uptight Toronto. But we loved the house, and the 400-acre park less than a block away and, for that matter, the neighbors! I've been renovating/restoring inch by inch ever since. Now we have 3 grown children, including one son-in-law at home, plus all their furniture, cats, etc. They couldn't afford apartments AND full-time school. The one daughter living downtown left all her old furniture behind and bought new!! (Anybody need furniture?)

I work in a fixed-up corner of the basement with my plant nursery and my bear stuff and my computer and my currently gridlocked woodworking shop. I did have the laundry room, but my youngest couldn't study in her room, which is full of noisy animals, so . . . she learned to study and do laundry at the same time! I've got a cold room for furs and all sorts of random storage. Emphasis on the random--an ancient sideboard, assorted chests of drawers, plastic boxes, baskets. My plant nursery sits on an old cast iron Bi-Oven that came with the house--gas burners and a woodburning oven. Bizarro-Shop!

I'm working up to spring cleaning, though. I have an audiobook called "Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean". I think it counts to listen to that!!

Eileen

Thanks Ellen,

So there's no need to register the tags separately if they meet the standard? That would make sense!

Eileen

Well said, Dilu :)

You're right, of course. I've got an old 3-storey 5 bedroom barn which I love, but it takes all day to vacuum, what with the clutter and emptying the bagless compartment and whacking the stuff out of the hepa filter every few minutes.

Still--now that I know (Judi?) that it's possible to felt fur fluff and doggy/kitty/rabbit hair, I might try harder.

I took a two-day cold turkey break from bearing, just to clean up, and I think I've opened enough space to get the vacuum cleaner through. Maybe 30 minutes of cleaning for 1 hour of bearing? Sounds fair enough. Or two hours of bearing, if I really move! :lol:

Eileen

Thanks for the link, Shelli. It looks like a great little machine--and affordable :D

Eileen

My sentiments exactly Shelli :D

The only person I know who vacuums every day is my sister in Missouri, who has 8 border collies (she runs a rescue service) and 6 horses (not in house, but . . .)

I have to go over the carpets with a wire brush before vacuuming. Maybe if I tried vacuuming more often?

Eileen

Found it, Ellen. What a dingbat I am!     The aim of the regulation is to protect the public from nasty stuff inside, like razor blades or dead bats, I guess. Steel/copper shot isn't on the list of common fillings. Filling materials to be listed in order of volume. I see that it will cost $70 to have a label registered. Plus GST! Label can't be paper, must be in black ink only. I ought to check out the possibility of lamination. I like Daphne's idea.

Thanks, Rita, I'd love a picture! I picked up a stuffed badger from a nice little shop when I was there last, but the Jack Russell Terrorist  ate it. Not an arist badger, fortunately, only a toy!

Eileen

Yikes. Ellen, do you know the name of the agency that regulates stuffed toys in Ontario?

Pay a fee? Big surprise. We pay to breathe in Ontario.

Love your avatar, Rita. Where are you in Scotland--I love your country. My husband is from Helensborough (sp? can't remember) and a direct descendant through his mother of Charles II and Nell Gwyn--imagine my relief when none of my 3 daughters inherited the Stuart nose. :lol:

Eileen

Judi,

I'm so glad you'll be running the class again--I need time to rake in some more tutoring $$ before another bearbinge.

So far, you've got two rave reviews from Dilu's hubby. No small praise!

Eileen

I'm confused :/

If a bear is sold as 'not a toy for children', does it still have to meet legal standards for soft toys?

Eileen

Beautiful eyes, Shelli :)

Thank you!!

Eileen

Thanks Dilu, I needed that!  :D

I've got the same kind of hubby. Cooks, doesn't notice the dust (unless it's on the TV screen), gruffs about money, but he's a Scotsman and admits it.

I can home a few months ago with a load of vintage fur coats/jackets/stoles I'd bought from a local shop--10 real beauties for $200. He nearly fainted. Didn't appreciate what a good deal I'd got. However, when he saw my first bear, albeit in pieces, he changed his tune. Now, as he explains it, tutoring is my low-investment immediate income producer, and bear-making is my high-investment longer term income project. OK by me. I put all my tutoring $$ into the Visa account so I can order more supplies!

I agree about the real workshop. The rest of the house is just en route. I'm just having too much fun here, trying things for the first time, messaging students with my thimble still on, listening to audiobooks, wallowing in the mess.

As for the garden, I'm taking some advice Thalassa Cruso (anybody remember her? WNED?) offered a long time ago. Find out what grows well in your garden and grow a lot of it. 

Eileen

Thanks Judi! :D

I thought I was looking at a live tiger until I noticed the seam . . . a little early up here. Your work is A-mazing! I'm agog at the layers of color and the fine control you must have.

I'm really grateful for the info. My hubs is also a beermaker, must ask him.  I also want to try Shelli's oil painting technique . . . but

My house looks like a war zone dusted with mink fluff, my garden goes untrimmed and unraked and unfertilized, and I don't even want to think about the number of uncollected dog poos out there (I picked up 126 on Good Friday), and my bear is not going to make the entry date for the Ace Awards   I'm very picky--now on my second head).

Boo hoo and oh well.

Has anybody done any spring cleaning out there?

Eileen

Speaking of music boxes and such, has anyone ever heard of a purring mechanism for cats?

Eileen

Judi,

The CO2 tank sounds great--what the heck is it? :/

My son-in-law (bite your tongue, Shelli! ) has an air compressor out in the garage, but it makes a horrendous noise. I can't imagine doing anything as delicate as airbrushing with that racket beside me.

Eileen

Grommets? :/

Love your panda, Melanie :D

Eileen

Double Ditto from me :D

You ladies are all the greatest.

To generosity and kindness-to-newbies, I'd like to add  the very high standard of artistry and workmanship you hold up to us.

You show us that these achievements are difficult --but with hard work and persistence and a bit of ingenuity, not impossible. "Knowing" the people behind these gorgeous bears is truly inspiring!!

Eileen

Good luck Laure--you've got a lot of talented people pulling for you! :D

Thanks also everybody for all those links to website info. When I've got enough bears to show (hysterical laughter here ) I'm going to need them . . .

Eileen

Me too.

And teddies look better in the buff! :D

Eileen

See that innocent look in her bear's eyes? QED

Eileen

Uhhhh . . . Where do I hide?

Eileen