Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I can't s"bear" the time to think of them all.  My "bearsonality" just doesn't allow for such "bearsuits."

:P:P:P:P

Woman, you are a rock star, and clearly missed your calling as a teacher of some kind.  Thank you so very much for (what I know to be) the enormous investment of time in prepping and posting those pictures for all of us to see.

You're so appreciated!

Winney, you are wwwwwwaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too perceptive to have made note of such a thing as bow placement.  Now I will have to be EXTRA careful around you with what I say, you secret detective, you.  I wonder how you will interpret my sudden fascination with colored pencils...? <grins>

Hi all.  Hope you're having a happy Sunday.

Addressing a few comments (above)...

PENCILS
I bought PrismaColor pencils -- individually sold -- in a variety of neutral/brown/gray/black/white tones.  They cost, like, a buck or two a piece.  Can't remember exactly; am too lazy to pull the already-filed receipt back out of my "business expenses" folder. 

I also bought a set (2) of blending pencils, also by PrismaColor. 

They worked beautifully, being very waxy and blendable, and laying down a very rich color swath on my woven fabric backing.  They did NOT break off in little chunks, like eyepencils sometimes do (don't you hate that?!?), which was one of my fears.  THey also worked well coloring directly onto embroidery floss... so long as one remembers to follow the nap of the threads and not try to "color" on them in a cross-wise fashion.  That might really muck things up!

They also color the pile, fairly well and quickly, but in THIS bearmaker's opinion it is a much more difficult, time-consuming way to color pile than oil paints (or another shading technique.)  However, keep in mind that I do a LOT of shading, on a fairly big-sized bear (this guinea pig gal ended up about 12 inches and has a really big head!)  If you're just looking to create a halo of dark color and softness around an eye or nose, or if you're doing minis, I think they'd be wonderful.  I really enjoyed the precision and control that the pencil -- vs. the paintbrush, which I'd been using exclusively before -- offered.

OLIVE
She will be at Gallerie Regards but she's the first piece to go there (along with just-completed bear who might end up being named "Precious") so I'm not on the site yet.  Coming in May.  Shoulda been there in March, but life intervened... and gallery owner Evelyne is, thankfully, a very understanding and gracious lady! 

Thank you for checking in on her and on my work there!

Good point!  I've done that in the past, too.   But never with glass beads up to the ankle area.  Before, I used wire and then put polyfil in the feet and bb's at the heel/ankle area, but it wasn't as reliable for standing for obvious reasons; the weighting wasn't evenly distributed across the bottom of the foot to keep those little guys upright.  I like the idea of using wire AND a filler of glass beads to the ankle best; it sounds most secure.  That will be up next for my next standing guy!

Thanks for mentioning this, Cindy.

Just a heads up that I worked on and completed a bear today start to finish (working all day in between posts; man are my hands tired) and used my new colored pencils around the eyes.  VERY PRECISE DETAILING was possible, and created a wonderful end result.  I tried to "smudge" these purposefully to see how well they would stay put and I couldn't do much more than smudge the tiniest, almost imperceptible bit.  I tried both a blending stump and a blending pencil for softening the effect and found both worked well, although the pencil offered more control.

Thanks everyone for your tips and pointers!  I think this is a medium I will continue to use in all my bears from here on out.

This bear will go to Gallerie Regards in France; I'll post pictures and details on BEARS FOR SALE as soon as I can, hopefully (if I get a good shot) one closeup of the eye area where the pencils came in such handy for that fine-line work that's been hard for me to manage with a brush and oil paints.

Ooh... and I also used glass beads for the first time (feet, "hands," and belly) and had to SLAM that bear down hard to get the flat feet effect necessary for standing.  So, Sue Ann, you're not alone in your position as the board's resident "teddy bear slammer."

Among all my other "business" binders -- sales, patterns, inspiration/ideas, "How-To", taxes (ugh), etc. -- I have a binder I even entitled "A Bit of Kindness" along the spine.  In it, I keep printouts of sweet emails, praises from fellow bear makers and happy collectors, so that when I'm feeling overwhelmed or having a bad day or in some other way need a little "boost" I can look back and see how I've touched people and how my work has inspired or warmed, and that's just a wonderful thing.

I also received an "email" from one of my bears that currently resides in France, and even got to see a photo of where he lives in his new home, beside a number of other beautiful bears and the very antique curio that houses them.  Fun!

Isn't that just the very best feeling... to bring someone that kind of joy, doing something you really and truly love to do?  <sigh>

Alligator clip users...  How do you sew around these?  I mean, I'm imagining you have to grab a certain amount of fabric in order for them to be useful.  Can you get a good grip using alligator clips that holds 1/4 inch of mohair edge, or less???

Judi... just heard from our tech guru Quy -- who is a stellar, cool dude -- that avatars need to be sized to a maximum width of 185 pixels.  So I think that explains it!

The instructions for CREATING AN AVATAR are being updated with this new information to better inform the next person.  Thanks for the good catch on this!

Hey Miss Laura... Thanks for the links.  I've actually never seen a staple remover that looks like that.  Apparently, I am out of touch!

I'm okay on the sizing-of-footpads thing, so don't send pictures just for me.  When designing a footpad pattern piece, I use a piece of string to measure the half-size of each pad,  matched to the width of my leg pattern bottom edge, to make my pads "fit" without a lot of fuss later on... so that part is well and truly under control.  But there might be other people who'd love to see your method!  I just don't want you to go to extra effort just for lil' ol' me...

I do not have a glamorous car show to attend this morning.  Instead, hubby and me are going to go sit outside in the freezing cold near-dark in ten minutes -- for about two hours -- so I can sign my kids up for their recreation department camps for the summer.  When did life get to be like that, where parents have to wait in the cold for two hours just to get a spot at summer camp for their kids?

Absolutely, and the next time I send out a note to my mailing list I plan to do the very same thing.  Namely, to let them know there's a new place to browse/talk about bears, and that I'm volunteering here as a help advisor just in case they're trying their hand at making these little furry critters, in addition to collecting them (which, in my experience, is actually quite often the case.)  Most people seem to start as collectors and then get "bitten" by the creating bug themselves.  Or so I've been told!

Great idea, Sue Ann... thanks for bringing it up on the board.

PS What is an "office staple gun?"  I guess I've been out of the office too long.  My only stapler reference points are the one I have right beside me -- ACCO model 40, whatever THAT means -- and a hysterical reference, in film, from the movie OFFICE SPACE, where poor, abused employee Milton is just over the moon about his Swingline stapler.  I can picture that stapler EXACTLY!!!

That movie is worth its weight in gold, by the way, and anyone who has ever spent time in corporate American will know EXACTLY what I mean if/when they watch it.  Highly recommended!

I am imagining your poor little cut out mohair bear-to-be, getting crimped by roach clips and then stapled to death by some amazingly huge piece of hard-core office machinery.  Poor mohair...! :P

I am dismayed that you have nothing to offer me on the footpad thing.  TRY HARDER NEXT TIME!  Can you tell I'm tired and punchy tonight?

Actually, I am so anal-retentive about my pinning that the stapling thing does sound like a timesaver.  Do you think it's necessary to use the clips first if one "knows" what one is doing in terms of pinning?  Can you just hold the pieces in place while stapling?  I'm searching for ways to work smarter and quicker but without any kind of quality shortcuts (yeah, I know... good luck, Shel.)  Something like this might help but I'm daft tonight due to lack of sleep. 

Do send some pics or links to pics if/when you can. I'd love to get a better mental picture of what you're describing.

Thanks!

Danni and Dilu, thanks for these pointers. 

Do you think, Dilu, that these pencils are truly waterproof if they are "watercolor" type pencils?  Is it the heat setting that makes them permanent?  Are the "professional" type, "regular" pencils more lasting?  What?  Help!

I guess my fear, because I work very slowly and carefully, is investing too much time in a pencil-attempt on a face, only to have it smudge off or wipe away at some point, which would be the end of 2-3 days of work.  That's what's still holding me back.

More thoughts on this...?  Anyone out there willing to guarantee me in writing on this public board that pencils won't smudge off? 

Laura,

I noticed you referred to your staple basting "thang" in another thread and wanted to introduce it separately here.

Actually, basting footpads is one of my least favorite parts of bearmaking.  There aren't many of those "least favorite" parts... but this is definitely one of them.

Can you explain for everyone how you do that and what equipment you use?  Something special?

Thanks!

Cindy, welcome!  Your new avatar bear is adorable.  New?

Well that's ten thousand times more than I know about acrylics, Winney.  Thanks for the details. 

In my case, and unless/until I hear that using oils is actually BAD in some way, I'm going to stick with the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality when it comes to paint choice.  That reflects less a resistance on my part to the use of acrylics themselves, and more a complete lack of both  a) funding and b) time required to start from scratch and "re-invent the wheel" here, when what I'm already doing seems to be working just fine -- aside from the occasional oil-paint doused head, as I mentioned previously, that is.

I am very much open to ideas about how to improve shading in the fine-detail areas of my work; hence today's shopping errand to pick up colored pencils.   I'm not even sure I got the right ones for the job.  But you're right on target with that last piece of advice in particular -- we'll see how it goes!!!

More on this pencil thing later once I have some results to share.

Haven't used acrylics for that very reason; they clean up with water.  Oils contain icky sticky resins that cling like mad to fibers and just literally won't EVER budge off once dry; you have to remove them with turpentine or paint over them to change the outcome of your brush strokes.  I always feared that somehow acrylics -- which are my dad's paint of choice (he does landscapes and portraits) -- would rub or wash off my bears, and so it's that very same "requires turpentine cleanup,"  lasting permanence of oil paints that appeals to me.

Other than accidentally dropping heads into them -- !!! -- oils don't present any problems for me.  They are slow to dry and quick to blend and very, very, very friendly to use with a drybrush technique to excellent effect.  Or at least, I found them that way when I was searching for a good shading method.  I haven't actually heard of anyone else using oils and I can't understand why.  Am I missing something?  Somebody tell me, quick!

I did just now return from Michael's where I grabbed some colored pencils.  Am very excited to give those a try around the finer-detail areas where paints are just less easy to control due to application technique.  I, for one, can't control a brush nearly as well as I can a pencil.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm thinking I might like to try using pencils for shading my bears and wondered if anyone has had experience with using them?  Sometimes I want a very precise line I can carefully control and while my oil paints work beautifully and are easy to blend and very slow to dry (meaning I have a very long "working time" with them), occasionally I want more control than a brush can allow simply due to how it's used.

I'm interested in hearing about specific brands/types of pencils you have used... how to apply the pencil... AND your impression of how lasting and true the colors might be in using pencils.

Thanks!

Hi Danni!  Welcome!  That's another cute little rolypoly one you've got as your Avatar.  I really love your bear "styling" direction.

To answer your question.... I use oil paints.  Put a dab on wax paper and load to a VERY stiff brush.  Wipe that brush on a paper towel until it's dry.  Then wipe again.  And again.  So much that you might think there's not any paint LEFT on that brush.  Then you can use the brush to outline your paw.

I go over the outline with another stiff brush to soften.  Sometimes, I use a lighter tone in a big band of color around the edge, and then a small brush in a darker tone for a precise outline of color.  That's a nice effect too.

Oils were designed for use on canvas so they're a perfect fit for fabric work and although the individual tubes are not cheap (five dollars US or so), they last for an ETERNITY, used in this way.

I love the airbrush effect -- a lot! -- but don't have one, and since I get a very nice result that works well for me with my painting and shading technique, I'm sticking with that.  Whatever works and gives you the result you're after is what makes sense to settle on.

I love Intercal mohair, too.  Most especially for their mohairs with a "natural" look, since there's a huge variety of shades, pile lengths, and finishes from which to choose. 

Regarding BEARS FOR SALE postings...

YES!  You -- as the creator and artist -- are cheerfully invited to post listings for bears you might also have available elsewhere!  Note that I did this myself, with my bear OLIVE that I created for a Gallery in France.  Just be sure to direct your viewing audience to the correct outlet (you, retailer, eBay) for more information and/or adoption of your work.

The bears you list do not have to be made of Intercal mohair, although it might be politic to avoid plugging another mohair supplier directly on this host site.

The intent of the sales forum is ultimately to promote the individual artist; I'm guessing that's why Intercal is asking that retailers not use the forum to bolster THEIR sales.  Rather, I think Intercal really wants to provide a free, international showcase for handcrafted work by the individual artisan and creator, and to make that showcase a selling forum so that it can benefit and grow the entire industry, as well.

NO, you don't have to be an "artist" to post a sales listing... just in case that's the next question someone might have.  New to bearmaking or just a hobbyist?  That's fine, too.  Give it a try.

Thanks for asking your question about BEARS FOR SALE on THIS forum, Judi.  The BEARS FOR SALE forum was designed exclusively for listings, so I think I can speak for the board host in saying that your cooperation is most appreciated.

So much to respond to. I might never make a bear again. ;)

Eileen... I agree with you.  As I waxed on and on about, above, making bears is not just a fun way to pass the time, but has allowed me to practice skills and awaken creative passions long present, but buried, and never before addressed.   It's brought me a community of creative, talented, warm and funny friends with whom I can discuss this fuzz-covered passion of mine.   One of the biggest gifts of it is that its allowed me to stay home with my sons (I always wanted to be "at home" with them until they reached Jr. High; just a personal goal of mine) at a time when I would otherwise have been REQUIRED to make a return to work, which -- because I no longer felt the pull of elementary school teaching (that's my background) -- I dreaded to my toes.  It's been a great and wonderful adventure and fun besides.

I'm curious about what you teach... how you ended up teaching a student with OCD/Anxiety disorder.  My husband is a  MFT and my BA is in psych, plus we have some OCD issues in my immediate family as well.  So it's a topic of interest to me.

Winney... I don't talk to my bears, but my cat, Ginger, sleeps with them.  I think THAT's a little stranger than your idle chit-chat...!

Judi... Send away!  This weekend I have more free time than usual so if you can send me some options by Saturday morning-ish, that would be great for my timing.

Also... I read somewhere (and I wish I could remember where) when I first started out that teddy bears are the number TWO collectible in the world.  (I'm thinking stamps must be FIRST, but I never read that part.)  I tell people that when they are near fainting after hearing about the enormous teddy bear collectible industry, including the fact that there is an artist bear component, and that these soft sculpture works are considered "art" by many, just as a painting or hard sculpt might be.

Similar to your story, Judi, I have had the experience of taking a bear with me to JoAnne's, or Michael's, or Hancock's -- to accessorize it "just so" -- and having people see it, and fawn over it.  "Oh, that's such a cute little bear!  Where did you get it?" they might say.  Wonderful things like that.

And I tell them, with not a little pride, and beaming, "I made it myself!"  And they inevitably say, "But you used a pattern, right?"  And I say, "No, it's my own design." 

"Well, what's it made of?  Is it knit?"

"Nope... it's mohair, which is from a goat.  You have to order it from a supplier, because it's not readily available at the usual fabric stores you might visit."

"The eyes are very pretty.  Did you buy them with lids like that?"

"Nooooooooo... <smiling>......... I painted them myself, and put the lids on as part of the creating process."

And so on.

So I've had that same experience; that people; for whatever reason, don't really want to believe that Ms. Josephina Everyday Person at the craft store could, with an investment of time and study, create something so cute and -- if I do say so myself -- pretty.  I'm not sure why that is.  I think a study should be done.  Laughing here...

Ginger, I know and love your sweet little cubs!  The Piece Parade was one of my first internet "findings" when I started making bears and I loved your work, and your website, instantly.  It's really great to see you posting here.  Welcome!

Actually, Winney, I never thought of that, but it sounds brilliant!  Just do a mock up the "regular" arm I'm familiar with, and then mark it up with a Sharpie -- where the downturned pad would go -- and re-cut/amend the pattern based on that drawing.  Since I can't seem to get it the way I WANT it (large pad, NOT gigantic, hideous claw-hand) using the method I diagram, above, your suggestion actually sounds like a very tangible solution to my problem.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!