Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I've found it!  Not in the most obvious place - mixed in with a bunch of my husbands car magazines?!?!?- the only place I hadn't bothered to look.  Your up to 6 now if you'd like to pm your address.

Hi Shelli

I'm still looking for mine - it's here somewhere I know it!  When it appears I'll let you know - I'd be more than happy to send it to you.

Oh Jane you must be asbolutely thrilled.  Huge congratulations to Sarah, it couldn't have happened to a lovelier girl! :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  She must have worked so hard - you must be sovery proud of her.

Oh Shelli I can't thank you enough :hug:

Not only have you rescued the villagers, but you've shown them how to sort their problems out aswell! 

I like the slinky analogy - now that I can get to grips with!

Thanks again.

Vicky

Ditto that Sue Ann!

Ah, I think I had the boxes for constrain proportions and resample image checked when I increased the dpi. :redface:  :redface:  :redface:   I've just tried it without those boxes ticked an yes the dimensions do get smaller!  I did warn you I'm a bit slow off the mark! Perhaps I'm the one that needs some caffeine.

Thank you so much Shelli, it's very much appreciated.    

Hi Shelli

I've just sent it through - hopefully it will be with you soon.

Thank you!!!!

A4 is  210mm x 297mm

THANK YOU!!

Shelli

That's really kind of you - would you mind taking a look at it for me - just don't blame me if you hurt yourself when you fall of your chair laughing!  The maths part is certainly making sense to me, perhaps I'm just misreading the information on my pc.  If it's OK I'll send the picture in a minute - so I need to send it in it's original huge billboard size state?

Thanks so much.

Vicky

Hi Shelley

Thank you so much - it's starting to make sense now.  I did take the photograph with the camera set to large size - I discovered that feature this afternoon.  (Of course I can't find the instructions, I mean it's my husbands camera and we all know how much notice men take of instruction manuals - absolutely none - in fact he's probably thrown it out!).  The "mode" was set to the flower symbol, which if my previous camera is anything to go by is high definition.

Anyway I've just changed the resolution to 300dpi, the image still looks clear.  The pixel dimensions get bigger, but the document dimensions remain the same (about 11 x 17 inches).  If I make the document dimensions smaller to email it, will that effect the dpi?  (Sorry, I really am a bit tragic when it comes to anything more than pointing the camera and pressing the button!)  I'll email it off and see what they say in the morning.

Thanks ever so much for your kind offer of doing it for me - but your right it's good to be able to do these things yourself.  I think a crash course in how to use the camera and Photoshop properly might not be a bad idea for me over the Christmas break.

Thanks again.

Vicky

Oh Catherine - thank you.  I've just looked at the resolution and it says 180 dpi, do you think if I change it to 300 it will work.  I don't really understand it as I thought the camera had a very high resolution.  I'll give it go changing the resolution.

Thanks

Vicky

I was wondering if any of you who are good with cameras can help me? (Please, please, please?) I have to send a picture to a magazine for a full A4 page.

I've taken my photos using my husbands Canon EOS 300 digital, opened them in Photoshop, shrunk them to 700 pixels across and then emailed them to the magazine.  They had asked for 300 dpi minimum, they'e just called to say they aren't big enough to blow up to A4 and that it would be grainy - anyone got any ideas where I went wrong?  Any help would be greatly appreciated as I don't know where to start!

Vicky

Oooh Jenny

How sweet - I didn't know you have a cat too - how gorgeous is she (or is it a he?).  What I want to know is, have you bought them Christmas pressies?

Vicky

Eileen

Thansk for sharing that.  I love it!  Very festive.

Vicky

Oh Clare

How lucky are you???  She is absolutely gorgeous - I think I'd cry too.  I bet you're very pleased you didn't wait until Christmas to open her.

Aleta, she is stunning! :clap:

Hi Kim

I know I'm very lucky girl and I am so looking forward to it.  I trained to be a dancer, but at 18 I finally had to admit that it wasn't the right path for me.   So every Christmas my husband books a ballet and now my children are old enough they come too (much to my relief and my Mums great disappointment neither of my girls are remotely interested in ballet lessons!).  Anyway I have finally convinced my hubby that although the Nutcracker is lovely, it might be nice to see something different.  So last year we went to see the Royal Ballets Cinderella at Covent Garden - it was absolutely stunning.

That must have been wonderful for you to have performed with the Sadlers Wells tour - that must really have been an inspiring experience.  Now I'm the one that's green with envy!!!

Well, I'll let you know after Christmas what it was like (I'll try not to make you too jealous) - as you say I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Best wishes

Vicky

OK - right now I'm supposed to be sewing for the bear fair at Hove on Sunday but I keep being mysteriously drawn to the PC and Teddy Talk.  I know I'll regret it by Saturday!

Anyway, I'm really excited we're taking the girls to see the Edward Scissorhands ballet at Sadlers Wells on Christmas Eve.  It's a matinee performance so we'll be home in time to do all those cosey Christmas Eve things ................... wrapping pressies, watching old movies and peeling two tonnes of vegetables for Christmas Dinner!  I don't know what it will be like as ballet but the trailer is enough to get you in the Christmas mood.  If you fancy a peek its at http://www.sadlerswells.com/whats_on/20 … rhands.asp

Anyway, I had better get back to the sewing .................

Hi Fran

Silly?  Where?  How?  Sell him cheap?  No!!!

Vicky

Hi Jane

I've heard it before but I just had to click on the link - very funny, makes me laugh every time.  Thank you!!!

Vicky

Hi Deb and Shantell

I had the same problem when I first started making my own designs, as Hayley said in the other post you just have to get used to putting the arms a little lower.  Something I learned from Jennifer Laings book, Teddy Bear art was to draw the whole disc into the pattern design.  I always use a four piece body design and place my joint marks on the body front. 

To decide on which joint size to use take your arm and leg patterns, draw in your seam allowance of about 4mm around the top of the pattern and down the sides and then take the biggest joint disc that will fit within the space.  Choose a disc that will give a 5-6mm gap within your seam line, this will give enough room for stuffing over the disc but will stop the shoulders and hips being bulking. 

Now that you've chosen your disc size, take your body pattern and place a disc at the top where you would like the head to sit, draw around the disc, this will show you roughly where the bottom of the head will be on the shoulders.  Then take the disc and place it further down the side of the body to decide where the arms are going to go.  As a general rule have a gap of one or 2 fingers (depending on the bear size) between the head disc and the top of the shoulder disc.  Draw in the disc and mark the centre.

As for the legs I generally mark the joints just a little below the top of the dart as I like the legs to turn out.  You'll need enough room below the joint spot for half the width of the leg, plus his bottom.  If you draw in your disc it will show you where the back of his leg will be on his body in the sitting position and how much room you've allowed for his bottom.

Once your pattern has been made up into a bear for the first time, you may find these spots need a little adjust ment.  It's trial and error, but as long as you use your joint spots as reference and move each arm or leg equally using a tape measure, you should arrive at something you like.  Then simply mark the changes on your original pattern and next time it will be plain sailing! :)

Hope this helps .......................

Vicky

Hi Shelli

I don't heavily distress my bears, I've tried in the past and haven't been very pleased with the results  :(- so I can't pretend to be an expert  - I really admire those artists who can create bears that look naturally distressed. 

I generally trim the paws and toes and pluck out some of the mohair where a bear would usually show some wear.  I also "back-colour" the fabric backing on the paws, shoulders, hump, front tummy seam, bottom and edges of the ears.  I use tea and silk paints.  It generally works better on sparser fabrics although I also do this on really dense furs.  It's not an effect that is immediately obvious, it just makes the extremities look a little grubby and shows a shadow through the fur fibres.  You have to be careful not to get a water mark and some backings don't seem to absorb the colour evenly if they have a heavy size, so it's best to test first.  Also too much liquid will make the colour run into the pile, although it will generally brush out and usually adds to the the aged effect.

Also when a finished bear looks a little too "shiney", I sometimes take a large paint brush, dip it into a dirty grey/beige artist acrylic, brush off virtually all of the paint ( as you described with the oils) and brush it over the bear.  Because there is so little paint it doesn't change the feel of the fur it just gives it a slightly dusty look.  Also on lighter coloured mohair a strategically dabbed tea bag has a good effect too.  I prefer to use Earl Grey - it's more yellow in colour than "normal" tea, it doesn't have a strong smell and doesn't leave an odour afterwards.

I'm still working on the distressed paw pads - I've tried making double layered pads, so the second layer of felt (in this case red) would show through worn holes, as it does on old Steiffs.  I was quite pleased with the result  until my daughter asked me why his feet looked as if they were bleeding!   Back to the drawing board then ......

Well that's probably about it - I'm off for a cup of tea ......... :)

Vicky

Jenny

She's beautiful - what a perfect little girl.  You must be asbolutely thrilled.

Vicky

Hi Penny

Ok did I miss it ......?  I certainly haven't seen anything offensive from you (or anyone else for that matter) - I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts Penny - you always bring a smile. :)

Vicky

:)C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S  J E N N Y

Another Baby Girl!

Fantastic news - now you really won't know what to do with yourself!

I hope they're all doing well.

Vicky