Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi Amanda,
he has a lovely face.

Hi Danni,
she looks lovely.

Hi Paula,
he's lovely. Those wonderful eyes.

Thank you Ladies,
I finally found " AMANDA's " little hamster. He's so tiny & cute.

Hi ,
thank you everyone.

The little golden bear is a micro mini. He's 1 inch ( 2 1/2 cm's) tall standing and about 3/4's of an inch sitting( about the size of a thumbnail (seated)  He's fully string jointed ( as I couldn't find a cotterpin & disk small enough haahaa).
I used to make these little ones as baby bears for my miniatures.
They're a bit tiny & fiddly, and it's hard to get a really good face. They take quite a while to do, and sometimes wonder if they're worth the effort. ( not good for the eyesight either haahaa)
Above is a picture of another one seated in a resin high chair. The chair was part  of a nursery setting from Avon ( cosmetics)  They brought out a miniature doll house and furniture. Don't think they make them anymore unfortunately.

Hi Daphne,
thank you,
thought I was going blind, I couldn't find a hamster under your name haahaa.

Hi Judi,
the music box plays "When you wish upon a star."

I can't seem to find the picture of " Daphne's Hamster" ? or have I misunderstood.

Matilda, do you actually have pictures of your needle felted creations on the site ?

Hi,
maybe a bit less scary than my wee mouse. Here's a picture of my first mini bunny.  3inches tall from the tip of his ears , down to his toes.

Thank  You  Ladies,
probably not everybody's favourite type of animal haahaa.  I'm pleased that you found him fairly realistic. Still got a bit of refining to do on the pattern, but on the  whole I was quite happy with the way he turned out.

Thanks again

Hi,
I decided for something different to have a go at a miniature mouse & bunny.

My little mouse is 1 1/2 inches tall from the top of his head down to his toes. an extra 1/4 inch taller if ears are counted??

I may have to get a slightly better camera, this one tends to make pictures a bit fuzzy. I really miss my old one.

Hi Judy,
thank you , that puts my mind at rest. I haven't done an online class befor, so not sure how it actually worked.

As for doing a bear for the baby, I wouldn't like to make a play toy, I'd worry about whether it was safe, so I'll probably create one of my revolving  music boxes for bubs. Had this nototion that I may start a series , a new one for each birthday.
They're only about 4  to 5 inches in diameter , so they won't take up a great deal of space.

If it's a boy, I may need to come up with something a bit more masculine. haa haa

Hi Judi,
I would have possibly gone back to experimenting with the sculptey, but the needle felting makes so much more sense.
The resin claws sound an interesting project, I would imagine you'd have more uniformity than with the sculpty clay ( unless they were moulded also). Good luck with your project. Couldn't beleive it, I was checking out   a supplier site, nowadays you can even buy  glass (I think) teeth.

I noticed details are finally given on your class on the site.  30 days, wow, we're certainly getting our monies worth. Just wondering what happens if you happen to be away  for the odd day. Do you just catch up the following day on anything you miss? We're expecting our first grandchild any day now, so I may be away for  a few days, but I didn't want to miss out on the class either. Maybe I can get some sort of dial up internet connected where we're staying if neccessary.

Hi Matilda,
I must admit, the thought of doing a totally needle felted bear doesn't appeal to me that greatly, though I luv the faces on these little critters.. I  still prefer  the fluffy look of  a fabric body. Now to find I can have the best of both worlds, a needle felted face/muzzle for expression on sewn  body. Truly  awesome. I'm addicted already and I haven't even started . The imagination's running a riot,  hope the fingers can do the work haa haa.  Counting the days till the class starts.

Hi Judi.
I personally luv inset muzzles on mini mohair bears, unfortunately ( according to hubby) mine all end up looking the same.  A couple of years ago, I started experimenting with sculptey as a possibility for a muzzle, didn't get far. Unfortunately my husband became very ill and I packed up bearmaking totally for the next 2 years. His health seems to finally be improving, so the bear supplies have been unpacked again. I'm  so looking forward to getting involved again, and best still something new to try ie needle felting the faces. Maybe I can get away from the "cloned" look. Needle felting sounds like a much better idea than sculpty.
Hopefully I'm not too dumb to do it.

Hi Judi,
that is wonderful. He's so cute. I'm actually getting a bit ahead of myself, don't know much about felting as yet, but I'm sooo looking forward to your class.
Must have been my lucky day, last week when  I joined this wonderful forum.

Hi Judi,
would needle felting a face work on a miniature bear of about 3 inches ( similar to my avatar). i realize it couldn't be very elaborate, mainly the muzzle to give it a bit more character??

Hi,
I used to mainly sell mini's up till a couple of years ago on Ebay.
The little mohair one's were 3 inches tall , standing. The uv bears ranged from 1 inch to 2 1/2 inches.
They are certainly a lot less expensive to make material wise, but they still took as long as my 7 inch mohair bears to make. ( sometimes longer, because they're fiddly)
One thing I do like about them is, they take up such a small amount of space. I have mine in a display cabinet, along with a bunch of ornaments to display them.

When we go on holidays, I pop them all into a little carry case ( about 50 or so) and take them with me. I can't do that with my larger ones ( haaha)

Thank you Danni & Jenny.

Each of the little teds take about 5 to 6 hours. So on the whole , took me roughly a week or so.
Still having a bit of a hassle getting clear photo's with my latest camera. Much preferred my old one.  I better keep practicing taking photo's. haahaa

Hi  Everyone,
I think one of my favourite pieces ( pretty much the last one I created a couple of years back) was my Teddybear's Picnic Music Box. The miniature teds range in size from 1 inch ( bubs ) to 2 1/2 inches  tall ( poppa) standing.

I had a lot of enjoyment doing music boxes. I found them a great way of displaying mini's.

Hi Helena
How wonderful,
you've certainly got a very dedicated collector there.

Hi Kim,
I haven't sold for the last 2 to 3 years. Actually I haven't made any for the last couple of years, just slowly getting back into it.
I used to place one  bear per week on Ebay.
I think most of my collectors at the time, found me through the various Yahoo bear groups I used to belong to. So it really came down to advertising my teds within the groups. Unfortunately the groups aren't all that active anymore.
I also had a mailing list, so I could notify collectors when I had a bear on ebay.
The majority of the bears I sold were mini's, 3 inches & under.
I used to always mention that they were mini's in my heading. With some of them it's hard to tell in a photo  whether they're a full size bear or a miniature. Some collectors luv 'em, others don't bother with them.

Hi,
I like music from the 40's thru to the early 80's.
I luv piano music , I think I bought  nearly every cd Richard Clayderman recorded,
I also love movie themes especially John Barry's ( Dances with Wolves, Out of Africa , Chaplin etc)
I play a bit of piano, and I've had a fair bit of involvement with electronic instruments , ie keyboards , synthesizers & computer music software, and many keyboard music forums. Not that I'm musical ,  I'm more of a technology junkie.

Hi,
hubby put his last cigarette out  Jan 2004 on the doorstep , Emergency Room of the hospital ( rushed him in for a pressure wound that had turned septic, he had blood poisoning). He eventually got home some 6 to 7 months later after all sorts of complications. Fortunately he's slowly getting better , though not totally out of the woods yet,, but at least he hasn't taken up smoking again. 
Must admit I wasn't much in the mood for bears, in the last couple of years, I prefer to associate tedswith happier times. I've just started up again recently.

Wow Judi,
your bears are incredible. I just visited your website and I'm still drooling.
I'm hoping to join the needle felting class too.