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Yes, Michelle I read her books all the time. My husband on the other hand thinks they are "rubbish". I say there is no accounting for taste.
Jane P.
Lucky, Lucky you!!! I love Paula's bears - they are definately All Bear.
Jane P.
I was using them about 10 years ago, and just thought they were wonderful - consistent tension everytime. However just before a show - horrors - a couple of the limbs on one of the bears "popped off". I had to go through all my bears that were ready for the show and replace all their joints with nuts and bolts & locknuts. I promptly threw out all my pop rivet supplies. My advise - stay away from them. Maybe they would be fine for smaller bears 8" or less, but I would never use them again. Sorry to be so negative.
Jane P.
WOW, AND DOUBLE WOW! He is glorious!!! As Shelli said, black is hard to photograph - but it is a lot harder to sew!! You are amazing Paula.
Jane P.
What a great Mom for sticking up for your daughter!
When my daughter first started school, her teacher called me in and promptly told me that she was retarded and shouldn't be in her class. Unfortunately I was at a time in my life that all I could do was be very upset about the whole thing, and not fight back at all. The next year the same teacher said the same thing about my daughters cousin, and he has since gone on to be an accountant. My daughter (who is now 38) graduated grade 12 with honours, and is anything but retarded. She is a highly intelligent and bubbly individual who has a lovely family and holds down a very demanding job - and is a wiz at math. I think she just couldn't settle down to a classroom atmosphere that was so very regimented. So where some of these people get off on trying to put kids down I just don't know. If they don't fit into some preconcieved notion of normal then these teachers just write them off.
Wow, this is the longest post I have done in quite a while - you really hit a nerve with me - ha ha!
Jane P.
It's been quite cold here on the west coast at -10 celcius at times - no idea what it would be with the wind chill factor, and we have about a foot of snow. It has started to warm up today, and the snow is slowly starting to melt off the trees, and the side streets are really bad with slush. We live halfway down a hill, and our driveway goes down to the road, so it is a real problem to get out of here. We are out in the boonies, and our road is a dead end, so we are always the last to be ploughed. Should be gone soon though, and back to good old rainy west coast weather.
Jane P.
I am going through my stash of mohair and weeding it out. I have several large pieces of extra dense 1" pile Norton mohair that I am letting go for a good price, as I have trouble with my wrist stuffing the large bears.
The pieces are: 1yd + 17" piece of honey blonde super dense feather type.
Two 1 yd pieces of the same.
1yd + 10" piece of a bright rust super dense that has a wonderful wave to it.
Also a fat 1/2 yd of 3/4" pile dense in a rust colour with a kinky curly finish.
PM me if you are interested and I will send you a photo with the prices.
These pieces will go on ebay in a couple of days if no one is interested.
Many thanks,
Jane P.
I'm going to try and put the photos here. The first is the bright rust, and the second is the honey blonde. The rust is more rust than shows in the photo. If you go to Cathy Forcino's web site and look at her new bears in her gallery, the bear on the top left with the neck ruffle is the same colour.
I'm not sure how I feel about the concept. I guess it would depend on the two (or more) artists involved, and how they approached it. As a collector (which I am not) I think it would be alright.
However I had thought one year about approaching a mini artist to make me a little devil mini and a little angel mini to put on the shoulders of a larger bear that I would make. He would have a christmas present in his lap, and the minis would be competing with each other to see if they could make him open the present or save it until Christmas Day - it was going to be called "Decisions" or something like that - of course, I never did get around to doing it! ha ha!
Jane P.
OK, here is my Christmas bear, with the very original name of Jingles - my mind was blank. He is actually on ebay from Nov 26 - Dec 1. He is 9 1/2" tall and made from very sparse mohair. His jumper and hat are made from an old and shrunken red wool cardigan.
Merry, Merry Christmas!
Jane P.
Are we supposed to start putting these in the challenge gallery??? I see one is set up for "Holiday Challenge" and it is empty.
Absolutely wonderful Jenny, I love the first one the best - but it was hard to choose!
Jane P.
I had a couple of auctions hijacked, and that is when I started putting my name, etc. on my ebay photos. I do it in my photo editing program, and then store those photos in a special file marked, what else, "ebay photos". Since I have been putting the wording on the photos, I haven't had an auction stolen - touch wood!!!
Jane P.
A couple of years a go I gave up credit card sales, because of a similar situation. I no longer go to shows, so I didn't need it for that - and any shows I had gone to provided that service anyway. I now use Paypal, and I'm only sorry I didn't give up the merchant credit cards sooner!
Jane P.
I for one, really enjoy shows, however they are no longer available in Western Canada. I did several shows a year before they vanished, but now I rely on ebay, my web site, wholesale shop sales, and orders.
I sure hope Heather manages to bring the Calgary show back!! It's a long travel for me, but I'd do it in a heartbeat!
Jane P.
Michelle's words mirror my sentiments exactly.
Many years ago I was a production potter, and I gave classes at the local Parks and Rec. When the kiln was opened there were all these little replicas of my pots, and that is how my students learned to be potters. Gradually, over time you would see their own styles emerging once they were out on their own.
After all, a teddy is just basically a body, head, two arms and two legs. I always find it amazing that there are just so many styles out there when we are all dealing with basically the same thing.
I love to see the pattern challenges that the magazines put on - the same pattern, and several different artists interpretation of this. They all end up so very different.
Happy sewing everyone,
Jane P.
This is one I made a couple of years ago with the center seam of the gusset cut on a curve. He is about 16" tall, and took more work than dressing a bear does. My hands hurt for days after from all the plucking. However the curve does make a nice round head. Remember that the whole head will be bigger when you do it, so you may want to reduce the size of all the head pieces a bit.
Jane P.
Sorry, I can't be of much help. I have tried and tried to get "bendable" arms, and always have that same problem you are having. Let me know if you find the solution.
Jane P.
I love all your new show bears Paula - good luck at the show tomorrow, I'm sure you will have a sellout!
Jane P.
