Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I had so many people asking I started a tutorial - which I really should finish - that shows my bizarre way of designing. I sketch out a rough of what I see in my head then work out the basic shapes that make it up and design from there. They usually work out the way I want, with a few exceptions.

KJ Lyons: your cats are utterly gorgeous!

This was fun!

1. Where is your cell phone?  Kitchen
2. Your significant other?   None
3. Your hair?  Brown
4. Your mother?  Sleepy
5. Your father?  Working
6. Your favorite thing?   Writing
7. Your dream last night?   Creepy
8. Your favorite drink?    Chocolate
9. Your dream/goal?  Author
10. The room you're in?  Lounge
11. Your hobby?   Brilliant
12. Your fear?   Huge
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years?   Famous 
14. Where were you last night?  Plane
15. What you're not?  Awake
16. Muffins?  Awesome
17. One of your wish list items?   Perfume
18. Where you grew up?  Melbourne
19. The last thing you did? Assignment
20. What are you wearing?  Tracksuit
21. Your TV?   Old
22. Your pets?   Sweet
23. Your computer? Fantastic
24. Your life?   Weird
25. Your mood? Sleepy
26. Missing someone? Yes
27. Your car? Accident
28. Something you're not wearing? Rings
29. Favorite store?  Book
30. Your summer?   Gone
31. Like someone?  Once
32. Your favorite color? Autumn
33. When is the last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried?  Weeks

Thank you very much staticbear and Lonely Artist!

What a wonderful idea to have a bracelet/collar. That is neat Her tail is just lovely in these newer shots! I love the gentle curve to it. And her face is so sweet.

Thank you all. She's shaping out well,  :pray:

Puca Bear: That's what I was worried about too. I have, at the moment, cut her out as a gusset hinge plush but, if worse comes to worse, I can reinforce the joints with wire. I ended up buying too much fur again, so there's enughleft over to re-do the legs worse comes to worse.

Merbear: No problem! I was redesigning my doll patterns and the design helped to experiment with the joints.

I'll be MIA over the weekend, so hopefully I'll have pictures next weekend of her progress.

She gorgeous! The colours are lovely and she is so well crafted! Really lovely!

Pfft! I completely forgot to ask what you named him! My old one was called Aroz and my sister's red one (like yours but with enormous, trailing fins) was called Sushi.

He is a gorgeous boy, and good on you for joining a group. I have heard they eat peas, as well, but I can't remember where.

Thank you :D
I found out about the joint style here: http://www.clothdollcreations.co.uk/Anatomy/joints.htm They call them gusset hinges. I guess if I make them very, very strong they should be alright? 

Thank you both!
I like different coloured dragons too. Green and red are good but a bit over done. So when they requested gold an black and white and gray, I was really happy. Matching the gold, though, was a whole other saga

http://www.petsoz.org.au/forum/ Try checking out this site and this one: http://www.petsoz.org.au/fish/
I am a member of the ferret forum there. The people are nice and can answer any of your questions.

Wow! He's gorgeous. I'm such a sucker for foxes. His face and colour are wonderful, he looks so huggable!

I started when I was really little with 2-D shaped creatures, with the help of my grandma. My first creation was a little black felt seahorse that had a vinegar scented stufifng inside...for some reason...
I was always making things, mainly because the toys I wanted were never in the shops. So I made my own. It's sad to say, but my first two serious "bears" were...ugh, Pokemon. Mum was impressed that I'd worked the shapes out after watching her make bears for my little brother. I always preferred realistc aimals over bears, though. And there was a definite move towards fantasy.

A couple years laer I came across Melinda Small's patterns on the internet. I bought her Dragon, her Celtic dragon and one of the Vasalisa projects. After  made the two dragons, it finally clicked. Trial and error heped me work out the core basic shapes and how to build on them. From this I created my phoenix puppet, Illuvi, for my Year 12 art folio and my most popular dragon pattern, Gargus the Laying Dragon. I was lucky enough to have a brilliant art teacher who set up for me to participate in a needle-feltin workshop that ran over two weekends with Winterwood Studios and her visiting artist. This is where I made the little elf in my avatar. Again, I worked out the essentially shapes and how to build on them.

Since then I've been playing around in my spare time, either working on commissions or on whatever projects take my fancy.

But, essentially, I started out thanks to a crafting family and a fantastic art teacher. 

These are my two latest pieces for a wonderful pair of girls in America. They were ordered by "Panda" who wanted a thank you and friendship gift for her friend, based off her friend's adorable dragon sketches.

I sent them off without measuring ( ) so I'd guestimate they were about 15 inches high by 30 inches long. They are both a combination of Romney and Corriedale with felted eyes. There are armatures in the wings but they are merely to hold the wing shape. The girls gave me specific sketches to create poses from so they are rather static creations.

I am happy to say they are now very much loved - Ari, the gold dragon, has a prime seat in his owner's car and Panda sits in her owner's studio.

They were rather a challenge but a fun one at that 

:clap:  He's gorgeous! Such a fantastic first try. I love his face and his cute paws!
If you make more, I recommend a combination of Romney and Corriedale. They felt well and the Corridale is especialy soft for polar bears 

He's really lovely!

Are you going to make eyelids for her? Even very, thin felt eyelids on a piece like this can help stop an eye looking to stare-y. Then you can felt some wisps of your fibre onto the eyelids ro, if you want really thick, bold looking ones (you said she was a hip-chick, *giggle*) try getting some wisps and rolling them between your hands to felt some small, thick fibre rolls. Two of these at the far ocrners of the eyes might work.

And that probably sounded as clear as mud

http://www.christiebears.co.uk/acatalog … Joint.html
I found this will Google-ing suppliers. Would this help?

Pfft...And I completely forgot to say that I'd love to add her pattern as a freebie here if it works. And if people can make sense of my crazy dollmaking technique 

I hope you all don't mind me asking for some help, but I think I might be biting off more than I can chew with this project. I'm planning to create a 21" (to the head, 16" to the shoulders) "realistic" style maned-wolf. I was thinking of using gusset joints for the carpals and just below the pastern, above the paws on the forelegs to make them bend, as well as at the hock on the hindlegs, to create as realistic movement as possible.
But I was wondering whether these joints would affect the stability of the "bear" when she is standing. I am worried that the joints might cause her to crumple. I'm not a fan of armatures - looking at my fantastic failures in the past -  which is why I was considering gusset joints. If I make them rather shallow and tight, would this work?

I can post some sketches if what I'm explaining is as clear as mud.

As for the rest of her, I was considering a really, really simple armature (blergh) in the tail running into the back to allow movement of the tail, wired ears and, maybe, and opening and closing mouth. Big maybe. Oh, and I want to experiment felting her muzzle too.

I'd love to here your recommendations, and I promise to post pictures when Cheeva's finished. She's a special project of mine so I want to get her right.

I hope you don't mindme throwing my 2 cents in, being a new member, but I also suggest hitting up model and hobby shops. When I had to make a phoenix puppet for high school, Dad and I raided the nearby model aircraft store and used a wing wiring system to create the head movement. Perhaps you could use a very, very small model motor attached to a motion sensor?