Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Yes, same thing - THX!

http://www.amazon.de/TOOLTECH-9-teilige … d_cp_diy_3
and
http://www.amazon.de/TOOLTECH-9-teilige … _sbs_diy_4

This type looks as if it goes into a socket set of some type:
http://www.amazon.de/BGS-Henkel-Locheis … _sbs_diy_5

The first two are hand-held and just hit on their ends with the mallet or hammer, without the need of inserting into another piece of equipment, like my screw punch in my first post about the very much smaller sizes.

Just google 'hole punch' or 'screw punch' and they are available and in different sizes. It just takes a bit of searching sometimes....

Huge Hugs, Tami, for the daily grins!!

Doesn't 12 mm work out to be around ½"?
I found some today! Receiving the Tandy Leather mail order flyer, they're having a sale on their hole punches, through 30 June 2011.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com

She's a Sweetheart!

Oh dear, lose my life???
State secrets?

I'm not privy to anything of that nature here, I'm afraid.
Hmm.. I'll have to reconsider this one.

Exchange of chocolates perhaps???

Some people do that (appliqué) with the eye patches for Panda bears, remove the fur nap and then sewing the dark patches on top of the light face before setting in the eyes.
They also add Eye Lids by sewing them onto the Face afterwards.

I found a 4 yo video of June and her 3, five-week-old cubs, Lily and her 2 brothers (Winter 2007):

http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/ … velop.html

PBS will be running 3 separate hour-long specials in most major markets on Wed night, 8 June, in prime time 7 - 10 PM CST. Check your listings! A few of the bears we've come to know by name over the years will be shown, in their earlier years.

I've seen several people posing with this bear, in Canada.
Always the same pose, along this lane, inside this fenced area - with their chin resting on its tongue.

Can anyone give me the information on where this is?
Is it a live grizzly or or a product of taxidermy (this is a giNORmous head!!)?
Just what is the situation here?

TIA!

Well, I'm not so sure about that. Mine are still selling well, I create works completely of fiber; others combine fiber and traditional fabric bears for unique highlighting.
I think the general markets for all collectibles are down—and have been for the past few years—not just teds but all areas of interest.
That just makes artists delve into other pursuits to bring more interest incorporate into their work. For instance, I took one of my standard polar bear pendant/pins and put it together with sections of sterling silver wire which I wove into Viking Knitting, strung with wired vintage beads and have a necklace line which has been well accepted online:  Heart-Felt Designs©
We all have to think of new ways to market ourselves and not wait for the collectors to come to us - times continue to change and we all adapt to it. Nothing is ever the same or as it used to be!......

I'd say that a more common place you'll see them is to put them is on the head - the area of the gusset around the ear area to create fullness or in the side pieces there.
- Or around the neck edge.
- Sometimes around the bottom of the neck.
- Along the back edge of the seam in the middle arm or leg in the area of the elbow/knee to create the bend.
- In the body almost anywhere to create fullness.

Darts can be short and wide as I used (in multiple count) to create a lot of fullness FAST or narrow and long to put in just a gentle small amount of curve.
And I put in straight-sided darts: darts can also have curved seamlines. They are a very helpful tool for a teddy bear artist!!

I just realized that the polar bear in my avatar (although this one is needle felted) is a side view similar to Cubblet's pose. Imagine him leaning a little more forward and you can see how his 'bottom' would round out in a similar fashion.

The only way I thought I could get that the easiest in a miniature was to make a number of small darts along the bottom seamline.
--------
LOL - later editing - as usual I have at least 3 windows open and the radio on.... I just scrolled up through the heading of this thread and see that I'd already posted these pix previously... Well, if my comments helped you at all, Heidi, I'm glad to have contributed... again.
As was stated earlier, take any of your pattern pieces and cut it out in muslin with a dart to see how it will 'move' the body part in a new position. Besides adding fullness, it can also be used for this: why a dart can be added - to imply a directional movement.

Here's another sewn ted of mine from my sewing days - Mr. Lucky, 3" tall. He has quite a few darts and gathered fabric areas in him, even both combined in many areas, to get all of this 'implied movement'.

These little triangular cut-outs along the bottom edge of the sewing lines of this sewing pattern for legs (these are the pattern parts for the little Cubblet I mentioned in my post just above here 18 months ago) create 'Darts' when the pieces get sewn together, to become Cubblet's back legs.
This makes Cubblet's little 'bottom' round out nicely. It was the only way I could get fullness there, because he's less than 2 Inches tall.

They create fullness without puckering on the surface.

This is a front view, but Cubblet is leaning forward, balancing on his front paws so you can imagine how his 'bottom' pooches' out in back!

The thing that really gets to me now, as we get into summer season is picturing how Sue & Lynn must be dressed as they foray out into black fly/mosquito country in 'high season'. It makes me all twitchy and skitterish and I can hardly sit still just watching the videos.

I can picture them either garbed like a beekeeper, completely covered in 'space suits' - - or doused in ever known insect repellant and smelling to high heaven to keep those flying hordes at bay and away from them.

It's the only way they could keep the hand-held cameras so steady. You can hear the whine of the mosquitos as they zoom by—I swear there's one in this room near my ear, even though we can bearly get out of the 50°s and 60°s here in upper Illinois and mosquitoes are still in our future.

There's a special place in heaven for scientists who put themselves into such difficult positions, conditions and situations (like those who they feature every month in the Nat Geo Society's mag) so that we can experience what's going on in the world around us—up close and personal, from the comfort of our easy chair!

"Pardon my French' as we Yanks say, but is it similar to this in Wikipedia?
Australian slang, meaning hot, [INVALID], referring to the person with an X-factor.
That's all I can find online.

I have an ex-pat BIL and DS - both w/dual UK citizenships - and I thought I knew just about every slang term there was, from the most casual to the saltiest, but I'd never heard this one before in that reference!

Apparently the folks at the No Amer Bear Center don't know the term either, as I was using their word!! LOL
Written as text under the YouTUBE video:

Sorry to carry this into the shady area - not my intention   :redface:  :redface:  :redface:  :redface:  :redface:  :redface:  :redface:  :redface:

OMG - I just found another explanation - Now I'm  R  E  A  L  L  Y   embarrassed!!!

I think I'm going to go change that word right now.....
- - - - - - -
OK, apparently I typed over the original post instead of a typing new post at the bottom - - and erased the link.
Just as well!

The rest is gone But here's the link again -

http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#p/u/0/wMpXXqzJw1E

I have 'shopped' here in the States for list members overseas when the our companies won't send to them, as sort of a middleman. I hate it that we aren't a fully global society.
Giza Girl, I hope that someone in England will be willing to help you out and make a phone call on your behalf, armed with your purchase details, and request the rest of your order for you.

Your order may indeed just have fallen-through-the-cracks and it may be only the need of a person-to-person requirement of someone actually going into the records and pulling up the invoice while someone is waiting on the phone (or perhaps even someone more local - dropping in!): it would be harder to ignore a British citizen in person like it is to brush off someone who isn't a native English-speaker (possibly claiming mis-communications and all...?)
Anyone willing to help out a fellow teddy bear maker? Giza Girl isn't expressly asking for this but I think it would be a helpful act on someone's part.

Yes, sometimes carefully placed thread works just as well—or better—on minis to impart expression through the eyes, depending on where you stop and start the thread around the bead, as that gives the different expressions.

I used a light grey, heavy silk thread on this panda for a winsome, knowing sort of expression.

TY.. That's how our instructor says he approaches every one of his classes too, whether he's teaching or taking, because he too learns from everyone he meets, every day of his life.
Its a great attitude to hold in general; you've got that attitude, too!

Hey, I'm just struggling to learn like everyone else here! Every day every one of us face new challenges. Some of us just started our journey sooner than others.
That's what we say in our T'ai Chi classes - I've been studying it, twice a week, since Jan 2000.
I'm in the Beginning & Continuing classes. Some wonder why I still take Beginning.. it's because of a *Light Bulb* moment I had in the beginner class just last week, when one bit of instruction I'd either heard dozens of times before and forgot or never was ready to understand or finally reached a level of understanding where it 'clicked' in my brain.

That's how the needle felting experience is: I'm working through a problem right now which I know what the end result should (and I know 'will' eventually) look like but have no idea yet how I'm going to achieve it!

Katy, so much wisdom in one so young! I love the part about keeping a business site - about business! Yes, I like to learn a bit about everyone's personality, but I too am not interested in those things you mentioned.
And that's why blogs are a bit more personal than websites are, because the owners are more or less dialoging with their Followers than the flat text on a website.

But blogger/blogspot now has the new feature that Joanne pointed out to me (which I have yet to find on anyone's site, so no one must know about it yet) - SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL.
When you open up  Design and click on Add A Gadget, it's the first item which appears at the top of the list.
It's a new feature in the past month or so. You see, believe it or not, there are quite a few of us out here who still don't FB or tweet, so we are left out of news of new posts to the blogs we've subscribed to.
Now, when someone posts to our blog and when someone posts to their own blog (if they have this feature on it and we can subscribe through it) we receive notice right away.
I don't have a list of every blog I've subbed to and have no way of knowing when new posts are made     

I do sub to every blog I visit, though I wish there was a way I could request everyone to just add this tiny, handy new little gadget!

I'm one who creates claws for my realistic bears from pins, as Joanne describes but it's a labor-intensive process and not one I'd recommend. It just happens to work for me because I'm needle felting miniatures, 2" - 3", and don't have a seam nor true fabric to insert through.
However, Joanne is being too modest in not recommending her own site - she is the most upfront, sharing artist on the forum!!
She has many true *classes* linked through from her blog to her instructions on what most artists just don't share, or what they'd wish to protect as 'trade secrets' - Joanne will tell you how she creates her wonderful bears!
And I was just reading hers on claws just last week. ... amazing how she's worked out the obvious and presents it in such a simple-to-understand pictorial.

What a darling Sweetheart! And your English (written here anyway - is Perfect!!)

Good Work, Shevi! You're going great guns - complete with tiny toe pads, open mouth & tummy buttons!

Me, too. No space on 2" - 3" bears either, when the pad is only ½" - ¾" long. And any other type of *holder* just got in my way and the thread constantly hung up on it with every st I took.
I tacked...center top & bottom. We each find what works best; Thk Goodness there are so many different methods!

Hi Julie - Welcome to the most comprehensive forum online!! You'll find every type of textile discussed here, bearmaking and beyond: as Katy recommended just go up to to the upper left-hand corner to that fly-out list titled LIBRARY and you'll find every type of topic listed there, gong back in the forum's archived history.

On the whites of the eyes, many artist create perfect circles to place under their eyes by using 'punch tools'. I don't know what size bear and other creation you work with: mine have always been minis. The prices online and styles of the same punches vary widely—prices from $20 to over $100 for the same product.
Your heading doesn't show whether or not you're located here in the States... I recently purchased 2 from 2 different companies for $20 each, they worked quite differently: one takes much coaxing to slide down the barrel and much twisting my wrist - horrible for this arthritic to use though the circles are perfect with both. The second tool rides smoothly down the spiral grooves and the circles are also cut perfectly.

These are sold with a mind towards cutting out perfect circles, whereas we are interested in the actual circles cut. Depending on the leather or Ultrasuede® you cut into you may get a few straggler fibers around the bottom edge, which can be quickly brought into the circle by rolling it between your fingers for in few moments.

Here's the link where I bought the better one - Intern'l Design (I've ordered from them twice in the past month and they do ship quickly!)
http://www.ids-la.com/search.asp?keywor … earch.y=14
Pattern Making Tools:
http://www.ids-la.com/Pattern-Making-Tools_c_13.html
and the tool,
http://www.ids-la.com/Screw-Punch-with- … p_491.html

I ordered 2 extra punches in a 1 mm and 1.5 mm size from another company, which sells extra bits. Most punches are sold with the standard 5 included with this punch, which I found luckily through Amazon.

Here's the link for the extra bits: I use the punches for the teeny tiny toe pads on my realistic bears:
http://apps.webcreate.com/ecom/catalog/ … ctID=18830

If you make standard sized and larger bears, perhaps others can tell you where they they bought the larger punches.

Hi wubbie,

Did you see the note about the small half-twist I posted under your other topic you began on the 16th, called - "I did it!"
That will definitely keep your needle from coming off the thread. I probably should have put it here...