Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Great tips on noses:) Thanks everybody. What about leather noses? Mine is soft leather, molded and sewn in, but seems a little squashy. Should it be hardened?

Eileen

Thanks, Laura and Shelli--off to Radio Shack to try my luck!
Eileen

Excellent instructions! Maybe the things I'm using aren't really alligator clips--they're square on the gripping edges. I like yours much better.

Thanks,
Eileen

:/:/Any why, may one ask, are the smilies not working for me?:(

Double Wowza Everybody:D

What great information on shading.

I know I read somewhere that it helps to dampen the fabric/fur slightly before shading? Which kind of shading would this apply to?

Also wondering about oil paints--how do you prevent or cure stiffness?

Otherwise, I think you bear-slammin' ladies ought to start a percussion band, something like BruinStomp!

Eileen

p.s. We just survived a hailstorm followed by a slushstorm. My poor tulips.

They're metal. But I'm going to try looking for even smaller ones at Staples, Business Depot or whatever.

They also help to keep the fur tucked inside the seamline better than pins do.

I put together a mink head today, and only bled once, when I took a stitch and jammed the needle into the thumb of my left hand!! For me, a record!!:D

Eileen

Gee, and here I thought I'd invented alligator-clip basting!!:/:/

These things are not much more in your way than pins, and don't draw blood. I've got a supply of 3/4" clips that I bought 8/$1 at a dollar store.

I haven't tried machine sewing over them, but they grip your fur very well in front of your stitch line, or anywhere else you want to place them to hold your pieces together.

I've also been using them to mold leather noses and claws. After a few hours, the shape is set without glue, and the piece is ready to sew onto the muzzle/paw.

No holes, no glue, and no blood. I'm trying to learn how to bleed into the seam allowance, but I guess that's an advanced skill.

Eileen

Me too. :lol:The experience is still newish. Don't like paying duty, though.

I'm so glad you mentioned Michelangelo's marble, Dilu. Hubs/kids don't understand why I need all this stuff, when I've got only 3 in the works so far, including one prototype. 

But I'm finding that I like to sort through my collection of furs/fabrics and go through all my realbear pix, my stock of eyes, leathers, assorted other stuff--and another bear appears in my head.

Whenever I do this, of course, I also find myself wanting more stuff!

Eileen

:rolleyes:You asked for it, Shelli:D

I used to teach British and Comparative lit at Princeton, then met a lovely Scot, threw it all over and married him, moved up here to Toronto where he teaches  at U of Toronto, had 3 babies . . . I wanted to stay at home with them too and, in those days, U of T didn't hire spouses. I've been tutoring my daughters and their friends for years and years, working in the public schools as a volunteer, etc.

My youngest developed panic attacks in G9, then depression, anxiety disorder and OCD. As I understand it, there's a range of anxiety-related problems, and OCD is the worst. So I've been coping with the Cognitive Behavior Therapy thing for many years. Alex's obsession is that she might hurt someone, or some animal--her compulsive behavior is that she must remain frightened of the idea because, if the idea of harming someone doesn't horrify her, she might actually do it. Needless to say, she's the gentlest, most responsible of people, and has never hurt a fly--but as you know, with OCD this doesn't matter.

Long story short, once she entered University of Toronto and began to thrive, I had a few minutes to myself, and decided to try tutoring. Naturally, people with no problems don't seek tutors, so I've got some high-schoolers with anxiety problems, a few math/science whizzes who never learned to write, one dislexic, and half a dozen Chinese/Japanese/Korean university students  who are still stuggling with the written language. Some students want meetings, some want to work exclusively online, and some want a combination of both. So I've got a study/workroom in the basement (ugly but MINE) where I can tutor and sew at the same time!!  I've discovered audiobooks, which help a lot, since I can't figure out how to read and sew at the same time.:rolleyes:

Sorry to ramble on so much, but it's lovely to be asked!!
Eileen

Whoa! Stick the heads on???:lol:

I've got a student with OCD and Anxiety Disorder--very quiet, shy and sad.
When I told him what I was up to he lit up and laughed. And laughed. That one was a pleasure. Now he never fails to ask about my progress.

Eileen

Hello all,

Huzza!! Another bear list. As a beginner, I have to say that there's no 'down' for me so far in the bearmaking. Totally untedious. Of course, if bears had 8 legs, it might get a little old by the 6th or 7th.  At this point, I'm just happy if the second leg/arm/eye/ear looks genetically related to the first!

I'm having THE best time. I've sculpted a clay model, draped it in paper towels, made  the oily squishy blue-flowered paper towels into a pattern and stitched up a prototype in muslin. My formerly eye-rolling, tactfully sniggering family were suitably chastened when I got the thing together, complete with eyes, lids, glass teeth and claws--the ears I prefer not to discuss just yet.

Now for the fur version. I'm forcing myself to enter the Ace Awards competition.:| just for the experience of finishing the bear and exposing it to public umm . . . :lol:view. Nothing like a deadline to get the act together.

Anyway, long story short, I am so happy that I discovered this community and this art--I was just hunting for a gently used shearling coat for my hubs, and found myself in bears.

You people are THE BEST

Eileen