Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

well I talked with the guy from Intercal at the Springfield show
(how COOL was it to shmooze with bear folks??? & VT folks
from here?? Hey you guys! I had a ball & saw such wonderful
work & learned a LOT!!)

SO, sayeth Mr Intercal, the little disks I have are this outrageously
hard substance that does not need to use washers along with, so
hooray for that. Also he showed me how to do the little crown shape
with the cotterpin, & I got stainless steel pins which will apparently
take a lot of abuse.

Full steam ahead for disc joints!!

better short & fat than white with blue tips!!! you'd be cyanotic (having blue
fingertips, toes, lips from lack of oxygen!)

so it sounds like you'd only need to bleach the blue out of the tips &
maybe could avoid getting the bleaching agent on the backing at all?

If you could work with a color other than white, you COULD
overdye it also. if you went with grey for instance, the white part could
come out a nice silvery color with steely blue-grey tips?
something like that. you could get a lovely effect, just avoid colors
with yellowish orangy tones so your blue doesn't turn green!

would it be heretical to consider snipping the blue tips away
if you were just not gonna use the fur otherwise??

whatever you do, you're sure to end up with something
completely unique & people will drive you mad asking where
to get that particular fur. lol

wooow - thanks so much everyone!  :redface:
Shelli, Fae is a dream! no earthbound creature she!
She looks like she could float away. Every detail of her
supports her overall effect beautifully. she's lovely!

I would be happy to do a little post on how I have done
wings. I don't mind sharing - I can't even get my own stuff
to look the same twice in a row, so I don't worry about
people trying to copy or whatever. other folks are welcome
to feel differently about their own hard-earned processes
for sure - but I'd rather share than get bent out of shape.
I do crappy art when I am bent outta shape!

sue ann says:
"is there any art medium that you don't excel in??!!!"

oh heck yeah but I'm not about to put THAT stuff on the internet!  :D

& Deb, can't you just mail me some of that soup?? I got a BIG
mailbox...  :dance:

Toads make me happy - they have such an air of being stodgy & unflappable.
They let me harass the heck out of em when I was little, & they were the most
accessible form of wildlife. I still have a great fondness for the less-adored critters;
my mohair shares shelf space with yards of ploar fleece I use to sew cuddly beds
& hammocks for my pet rats, & I share bedroom space with 2 snakes (last year it was 3
snakes: we found a little fellow had come into our utility room from outside, & I made
him up a nice warm tank for over the winter.)

So it makes me happy to show folks the whimsical side of 'icky' critters I guess!

Hmmmm, heaps of good ideas. T shaped cotter pins sound like a brilliant solution! I like
the idea of making my own disks, too - ah now I have lots of ideas! lol I am not usin
my nice sterling headpins for someone's insides, though.

Thank you all very much, I have plenty of solutions now! 

oh bother, as Pooh says..
I was hoping to have all my STUFF already & not
have to go out foraging again!

I got:
1/2" fiberboard discs (OK they looked bigger in my imagination. lol)
3/4" cotterpins
& #6 washers.

whoops! the cotter pins go flyin right through those washer holes! lol
but I don't see smaller washers referenced in the catalog. do I go
to the hardware store, or just assume that teensy bears don't get
enough hard use on their joints to need washers?

will my bears need glucosamine supplements too???    :redface:

thank you - now don't tease the poor newbie. lol

Sculpted epoxy putty head, soft body, jointed arms.

you can see more of my stuff here if you want to:

http://flickr.com/photos/kimhotep/sets/

thanks for lookin - next thing will be more on topic, honest! lol

ah you guys are great. I am gonna operate on the assumption that the comparatively
tiny amount of oil used for shading would not be in near enough quantity to have a detrimental
effect. Do you use oil after waxing the nose or before? I've tinted after, but I only use fabric
markers & black noses so far. So many options!

I've got an airbrush - double action badger - kickin around, but I never could stand the sound
of a traditional compressor. Like working next to a lawnmower in a small room! Then I saw the
post about using a C02 tank (my Andy is intrigued by this, he does homebrewing too like
Mr Dilu, lol) This is exciting & I may have to reconsider the airbrush! I haven't touched that
thing in 10 years.

I have Much Love for Golden acrylics! they are so fine. Liquitex drives me batty, it's always
CHUNKY. Golden is a dream to work with. I was delighted when Michaels started carrying
the brand. I have found Pebeo to be a good product too.

I do not think there would be a satisfactory result of painting white over black! not with a
nice texture result, anyhow. But I wonder what one might accomplish with a bleach or
hydrogen peroxide solution? Aside from make a mess    honestly sewing white 'mitten'
paws might be the only way to get satisfying results. it's always easier to go darker over
light - that's why painting a dark room white takes so much primer & coats of paint!

Wild Thyme Kim, you sure absorbed plenty of info in the short time you worked in that
gallery! Thanks so much 

One of my bear books - Encyclopedia of Bear Making, or ABCs of same -
recommends Dye Na Flow by Jacquard to paint on mohair while retaining
a soft texture. Anyone here used it? Is it as good as it looks? I can order
it for a pretty good price through Amazon.com but I'd rather not do so if
I can get just as good effects from stuff I've already got! But this LOOKS
like neat stuff that gives an effect similar to dye, as opposed to airbrushing,
except it stays where you put it.

Also I am intrigued by the dry-brush oil paint shading technique described here!
I have also seen Shiva oil sticks used for fabric painting on cotton, by Art
Quilters. I have Grumbacher Max water mixable oils, they are great! But I
have only used them for making paintings (so far)

When I was first taught to paint using oils, we were told that we primed the
canvas with gesso partly because oil directly on the canvas fiber would eventually
'eat' & degrade the cotton. (I don't know how long 'eventually' takes - 10 years or
50 years or 400 years?) but this info has made me wary of using oil paint directly
on any unprimed natural surface like cotton, etc. Now I am hearing all these neat
ideas for using oil on textiles, but no one seems to mention the conservation aspect
of it that I was taught in my distant youth. Is it being overlooked, or was my art
teacher wrong all those years ago? :lol:

Anyone who uses this technique, what is the oldest bear or other project you've
used oil on?

thanks!