Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Ah, I should have known! Generally what's commercially available when Navajo/Churro is sold is the longer, outer coat.
And as you can see - it's only suitable for RUGS! - the ones the Navajo nation is famous for.

If the Mattress St is done as a proper Z instead of the H, it's impossible to pull it too tightly. The thread will straight out into a perfectly straight line between the sts and the sts will intermesh like 2 sprockets and the 2 sides will not pucker; that's the beauty of this st.

Keep in mind the look of mesh fabric while you're sewing this st. In knitting you are going under 2 horizontal bars on each side (with the exception of 1 st on the beginning and ending sides) and you MUST go BACK INTO THE SAME HOLE you exited for this to work.
It works the same in fabric, whether it's woven or knit: all can still be seen with as warp and weft threads.

You make entrance and exit sts of the same relatively short length and ENTER THE SAME EXIT SAME HOLE you came out of on each side. That's is what creates a more Z looking st instead of the standard straight across thread - H or Ladder st - which most individuals are calling the Mattress/Ladder St.
I use to teach bear students this in large mesh, rug-hooking fabric and rattail cording, so they would get the idea of translating this stitch into a fabric instead of a knit. It's done from the front of a knit or a woven fabric but it's the same thing!

You can see that by putting your needle back in on the opposite side just slightly ahead of where it exited last time, you've created a very slight gap between the sts. This is the typical manner that the Ladder st has been taught - straight across to the other side with your needle.
When these sts are pulled up snugly, that is what creates a puckering. One must keep just the right amount of tension on the thread: too much and the fabric puckers, too lightly and the stitching thread shows between the fabric edges.
But with the Z st, all of that is taken out of the equation!

Interweave Press℠ publishes several publications—Threads, Piecework, Interweave Knits, Quilting Arts—and they have all shown this same Z st configuration. I'm pleased that I learned this 35+ years ago when my knit store employer took me for teaching credentials in Knit & Crochet.

You know, we do need a section in the Library on - Sewing! It's what all of us do in one form or another. It's the one basic thing that we all have in common and brings all of us together and yet there is no category for it in the Library. I had to look through my past Posts to find that one on the mattress st. I'm going to suggest it to Admin.

There are so many ways to dart to add fullness or roundness to a body part. It's really just a matter of experimentation. If you look up in Pink's sketch you'll see that she has an upper body dart: neck to arm joint. That will give her ted's body a nice broad top side-to-side and a rounded front to back.I'm not certain about the other black vertical lines as the limbs cover them up.

The same type of Dart from the centerline bottom to the spot near the leg joint will give a wider bottom, but with the creation of leg sockets, especially if the dart is 'shaped', that is to say that the dart is drawn and sewn in a concave line. It sort of replicates what needle sculpting would do if you were thread-jointing but since you can't get at those areas as easily now you need to inwardly curve them to be able to 'seat' the top of the legs into the body there.

But a 'thread'/topic on darting would be excellent, especially for mini & smalls; we don't have the luxury of design space to cut the 2-part body apart and make (4) full seam-lines like standard-sizes bears because that often puts too much extra fabric inside the ted, plus more stiffness when turning and stuffing sometimes due to those extra 2 seamlines. Often, bodies are cut into 4 pieces and shaped along every line. In the smaller sizes this would add that extra bulk I referred to, so the darting along the edges is used instead, as Pink shows.

About 40 years ago, when I opened my first business as a stained glass art studio, I wanted a name that would cover what I was doing, plus anything I decided to do in the future. My training is as a cosmetologist and at the time I also had about 125 ppl whose hair I was cutting here at home.
Creative Design Studio was a non-specific title which seemed to cover those and sound fresh and new (cutting edge!) enough for me to be able to use on anything in the future and it's worked out well, for garden design, custom knitting, bears..etc.
I could also use it as 'my name - RKR 4 CDS, my DH for CDS, when I employed a friend/neighbor during the busy pre-holiday season - her name for CDS.... I always thought that gave it that little extra 'touch'. like one designer working for a major design house.. almost a sort of - DKNY.

The logo and branding on my print mediums have changed a little over the years as they have had to to reflect the different business interests but it has served me well and I'm happy now I chose it!

Beth Anne, I will chime in to say that the ladies have given you excellent advice!
First I will say that I sewed my limbs shut across the top of the curved section because I found that easier than trying to get the needle in and out along a straight section or even along a slightly curved back or front of a leg or arm. With my way (tucking the seam allowances inside right in front of where I was sewing with each st) the needle emerged after each st and I could easily grab it to pull it on through. It made it very easy to keep the tension tightly pulled closed on the seam too, as the seam was right there along the exposed curved top.

When I switched to cotter pin (minis) limbs, I stuffed the head and attached it to the body, working through the body opening. Then I stuffed the legs/limbs completely right up to the tops where the disks were to be inserted. I placed the disks against the fabric on the inside the limb so that they would stay down from the sewing line approx 1/4".
This spacing is MOST important so that the disk will exactly fit under the seamline of the sewing once it's sewn shut. (Be sure to keep the left & right straight!!) I'm sure you've seen some bears that have a bulge sticking out across the top of the leg; this is not so bad on an arm because it would create the illusion of a shoulder but it looks amateurish on a leg, as if too small a disk has been used.

This now allows the leg to fit "into the body" and into any leg socket you may have created with a dart or seamline shaping. You can put a little stuffing into the bottom of the Body and push the cotter pin through where you think it will go, as on Pink's drawing, because yo want the bear's bottom to touch the seated surface as well as the whole back of the legs. They shouldn't be too low (the bear isn't touching) or too high (the bear's bottom is seated but both legs aren't sitting flat to the surface as well.)

When you're satisfied, turn the cotter pins off over the Disk inside the body, place more stuffing on top of the cotter pin in the legs and close those limbs.
Finally, close the arm tops the same way. Place the arm joints approximately right above the leg joints and experience will guide you in how far down to place them. After turning down the pin ends over the disks inside the body you can stuff the body and close the seam.

Here's a link to a (longish) post I did in the past on the easy and correct, non-puckering way to do the Mattress St, as brought from the sewing, knitting and other textile fields):
http://www.teddy-talk.com/viewtopic.php?id=16910

This is the most experienced person I've ever found online about dyeing - Paula Burch.
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/directdye.shtml
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/allpurposedye.shtml
Read through all of the links through the fly-outs in the toolbar across the top of her pages; a wealth of information!
The second link addresses Rit dye - it's because it's considered a 'union' dye - all-purpose. The fabric you're dyeing is 2 types, mohair w/ a cotton or cotton-blend backing. Both types just cannot be accommodated with a dye like Rit, no matter what additives you use.
But you will get a lot of useful info from Paula's site! I think It's also been in our Library from posting in the past.

   Thelma, I think that's Brilliant! You're waaaay more organized than I am, who would have trouble finding the pencil and the clock on most days...
As to the sizes of the felting needles, the barbs on each size are relative to the size of the needle.
A 36 (32 s not generally available, though some outlets have them; they're used for only the coarsest, thickest. largest fibers) will have a deeper indent in the barb than a 40 will. With this deeper indent, it will be able to 'catch' more fibers to carry inward.

Each breed is also rated in a Micron system, according to its gauge or thickness. Merino is at the very fine end, along with Cashmere and Cormo: baby's garments and designer clothing.  Navajo/Churro is at the coarse end, along with Icelandic, Lincoln and a few other breeds that are not the type typically used for next-to-the-skin-clothing: think rugs.

Especially in the beginning stages, if you used a fine needle e.g., 40 or 42, with its smaller barbs, it normally doesn't pick up the Lincoln fibers as easily as a 36 needle will, each fiber is just too thick to be able to catch very many in the barbs and the needle will just slide past the fibers instead of picking them up.
And a 36 will possibly grab way too many fibers of the fine fiber breeds and not especially bond them together evenly inside at the stopping point of your thrust/plunge as starting with a smaller needle, (38 or 40) creating lumpy bits in very small pieces.
I'm using modifier adverbs here because there are always different variables and conditions that present rule-breakers.
Joanne: I've always wondered at your ability of being able to use a 40 with your fiber. That's great, because I would have thought it almost impossible to grab those big N/C fibers in those small 40 needle barbs.

You may also have come across a small flock owner who breeds exceptionally fine animals and produces exceptional fleeces!! I did read your blog post on cleaning your own raw fleeces but I couldn't quite get a close enough view of the locks w/o handling them to be able to tell... They must be great in order to work them straight away with a 40 though!

From this aspect you can see how it is not the size of your project that determines the size of the needles you use but the breed of your fiber. It's better to first consider what your project will be and then decide what fiber best matches that project: for hand (drape), sturdiness of structure, overall size needed to support its own weight, clothing - next-to-the-skin 'prickle factor', etc...choose a breed of fiber with inherent qualities that will best match what you are developing in your project.  Finally, choose which needles best work that fiber, based on the micron size of the fiber breed.
Thicker fiber use the larger needles to get them started  and finishing with the smaller sizes as the fibers come closer together. Finer fiber breeds begin with the medium-to-finer needles throughout.

This was an off-ramp on Time to make a Complete Bear, but good for those who incorporate NFing.

Lynn, no misunderstandings here!! I LOVE opening the mail these days and seeing several posts from TT, alerting me that there are new posts from members waiting to be read. Most of these topics have been thrown out there by Becky (TY!), though our almost reclusive (no, just one of the the busiest fellas here—Kelly) posted one of his own yesterday.
We all seem to be staying inside here in the Northern Hemisphere, whether it's due to heat or rain and many of us are back on board this train!

LOL - I saw a title today (online??) that I didn't follow up on (should've pursued it.. about our US paper possibly currency becoming obsolete in the future.
It was about the new Canadian 'plastic' (mylar?) bills and their security features. Pretty cool. And how much longer they last; something like 2.5 years instead of 6 - 9 months. Maybe it's in the July Nat Geo mag.. .
They are patterning their new use after another country's success (my brain is as sieve today; not retaining the particulars, just remember looking for the 'clear stripe' in the bill and trying to see if I could read the denomination that;s supposed to be read by special security checking machines. I guess that would be cleaner & less messy that the yellow or purple markers they use now!

Generally anywhere from 2 to 6+, in any stage of beginning to finish.
When I was making sewn fabric minis I would cut out about 6 at once as soon as my sealant on the sewing lines had dried and cured—often of different fabrics, because it was more time-effective.

I had to immediately string them onto nylon upholstery thread, in the order in which they'd be sewn and then assembled, and then be restrung and placed individually into snack-sized baggies or I'd end up losing the WORST part to have to replace - ears... or some other part. This was learned only after years of sewing 3 legs or arms or an extra head for almost every bear made. Minis just evaporate!
Funny thing... after all these years I never have found any of the missing parts either, so my last efforts at organization finally worked.
I still do have some strung on thread that never got sewn together before switching to NFing, but at least I never lost them.

If anything, I think that the problem might lie in

When it comes down to it, (and I'm going out on a limb here all by myself in my own personal opinion here...feel free to choose your own branch or stay out of this forest completely if you don't want to go there!!) there are some pretty fabulous images of needle felting being shown and some pretty classy descriptions to accompany them.
But in person the work just doesn't measure up - and this is in a whole different category from sewn, fabric design. I mean literally so soft that they're falling apart.....
It's only in my dozen years of working with just about every breed of fiber available and knowing their individual characteristics, as well as having had countless students settled around me working that I can make the following statements. I've either made and figured out in advance how to correct almost every problem one can encounter or watched as a student ignores my advice, stumbles and we've worked backwards to figure out what went wrong and how to 'fix' it (You have that leeway in NFing!!)

The images of items for sale don't always match the product. The person who was differentiating may have had a bad experience and, realizing that the item in the picture(s) - may - have been perceived as having been NFed, wanted to make that perfectly clear - - up front - - so there would be no misunderstandings.

There is some lovely work being done that is absolutely unhandle-able. Does that mean that it's unworthy of being sold? Absolutely not. It's just not to be described as something near - firmly felted, or the more term accurate term - firmly needled. Everyone has a difference of opinion on what's 'firm'.
If it's still fuzzy, that could be either lack of time spent needling and bonding the fibers together - - or the type of breed it is and either intended by the artist to have been left fuzzy or not on the surface due to not knowing how to tame the fuzzies.

But almost every breed can be controlled through the proper application of fibers and the length of time spent needling. The person who wrote the clip might have had or heard of a piece like I have in my collection: it had begun to fall apart even in the shipping to me. Some of the pieces had been thrust though with the needle less that a dozen times (Actually just 3 or 4 because you could see them due to fiber color changes) and were barely clinging to the main body of work. If I had received a piece like that, or my good customer had and I was sending her one of my pieces, I, too, would want to let them know that this new work DEFINITELY was NOT of that level of quality, whether it had been NFed or needle sculpted!

So, there are many different degrees of NFing, from the very soft to very firm. I've always likened them to figuring out what the project will be used for (first the project, then which fiber best suits that project, then the particular needles which work that fiber) If your piece is one which will be out on display seasonally for a few weeks and put into storage until next year, you may not want or need to spend 2 months on it. Then a more softly needled piece will suffice. A piece to be worn as clothing (pendant/corsage) or in your hair will receive a lot of abrasion and should be needled to almost rock hard firmness, especially on the back.
Somewhere in between will be a teddy bear; as it too will be handled, I'd err on the side of more firmness. That also helps repel dust and stuff picked up from fingers, just like all teddies.
Somewhere in another thread I'd posted about the squeeze test for firmness. Sorry to've hijacked this one - I'm a little passionate about this!!!

Wait, all is not lost Sue!  According to the searches I put in:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8 … ted+the+pc
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_the_computer
(Babbage)
British > via ancient Chinese (abacus in theory)>then...
Bulgarians
Iowa Sate Uni
Berkley Ent.
IBM & UNIVAC
(I saw no listing of any Italians (sorry, and tip-of-my-hat-to-my-Fave-SIL)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011 … answer-no/
C'mon IBM, have a heart. Even Roberts' Wikipedia page acknowledges him as the engineer who developed "the first commercially successful personal computer." When he died last year, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Paul Allen praised him as "the father of the PC."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8600493.stm

Sue ~ and probably a few more categories too, but then aren't we also, on the other side of the table, the same??!!

Peter, what a great commentary! Thank You!
And to Sue, you've given a wonderful, insightful directory of salesmanship that should also be burned into everyone's minds: learning how to 'read' a collector by their body language. You're so correct about the eyes - it truly is the first giveaway into how the next few minutes will play out.

Knowing how to respond to each individual will be the best experience for everyone involved!
I wish there were more meaty discussions like this - it's what Becky is referring to when she is posing all of her recent threads (Thx, B!), attempting to recreate the old days of many lively ongoing topics!

Hi too, to Birgitte and Sue and Lynn and Brenda and Peter and Shane and Jenny and...and... every non-US citizen here!
I'm pretty sure that a lot of us do tend to forget that you all don't live here with us.

The pc began its popularity in the US, as did most of the social media sites and as they integrated the rest of the world and absorbed you all, one at a time, we all just see you as part of us. Forgetting that you have your own nationality identities and biases. That you may feel very isolated from us - - by an ocean or two, and much land mass and many non-English-speaking people between us/US, as well as many non-bear-making people who don't understand this passion of yours!
You come here for some comradeship and if a question appears to be ignored, it MOST DEFINITELY is not because you are from another country!!!

It may possibly be that you are not a familiar 'voice' here in the forum. Others may feel just as shy about jumping in (as someone said about starting new topics or sometimes even posting to ongoing threads) I do notice that those who are familiar to others tend to get answered or responded to more often or more quickly.
If you don't receive what you've requested, it's certainly OK to post again, perhaps even rephrasing your first post, because it may not have been understood what you needed or were requesting the first time.
Believe me, no one was ignoring you due to your country. I just don't think that anyone here even considers that, except to possibly do what I do: occasionally I'll notice all of the differently colored flags and think "Wow! We have members here from Lithuania! and Vienna! and Denmark!!" or "I didn't know she was from ________. Her English is perfect!"
I've always thought that TT was truly international, in the best sense of the word. (Better than the Olympic spirit!)

Gosh, whenever I've come across a sentence like 'Needle sculpted, not needle felted.' it never occurred to me that it was a put-down of needle felting.
Rather, I thought that it was a warning of what not to expect; that this item was not created from fiber but merely fabric which had been drawn into place with needle and thread.
In a way it was a back-handed compliment to needle felting; that this work was not of the same medium but 'merely' needle sculpted.

I totally agree that NFing is much more freeing than working in fabric. Coming from a miniaturist's aspect, where one doesn't have the luxury of space like those who create standard-sized designs, but have almost no wiggle-room to create curves and intricate movements and changes in direction when cutting out the cloth (the seaming alone would create nightmares in turning/being in the way inside/not really achieving the desired effect) one can build and take away continuously until exactly the right design is achieved. This is impossible to do in fabric.
Whether working completely in fiber or a combination of fabric and fiber, I think that those who have tried needle felting and added this to their arsenal of toolswill probably never go back! Thx, R!

Kayleigh - that's is too funny! In this 'plastic' age, I do know what you're saying. Handing over our cold cash IS much harder to part with that the anonymous transactions within the banking institutions! We're very used to not actually laying out the money on the shopkeeper's counter for our goods these days plus a little bit being overwhelmed by having to make the choice between the limited number of choices on offer that day as opposed to there being an unlimited number online - where the choices just keep coming - so it is more restrictive and easier to keep the purse snapped shut...

On Edie & Jenny's line of thought, when we did have conventions with meals and workshops and sometimes other off-site adventures involved nothing was more off-putting than seeing all of the artists stick together like gum. I'm not patting myself on the back—please don't sling arrows!!—but there were (and always will remain) many cliques in any long-standing group of acquaintances; when they get together at weekends like this they spend all of their time together.. 'catching up' with each other'... my show days, 1990 - 2005 were mostly before the days of email, FB, tweeting, LinkedIn, etc...

My thoughts were: didn't the collectors come to meet us and hopefully purchase our work? We didn't go to the show to get together with other artists but for selling our work. It's the collectors who we want to meet and want to meet us and we should be taking every advantage of that which we can!
We already know our fellow artists (who we can visit with behind the tables and after the sales are over at night, in the hospitality room or in our own rooms) but mealtimes and in classes, etc is an opportunity to get to meet and get to know collectors in a very relaxed social atmosphere, and chat with a small group with the focus being off bears for a short while if you choose. I specifically chose tables which had no other artists sitting at them for this reason: the collectors already seated didn't know each other. They often sat looking like a group of 'misfits' in the sense of only the most gregarious had already introduced themselves and begun talking. The rest were silent and looked like deer-in-the-headlights. I felt like a hostess whose only role was to make them all feel at home and get the comversational ball rolling.

Here again comes the role-playing; it's not a fake thing either. What was it Mary Poppins sang in I Whistle A Happy Tune? You can talk yourself into anything and pretty soon it becomes second-nature. Just as standing at your show table the collectors came to see YOU or they would have stayed home and bought online. I liked to think that they felt good that an artist chose to sit with them and 99 times out of 100, spending an hour or so having dinner at their table had different aspects for me because were usually more interesting than a tableful of other artists I'd known for years because they have interesting stories to tell, about their collecting plus what else they do in-their-real-lives. And before you know it a tableful of former strangers is chatting merrily away about all sorts of topics, among them - teddy bears! It certainly makes artists more approachable and they carry that with them into the show room the next day, particularly as I would see them come to my table, too.

I don't have a wheelchair but I did do the shows/fairs by myself. It was a pain having my DH anywhere near the venues (he made me too nervous just by being there because I felt rushed; I couldn't even get things packed away decently afterwards.) If we were out-of-town and he was to pick me up at the end I would tell him the 4 PM closing was at 6 so that I had a cushion of time to get myself organized before he arrived to re-pack the car... so set-up—multiple trips to the car, hauling in the boxes, raising that tables(s), everything by myself was a bit of a problem. Even staying at the table all day to not miss a sale or an interested party with questions. Yes, I know that face-hurt from being genuinely happy and smiling all day and the hoarse voice as I'm Chatty Cathy there and pretty silent here at home.

But this was the best part and THX Randy for mentioning it. Crowds tend to cluster around tables that are approachable because there is something interesting going on! It's easy to talk about what you love when you are actually working on it and it makes you very approachable! Visitors love to see artists working on their pieces and love to ask questions on how you're doing things.

It's much easier to start conversations if you can save some of your more mundane handwork for the shows, where you can work without having to totally concentrate or mess up a bear by putting a st wrong but be able to converse while sewing, or be able to demonstrate some easy steps to help a collector improve one of their basic skills. You really make someone happy that way and may just make a client that way, too!

Kelly, no one can top your leather work, for its actual replication of the 'real thing'! I've always been in awe as you continue to push your skill set into new territory.
hugs -

Exactly!!
As for shows in general, here in metro-Chicago I'd done mixed media juried shows here on the West side and on the North Shore before I focused on TBs exclusively; there was a sort of unwritten rule that in order to be a success you had to 'look' (and act) as if you didn't need the $$.
A terrible model to live up to....and a real tightrope of a game to play.

And I think you're correct about the venue, Sue - I do recall that may have been it. I'm glad I have no ties to it, don't recognize a soul and hope I haven't stepped on any toes there.. I'm simply calling the shots as I see them - from the participants' body language, for good & for bad!
It was just a reminder of a quote I've read" "Be Kind" - Everyone is fighting some kind of battle......

Another image - I actually stood in front of this woman for several minutes, then looked at all of the wood blocks, then backed up and took this second image. If she hadn't turned a page in her book, I would have doubted that she was a real live person. I wasn't going to be the one to break the silence first, as I felt I was the more experienced salesperson and wondered what it would take for her to recognize that she might just be missing a huge sale....she never even glanced in my direction.
I wonder if her DH knows what a bump-on-a-log of a salesperson he left at his booth while he was gone????

I love the international slant given to the most mundane topics. Just when you'd assume that everyone does something the same way, you forget that the same products aren't available in other parts of the world and other artists have come up with other solutions to achieve sort of similar results.

Or the different words used by other nationalities to describe the same techniques or products. And that an ordinary Tuesday or Saturday here in the US is a huge holiday somewhere else, and suddenly we now have a lighter 'vacation-sort-of' feeling as we go about that day.... after learning about the customs/foods/clothing/etc for that country's celebrating.

And as I said the other day, we are all totally ageless here: we can be great-grannies talking to high-schoolers but when we're 'talking Bears' we have no age and it doesn't even occur to us to think about that, unlike in the real world where ppl judge others based on their age & experience. Here we're all just  Kindred Spirits!

This is a slight off-shoot but still related: I've always felt that one must put themselves 'out there' for the day and sell yourself as much as sell your work. Until I was about 8 or 10 years old I was known as Shy Roberta/Bobbie in my immediate family; I still don't answer the phone unless I know who it is and am prepared to talk to them. I guess it's part of the complex Social Anxiety Disorder; it's hard for me too to talk to strangers and even people I know most of the time.

But I did become quite comfortable at shows because it was much like an actor assuming a role: I was taking on the role of a salesperson and selling this art work. Taking it from that standpoint it was easier to talk about it from the technical aspects instead of thinking like ppl were going to judge-my-worth based on whether or not they purchased anything that day or not. And that was in the Good Ole Days when sales were better.

But what I could not tolerate (because it gives ALL of us a bad name) is sellers who are there and completely ignore the people who took time out of their day—at what expense out of their day we'll never know—and then act as if they're in a LIBRARY!!
The following two images were taken at a woodworking show, the first by me of a woman minding her husband's supply booth, and the second was shown online of a (Brit?) teddy show several years ago - not for this purpose - but it's rather hard to miss the obvious.
In both instances, their sellers-not-selling have their noses are stuck in a book...

I especially love this second one: on the left shows an exhibitor in front of her booth, talking & rearranging her pieces and a collector is obviously writing a check. Across the aisles are clusters of collectors admiring and holding pieces they are probably considering purchasing. Everywhere in the room there are interactions going on between artists and collectors - - - - except the two artists right down in front. Their body language is huddled together, bent over their books (though the reduced size of this image doesn't show it as well..) they actually look to be hiding BEHIND a screen - and the lady in blue appears to be ruuushing past...

This image should be burned into every exhibitor's mind's eye at every venue, making it so much easier to stand up, smile at every one passing and at least say a few words in greeting. They came to see YOU! They like BEARS and like what they see or they wouldn't have taken time out of their limited-time, busy busy weekend to come and see what the artists are offering. The least we can do is stand up, smile and say Hello!

Heidi, you never cease to amaze me!!
- Today I put the sewing aside for a bit and tried wood burning!
TRIED wood burning? Do you mean that have just started this technique recently too, as you have bear-making? Or did you go back to it as a change from sewing for a bit?
My gosh gurl! You're not even 20 yet - you're exactly the type of person who is gong to pull and push this art form (and many others) right on through the 21st century. You've got gumption and Natural TALENTS!
Congrats.. and I love both of these!

Thank You Becky, I too liked this topic.
I've ALWAYS thought that any group is only as active as it's owner/moderators. This is not to place the whole load on SueAnn's shoulders, who is doing a TREMENDOUS job on her own, along with Quy. But when there were another 4 or 5 Help Advisors adding their own comments almost daily to the topics it certainly kept the conversations moving along and the forum was a lively place.

One important thing that Heidi points out is her age: it struck me that we are all 'ageless' here! Unless she had said that she'd just graduated from HS, no one would attribute a particular age to her.. or anyone else: we all just become teddy lovers here, whether we're 18 or 88! I think that's very unusual these days and just grand!!

Amazing talent! Congrats Anthony - you are very wise to take the progression pix, too. Especially when you see your work a year from now.
Your costuming is exquisite, Grandmother taught you well!