Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Eileen , you sound like me....Rita, that parrot is precious. I think thats the kind of bird my neighbor had, an african gray ? Very intelligent birds, he could say about 500 words and appeared in several movies in Hollywood.

I forgot that goat I had gave birth to 3 goats, not 2. ONe very early morning my husband ran up stairs in a frantic and threw those 2 baby goats in bed with me. "Do something, they are dying " What?....I rubbed them briskly with a blanket to help revive them, but putting my hand in their mouth I could feel they were cold.Once the mouth gets cold means the core body temp is way down. One already had glazed over eyes and felt stiff.

I called my pet friend Linda, she rushed over. We submerged the kitchen sink with water just slightly warmer, put the baby in  and you rub, rub the baby... keep making the water a little warmer while at the same time I made  a sugar/ water solution ( glucose ). They could not suckle ... got a straw and sucked up the stuff , put a finger over the other end ,then put that end in the babys mouth... then let go of the finger , repeat ....
Amazing...soon the babies were revived  and could suckle my famous " all purpose pet milk " from a 7 up bottle and goat nipple. We could not save the black one, she was dead before  we found them in trouble. I kept them in the basement and they had their own " doggie box " with blankets. Half  of the basement was dirt floor so we brought mommy in to nurse them but mommy got sick and died...she had something called " bolsa " ? Anyway...you won't believe this ...but I would cover the livingroom with newspaper and bring them up for " socialization " play time. They would run all over the place , jump off the coffee table, pull the blanket off the couch and they never went potty on the floor...in fact they were trained not to go past the livingroom door into the kitchen  When hungry they  would see me coming with their bottles and would stand at the doors edge and bawl for their dinner.
The babies found homes, the female became a breeder mommie and the other male a  judas goat for a herd of sheep..... I have lots of stories like this , lots of wonderful memories......Winney

I'm sorry Laura... thank you for that link, we all need to be aware of what we can do with these types of crimes...now we have the means...Winney

Me too...Winney

Oh my gosh that's funny...wonderful kitties keep things livened up ! Shelli, you have the same idea..it works !...Winney

Boo Hooo, You made me cry Kristin..I love animals so much.
I have had soooo many in the past. My kids would drag home abandoned or sick ones. Id  try and get them well and then get them homes .
Among the animals I have had brought to me :
a bob cat kitten,
a fawn, 2  - 24" alligators ( all teeth , I fed them dog food meat balls on a long stick ) ,
a dove,
a pigeon,
several nests of baby birds, ( do not feed baby birds crushed worms , feed them dogfood)
a robin( he made friends with my cockatiel ) 
a starling...we had to teach him to fly.
a sad little skinny dog that had ring worms,
a skunk ( also all teeth )
5 shetland ponies ( fat and floundering )
Lots of cats and doggies...one cat my son found in the rain  in the trash along with its dead sisters and brothers behind a Safeway store. It lived....sick people.
a mama goat that gave birth to 2 babys then died on me...I bottle fed the babies.
A family pet rabbit , male, loose in the yard with another male...they fought, one ended up with a ripped Ahemmm. I thought it was his guts hanging out. I anestisized him with Jim Beam, tied his feet up. Called the vet to ask how to do stitches, etc. He said he probably would not live . I cut the bad part off, packed him in ice , used antibiotic ointment all over, sewed him shut . We went out for dinner, he was hopping around in his box  eating carrots when we returned...Later on he fathered a litter of 11. I guess I only cut one off.
A white mink..he lived under our shed for a few winters..we'd feed him bacon poured on toast to supplement his diet along with cat food.
A skunk that lived in a drain ditch in front of our place out in the country..we'd toss corn on the cob to him, he never sprayed us or our dogs...in fact one of our dogs played with him . strange pair.
a large hawk my son thought it was a chicken hawk ( no such thing ) he shot him then cried when it fell from the sky and lay in our creek looking up at him. Next I knew was " mom, he's in the basement in the canning room ,what can we do...his wing is broke".  Funny it was not afraid of me and I was not afraid of him. I offered my hand as a tree limb and he got on...I forgot their talons are very strong. I could not believe what a death grip he had on me.ONe talon was curling around my hand and piercing thru one finger...ouch ! ouch ! ouch ! It took my son 2 hands to gently pry his talons loose of me  and onto his one leather gloved hand  where I rolled a towel around him and placed him in a covered box. Took him to the bird reserve where they care for wild birds and they could give my son a real good talking to...
We have had pigs, cows, chickens , quail, ducks , geese., horses .a male goat called Maynard that played basketball  with us as well as "king of the hill "off the kitchen steps.
Gads...I have had so many animals , some wild,  and have cried my eyes out when some of them died.
When you live on a farm of sorts there is always animals being born and getting sick and dying too...
Sorry this is so long....memories....Winney

Great idea Loonie..what are nappies? I thought nappies were diapers ....LOL.....Winney

Sometimes I carefully use the blunt end of a chop stick to push it thru from the inside to the outside....Winney

That can be a problem...I too use to stuff the head , attach it so then I have something to hang onto ...but  now I can do either way...it was difficult at first til I found a way to deal with it....
I found if you want to work on the head it stays still nicely if you can find a  small but heavy bowl to prop it up in so you can have 2 hands free now to manage to measure or eye ball things better.

I have eliminated a lot of  poking with  needle and pins= less blood ...as I  have eliminated a lot of guessing where my eyes and ears go . If I have worked with that pattern before , we talked about the measuring  of these in another post...I will repeat it here ;

I find the center junction of the  nose and mouth seam..stick quilt pin there...

Measure from that junction up to where you want the eye POST...stick a pin there.

Install the eyes...temporarily tie them off at the back bottom of the neck .

Measure from the TOP CENTER of the eye following the seam above to where you want your inside ear corner to start,
stick a pin there...do the same for the other side....

Now, I write all these measurements down on the side head piece along with the eye size used.
These are my BASIC  measurements ,but I can deviate from there to do something else.

If I am going to do something else creative  with the eyes like ; eye cords, felt backing ,etc. I do it now. If you want to do eye socket sculpting before you install eyes...take that into account of when to do that on your list.
When I am done messing around with the eye thing, I re thread the eye string and go back into that same hole outside the neck disc and go UNDER the neck disc and tie off there.... Winney

Daphne...Great idea...No, I want to design my own pattern for whatever it is...stay tuned ,as I will come up with something ..no telling  when but I will...he, he..Winney

And, indeed a very nice bear at that  Shelli . First off  the  attention is to the smoothness, a velvety look, soft...goes with the bears face, soft and snugly....

I did not dream last night , what happened ? My husband had Jim Nori on, altho he was asleep . I got side tracked from peach sparse fur to UFOs ....then I was abducted into a deep sleep.It's  true...LOL

OK...so now, does anyone else have any other ideas ? I don't yet...Winney

Those cats look like they are in good health.. those ears !.Wonder if people are allergic to that breed of cat ?   At least those kittys can save some time, they don't have to lick to clean their fur, and no hair balls !..... Winney

I too don't want to sign my bears foot . I sew in my folded once into a loop  tags under the arm on the side of the body ...that is about as un- noticable a tag can get I think...it's there but not sticking out like a sore thumb.
I also put a laminated hang tag onto the bear. I like the idea of a photo  of the bear on the hang tag but just haven't got around to doing it yet...There is so much to do and I feel like I am soooo behind.....Winney

Yeahhhh ! We have a name now...thank's Kim...Winney

Winney was a hamster ? LOL..I love it.

Kirstin, your cat attracts very mysterious auras anound its head...Look !...there is a man that  appeares clothed in a strange blue light sitting between your cats ears.LOL... I love the way cats play with just about anything...Winney

Oh yes...and I picked up another tip somewhere about how to hold that clay nose up off the baking tray ;

Buy some of those big  metal office clips , NOT paper clips ...they come in different sizes . Somebody help me out here with the proper name or a photo. Anyway...it will clamp down on that small eye wire loop nicely while baking on a cookie sheet .  Let it cool before removing from the clip.

Thank's Shelli for clarifying the right source for the clay nose.... Winney

Oh...you gals will get me going yet...yes, an old chocolate bunny would be just the ticket...and some extra wonky animes...what else ?... Chocolate cats...chocolate dogs ...chocolate chickens...???

I am strongly inclined to overdye it with red ...or blue...I have a strong compulsion to do it......it's like I can't help it...it is holding a spell over me...maybe a curse ..LOL

Well, I need to hit the hay. Maybe I will have  dream about what this new critter will be..I know it sure will be different...Winney

Have any of you bought that fur that is on special for $39.95 ? It's 1/2" ultra sparse  peach  with a dark brown back...I just got mine...

I bought it to experiment with...oh my....What am I gonna make with it  ? What would you all make out of it ? It would be fun and interesting to know...come on...spit out those ideas...
I know ,a peach catapillar , nahhhhh, not fuzzy enough. What the heck is an animal that is peach but has dark brown skin...sort of a  weirdie animal , a bird ? NO ...a bird would not choose this even as a disguise.

What were they thinking of when they made this fur ? Even more wondersome is why did I buy it ? ..to experiment with as suggested ? I need a kick start... maybe I should try and over dye it ? or under dye it, he, he...can you do that ?  I think Intercal shoild give me a prize if I can actually come up with something other then a bear....Winney

Laura you are so funny, LOL, Yes I think that doggie is a chinese crested bologna doggie.  Hmmmm, wonder if there are any hairless cats ? My imagination is getting carried away with me. Oh, that was interesting about the dogs and the plague...learn some thing new every day........Winney

Have you tried a dog that has fur that does not fall out ? I have a german snazzer ( spell . he. he ) her fur has to be clipped all the time...I don't think she is the kind of dog that has dander ...  Oh my ...there is also a type of dog that has NO fur except for the ears, tail...Winney

Whew ! Right ! Block that door at night !...Winney

Rita, I just got my Teddy Bear and Friends magazine and in it is an article on making noses....a polymer one too.

They used a glass eye with a premade loop. Build the polymer clay surrounding the glass  eye, leaving the wire loop free on the backside.When done t he back side needs to be flat. This is great as I have a few eyes that are marred , they came to me that way...so don't throw away any eyes that are not perfect ! Use them for  clay noses.

The glass eye can take the heat as you need to bake the nose in your home oven. Time varies with each kind of polymer clay , for every 1/4" of clay its a certain amount of time, read your package to find out how long.

I have not tried this yet but I can see it will work ...you install it just like you do for a glass eye. I would get it into position then put some glue behind the nose before you pull it down tight,,,this should keep the nose from twirling around on the face...we don't want any up side down  noses...he, he...Winney

One good idea I have I can share with you all who cannot seem to keep track of the bears, etc. you have made.

Every time I  make something I write in the birth date on a piece of paper, if its a protype or whatever and I safety pin it to the critter...this is only temporary.

If I sell it ,then of course I have to make out a sales reciept. On it is the date sold,  bear size , etc. and the Registry # that comes from the bears birth date ( paper slip pinned to the bear)... I write in info.on the sales slip  for me as much as I do for the customer because...its a detailed record for me.

What I want to do now is transfer all the info. according to date  to my Bear Registry Log and maybe I will also put some bear photos in there too....Winney

Ear phones for me............. my husband won't wear them as he had ear troubles all his life. I even wear ear plugs when I go to bed as he loves to have the radio on then falls asleep ...but if I turn off the radio he wakes up and say s" Now, why did you turn that off ? I was listening to it "....agh ! I give up  ...Winney

My husband usually watches TV non stop but it's spring and he moves out doors to the picnic table on our large front porch,, yeah !!!
I get so tired of hearing that TV all day and all night long that I have had to learn to " tune it out ". If I can't , like if I need to do the bills or concentrate closely on anything ...I move to my back sewing room by the window,  the light in there is NOT good at all. We live in a mobile home so sounds are hard to get away from.

Sometimes he is gone all day so in contrast that creates a "vacuum " , after about 2 hrs. I have to do something so I turn on the radio low to music I like  or I take a break and allow myself to get on the PC for awhile or I make a phone call or...put on a music CD I like . It breaks the monotony, at least I have a choice of what kind of noise I want, he, he. Oh ,I just love this spell check thing..it's kind of fun to see how many I get wrong ...Winney

Yes..I was talking about cotton knit because it can be easiely dyed.. All kinds of materials are resources when you are trying to design something for a certain effect..whatever works !...Winney