Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I keep hoping to see you make a Tucker 

wooow!
is he wearing a hibiscus? or a nasturtium? (both are edible, & pretty enough to eat)
&, gosh. I think if I tried to work that small in mohair, I'd have to SOAK it in fraycheck. lol

I love his sherbet color! Lucky friend you got! 

not a proposal for a challenge - I'm just curious 
can I see your smaller center seam bears?
thanks!

acrylic paint watered down or via airbrush is a possible solution.
Dye Na Flow works nicely.

Andy & I are both much addicted, even tho we can only see the
'old' shows on TNT (or is it USA?) cause we don't get network TV channels.
consequently we're a season or 2 behind. so if you've got a spoiler, give warning please!

I'd love to see a pic too! I had never heard of such a phenomenon :)
But a kitty-savvy friend told me that her very old kitty did it - I guess part of
being an old kitty is that your joints get all kinds of loose & you can do stuff
like cross your toes!

I did a search on wool for needlefelting - the stuff I've used isn't anything special, &
I want a good firmness & the best detail possible. So I did order some nice fine merino
rambouillet wool batt that bobbi with the felted polar bear icon recommended. So we'll
see how it goes. I will certainly update further along in the process! 

& thanks again!

thanks - these are all good ideas! she does not need the toe
to be movable (thank you God) but it has to look like when you
cross your fingers - one over the other. I believe it is her pinky
she crossed over her 'ring' finger except it was on a back foot.

except I am doing it on a front paw because she will be wearing
shoes! 

she is a lynx point siamese so I will be working with natural color
mohair & then painting on the markings after. fortunately I can needle
felt to match the color just fine!

I suspect that if you do what you like, even if it feels like a mix, your own personal
taste & style will coordinate your bears anyhow! So make the ones you want to make,
& chances are they'll all look good together. --is my advice. lol

I am working on a commissioned kitty cat, based on the client's real life
kitty (RIP). One of her distinctions, is that she did cross one of her toes over
the other. Client asked me to recreate this feature    I am going for
as realistic as possible sort of style. I've been waiting for inspiration to
strike me on the best way to handle the toes but nothing is coming to mind as a
brilliant solution. I haven't any photo reference of crossed kitty toes. I'd like to keep
the paws realistically petite, & not have em turn into big boofy mitts...hmmm. if anyone
has brilliance to pour into my brain, I welcome it  thanks 

I have a related question, how do you knot the nylon threads? in
beading I actually use a match to melt them because the knots
always unravel if I don't. do you have to superglue or melt the knots?

or do I just stink at tying knots? 

I wanna see pics of all this cool stuff!

you got cool goodies!!

Barnes & Noble carries it 

oh no, what on earth is wrong with them? it came on so fast??

calluses is the secret, lol
Machine goes so fast - I prefer to make my mistakes
at a snail's pace!  I love my little kenmore machine
but I agree with Judi - handsewing is therapeutic - each
little stitch, just the same as the ones before, all in a line -
maybe it's akin to meditation or something. I'd love the
greater number of bears I could make by machine, but I
will console myself with the conceit that I can say "entirely
sewn by hand" & hope it means something significant &
interesting & romantic & appealing to the buyer, lol

what an AWESOME dogmama you are to really sleuth out the problem! He's
a lucky boy. Well it sounds fixable - is this a thing that glucosamine & chondroitin
might help? I know those get good results with achy joints.

Agility might be out, but maybe he could do something like tracking? That could be fun too!

ain't it the truth!
yeah ya know....I come here for the eye candy............. :photo:  :clap:

& the bears are nice, too!  :crackup:     

Chrissi's post is great!
The dog sitter might not have been mean, but might she have, say, asked him to
sit, & then accidentally knocked something off the counter where it made a huge
racket hitting the floor & scared him? Maybe he slipped the leash while she was
walking him, & she yelled "SIT!!" in a panicked, angry-sounding voice? Neither of
those circumstances have her beating or abusing him, but might affect him in the
way you describe just the same. It might be worth asking her if anything unusual
happened, or if she'd noticed the behavior when she tended him.

I WOULD get the vet to look at him to rule out something wrong with his hips or knees.
I know those problems aren't as relevant to little dogs as big ones, but it's one variable
you'd be able to check off your list.

Can you ask him to do some other tricks, & get really really HAPPY about him doing them?
& use really super-special treats, like pieces of hotdog or cheese? & then when you're on a
roll with maybe half a dozen or so awesomely fabulous tricks performances, slip in a deliriously
happy "sit" or "down"? Maybe riding high on a happyhappyhappy confidence boost will overcome
whatever his issue is.

Poor guys - I wish they could talk.
Good luck & keep us updated!

I can't imagine how much fun it would be - I am way too new/small-time/slow-working to
be able to justify going though (someday!) I've only been to the 2 small doll/bear/toy
shows (visiting, not exhibiting) in Springfield MA so far. But I enjoyed them immensely!

I wanted to suggest http://www.flickr.com as a good option too - I host all my photos there, & there
are community galleries called 'pools' with all manner of topics, so it is a lively community on
its own merit as well. I created a flickr group for artist bears    here's a link:

http://flickr.com/groups/teddybears/

I love their system which allows you to organize your pics into sets
http://flickr.com/photos/kimhotep/sets/

& as you browse through communities of photos & art, you can
mark your favorites. You get a (unobtrusive) notice when someone marks
your pics are a favorite, or leaves a comment on your picture. Here are the ones I love:
http://flickr.com/photos/kimhotep/favorites/

---I spend too much time on flickr...lol 

I think I do as Jodi does - at any rate I always start from the nose & work towards
the neck, because if something goes wonky, the neck doesn't need to line up but
the nose of course does.

Stuff doesn't go wonky anymore now that I alligator clip all my pieces together
before sewing 

you ARE the coolest mom ever.

somethin in my eye...

lol thank you Tracy & Brenda! I am pretty much in love with them. My last dog
did not like other dogs at all, so it brings me so much happiness that these two do
love one another 

you guys are a wicked wicked influence.....making me want to do an order of mohair!
I have some I want to experiment with dyeing though, so I will resist - for the moment  :twisted:

I am glad that Ticey's sweetness & silliness shows so well in his picture. I don't know
if ALL boxers are like that, but he LOVES little children & when he was my sister's dog
he did watch so carefully over the baby. Boxers I have met have all been so very huggy,
you can't help but love them. Goofy as can be but when they come up & lean their chest
against you with their big ol chin on your shoulder, they are takin their hugs very seriously! 

I rub the wax on & hit it with the hairdryer too. I like the look of beeswax. I have
not incorporated the markers WITH it - the waxing is usually my absolute last step -
but I do shade the outside edges of the nose if I am using a brown or pink thread for
the nose. So I like the subtle shading to show with natural wax. which I already had
on hand from the bead store, cause it is good for beading thread too