Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

beautiful!!!!!!!

I start with the head, then the legs and then the arms like I see a lot of you do. I put the filling hole rather high on the back or sometimes on the front on a 3 piece body so after I do the arms I won't be able to do the legs as there is not enough space left. I really don't know whether I start with the right or the left leg and arm... I'm gonna check next time I put a bear together...

great pictures! I wonder how long that bike has been standing there!

I wish I could teach you the heels... but I'm afraid my english is not good enough to describe in words how to do them, so you'll have to come over to Holland and I will show... :dance:

I knit my own socks and gloves, do some embroidery, quilting, knitting and embroidery with beads and I like to draw and paint with watercolor. Since I started bearmaking that's the thing I do most but sometimes I still do some painting or knitting while watching the tv...

how about taping two markers together with a piece of material in between them to make the space wider or smaller?

beautiful!

wow!!!!!!

and thank you so much for the before picture, it shows the difference so beautifully!

I used the karisma pencils on paper too and they also faded there, but on the bears paws they just keep coming off when I touch it apart from the fading in sunlight. I'm going to try on a piece of fabric what it is going to be like when I use the blowdryer, I have some pieces left which are too small to make a bear anyway and I use them for trying out dye so why not try this?!?

I use copic markers now and they seem great, but I used to use pencils like karisma and the shading looked great but kept coming off so I guess that does need to be heat set but I also don"t know how to heat set... :redface:

glad to hear everything went fine! We had the same surgery done on our husky a few years ago after she made a wrong step while playing with a much heavier dog that fell over her. She is doing fine since and we are glad we had the surgery done then. It's so painful to see a dog suffer... I hope she will recover soon. We had a schedule then to what moves we could make and how long to walk and things like that. It seemed like a long way to go, but after a few months she could walk again as if nothing ever happened to her leg. We had to limit the painkillers very soon after the surgery because when she didn't feel the pain she wanted to walk too much and force herself into pain. She had a 100% tear by the way... I still remember so well sitting and waiting in the clinic when she was being operated and all the other people sitting there with their dogs with one shaved paw, it made me laugh :redface:

good trick, peggy! I'm sure going to try a mirror next time!

I used to get my ears at the wrong position all the time but nowadays I pin them on look at the bears for a few days or weeks until I feel it's okay and then I sew them on. I do the same with eyes.At the moment there are 7 bears on my shelve staring at me with pineyes and pinears... :redface:

I once put little glass balls in as weight without enclosing them in fiber or anything and they showed through the pawpads. You could see their shape as if it was a bag of coffeebeans instead of a bear...

nice bags! :clap:

Ha, I live in holland too, in Dordrecht, near Rotterdam. We have a lot of old buildings here in center which would be nice to visit, and a nice shop full of steiff bears and bear supplies also. I do not have any idea of a good place to stay here in Dordrecht, but visiting the area would be nice perhaps. This is the bearshop...

http://www.berelijn.com/

I have a box full of not so good looking bears and when people visit and see any in the box that they like I force them to take it along because I just can't throw them away but they are not worth keeping or selling. otherwise we have a dog who likes to have some toys... :redface:

I"m in Holland, Dordrecht, which is kinda near Rotterdam. This was a view from my window, overlooking a gas station for ships. It's actually my appartment as I don't have a workshop. It's very small but very nice to live in...

humz, I think I need to upgrade mine, too, he needs some maintenance on the "walking with our dog" programme...

Here is my view,  I took the picture a few months ago...

I'd say you did a very good job!

you are right, but sometimes when I see the beautiful bears people make feel so stupid when I just can't get mine to look the way I want them to look... 

*starts working on bear number 45, and waits for skills to improve*

I really love the bears that you bearguys create! I love to work with bright colors and big feet myself, but mine never come out this beautiful!

I use scissors I bought from a quilting store. It's very sharp and rather small, I think the brand is KAI but I have to check...