Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Thanks Pauline. It was a popcorn box from one of my favourite candy stores, "Sugar and Co." It came filled with retro candy. Very yummy. I just made a new face for the box in illustrator. But one could just use scrapbooking paper. Maybe i should take a pic of him face down in the box with his little legs popping out.

Come see Barnum and other clown bears available on my blog. Email me to inquire. http://suegorrie.blogspot.com/

Come see Emmett Kelly and other clown bears available on my blog. Email me to inquire. http://suegorrie.blogspot.com/

Boris is available at the Teddies Worldwide Online Show.

http://www.backroadbears.com/teddiesworldwide.htm

   I LOVE the Edward Tulane story!  I can't believe I cried twice reading that book. Such a beautiful ending. I won't give it away.     It is definitely a must have book for the bear artist.

Sue

What size (From hinge to hinge) of eyeglasses do you think would go with a 16 inch bear?  I am looking for a supplier for antique style eyeglasses as well.
Sue

There are some awesome blog backgrounds here with instructions as well.
You can also look for digital scrap booking sights.
http://aquapoppydesigns2.blogspot.com/2 … round.html
http://aquapoppydesigns2.blogspot.com/
http://sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com/
  Sue

HI everyone!  I was wondering if those of you with dyeing experience could help me figure out what's going on with my dyeing technique for wool felt. Most of the time I use Cushings acid dyes. But this time I used RIT. The picture below shows a purchased piece of wool felt on the right. The left shows two dye attempts with RIT. They both ended up even yet "mottled" so to speak. Like some of the wool wouldn't take to the dye. The wool felt was white. I washed it well with ZERO. Rinsed it. Then mixed the dye well and put in half a cup of vinegar and put in pickling salt. The colour took quickly so I had to pull them out of the bath. It just seems like I can see the white still deeper in the fibers.
Anyone else have this problem with RIT? Any suggestions?
Thanks so very much!!!!
SUE   

Thanks for the links!  .
Found the link for Thomas Toys.  I think this is the closest wheel so far and a good price. Also the wheels are quite small, so I can use them on my Christmas ornaments.

http://thomastoysantiquetoyparts.com/main.sc

I did see those other two sites  (prim shop and classic tin toy) as well as the following:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx … ,250,43236

http://thecraftshoppe.com/wheels.html

Moving toys is a new area of creativity for me. Maybe sometime we should do a moving toy challenge. I wish I could make a clockwork tumbling clown bear. Now that would be cool! But, so far I am unsuccessful to even repair my overwound tin toys.
Thanks again for the info.

Sue

Does anyone have any idea where I can get some metal wheels with spokes?  The kind they use for antique and vintage iron toys and pull toys.  My cat knocked over (on purpose.... he was trying to wake me up) my sheep on wheels (repro) and broke one of the wheels. Upon further investigation I see the wheels are only made of resin. That tends to look pretty bad when glued, so I want to
replace all the wheels. I would like them to be 1",  four spoke metal wheels in a dark patina, but I will settle for more spokes if I can find them. 

I have also been wanting to make some pull toy ornaments with the smaller wheels.
Any ideas on where to find these would be greatly appreciated.   

Sue

Brenda;
Living where I do there are a ton of coyotes. It seems the numbers have increased this year. And our outdoor cat population is decreasing. 
There are a number of things you can do to scare them away. They don't like shiny, flashy loud objects. You can cover a soda can with foil and put pennies in it. then when you see the coyote yell at it and shake the can. That should scare them enough. However, if they see your cats as a food source they will come back for more.  I can't understand people leaving thir cats out at night. This is when coyotes are most active. But when they know there is easy prey they start coming in the day.
The other thing is to talk to the neighbours about keeping all garbage contained and put it out the morning of.
Here is a link from the Stanley Park Eco Society with some info on coyotes. Hope it helps.

http://www.stanleyparkecology.ca/progra … e/coyotes/

http://www.stanleyparkecology.ca/progra … errent.php

Sue

Has anyone ever put one of the double sound oval squeakers in their creations? 

http://www.edinburghimports.com/shoppin … 92364=S019

I was wondering if you guys had any sugguestions as to how to make sure this doesn't "swim" around the body cavity and stays in place.
For my bear's growlers, I put them in a muslin bag and sew the edge of the baggie to the bear's inner seams. I also put a bit of stuffing around the growler so that you can't feel it unless you really search for it. The rest of the cavity is filled with plastic pellets.  This is for an 18"rabbit.
Any ideas?
Thanks!   
SUE

Hi everyone! It seems that when I put the eyes on my bears, etc, I seem to get an angry look.     I have been trying to use larger sized eyes and to trim away some of the hair around the eyes. Perhaps It's just not enough. Anyone else have this problem? I am wanting a "cuter"     look rather than angry. It's mostly a problem with longer pile fabrics. The pile falls over the eye and creates a line that looks like frown lines. I know for designing cartoon characters, for a cute look, you make huge eyes and put them further apart.  Any ideas on how to fix this?
Sue

Here's my new bear wearing his little velvet coat. Thinking of putting him up for auction, but I really want to keep this one!    Hope he goes to someone who will give him some love and kisses and not just keep him in a glass case.
Thanks to everyone for the tips! I did try out thicker thread. That helped a bit. I think I will glue the seams next time as I did have them tacked every inch and it was still a problem. To iron the collar flat, I used another piece  of scrap velvet on top with a cotton dish towel over that on low heat, so as not to crush the pile. Velvet definitely requires alot of patience!

Does anyone have some tips for working with velvet?  I am trying to make a cotton lined velvet coat for my bear and am finding it a challenge not only because of the stretch of the fabric, but the pile affects the sewing.  Trying to do most of it by hand, but it's still hard to get it just right. It looks okay, but not as nice as I had planned.  Seems I end up with more or less fabric in one area making it uneven in the end, running out of lining or velvet. It's as if the pattern pieces were different sizes.  Perhaps my stitches are too tight? It ends up looking like the lining is gathered in some places.

Anywho, it's VERY frustrating!   
Any suggestions to making working with velvet easier????
Thanks
Sue

I pruchased some 1 3/4' discs the other day and it turned out to be the thin kind. I wanted the thick ones. Are these thin discs just as good as the thick ones or do they have a special use that I am unaware of? Are they still sturdy enough to be played with a bit?  Not sure if they are fiberboard or hardboard. Just wondering. 
Sue

Just had this happen to me last night.   :doh:  My beautiful blue glass eyes! ACK! The eye in question actually arrived bent over, so I guess it was doomed from the start.
So what does everyone do with all the broken eyes? I wonder if you could use rubber cement or something like that as long as the bear was not going to be played with. Or maybe throw them in a glass jar with buttons etc. for decoration.
Any ideas?
Sue

Thanks to everyone for your replies!!! Your input and suggestions are truly appreciated. I find this board to be a plethora of information and am thankful such a place exists to find answers to bear making questions.

One question for Shelly... If I am understanding you correctly... the GRAIN of the fabric is UP and DOWN. The BIAS is diagonal. The NAP of the mohair runs DOWN.  When you have an ODD shaped pattern that you want the nap to travel down, how should you place it on the fabric? Is this pic below correct? IF it is not correct I imagine I could cut differently and retrain the nap of the mohair.

I had a feeling most of the issues were related to needle sculpting.
I did see that EBearz is going to have a pattern draping class very soon. Any clue who is teaching it?
Thanks again to one and all!!! :clap:
Sue

Hi everyone! Was wondering how the downturn in the economy was affecting everyone's business.
For me with the Canadian dollar PLUMETING, getting my supplies at a reasonable cost is the problem. Should have bought lots of stock when the dollar was high. I love the medium dense fabrics, but it looks like I will be enjoying the cheaper sparse mohairs for a while.   
How does everyone cut costs if at all possible when making hierloom products?
Sue

Try Jacquard's TeeJuice pens (dark brown) for the tips of ears, noses and paws. You can remove the excess colour easily with a damp paper towel or sponge.  (That's also how I blend the colour). Then heat set with a hair dryer. Try it out on a test piece of mohair first. I thought it was a great find. It has the staining power of coffee without the smell.
http://www.jacquardproducts.com/products/teejuice/
Sue   

HI everyone. I am in need of a rescue here. I have been working on this rabbit for weeks now with PATHETIC results.
It's my first stab at  pattern draping. I am going basically on what I have read here online and some uneducated guesses. I first sculpted the head with high quality PLASTALINA. I drew on where I thought the pattern lines would go.  I then took paper towel and tried "molding" the towels against the clay,  then drew on the towels where the lines were. Then I cut out the paper towel shapes that became the pattern. Then transferred those towel shapes to paper.
To see if the pattern shapes worked, I taped the paper together as if the pattern pieces were sewn together. It seemed to look pretty good.
HOWEVER, when I tried my first prototype (muslin), it looked like my bunny was stung by a bee. It was 2X as wide as it should have been. My mom said it looked like a snake. So .... not successful that time. Perhaps it was over stuffed, but I was trying to do some needle sculpting as well on it and was having trouble getting the stuffing (high quality heavy polyfil) firm enough. So I thought perhaps the material was too stretchy and tried some cheapo dense plush. Still no success!
Why does this look good in paper and not when its stuffed? Anyone else have a problem where things look good in paper and not in material.
  The biggest problem area seems to be beside the nose and below the eye where there is a little indentation. (Circled in pink).

  Do any of you have some suggestions as to how I can accomplish what I need? From the photos can you tell what I am doing wrong? Problems in the pattern etc.   
Please help anyone!!!
Sue
  I was also wondering if those of you who do alot of pattern draping stuff with excelsior or polyfill? And also do you do alot of sculpting with your pattern draping technique.

P.S. How come no one else is up thinking of these things but me at 3:30am???  :doh:

Hi everyone. I am trying out the needle sculpting thing and seem to be running into a few glitches.
I am trying it out on a muslin prototype head, stuffed with premium polyfill. Using a strip of waxed eyefloss for thread. I think the head is stuffed firm enough. Trying to get more definition in the septum area. It seems to look like the bear is puckering up for a big kiss or something.
Does everyone actualy take a stitch? Or do you enter out of EXACTLY the same place you exited? When I do this, the muslin doesn't take the shape, but you can feel that the stuffing is sculpting underneath.
I have read the info under mouths and muzzles. From what I understand, you basically do a zigzag formation upwards. However, I seem to be lost as to pulling in the septum area.
Anyone care to enlighten me any further?
Thanks.
Sue   

Hi everyone! I'm new here. My name is Sue.
I was wondering if felted faces are considered child safe? I read the article by Judi Paul in TB and FRIENDS about needle felted faces and thought I might give it a try.
I am making a rabbit for my neice (6yrs) and she has been very specific about what she wants, ie: chubby cheeks. I was thinking I might felt the cheeks instead of making the cheeks a part of the pattern. I will be using 1"pile white alpaca. I usually stuff with excelsior but perhaps I should use polyfill to make the fibers "lock"? I like the weight and firm sculpting the excelsior gives. Does anyone have a preference when felting?
  I think I'm in over my head a bit, but I have until mid October for her birthday  :bday: 
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.