Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi.
l have spent the last 4 days going through every thing written on this section  to soak up as much information as my little brain can stand.
l just wanted to say thank you to you all for sharing all your skills.

l am a doll repaint artist who is going to try to make a few bears...just a few.
l am not going to become addicted to them like all of you...l'm not..l'm not..

This site is so lovely ..to not to see the clash of egos that occurs on the doll sites, the willingness to share your secrets is amazing...l am soooo impressed with you all. :clap:
A huge thank you.

You have covered just about any question l could have asked so l now go forth to create my first bear...l am not going to get addicted...l'm not l tell you !
(actually l love doing my dolls so l can't see myself stopping them and there are only so many hours in a day ! )

l have read a lot of things about creating noses and eyes with polymer clay.
Thought l might just add...l do a lot of sculpting with polymer clay using epoxie as an armature.
Eyes are very easily created for dolls ( done them for soft scupltured dolls) and l think they would work for bears eyes and noses too.
Using a bifurcated rivet ( l think your cotter pins would be equal to it)
l put a bit of epoxie on it (this just gives it enormous strength) then create the eye with polymer... then bake it ( epoxie bakes quite well without any adverse effects)
Eyes can be painted with genesis paints.. baked then coated with liquid polymer and baked again..gives a lovely shine to them...or they can be painted with acrylics and a coat of gloss varnish.
Also adding  irredescent powders to the paint gives them the same sparkling effect as glitter would.
If you use a strong polymer clay (definatedly not sculpey..l use Ozzle) you won't get any marks or scratches on them.
Then eyes are inserted into the fabric and the pins turned back or curled.
The only down side is you can't pull them in to sculpt the eye area  ( but l do all that before l insert the eyes)
But l would imagine if you used a wire in a "T" with the epoxie it would not come out.
l use baby oil to smooth the polymer .
The strong clays when baked properly are very hardy and won't break or crack.
The secret is starting with the polymer in  a cold oven and use a thermometer in your oven as temperature is important and ovens never are at the same temperature as the dial says.... you will be suprised how they differ.
Cook to the packaged recommendation...mine is 235 degrees..10 minutes for 1/4 inch thickness...and this is timed from when your oven reaches the 235 degrees.
Then turn your oven off and don't take them out till it is completely cold.

l also saw a section on wings... l have a very easy method of doing wings  using transparency sheets , lutrador fabric and 3D crystal lacquer.
Which if anyone is interested l will post later...don't want to bore you silly on my first posting.

Once again a very big thank you to you all.
Regards  Lyn

PS ...l love all your bears..yep l have gone through all the photos too..you are all so talented