Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

:bday: :cake: happy birthday to you!!!  :hug:  :bday:  :bday:  :bday:  :bday:

I've had a funky year, ended up alone on Christmas.... and likely new years tommorow night to.  good riddance 2006.   maybe 2007 can do better.

articicle

since 2006 for me kind of kicked me down and kicked the stuffing out of me, I just set a goal of enjoying my corn cob pipe with captian black royal in it.  sure its not much of a goal and frankly not a healthy one, but its what I can do right now.  maybe in the future I will get cut a break and be able to fight my way up again... if not well it kind of rots, but I still love the lord and trust him...  I do have much more than most in the world just considering food, clean water, and shelter.   :redface: If I could have a wishlist, it would be just American classic dream stuff... having a home instead of a studio, a family, a car, a niche I felt purpose in, that stuff.

articicle

Some of the "marketing", well first I have to just question as healthy... I remember the pokemon craze where  they actually came up with the slogan, "Got to catch em all." I guess you need to sell lots of bears if your getting a couple of bucks a pop for them.  I wonder if long term its really healthy playing on the flaw of greed in keeping up with the joneses or out doing the neibors.

I must admit making just a single bear so far I do look at the beanies a bit different, like their legs and think... gee the legs I make kind of make those look like stumps. 

I have a nice gund I cuddle up to on my futon, and who sees a lot of abuse... somehow ending under the couch or cramed in somewhere.  A beanie or two is scattered about my home... even the cat has a dog for a toy.

I WONDER if balance can be had between the high end and the low end.  I think of bears as art but I also see them as toys.  Its hard for me to see something ment for enjoyment gathering dust on a shelf... yet at the same time for a toy to be unatainable.

I think it goes to values, some people are more focused in hobbie, or as a profession, or marketing as little commonities.  systems amaze me.  like the neopets website, people can earn points by playing the games that they "trade" for digital items that they can display on their webpages at the game site.  I guess it falls to craze collecting and bragging rights to have some items somehow worth like a dozen days of serious playing of games.

what throws me is that these digital prizes, have no tangibility.  now thats a mark-up? 

articicle

I'm curious what are people's stance on more mass produced bears.  I think beany babies are cute... I mean some of them at least.  I totally admit that a handmade highly artistic "Art" bear is a treasure but to be honest I don't think I could ever shell out a hundred dollars plus for a bear.  I mean frankly thats a weeks rent and half what I have paid for a car once or twice.  yeah, they were jalopy cars but I got a few miles out of them with tinkering.  So is TY frowned apon?  Just curious

articicle

Well jodi, I think with all this fine inspiration making a mini is in order for me next.  I'd love to pull off one of those inch tall ones but maybe palm sized to start with is a bit more doable. 

this weekend I pledge to at least cut some fabric... as a new bear maker I'm still a it intimidated by the blank canvas.  fortune favors the bold? 

articicle

ok to make it a non ccompetition challenge to all that post a picture of a creation I'll put names in a hat and draw out someone that I will do an ATC of that creation for.  hopefully that will let me offfer a treat and still keep me out of the fire of breaking rules.

those links to that lady are insane!!!  she fits two creations into a walnut!!!!  Her mouse was 3/8th of an inch!!!!

WOW

the detail is even great... thats just wow.

AS for the picture I ran accross, I should have kept better track of the link.  I don't know anything about the little ladybug fairy bear or its creator... :redface:  sorry

the person who puts two bears in a walnut has got to be the best I have seen yet!!! and for being so tiny they are still great quality too.... WOW again.

articicle

Oh, well this is an *unoffical* challenge then.  By all means I don't want to step on anyones toes and break rules if we cant do things like this...

I just wanted to spur people on to make new neat creations.  No offense to anyone. 

articicle

well I was thinking outside the box, so just have at it with whatever... I figure expand your intrests and use this as an excuse...

AS FOR ME MAKING ONE...

Challenge accepted Bonnie.  Since your giving it a go, how can I refuse to make something?!  Maybe by then I'll even have two or three somethings?!

Hey its just a big excuse to have fun.

articicle

Well it doesn't have to be mythical, it could be just fictional... and even in the odd way.  So bring on the smurf/panda hybrids... 

Gee, someone could make an invisible friend out of invisible thread?  Would they just post a picture of nothing?

Being one of those freaky artists its either this or paint the walls in my house neon green and plum crazy purple mettalic.

come on, think of the fame, think of the creation, the uber cool prize... who is the offical first to enter???  Bonnie is that a yes?

since this is christmas, could he be a holiday seal?   :crackup:

I like him!   

articicle

he is very cute.  if he was pink I would think of the pink panther.  I like how you did its eyes, very classic cartoon style.

Oh I want to play!

Redneck confusions:

palm a rainian = technical term for sticking your hand out to see if its still raining.

shar pie = one of those nice perminante markers

shie zu=  a new car maker in asia?  made after the fall of isuzu.

articicle

I would have had milk come out of my nose, but I wasn't drinking.

THIS IS NOT MINE... REPEAT NOT MY CREATION... but I did bump into it and was amazed by its small size. 

I hope someday to be making bears the size of two joints of your index finger... I'm not sure if I would practically want to go smaller... but I wonder who has made the smallest. 

SORRY AGAIN I CAN'T GRANT PROPER CREDIT TO THIS PICTURE...

Articicle

I hope this is at least a partial thankyou for a post that made me laugh so hard I started choking... twice. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Articicle

by the way... who broke into my house to take a video of my cat listening to stevie wonder anyway?  It's his spitting image... or at least his coughing up hairballs image.

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I am amazed in the felt sculptured faces of some of the bears.  Perhaps some of it is just play and trial an error as people have their own ways about getting point a to b. 

I can clay sculpt a bear, but transfering it to shapes that work in fabic the 2d to 3d... when it goes to making features like rounded puffy cheeks... well.

maybe I need to give the draping thing a go.  This is a new media for me, i'm still wrapping my mind around the little nitch darnings.

thanks again articicle

weighing in at one pound two ounces and a mighty foot tall is the greatest tree in the universe... mine!

(don't laugh...its paid for)

Kind of dwarfed in my book case beuro shelf.

articicle

My tree is not large, but I hope it's big heart brings you some Christmas cheer!

Articicle

Not to pick on icons... and this is only speaking currently, as the icons might change as someone reads this days, months, years down the road...

look at my articicle red lettering on the green background... se how it "pops"?  Now look closely at the word "happiest" in your logo... notice with the bear backing of white the piest sticks out far more than the hap.  Moreover my lettering is shaded and angled.  The design of my logo works the lettering with the line of my arm and shoulder and the tilt of the bear for a more dynamic eye catcher.

Does this make sense?  Light words on dark backgrounds or vice versa rather than dark on dark or light on light.  Font size large something key to pull the eye in.

articicle

As a graphic artist I can perhaps shed some light on your question.  Frankly it just isn't simple, that's why we need to take years of classes.

First, perhaps is you really should buy a color wheel and understand color opposites.  There is a reason that red and green are christmas colors... they fall opposite on the wheel and stand out real well against each other.... like blue and yellow. 

There are an infinite number of factors, hue- shading- tint- brightness... then of course you need to fit in your most important 5 Wh's (who-what when where why... sometimes how) into your ad so its functional as well as pretty.

when it doubt look at other ads, usually its the simple thats the best... too much turns into a mosaic. 

I would recommend finding someone you trust to help with design, or even the people at the magazine... as time goes on you might tweek and tweek too.

the simple answer to your question is that it is um complex? 

gee that was a load of help huh?

articicle

wow our kitties could have been siblings!  mine is still kitten, about 6 months now

Could you do your creation *without* actually putting your bears in the substance?  I mean I was thinking like if you did some kind of igloo for example for your polar bear, a "window" to water might be the glass to a clock and the inside is really dry.  or you might make some kind of ice cube but looking through it totally with your bear dry in back of it.

you've likely already thought of this stuff... I am just trying to spur you with ideas.

-articicle

acrylic water?  and here I am thinking about non-flavored jello for my creation. 

one of my friends used some kind of acrylic water once and made a pyrimad.  He filled it half way then waited for it to turn to jello pushed a penny in it then filled it up... the penny forever stood floating in limbo.  I've lost contact with that buddy or I'd ask what he used.  If its any consolation I remember he said it was kind of toxic and wouldn't use what ever it was again anyway.  It was likely something home made.

didn't the craft stores sell something to fill up little aquariums with and put in plastic fish?  maybe thats the same as your acrylic water. 

being the vagabond artist I am I might still try the clear jello thing.

articicle

I did the hot wax trick with a bear once to pour it over and make it look like it was covered in honey.  The funny thing was my mom liked the look so much she did it... the set back was she heated the wax too hot and it drizzled like soup over her bear...

lesson learned with hot wax, let it cool until it goes almost gelation before pouring. 

another bear I ruined trying to give it a honey pot filled with honey by pouring some wood glue into a wooden keg.  I think likely it still isn't fully dry after ten years, where ever it went to.... should have stuck with the bees wax for honey...

-articicle

As an artist always pushing media into something it wasn't intended to do I must suggest a test run on something less important, before you dip something prescious into a vat of acid. 

-Articicle