Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

According to this article, the Greenies company is compensating pet owners for vet bills:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/ba … mailedlink

"Roetheli said adverse incidents are rare, and when they do happen the company has offered to compensate pet owners for medical bills and other costs."

Thanks for posting the news about Magic. I don't have dogs but I have been feeding Greenies to my cats (the feline treats). Definitely no more of that, I haven't seen any reports of cats getting sick but a company that lies about one product (or screws up the testing) is likely to be messing up elsewhere.

My S.O. just got out of the hospital for Crohn's disease (basically intestinal allergies) and I do not want to go through that again with any more family members. I know my big Maine Coons were certainly not carefully chewing those tiny treats.

-- Erika

I still have my first bear, or rather, I have him again. I didn't find out he was my first bear until my sixteenth birthday -- he'd been handed on to my little sister when she was born and so I always thought he was hers. For my sixteenth birthday my mother had old 3mm film of me as a baby transferred to VHS tape. There was my little steiff bear in my grubby waving hands before my sister was born -- caught on tape! Also caught on tape was my mother rubbing spagetti sauce on my face because she thought I was taking too long to make my usual mess, and my Dad letting me run around with an empty gas can while we were camping.

So I got my first bear back for my sixteenth birthday -- I was already collecting bears . . . my sister collects rabbits.

For weirdness nothing beats the platypus -- the only venomous mammal in existence (and quite nasty venom, IIRC) and one of very few egg laying mammals. Not to mention the beak! When the first ones were brought back to Britian by explorer types (not still alive, alas) they were assumed to be sewn together from bits of other animals to fool the naturalists. I figure platypus are proof that Mother Nature has a sense of humor.

Also very cool are puffer fish, my boyfriend is a fish-fanatic and we had a spotted puffer fish for a while. They eat snails (you can hear them crunching) and are very smart. Zepplin was very aware of his surroundings in and outside the tank -- he'd zip around trying to get attention if someone was sitting next to his tank. He'd also throw tantrums (trying to jump out of the tank) if you fed him boring pellet food instead of his favorite snails or beef heart. Most of the fish with interesting behavior are really large, but the puffer was just the size of a quarter and was overflowing with personality.

Just one more: Weedy sea dragons. They are a type of seahorse that developed to look like underwater weeds. I could spend hours in front of their tank at the Columbus zoo . . . they just hang in the water and drift, even though they are shaped, well, really alot like dragons. Here's a picture: http://www.cspangler.com/photo/location/weedy.html

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

When I bought my house the plan was that the guest room at the front would be guest room / studio space. I loaded all my bear stuff into the guest room closet and moved in a good sized desk, some shelving . . . Then my significant other took over all the horizontal space for HIS projects. Sigh. (And I do mean all the horizontal space: floor, guest bed, shelves . . . if stuff would stick to the ceiling he'd use that too).

To add insult to injury, my closet also became home to all the excess toilet paper and paper towels from "stocking up" shopping trips. I have to move it out of the way to get to my mohair! 

So I've been forced into being tidy because everything I'm working on needs to be hauled out to the kitchen table and back. Each unfinished bear lives in a ziploc bag that includes scissors, needles and thread. 

My SO promises that as soon as we finish the basement he'll move his stuff down there and I'll have the guest room back . . . but finishing the basement is a five+ year away project and I'm impatient. My plan is to take over the closet in the library, which is bigger than the guest room closet and has a handy electrical plug inside. The plug is there because there was going to be a fish tank in that closet . . . long story. Anyway, I think I can fit a little desk in there and leave my sewing machine set up on it. I'll probably still need the kitchen table for cutting out stuff but otherwise I'll be in good shape. 

It's nice having a significant other who is as craftily inclined as I am -- we end up sharing tips and tools on occasion -- but not so much fun fighting over studio space. So wish me luck in my invasion of the library closet!

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

I learned a bit about the relative longevity of bears when I had an apartment fire a few years ago. None of my bears burnt, but all were smoke damaged. The disaster-recovery company I hired to do the cleanup and fix up said they had an expert they subcontracted with do their stuffed animal and doll recovery. The harsh treatment necessary in getting the smoke damage out was equivilant to many years of natural (and unnatural) wear.

I found that the synthetic fabrics stood up to the cleaning process better than the natural fabrics overall, although the long-pile alpaca mixed with silk was in significantly better shape than the (felted) pure alpaca. The glass eyes of the artist bears came through much better than the plastic eyes (which scratched up and in one case melted). Interestingly the stiching of the artist bears held up better than that of the mass-produced ones -- none of my artist bears needed ears reattached. The tightly embroidered noses of the artist bears held up remarkably well, but the few embroidered-nose mass-produced bears I own needed some repair. Plastic noses held up fine, the scratches didn't show as much as on the plastic eyes. The best noses were ultrasuede glued over plastic -- no damage at all.

Two of my artist bears and one stieff bear had their stuffing dissolve, and one of those could not be restuffed because the backing of his fur became too fragile. He was a designed to look "well-loved" anyway, so fortunatly now he's just more lovable.

The glue that held some silk flowers to the head of one of my bears did not show any damage, nor did it apparently damage the fur underneath. None of the jointed bears un-jointed, which I would have expected. Wool felt and ultrasuede paws held up well (the wool thinned but didn't break) but leather dissolved into a gooey mess.

Oh, and the miniature bears came through spectacularly because they were small enough to fit in the fancy vacume chamber that was used to remove smoke damage from books.

So if you want to build a bear to last forever it appears that synthetic and ultrasuede miniatures would be the way to go. As a collector, even after the fire, I've never picked out a bear based on his ability to survive catastrophy or the slow catastrophy of the creeping of years. I fall in love with faces, and with clever ideas. So long as the critter can make it home and stand up to some gentle cuddling on the way.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

I've got a faux-fur question -- is it better to line with muslin or felt? I bought some lovely silky faux fur that has more stretch than I thought, so I'm going to have to try lining for the first time. At least I know that the glue is okay . . .

I just wandered in off the "Boredom" thread in "General Discussion" and figured one way to fight off boredom is to try something completely new. So what is the weirdest, zaniest thing you've tried when making a bear? Weird themes, odd color combinations, fabric dyes that should have been thought out more, combinations of materials that seemed a bit crazy . . . and let us know if it worked or not!

(My ulterior motive: I finished sewing a bear made entirely of leopard print ultrasuede and now I'm afraid to stuff and joint him. I'm worried he'll look too weird without any fur . . . I'm hoping I'm not the only one who's had second thoughts half-way through trying something new . . .)

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

Gah! I'm now overcome with the urge to try to reproduce the sphinx as a teddy bear! I might have to leave the nose on though. . . . Getting the right texture would be hard -- too furry and it wouldn't look like a sphinx. Ultrasuede would be too smooth . . . Needle-felting might be closer . . . Or maybe I could make my own felt and try for a brick like texture. Or applicay bricks on the sides. Or make the critter out of muslin and then paint it (sand in paint would make for a nice stone texture) . . .

Sheesh. Bad enough I've spent a month planning out my (unfinished) mermaid bear, this will take ages to work out!

I always do the heads last, I feel too guilty if there's a finished teddy head sitting there wonder where his body is . . .

I go through moods though. Sometimes I really want to be doing the end part of assembling and finished the bear but othertimes I want to be just doing the meditative handsewing . . . it's so relaxing. Other times I want to be working on a new pattern or combination of fabrics.

Right now I'm feeling under the weather so having a bear cut out to sew would be really nice but the only bear I have going at the moment needs the stuffing and jointing treatment. I guess I need to stop lolling about on the couch with the computer and get myself up and crafting! I have tons of ideas . . . that part is *always* fun.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

Puggles are cute, but I'd be worried they'd inherit the breathing problems of a pug with the house-breaking problems of the beagle.

And be careful with any of the poodle crosses, half the time the puppy will inherit the matting of the poodle coat without the non-shedding component. My mother wanted to adopt a golden-doodle but after a bit of research found out that the genetics of the breed aren't really settled yet -- the plan is to get the non-shedding poodle coat on a golden retriever personality but 50% of the time you get the opposite . . . and the times it comes out right are the dogs saved for breeding the next generation!

I think it works out that you need something like seven generations of non-source (as in doodle to doodle) breeding before the genetics really settle out and the most reputable breeders are somewhere around two or three.

Personally, I've fallen in love with the Alasken Husky -- basically a greyhound crossed with a siberian husky. You get a taller, slender wolf with a silkier coat than the siberian. Sigh. I don't think I could keep up with one though, that's the same breed they use for sled racing!

Bored? Not so much. At least, not at home. At work, when I'm stuck in a meeting thinking about how I could be home sewing my latest creation . . . definitely bored. At home I mostly feel guilty about not feeling like doing anything but it's not the same as bored where I can't do anything. I rather enjoy chances to do nothing, actually, even if my "nothing" has to be wrestled away from all the impatient "somethings".

My mother used to say the same thing about boredom being a sign of intelligence . . . actually, the ongoing fight with boredom as a child was probably what led to the bears now. My mother's solution to "I'm bored" was "There's beads, glue, paper, scissors, sparkles, felt -- go make something!" Little did she know . . .

Has anyone got a way to practise embroidering noses without making a lot of spare bear heads? I thought about making snouts (minus the rest of the head) from muslin to practise with so that I wouldn't be going through fur -- just stuffing. I don't know if the texture would be the same as a mohair nose.

Anybody have ideas to share?

Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

Does he also do footpads that way? I've never tried gusset-first heads. I usually sew the chin first, and then sew the gusset on in stages on both sides -- nose to eye, eye to top of head and top of head to neck.

Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears

Bah, if it's only craft and fabric stores that have you obsessed I have no sympathy.  I was at the mall shopping for work clothes and found myself imagining how the suede jackets would look as bear paws. To escape I went downstairs to the makeup section and discovered myself comparing nail polish shades for potential painted-glass-eye colors. The jewlery section was no better, bracelets are about the right size for teddy-bear necklaces. The children's clothing section has nifty, teddy-bear sized shoes. The Godiva chocolate store had lovely teddy-bear-useable ribbons around their boxes. The garden store had lovely furniture that could be nice backdrops for outdoor pictures of teddies. 

So I went home and found myself contemplating disassembling some of the throw pillows on my couch because the fabric would make a lovely teddy bear . . .

-- Erika

Ultrasuede is great, and I probably use it the most often. It's so easy to paint, shade, embroider, or applique that it seems there's no end to interesting ultrasuede effects.

I'm a nut for tracking down unusual fabrics to use for paw-pads though. I had a lot of fun making a bear that had denim paws with metal studs in them (sadly, I don't have a picture of that guy any more). I've used velvet and satin for a classy look. Tapestry fabric makes great paws if you can find a small enough pattern. Right now I'm experimenting with brocade and looking for some raw silk (the nubbly kind). Oh! and sequins. I want to try sequins but I haven't figured out a way to keep them from looking too . . . uh, Las Vegas showgirl. Or maybe I should just do a vegas showgirl bear with a sequined outfit to match the sequined feet.

-- Erika
Fuzzbutt Bears