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For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
When I first started making bears I lived in my small home town. I wanted to buy a baby name book and I worried if I bought it at the local bookshop all sorts of stories would start, so I went to the city and bought one.
Someone I read about, maybe Jennifer Laing, suggested that say you call your pattern Bob - then all bears made from that pattern should have B names etc.
I haven't kept a register of what I've called my bears and I have probably doubled up in the past...now I do keep a list of every bear I make so that problem is less likely to happen.
At the moment all my bears seemed to be named after food...pumpkin pie, raspbeary muffin, plum puddin' and now ginger kisses....what does that say about me!!! I must be obsessing over desserts :D
oh - a good tip for polar bears - look at a melamute or husky dog site - they have great inuit names on there.
Vanilla Cherry Dr Pepper?????
We don't even have cherry coke here - they try to introduce it every few years but it doesn't ever do well...I think we have lime coke but that's only diet and I can't have the artificial sweetener so I've never tried it, and we do have vanilla coke and raspberry coke but not vanilla cherry!!
But just be careful, because if you think bearmaking is addictive, buying mohair is even WORSE! I bet all of the girls here can vouch for that!
Oh yes, I wholeheartedly agree....and then you get the accessories addiction - buying charms, and trims, and toys and ribbons for your bears! I have a suitcase full of ribbon and lace and how often do I put a ribbon on my bears - about twice a year!!!
I'm just having a cleanout of all my supplies and selling the excess on our local equivalent to ebay...so that I can fund a nice purchase from Intercal!
When I was little, I used to read lots of American books and things like pop, soda, kool-aid etc used to sound so much more exciting than the names we called things.
We call carbonated drinks "fizzy drinks" (keepin it simple now!!) or by their brand names I guess. Definitely not soda or pop. Like the aussies, we tend to call fizzy drinks with ice-cream in "spiders".
We only got Doctor Pepper here in the last couple of years Sue Ann. Just like root bear - I tried it once and the magic was gone!
First of all I have to give a big :clap: to intercal for their wonderful photos - they help so much when you are trying to choose fabric.
My tip is: Go to the photo gallery and find some pictures of bears that are similar size to what you want to make (and that you like!!) and then look at the furs that they have been made in. it gives you a good indication of the finished effect. Sometimes I have been surprised as from the descriptions, some mohairs sound completely wrong for my bears but then I see the cutest photos.
Of course, half the time I get distracted by gorgeous big bears like Sue Ann's and start dreaming about all those luscious thick mohairs that they use, but big bears and I so don't go together and I drag my sorry self back to the less exciting small bear fabrics!
Have fun choosing - I remember when I got my first batch of swatches (from Gerry's ) there were about 300 of them and they came in a big bag - I sat on the floor for 5 hours playing with them - sorting them into different groups and dreaming of all the bears I would make!
Thank Goodness for the Kiwis we have here at TT who do understand both!
one of the advantages of living in a little isolated country at the bottom of the world is that A LOT of our television etc is imported from overseas so we get the best of both worlds (and of course our great neighbours Australia). In the past, most of our influence came from Britain and the rest of the UK, however these days more and more Americanisms are creeping in.
However, if I talked aloud to YOU you wouldn't be able to understand me probably - we have a strange little accent here. (just ask Hayley!)
aah bless these Americans! I'm a Kiwi so I understand both! 
A float is the money that you use as change.
I price my bears so that I have to have the least change possible. It doesn't help that I do my major show in another country and have to get foreign curency before I leae!! I usually price most of my bears ending in a 0 (eg $80, 90) and make sure that I have lots of 10 and 20 notes - maybe about 6 x 10 and 4 x 20. I do have some bears ending in a 5 so have lots of $5). I was lucky in Melbourne in that there was visa facility for us ll to use as I don't have it personally.
Work out your prices, and then think about what kind of notes people most usually carry - here it's $20 because that's what the ATMs give you, and then kind of figure your way from there.
If you have little bits and pieces for sale, make sure you have plenty of coins - I always have lots of $1 and $2 coins and (about $20 of each) and maybe $10 of 20c and 50c.
Good luck with the show!!!
the only annoying this is now that I know how small he is, I've psyched myself out of making another one but I have to make one to accompany my next auction bear so this weekend think of my poor fingers as the quilting needle pokes big holes in it!
I haven't tried Jennifer's method but I know that it is detailed in her green book (teddy bear art??) I want to try it but can't face putting leather on a 3 inch bear! I know that Carrie Attwood used to do them and hers were amazing.
thanks everyone...still figuring it out - but yay it's the weekend and I can play
.I heard that you have no snkaes and no spiders in NZ
No snakes - yipee - Alexis and I went to see the snake bit at the zoo - she didn't like it - I found it fascinating but glad there was glass between us!
but we do have spiders - about 2500 species of them!! including some nasties from Australia too. The biggest hairiest spider I saw was a water spider and it was actually kind of cute. Now I don't ever want to see one of your huntsmen spiders on a trip to Aus
ahem excuse the bad photos - just got my camera and been playing around even though it's night time and I shouldn't be taking photos!!
Here's the mini bunny I made from the Sassy Bears long pile fabric. He measures in at 1.5 inches (not including earsies) and will never leave my possession as he is actually a disabled bunny - his left leg is detachable! He is fully cotter pin jointed except one of the cotter pins collapsed and his leg came off!! i haven't been brave enough yet to fully trim his face but I will get there!
not Bullwinkle - a moose called morris who had a bear friend called Morris - there are several books about Morris and Boris but the funniest one (and the only one worth having) is Morris has a cold. I had it memorised as a kid. Morris is a particularly dim-witted Moose and Boris has to explain everything to him.
I'm very excited - 2 weeks ago I got my new laptop (yay!) and today I got a digital camera (yay again!) both are very basic but it does mean that my backlog of bears might finally make their appearance on ebay and on my website. SIGH so frustrated that it's dark and I can't photograph my bears - maybe tomorrow.
Even better, I finished a bear from a long pile faux fur yesterday and he came up a LOT better than I expected - I was very nervous about trimming his 'chops' but he came up well after 3 hours of the tiniest snips possible! I just have to make his accessories and then he'll be ready to make his debut.
Hi Heather
You are lucky!! I do believe it about deer though - here we have a lot of deer farming and I grew up in a farming family and learnt to be wary of ANY animal - especially male ones.
We have a lot of introduced animals - including rabbits which pretty much destroyed New Zealand at one point. There are a lot of wild thar and deer and things and at one stage there were moose here but they are long gone...my favourite picture book character ever was a moose and I have a little collection of soft toy ones (including a divine chocolate moose who smells like hot chocolate!).
enjoy your animals!!\
Melissa
What are "giant wetas"?
while we don't have any native cute furry animals we do have lots of native insects and birds. Weta are big insects kind of like a cross between a grasshopper and a cockroach. They are as old as the dinosaurs - something like 190 million years and are pretty much the scariest thing we have (we don't have snakes!!) though they are completely harmless. Giant weta are the second biggest insect in the world and can weigh over 70g which is bigger than a sparrow -thankfully they pretty much only live on outlying islands and we only have the regular kind on the mainland which are much less gruesome and not really seen in the city. I'm not going to post a picture because I know insects gross people out but if you want to see some pictures of our native wildlife check out this site http://www.kiwi-wildlife.co.nz/gallery.php
therwise known as Mutton Birds (they used to pickle them in the old days and apparently they taste a bit like mutton (lamb))
I'm guessing they're something the same as our mutton birds which live (I think) only on Stewart Islands and the Chathams and which they STILL eat. I'm pretty sure that only Maori are allowed to harvest them but I did see some in the supermarket a few weeks ago - I was shocked!!
I can't believe you guys fray check your entire pattern edges! It must cost you ten thousand dollars a year in fray check!
Don't forget my pieces are a fraction of the size of yours - I maybe sew 50 or 60 bears a year and a bottle lasts me about that.
Ahem...did completely forget that when I made big bears I NEVER fray checked unless absolutely necessary. With little bears my seams are so much closer to the edge (about 2mm) I only fray check mohair, rayon and alpaca - never the uv which doesn't need it.
Man. I am living on the wrong side of the world. What a glorious, unimaginable sight that must be. I wonder if people who live around that all their lives take advantage of it, not realizing how terrifically cool it is to have wild parrots in the trees.
I wonder what I take advantage of, that someone in Australia (or anywhere, for that matter) would chew their left arm off, to see.... ?
Australia is fantastic (yes a Kiwi is saying that!!!) but don't underestimate the States - after all you have BEARS which I really would chew my arm of to see along with chipmunks, squirrels, eagles, raccoons. Come on, you have all those cute furry things - we don't even have hamsters here. 
Oh and one day I really really want to see a moose! (are they in the states or only canada??)
Here in NZ we tend to specialise in flightless birds like kiwi, weka and kakapo. The kakapo is the world's largest parrot - and is very endangered- at one point there were less than 50 left. They are really cute. Our only native mammal is the bat and they are really rare so most new zealander's have never seen them....and I'm sure not many people are envious of giant wetas and the like.
I used to always use the glue/water method - pva glue (not sure what the us name for it is but it's the opaque white glue that dries clear and peels of your skin if you get any stuck on it) I used to mix it half & half and store it in an empty film cannister. It works well but now I only use it on my cotton fabrics. It can leave a toughish edge but it won't be sticky so you can sewing machine it
but I now use "Aleene's stop fraying". This is the most perfect fray stop that I have found - it doesn't have that horrible toxic smell that the other brands do. It has a slightly pearlescent blue tinge to it when you put it on and it did take some adjusting to use it as it is quite goopy but you soon get the idea of how much to squeeze out. You need to blot it in with a paper towel. I have never had a problem of it making pen bleed but I do use a gel pen. It does stay slightly tacky so it's not good for a sewing machine. However, the needle moves through it so easily when hand sewing and the slight tackiness of it helps your pieces stay together when you are sewing (I don't use pins). I have used it on pale sparse fabrics and while you can see it on the back of the fabric when you put it on, I've never had a problem with it showing on my finished bear.
that's my 2 cents worth - oh I obviously fray stop before I cut out but if I have a particularly loose weave fabric I will fray stop the edge of the cut out bits where my openings are.
Hi guys
Berta's id is threadteds - here's a link to her ebay auctions. I'm pretty sure she also has fabric on her web page too - second link below
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrp … threadteds
Emily Farmer's Ebay Store is here - the name is Emily Farmer's mini teddy bears
http://stores.ebay.com/Emily-Farmers-Mi … viewQQtZkm
As everyone else said - he is gorgeous he looks so huggable. I love his little toesies 
I sew my limbs all the way around. I make a little vertical slit, at the top of the limb where the joint would go, having fray checked this before. I turn through here, stuff, put my joint in, then ladder stich up. The joint hides the stitching against the body and you have a lovely smooth shaped limb.
Me too!! and everyone thinks I'm crazy but it is so much easier. You can use this method on fairly titchy bears - I used it on my rabbit which was 1.5 inches. I use a really fine sinew to close up the seams as I find it places less stress on the fabric than thread does.
Thanks Shelli... I have been talking about doing this for a while now but the cost of entrance once you convert it back to NZ$ has always put me off - that and fears that my bears aren't good enough!!! However our dollar has improved a lot and I have a project in mind (which I was meant to start this weekend - HA!).
My friend Alexis entered the TOBY's this year and was nominated in the mini section. It's so exciting but boy does it take a long time to find out!! Is it next month that they are announced? If she gets nominated again we are seriously thinking about saving hard (really hard) and coming to the States next year or the year after for the big show...as it is it's going to be a nervous few days after the show this year before she finds out the results.
better go start planning that bear!!!
btw...congratulations to you and Sue Ann - your bears have both done so well and are so stunning so the awards are richly deserved!!
