Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Beautiful bear!  What a cute face she has.

Here's my newest Halloween creation, Bojangles.  He's 16" tall and made of antique peach mohair which I have distressed and given him a dirty face look.  He wears a halloween ruffle around his neck and comes with a dried gourd which I have hollowed to make a candy dish and painted with a scene, "The old farm at Halloween".

Jane,

My prayers are with you.

Louise you are in my prayers.

Well, here goes.  I have always been involved in some form of art (sewing, drawing, painting etc.) and I have always loved animals.  Those two parts of me came together to create my first bear.  I probably finished my first bear in a couple of days because I am not a patient person.  When I start something I can't wait to get it finished.  My inspiration comes from everything around me but my biggest inspiration is my dad's old Petz bear which I now own.  I love the antique look.  I really am not a teddy bear collector, but all my life I have had a collection of stuffed animals of some kind.  Actually I am surrounded by both stuffed animals and live animals.  I love my "zoo".

What a precious face!

Super, duper cute.  I just want to hug him.

This is my newest bear, Cheri.  She is made of two shades of mink.  She is 10" tall.  I realize that the picture is not the greatest, but I am kind of rushing here.  She will be leaving today and I just finished her last night.  She is being donated to a church ladies group to sell.

You and your family are in my prayers.

I just found that my listing which was to end on Sunday has also been removed for listing it as a charity auction.  I noted that the proceeds were to go to the Red Cross.  I am not sure how to go about listing with giving works.  I would appreciate any help.  I would like to relist.

I also do not own a TV but have been reading articles on line and listening to the radio.  I have talked about the possibility of going south to help.  I have family in Houston so a place to stay there would be available for me.  I know much help will be needed in the many shelters being set up.  I will begin checking into this tomorrow.  I have listed a bear on ebay and will donate all proceeds from the sale to the Red Cross, but I just want to do more.

I'm here in Ohio and, believe it or not, Katrina (now a tropical storm) is set to hit us today.  They are calling for a lot of flooding and high winds.  I am so glad that we live on a hill.  We have been in drought conditions all summer and now we're getting all of our rain at one time.  Crazy weather.

Your boss is right.  If you open the crimped end, you can pour out the shot.  However, the chances are that what you have is lead not steel.   Almost all shot is lead.  The other thing, there is a primer on the other end of that shell.  You will be fine as long as you don't take a hammer or something to that.  If you do, you may find what a "blast" bear making can really be.  My dad used to load shells so I am not a hunter, police or homicidal maniac.  Although I have been called a maniac, but not homocidal.

My daughter and I have both lost weight.  We are having to buy new clothes (fun).  We have simply made some changes that we can live with.  Breakfast is not necessarily an issue unless you tend to get way carried away.  I just continue to eat what I always have for breakfast.  At lunch and dinner we have simply taken note of what we used to eat (portion size) and scaled that down.  We eat very little sweets.  Keeping a couple of the little miniature candy bars around is good.  If we get a craving it is satisfied with one of these.  If you totally deny yourself sweets, you probably will snap and over indulge.  Two other things - lots of water and we eat a lot of apples (and other fresh fruit).  I read about a study where two groups were dieting.  They ate the same with one exception.  One group ate 3 apples a day and they lost quite a bit more weight than the ones who did not.  It is working for us.

I have donated bears for two different tsunami relief auctions this year.  I will also be donating for the Teddys 4 Charity auction in October.  Just last Sunday I sent two bears to Peru.  This came about from a woman who spends 6 months out of the year working there.  She was telling me about a 6 year old girl who is blind.  Two surgeons from Ohio went down to do a surgery in hopes of restoring some of her vision.  The surgery was done on one eye in July and it seems to have been a success.  They will be returning in October and hopefully doing to other eye.  I sent a teddy bear to this little girl.  In the conversation I found out that she has a little sister.  Naturally I had to give a bear to the sister also.  I am anxiously awaiting the pictures of the girls with their bears.

Julia,

Thank you very much.  Dying mohair is really not as scary as it sounds.  I really enjoy it.

Thank you all so much.  I am having a great time playing around with some natural dyes.  I am working on a bear now that I have dyed with elderberries.  I guess that's the kid coming out in me.  We used to pick plants and berries and pretend to be gourmet chefs.  We were more like mad scientists though.

Congratulations Shelli!  I am so happy for you.

Here's Sassy.  She is my newest creation.  I have dyed her with a combination of fabric dye (black) and sassafrass bark (pink).  She will be available on ebay this week.

I followed all of the rules to a tee (when I was being watched or graded).  But when I was on my own, look out!  I did very well in school.  I graduated in the top of the class and was on the National Honor Society.  School was too easy for me.  I sat in class and did what had to be done, but inside I was screaming to be turned loose.   When I did get turned loose, I lived on the wild side.   Directions for me are just a guideline in most cases.  I don't have to follow them exactly.  I can add my own little spin on things if I choose.  My daughter-in-law gets so frustrated when she asks me for a recipe.  She has even watched me make pizza crust to try to get it right.  The problem is I don't measure some ingredients, I just eyeball it.

Well, kids, animals and hot flashes.  What an interesting combination.

When my son married and moved away, he left his dog and a donkey here.  In all fairness I must tell you that I wouldn't let him take the dog.  This dog is very attached to me.  I told his wife that she could have my son but she wasn't getting the dog.  The donkey wouldn't quite fit in the apartment.

My daughter is already telling me that when she leaves she cannot take her cat, dog and 2 horses.  Same situation, they are attached to me.

So my morning routine begins at 5:30 with cats wanting fed and a rabbit wanting to get out and run around the sun room.  From there I move right down the line to dogs, horses, more rabbits, chickens, ducks and turkeys needing breakfast.  After I have fed everything else, I can fix my own breakfast.  Now on top of all of this commotion add a hot flash or two and it can get real ugly around here.

Thank you all so much.

Shelli, oh Shelli, you would have to ask a "technical" question.  The answer is, I really don't know.  I must confess, all of my work is freehand.  I just take a piece of paper and have at it.  I don't even make a version of the bear out of cheap material like I've read about.  I just take what I get.  The best way I can describe the angle is to look at the curve on the bottom of the "t".  That's probably real close.  This probably makes no sense at all.  I'm sorry that I couldn't be more help.

Congratulations Danni!

To answer the question about his color, he is a tan and red.  He is hand dyed with a combination of peach tree bark and a tiny bit of rit dye for the tan, and dandelion plant and a tiny bit of dye for the red.  I really love to play with different dyes and see what I get.  I do enjoy using the natural plant dyes and hope to expand on it later.

Here's the squirrel.  The picture is not the greatest.  He really looked better in person.