Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Perhaps you should take a look at some clothing pattern drafting books.  I'm doing a course in that at the moment, and it's fascinating looking at where darts and so on will have an effect, maybe that would help?  If you can find a copy in your local library, Metric Pattern Cutting by Winifred Aldrich might work.

I use a felt template as the base of my noses, mine are sewn barely on the gusset, and mostly on the main head bit.  When I'm sewing I start at the centre and work outwards, and make sure I have no overlapping threads on the layer I'm working on.  It takes practice, and it's fiddly, but it will come 

Wheeeeeeeee

My first bear from my own pattern is my avatar bear, Spike, and he kind of reminded me of a Thistle with the colouring.  My mind then wandered around the idea of a family of Thistles, who would, of course, come from the Thistle Patch.  My mind then shot of somewhere into the stratosphere (it does this a lot) and I decided I would be the Littlest Thistle.  Bet you're sorry you asked now 

I timed myself once on a basic 12" bear and it came out about 20 hours, however if I'm making the bears with the 2 tone fur and plucking the muzzle, you can be talking 2-3 hours for that alone!  I guess 20 hours is a good base, with several hours of finishing after that.  I work full time though, so it's hard to monitor if how I've developed as an artist has made me quicker in any way, since I make them an hour or two at a time.

I can almost hear the miniature pants as he gallops along!

I think from a collectors point of view, in the summer they're usually saving money going away on holiday, so they have less spare cash for 'extras' whereas in the winter they can spend more freely.  Saying that, I'm making my first bear in months for a collector right now, go figure!

Ah, but that's computers, not PCs, they're not one and the same 

According to wiki, it was the Italians who produced the first PC in 1964, so there you go 

I was kind of with Bobbie on this, I thought it was a 'you're not going to get some fabulous needlefelting here if that was what you were expecting'  Maybe the sellers had had problems with complaints before?

Anywho, it's a wonderful medium, if only I weren't allergic to it 

Play a little with leather Kelly?         Wish I could play so well 

Lenora, one of the best characters at Hugglets (IMHO) is Andy from Westie Bears.  He has MS and is in a wheelchair, but he always has an audience in his corner of the basement, he really is a hoot!  Don't let the wheelchair put you off, you might just need to slightly rethink how you set yourself up.

Originally my favourite area was the technique section, which has some excellent advice, but now I just wander by to see friends 

I love seeing the creative diversity amongst our beary folk, keep it coming 

Hmm, I'm not making bears these days other than commissions.  I was finding it totally disheartening to make bears that were time and again passed over at fairs (and if you can explain how at one point 3 different sets of people can be fighting over a bear and yet none of them bought it, I'd be grateful!).  I'd been approached by several shops, but I also have a full time job, so at that point they weren't interested either. 

I suppose when I stopped making them so much, I stopped commenting on the other bears and things, although I do still check the general section daily.  I think with the technique section I got rather irritated with people demanding answers to things who also didn't have the common courtesy to acknowledge or thank people who had contributed - you may not agree with everyone's ideas, but if they take the time to write out an answer for you, the least you can do is thank them for their time.  Sorry, climbing off my manners soapbox now!

Oh my, I think I've tried most things over the years!  I guess photography for the past few years (though I need to update my website), sewing quilts, clothes and bags in the last year, and previously I've done scrapbooking, glass painting, jewellery making, silver smithing, fimo modelling, clay modelling, painting, drawing...  Here's a few things from the past 6 months

So cute, and yet potentially so mischievous 

Congrats Susan 

Such hard work running your humans ragged... 

Heh, I swear that mum's smiling there!

Ahhh, Guinness 

The lesser spotted dalmation...

Aww, look at those wee red noses!

I love these wee guys 

It's good to share