Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I buy most of my supplies from Bearycheap. All fabrics are cut in FQ (50 x 70 cm) but if you want to buy a larger piece, you just write "2" instead of "1" piece in the "buy"-box and you get 1 large piece.

Their service is absolutely fantastic! I have had so much help from them. They respond to email inquiries very fast with fabric suggestions (when I have asked for help to find a specific type of fabric) etc. - and I always receive my VERY large envelopes within a week (usually 5 days from Australia to Denmark!) and they always charge me the lowest shipping charge for just 1 envelope even when they send 2 or 3 envelopes. I usually ask the companies to send the order in envelopes rather than parcels due to Danish customs. If you receive goods in parcels from a country outside the EU, Danish custom duties are usually the same as the total order!...so to avoid that I have it shipped in envelopes when possible.

I haven't tried more than a couple of their synthetics - and a couple of them turned out to have looooot of stretch but their mohair is great.   

I just ordered sample cards too from Loubear  I can't wait to see it - especially how much it differs from the German mohair I normally use for my bears.

I also placed an order with BC today for 4 large pieces of mohair and other supplies - and I just had a look at my HUGE stash of mohair.... I just realized that I am now officially a goat's-hair-collector and that I collect more than I sew - or as my husband says: "There is more input than output" 

Great links everyone - thanks 

He is wonderful, you Hamish (great name for him  ) I'm sure your friend in Germany will love him 

Here he is full size (or lack of size    )

This is Nuser - my daughter named him  He is 15 cm and made from a beautiful very light pink mohair with gold tips. He is also my first attempt on shading.

Hope you like him 

Welcome to TT 

I machine sew as much as possible - on larger bears, I machine sew the foot pads, head etc. but on smaller bears I sometimes sew the most tricky parts by hand. I have a wonderful sewing machine and it works like a dream...so why waste time hand stitching when I can use the machine and it looks so much nicer. My hand stitching is not pretty! My 9 year old daughter's hand stitching looks much better than mine   

I have been wondering about the machine/hand sewing too.....When I was at my first bear workshop (here in DK) most of the experienced bear makers told me, that you NEVER machine stitch a bear! Apparantly, they considered machine stitching "cheating"....I found that odd! Why make things more complicated and time consuming.

How awful  Poor little dog.
I signed the petition too....he deserves to be locked up for a very long time (and hopefully someone will throw away the key to his cell!  )

I can't add much that hasn't already been said....except to say that TT to me - being a newbie to bear making and living in DK which is NOT "teddy bear country" - has been invaluable! I fount TT some time ago and read the posts daily and learned a lot from all of you before I joined. If it hadn't been for places like TT, I would have given up bear making a long time ago! I can't get the information I need anywhere else and we don't have lots of fairs, workshops etc. here so TT is the place where I find lots of inspiration, information on new techniques...and lots of laughs! 

There are so many extremely skilled bear artists in here who are not afraid to share their knowledge with the rest of us - and THAT is worth a lot to me! Besides, I never feel as if I'm in the wrong place being a newbie...at TT there is always room for stupid questions  and kind words to us that may not make perfect bears but just need encouragement and help to improve.

Its the first place I go to in the morning when I turn on my computer (from work...shame on me!!  :redface:  ) and its the last place I go to before I turn off the computer in the evening at home.

I wouldn't worry too much about what other people say - especially not the ones that are not here anyway. Maybe this teacher is just afraid of un-employment and competition?   

P.S. TT is also the only place where I can practice my English - now that I got employed with a company that has NOOOO English customers at all!  :crackup:

:hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug: to all of you! 

Judi, it sounds as if you are going on a wonderful trip - I keep my fingers crossed that your passports will get there in time 

Its way past Midnight here now - and I'm surprisingly not feeling sleepy. I have been sewing all evening on my online class bear (E-bearz class), Sunny. Its my first attempt at both open mouth and needle felting. I have been workning on his lower jaw all evening...and I already love his little face  so I can't wait to get started on the needle felting part.

:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup: Love that one - and I know the situation sooooo well!!  :dance:  :crackup:

Hi Sue,

I spent looots of time looking at the instructions too trying to imagine how to do it - but it is so much easier if you just get on with it and follow the instructions as you go.

Good luck with your "raisins"   

WOW! You really have been busy!  :clap:

All the bears are just wonderful - my favourite is the one with the very big feet...I have a "thing" for bears with gigant feet!    Great work, thanks for posting the photos 

(...and Happy Birthday!  :bday:  :cake:  :hug:)

You do know that you can download Nioka-patterns from her website as PDF-documents?

I know she is working on a few new patterns....so keep an eye on her website over the next couple of days  The patterns are great, especially when you are new to bear making.

....I just wish I had a Gerry's here.....  But if I did, it would probably only take a week before I was broke! 

  Thank you, all of you for your kind words  :hug:

Jodi, her name is Catharina. She is 9 years old and she always loved bears. She never played with dolls but always with bears only - I did too when I was a little girl so I guess its genetic! 

Both Catharina and I love Winnie the Pooh. I love the sweetness, innoncence and wisdom of that little bear. Thanks for the quote  :hug:

BTW, Catharina is about to start sewing her own first bear! I bought a very easy pattern especially made for children from the age of 8 - I can recommend that if any of you have smaller children who want to sew their own teddy bear. Her no. 2 bear will be a Japanese Anime Bear from Jennylovesbenny. She saw one on Jenny's website and loved it and wanted to give it a try. She is very creative so I'm sure she will become a great bear maker and maybe later on a great bear artist (no wonder I'm a proud Mom, huh?    )

Thanks 

Sue, did you buy the pulled toe info document from Nioka Bears? I did and I can recommend it when you want to try out pulled toes. Its so easy to follow the directions and Christine from Nioka Bears added lots of pictorial info too. I re-stitched Grisby's footpaws twice but as I usually say: Practice makes perfect  (there is still a Looooong way to perfect for me though)

Grisby still needs shading .... for me shading a bear is something that I'm afraid to do. I would hate to ruin the bear and give him 2 black eyes but I guess I just have to do it...practice practice practice  I have been practicing on scraps of fabric though so I guess I just have to give it a try on a finished bear.

This is Grisby/Bigfoot or whatever his name is - not sure yet 

I'm still a newbie to bearmaking (I think he is my 7th or 8th bear) and I tried out new techniques on this one (needle sculpting, raisin-looking pulled toes  :crackup:) ...he was fun making and he is the largest bear I have made sofar (41 cm). As usual, I made him for my daughter 

The pattern is from Nioka Bears.

Thanks, all of you  :hug:

Saturday was a big day for Catharina and the bear, Sunglow, has been with her since then. Today Sunglow said hi to Catharina's school class 

Karen, the computer is in the photo becase Catharina was looking at Sunglow on Brimbin's website just 2 minutes earlier. She didn't know then that I had bought the bear for her (and myself) and she was a bit sad that it was sold because she wanted to spend her pocket money buying it - so I didn't have the heart to wait until our Summer holiday to give it to her (which was the original plan....  )

Our first artist/collector bear arrived on Saturday....and I took pics of my daughter when she opened the parcel sent all the way from Australia  The pictures say it all ...  My daughter started crying and said it was the best gift ever - no doubt this bear will have a very loving home in the future 

Thank you, Lyn (Brimbin Forest Bears) for making such a beautiful bear, she is absolutely gorgeous and we just love our little Sunglow 

One of the buys I ever made when it comes to bear making is Nancy Tillberg's book "101 bears to make". There is a chapter in the book - fully illustrated - on how to do open mouth. It is not as complicated as it seems (I think...I haven't tried yet    ) - at least that is what I have heard from others. I know amazon.com has the book.

Alternatively, you can sign up for an online class with Nancy Tillberg. I just signed up for an online class, making a bear called Sunny and he has an open mouth. The illustrated instructions that comes with the class are just great and you should be able to make an open mouth bear following these instructions. Take a look at this site - http://www.kranbearys.com/EbearZ/index.htm - there are lots of great classes. 

Good luck with your open mouth bear - remember to post pics of the finished bear 

Simon is SO cute  (the bear I mean...I wouldn't know about your husband!    ) The eyes are just wonderful. 

My eyes arrived after 2 days!! So this is definately not the only time I have ordered from glasseyes.com. The eyes are so fantastic and the most beautiful eyes I have seen yet (except for my daughter's eyes of course...  ) - I can't wait to try them on a bear but I still need to finish the body before I finish the head.

Hi 

I'm stille a newbie to bear making but I can answer a few of your questions (leaving the other questions to others who know all about bear making    )

I have tried using clear thread on my sewing machine (not for bears though). I think you are right about it being to stretchy if its standard clear quilting thread - and it will snap! I gave up using it on my sewing machine (for quilting). I'm sure you can find good strong thread that will match the backing of your fabric as there are lots of colours to choose from.

Christie Bears in the UK has clear glass eyes:

http://www.christiebears.co.uk/acatalog … Pairs.html

You can find threads and cream/white/sand ultrasuede there as well.

There is another UK supplier here:

http://shop.bearbasics.co.uk/

Good luck with your bear making - we would love to see pics   

I did Google before I asked, I promise!  :crackup:  :crackup: Bobbie, I guess you are just a better "Googler" than I am  

Thanks for your help - I'll se if I can persuade Beacon to ship to Denmark 

Thanks, Aleta  :hug: I'll see if I can find Fabri-Tac instead 

I signed up for an online class with Kran Beary, starting on 7th June and for that I need to buy Magnatac. We don't have Magnatac in Denmark (we probably have something similar but I don't know exactly what to buy) - does anyone know where I can buy Magnatac online? I have Nancy Tillberg's book "101 bears to make" and in the book she recommends Magnatac and Edinburgh as the supplier but I can't find it on their website. I usually buy my supplies from Beary Cheap but they don't have glue at all. 

I sent my friend from Seattle out today shopping for me to find Magnatac and Fraycheck - she found Fraycheck but couldn't find Magnatac.

One last question......I've been reading posts here on the use of glue on mohair and it seems that many of you advise against using glue on fabric - if I can't find Magnatac anywhere, do you know of any other glue that I can use (for glueing nose thread to templates when sewing the nose)? I'm afraid to use the ordinary fabric glue that I have. I would really hate to ruin a bear just because I used the wrong glue. 

Kim, I'm glad to hear it didn't take longer    Hopefully, my order will arrive within next week. I'm so looking forward to trying them out - I've only tried black German glass eyes earlier and these eyes really must make a huge difference to a bear's face 

Any chance of seing photos of the teddy you made using these eyes?......