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My Mother
Posts: 85
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I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice.  You are the first!!!

Dale

Eileen Baird'sBears
Toronto
Posts: 3,873

bear_laugh It's hard-wired. Even though my youngest is a ripe old 22, when I hear the call of 'Mom', 'Mommy', or 'Mother', first response is that it's one of mine. Or maybe it's just a bad memory?

Eileen

Laura Lynn Teddy Bear Academy
Nicholasville, KY
Posts: 3,653
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Way to go Judi! (and Shelli!!!)

Danni, for Teddy Talk the size of the avatar must be: "It must not be any bigger than 185 x 270 pixels and 102400 bytes (100 KB)."  Hope that helps!!

Oh Shelli!  Your new ad is absolutely WONDERFUL!!!!

Judi Luxembears
Luxemburg, Wisconsin
Posts: 7,379

Thanks for the tip Dale.  I agree highlights look great on the eyes but not dead center.

Shelli, you are on your way, girl, to bear graphic designs!  hey ALL look super!

Winney Winneybears and Friends
White City, Oregon
Posts: 1,103

Judi...Can you help me...when you pre sculpt the eye sockets where do you take your sculpting threads to anchor them?
Do you stuff the head real hard and is the neck closed ?

Next..how can you tell when the socket is level enough to install the eyes into ?...I do mainly eyes with loops.
After reading Dales photo  tip on" using a bright light to move around in the back ground to " center the eye high lights " ( but never in the center ) that gave me an idea......
maybe this technique can be used to see if the installed eyes are level ?...Winney

Judi Luxembears
Luxemburg, Wisconsin
Posts: 7,379

Hi Winney,

SInce a bears head is roundish the eyes need to lay flat to look dead forward.  I tend to do more socket scuplting at the inner coner of the eye area to create a flatter plain.  I anchor my threads in three places.

First:
I sew the eye sockets from under the chin to the inner corner of the eyes.  Not only does this bring in the corne of the eye but it lifts the chin for a pouty baby lower jaw.  I really like this look alot.

Second:
Then I go from one eye corner to the other eye corner bringing the eyes in together.

Third and lastly:
I sew from the inner corner to the lower back of head.  I like my heads firmly stuffed.  What I don't like is the dent it can leave in the back of the head.  But like SHelly had said earlier that they can often be hidden by the mohair.

By spreading around the areas that have tension, chin, inner corner of eyes, and lower back of head, it helps to even things out so that no obvious pressure in any one spot.  It still may show in the lower back of the head.

AS far as opened or closed neck......I have done it both ways depending on the design.  If I do it before closing the neck...then it makes it difficult to get the neck disc in just right.  If I close the neck first then it does not allow me to push around the stuffing if needed.  Does that make sense.  I do it on a bear by bear approach.

You really have to get those inner eye corners pulled in to get a nice gaze.  This is what I do , anyway.

I hope this helps.:)

Eileen Baird'sBears
Toronto
Posts: 3,873

bear_laugh Thanks, Judi!

You've probably saved a lot of bears from a lot of stabbing headaches!

Eileen

Winney Winneybears and Friends
White City, Oregon
Posts: 1,103

Yes... " THANKS A LOT  "  Judi !!!

I know.... bear by bear is what happens when you create  different designs. It seems like when ever I add yet another new element in making my bears I must think it thru...as it may be best to complete or even half complete some steps in a certain order.
Even so...if I dont  think it thru well enough  then I  learn by making the mistake....
I found thats true about the neck .... because sometimes I need to re -open the neck because of something I did that caused the stuffing to shift....or I need to add stuffing.

I think the best thing is to do first is to  stuff that head really firm so it will stand up to all the things I will be doing to it later...I just can't have it cave in on me or go squish one way or squash  the tuther way ...LOL.  Boy...those eyes were really looking kind of geeky....and this is my Charity bear...so thank you mucho  Judi...Winney

Judi Luxembears
Luxemburg, Wisconsin
Posts: 7,379

Oh goodie Winney...can't wait to see your charity bear.  Glad I could help a bit.  Like yousaid, so much of creating is learning along the way.  It's nice to share our experiences so we can combine them and see what we come up with.

Eileen.  I jsut can't get over your avatar bear.  He is soooooo adorbale.  What is he made of?  Are you selling him?...hint hint

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