Banner Sponsors
For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
I hear you. Hugs your way, Jenny, and thanks for your input. I'm very much enjoying your intelligent conversation, insightful observations, gorgeous photography, and, let's not forget, those beautiful baby bears.
Hope things improve for you, and soon.
Wild Thyme OriginalsI worked for quite some time before finding what was my "mini style." Of course, one tiny little adjustment in a mini can make a huge world of difference in the overall look. A couple of millimeters added to the gusset width here, an eye that is 1/2 a mm larger... reduce the body and limbs but just a a couple of percent and whammo... It's a baby bear!!!! I think that much of my style is found in my proportions... at least that's what many others have told me and it is certainly something that I work on endlessly to perfect. My larger bears just grew out of the minis. Many of them are actually just enlargements of the same patterns that I use for minis... though I do find that I have to reduce my head size a bit for larger bears.... the basic pattern shapes have always been the same though... at least for the past year or so. I just adjust darts here and there, take them out, put them in larger..... I think that each person has an idea of "bearness" in her own mind and then one just strives to approximate that to a certain degree in each bear. I think that's why many times you find that you may have several collectors in common with someone else who's work is similar to your own in some way. I know that many of the collectors who buy my work on a regular basis also have bears from other artists who's work I am extremely drawn to as well. I think it's a shared vision of "bearness."
I know that I am still struggling a bit to find my "bearness" in the larger bears because for me the larger the bear gets the more absolutely foreign it feels to me in my hands! I see just about everything I make or have made as inhabiting a world that is a bit larger than 1/12th scale! Even when I was sculpting dolls, the women were about 6 inches tall and the babes about 2 1/2 inches! It just feels right to me. If I was a believer in past lives I'd have to say that I must have been very very TINY!:/
Beary truly,
Kim basta
Wild Thyme Originals
Why fight it then, Kim?, and work at what's uncomfortable? Your minis are glorious and you have a market niche there; or at least, when I watched your eBay sales, it certainly seemed that you did!
Personally, I sometimes wish I were drawn -- heart, head, and hands -- to making smaller bears... that smaller bears felt more "natural" to me than the bigger ones... because the materials costs are significantly less, as is the space required to store all that "bear stuff." And man, but it takes way less time to handstitch a one inch pawpad than a five inch one, and who wouldn't love that? 
Posts: 8,574QUESTION
Ok, my gollies have their own look. Totally differnet than Janes and Laure's. (For you new folks, Laure will be back [I hope] and makes bears as well as gollies. So I think it just happened. but don't you notices that even though you have a look you still keep fine tuning?
Dilu
Wild Thyme OriginalsWhy fight it then, Kim?, and work at what's uncomfortable? Your minis are glorious and you have a market niche there; or at least, when I watched your eBay sales, it certainly seemed that you did!
And man, but it takes way less time to handstitch a one inch pawpad than a five inch one, and who wouldn't love that?
Dear Shelli,
Why fight it? Well, for me at least, fighting it is what it's all about. I love to push myself to the limits of what I think is possible for myself. Example.... when I learned how to crochet with yarn it was difficult... then became like second nature...when I started with size 10 cotton it was really uncomfortable... then like cake.... now I can use a .5mm hook (about the diameter of a sewing needle) and the finest silk sewing thread imaginable and make a wee little bonnet for a wee little bear.
I'm sure I always make minis and continue to push myself to go even smaller or use even more detail, etc... But the bigger bears do give me an opportunity to use other craft related skills that I've picked up along the way.... I've recently become a bit addicted to needle tatting ( I can only do it BIG so far) and with a bigger bear I can try to incorporate that in, etc...
Besides, I sometimes feel like I am going cross-eyed from working on just minis! (If I knew how to do a cross-eyed smilie... that would go right here!!!!)
Beary truly,
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
I gotcha. In that sense, we're very alike. I enjoy pushing the envelope too. In fact, during my master's training in education, we talked a lot about a then-new concept called "the Zone of Proximal Development", abbreviated ZPD. The idea is that you take a kid and find where he's "at." Then, you aim teaching materials at his Zone of Proximal Development; that margin just less than what he knows, and just more than what he knows. This keeps him safe and allows him to grow in increments.
The alternative is to dumb down teaching... way below the ZPD of a given kid... which the theory suggests leads to a total loss of motivation and interest. In other words, the kid gets bored and is unchallenged.
And the opposite is to present material so beyond the kid's grasp that he feel stupid, resentful, and angry, and simply turns away.
So... I gotcha. Just had to raise the question, though. I see a lot of bearmakers trying to do new or different things when they've already, in my opinion anyway, got something really great going on, and it doesn't always work out well for them to dilute their earned success.
Shelli = Devil's Advocate.
Terries BearsI don't know if my bears have a certain Terrie Bear look or not, but I just make bears that I like. It seems that if I make a bear that I am happy with, there is usually someone else out there that likes him also.
Wild Thyme OriginalsI gotcha. In that sense, we're very alike. I enjoy pushing the envelope too. In fact, during my master's training in education, we talked a lot about a then-new concept called "the Zone of Proximal Development", abbreviated ZPD. Shelli = Devil's Advocate. :D
Okay Shelli.... So have you figured out my Zone of Proximal Development? I'm just kidding.... I was thinking though.... so why is Shelli (someone whom I KNOW to be an envelope pushing, bar raising, bring on the next challenge type of gal) asking me why I am not content to just be satisfied with the degree of success which I have already gained? Now I get it!
That ZPD idea is way cool! I wish that they did more of that with my oldest when he was in elementary. We are in an absolutely amazing school district now, so I am hoping that it will be less of a problem... but before they put him in a self contained gifted class, he actually was so bored that he used to count the syllables as the teacher was speaking.... or pull out a strand of his hair and put it right up next to his ear and sort of run his thumb nail perpendicularly across the width of it and play little songs on his hair violin! YIKES! I have so much admiration and respect for the overwhelming majority of public school teachers- what a difficult, often underpaid challenge that is! I'm sure they don't have the time to determine a ZPD for each kid and then try to somehow teach a class of 20 kids within those diameters individually.....
Back to Bears....
I do absolutely know what you mean though about taking a huge style risk after you have already sort of found a niche. Even if my sales were to take a huge plunge, I just wouldn't be that happy doing the same thing over and over again. There's certainly nothing wrong though with staying in your own niche if you find that niche to be a warm, happy safe place that cheers your soul and brings you satisfaction! I'd LOVE to find THAT niche.
Beary truly,
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
Jellybelly BearsShelli and Kim, thats what I feel...I'm never happy and keep wanting to go further...unfortunately my health limits me and I only make a handful of bears a year so I'm limited in how far I have come, but I'm always learning...isn't it so great to look back and think of how far you've come and how much you know now?
Do you both get the feeling with every bear you make that something needs to be changed with the next bear you make from that pattern? Next time I make that one make this adjustment...and it goes on and on lol.
I love both of your bears, even tho they are different sizes...actually Kim I thought yours were the same size as Shelli's. They say that is a good sign, if your mini bear looks like a normal size bear on photo.
hugs sarah
Wild Thyme OriginalsShelli and Kim, thats what I feel...Do you both get the feeling with every bear you make that something needs to be changed with the next bear I love both of your bears, even tho they are different sizes...actually Kim I thought yours were the same size as Shelli's. They say that is a good sign, if your mini bear looks like a normal size bear on photo.
hugs sarah
Hi Sarah,
I change something every time.... except my arms.... My arms are often very much the same from bear to bear with maybe just a tweak to the size here and there... other than than, something slightly different evolves each and every time. Oh.. and most of the time I use the same footpad shape....
As for the size of my bears... some of mine are full sized (still on the smallish size though 9-14 inches) and others are minis (anywhere from 1 and 1/2 inches to 5 inches).
Beary truly,
Kim Basta
Wild Thyme Originals
Jellybelly Bearshi Kim
lol me too I always keep the thin long arms legs and smallish shoulders, sameish face...but I still manage to think something is not quite right to change and improve lol. I don't reduce or enlarge patterns, just draw up new ones..coz I think that little bears look better with a differnt pose or something... I suppose is silly and more work, but I suppose I just like them being a bit 'different'..I liked what someone here said about being different but in the same family.
I like the differnt sizes like you do too...I can't stick to one size which I hope isn't a downfall...I just love to have a go at them all depending on what I'm feeling like...big or little...lol
your bears are even more intriguing now I know how little they are
hugs sarah
