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Baird'sBears
Hello all,
With fear and trembling, herewith snaps of my Ugly Duckling Bear, made in honor of Hans Christian Andersen's Bicentennial. No formal portrait yet, can't find my daughter's good digital camera, had to use the crummy thing that came with my computer.
Ugly Duckling Bear is made of taupe mink and black rabbit. He has cygnet markings on his face, grey glass taxidermy bird eyes with lids and gold sparkles, wired ears, a cute little upturned ducky/cynet tail, WEBBED FEET with leather pads and glass claws, WINGY arms with leather pads molded to look more or less like feathers, also with glass claws, and open mouth with 2 glass teeth.
His mommy loves him 
, but . . . Please tell me what you think--any suggestions for improvement would be most welcome.
Eileen
LuxembearsEileen! He looks sooooo cute ! But do you have a close up photo so we can see his details? Don't be shy, he is adorable. So glad to finally see a bear from you!!! YAY!!
Posts: 3,177OK EILEEN - i want him pleeeeeeese - he's sooooo cute and sad and sweet and i want to love him and hug him and sqeeze him and kiss him and call him.......George
I think he's wonderful Eileen, take more piccies when you get the good camera i'd love to see more of him
Penny 
Posts: 1,153Eileen...I need my bifocals and then some...:lol:
He looks adorable from faaarrrr away! The mink bears are so popular.
Will you put some larger pics on? Pleeeeezzz?
Weren't we in a discussion on the other site about Tibetan lamb...you wanted some.
I have some I would be happy to share with you if you would like it. You could play around with it.
Let me know.
Nanc........
Past Time BearsHe looks really sweet, Eileen . . . we want more pictures!!
Oh yes! Looks SO sweet... but so far awayyyyy 
Baird'sBears Thanks, lovely ladies--you are tooooo kind. Really.
One reason I sent the snaps instead of waiting for the good camera is that I vowed to stay off the bear forums until I had a picture to post. It was awful. Miserable. So I compromised a bit . . . cheated, maybe, but I couldn't stand it any more.
He IS far away. My little 'toy' computer camera is so bad that I couldn't even doctor the pix with Photoshop. They just fell apart--and it won't focus any closer than 3 feet, and produces awful redeye. By sometime tomorrow I should be able to produce details---the stuff I worked so hard on!!
He is sad, thinking he's a failure as a duck and all, but . . . George?!! I'll have to ask him.
Learning curve was pretty steep, but I've learned a lot making this little dude
Nance, Nance, name your price!! I'd love some Tibetan Lamb!!
Thanks again, everybody. You're the best--
Eileen
I like the name! George is just...perfect!
Penny you have the naming knack! :lol:
and tibetan lamb is so beautiful looking!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … RK:MEWA:IT
Delartful BearsHrm he looks adorable, but like the others 
:mad::mad: More photos... please!
Kiprie BearsHello Eileen!
Your bear is so cute. He is far from UGLY thing,
He is really cute I love the 2nd picture too,
It is far away but I can see his waving hand. Lovely!
Bear Hugs/Marie
Fool's Gold BearsEileen, thanks for the bear pic, even if it is a tease. Your teasing has done what it should.... We Want More!!! I like the cygnet idea...very original. I can just make out the cygnet markings.
I think Penny was quoting a character from a classic novel/movie who always wanted to hug and squeeze soft things, and call them George, but I can't recall the name of it...I'm pretty sure it wasn't tobacco road....please tell us, Penny-Bright.
Wisdom BearsMissed you Eileen, But no wonder ,George looks good from what we can see, MORE PICTURES PLEASE.
Hugs Rita xxx
Baird'sBearsMore pix fast as I can manage it--today, I hope. Lots of my high-school students need help with end-of-term papers and exam prep/practice right now.
George it is . . . and I'd love to see that poem!
Thanks again for your kind comments, lovely ladies! Coming from you, it means a lot!!
Eileen
Posts: 8,574Eileen
I am confused.....where exactly does the UGLY part come in?
I don't see ugly
did I miss a thread somewhere?
Your little guy is really cute.....
not UGLY
Ugly is such an UGLY word- don't you think?
More pictures, are we voting? Well more pictures is my vote too....and don
don't stay away so long....its hard on us....we miss you..
Dilu
Baird'sBearsThanks again, all Still swamped with students to tutor, but I'll get the photos asap.
Very frustrating, but tutoring pays for my supplies! Almost :rolleyes:
Dilu--little George is not Ugly ugly, he's supposed to be The Ugly Duckling (Bear Version) from Hans Christian Andersen's story. He's a little swan chick (cynet) that hatches by mistake into a family of ducks. They call him ugly and awkward and geeky till he runs away. He survives a hard winter. Next spring, he realizes that he's grown into a beautiful swan, joins the other swans, etc
2005 is Andersen's Bicentennial. Denmark is issuing special stamps, fans are going wild, etc. I'm thinking of making more bears based on his stories.
In Central Park, there's a wonderful statue of Andersen reading to the UD at his feet--
Eileen
bears by beesley TMGreat job Eileen!! He is adorable Girl!
Hugs Louise
Posts: 8,574OK now I get it....so I should say
Eileen your ugly little bearling is just too cute.....cuz he really is
I have given my honey a task : to figure out how we can joint a head so that it looks up or down....see I am jelous that you can do this...it is too neat....I do bobble heads now and again, but I would really like to do the head up and down thing.....
Then I could make a little bear saying his prayers before bed....
You are very talanted...
Huggs
Dilu
Fool's Gold BearsDilu,
I took a class from Martha Burch where she introduced us to "ball" joints, made with a large bead, for limbs made in two pieces, and a neck joint made by using a piece of lockline as a backbone that extends up into the head. Two holes are drilled through the narrow part of the lockline joint at 90 degree angles, where the head will join the body. The head and body are both secured to the lockline with thread taken through the drilled holes. The head can then be tilted in any direction. It is a little tricky to completely hide the lockline at the neck joint, but fur with a bit of length to it helps.
Past Time BearsThere is also the swivel/tilt head joint contraption, also, that allows the head to be moved in all directions. Think Edinburgh carries it. It is a little pricey so you probably wouldn't want to use it on every bear!! 
Baird'sBearsI used a double neck joint at first, but it looked so bad that I took it out, and just jointed the head to the body with one disk in each. Problem is, he can now look from side to side, but still gazes up a bit too much. Trying and failing to justify this.
Maybe he's watching the swans in flight? I might try the double-neck again, and try to do better.
Laure, I love the ball joint idea. Do you use wire or lockline in the 2-part limbs? I'm having trouble picturing it. Could the large bead joint be used in the neck somehow?
I'm thinking that if the bear had a lockline spine and loose enough skin around the neck, the head and body wouldn't have to be separate pieces. I haven't tried this, but it should be possible. After all, real bears can't turn their heads all the way around Exorcist-Wise. :D
I have read (somewhere) about a common neck joint for dolls. It's apparently a pair of shallow nesting cardboard 'bowls', one in the head and one in the body. Anybody ever tried this? Or know anything more about it?
Louise! How on earth do I do a sex-change operation on a bear????? :lol:
Eileen
Fool's Gold BearsEileen,
The ball joints that I was taught didn't have any wire or locline in the limbs, therefore they couln't stand, but I have thought it might be possible to use wire if I made a transverse loop at the ball end, so it would rest against the ball. I'm working out in my head how to make disk and ball joints for greater range of motion, so I can make my bear-self that way.
Back Road BearsSomeone needs to tell us where the "I'll hug him and love him and call him George" thing comes from. I don't think I quoted it quite right but I can almost see and hear the character saying this. Was it a Disney movie? Wasn't it a sort of dopey voice? PENNY!!!!! Help!?!
This is driving me crazy.... like trying to figure out where I put my credit card. It's been missing for 4 days and I just KNOW it's in my possession SOMEWHERE! I stand in the middle of the kitchen tapping the side of my head saying "Think, think, think....." just like Pooh but it's not working.:(
Fool's Gold BearsOK Daphne, I've got it! I knew I had seen this film. I was so curious I phoned my former husband for the answer. 
The Movie was "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. The main Character was "Lenny", a large retarded guy who had a series of pets that he hugged and loved and called George, until they accidentally died. Lenny was reluctantly taken care of by a friend named "Slim". I won't tell the really tragic part of the story; you don't want to know. 
Delartful BearsOoh i saw that flick in highschol! I want to see it again now!
I hope you find your Credit Card Daphne!
Posts: 3,177Hiya Daphne
Obviously Laure and i are in different hemispheres here - her in John Steinbeck country me in a BUGS BUNNY cartoon!
The 'I'll love him and hug him and squeeze him and kiss him and call him George' quote is from a Warner Bros. cartoon where Bugs Bunny meets the Abominable Snowman.
This quote was obviously taken from the Steinbeck novel - but being a complete knuckle dragger myself i have never read the book and always remembered the cartoon
Penny :P:P
