BigFeetBears

Pongo

2012-03-20T12:47:00.000Z

Here he is - my new bear cub, Pongo. Wasn't 'Pongo' the name of the dalmation in 101 Dalmations? There's no connection; it just seemed like a gentle, playful name to suit the expression of this bear.

The wire beneath him is the child-proof, cat-proof cover over our garden pond. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have used it as a background - he looks like he's in a zoo.

Anyway, I love his character, but the whole structural thing, with wire, was only partially successful, I'd say. He was pretty sturdy until I put the fabric legs on and began stuffing them, and then the feet started misbehaving. He stands perfects well, and when you press down on him, with a hand on his back, he is very solid. Standing alone though, his feet are not quite flush with the floor. A little steel shot would probably do him wonders.

The fur is not actually mohair - it's faux fur. It is very very tactile, but incredibly thick. You have no chance of seeing the backing fabric from the outside, so it's very difficult to see what you're doing when your're sewing. However, the seams are probably less obvious than when I use mohair.

Anyway, I would like to make another, but with some steel shot in the feet. I would also like to do something different with the legs - maybe a bear in 'walking' mode?

New pics (no new bear though)

2012-03-16T18:50:00.000Z

I brought Humphrey, one of my pandas, home from the Art & Craft Centre because I decided that his eyes were too small. In general, I like my bears to have small eyes (mean piggy eyes!) because I think it's more realistic, and for some reason I object to the idea that people might like a bear just because he has big, hang-dog eyes. With the pandas though, the eyes are black-on-black and with Humphrey, it almost looked as if he has no eyes at all.

So I changed the eyes and - with my new (and temporary) photo space - rephotographed him!

It is still difficult to see his eyes from some angles (from the back, for instance!) but they are more visible now. I want to change the pictures on the website but I'm not being allowed into the Admin Area again! So, I've put him on Ebay - click here for the link.

New bear is still in progress (slow progress).

Unique Selling Point

2012-03-11T11:02:00.005Z

Two posts in one day! (But am I spoiling you or imposing on you?)

Bear-making involves a lot of sitting around sewing - being busy with your hands but not with your mind - and I've been determined recently to try and occupy that time better. I was thinking I ought to be listening to something useful whilst I'm sewing. I started out with small business marketing podcasts, but went onto reading about marketing (which sort of defies the point of the exercise, since I can't read and sew at the same time!).

Anyway, I always thought marketing videos and articles tended to be 99% hot air,with just a few nuggets of useful information which - although it's probably useful to have them pointed out to you - are not worth the ten minutes it takes you to read the article or watch the video. When I first started out, I remember watching a lot of selling videos on Youtube - the gist of which seemed to be, stand with your shoulders back; make eye contact; believe in yourself! Important stuff, I'm sure, but easily summarised in a few seconds.

There is another side to it though (maybe). If you draw an analogy with a hot air balloon, maybe you need a lot of hot air to run a small business!

The stuff I've been reading about recently, while struggling with my new prototype (see last post), has brought up a lot of questions which are probably really basic and fundamental to running a business, but which I've always been a bit woolly about. Things like: who is your target audience? Who is your competition? What is your unique selling point?

My target audience is... anyone who likes my bears. My competition is... anyone else who makes bears. My unique selling point is... uh...

I'm not entirely sure what a unique selling point (USP) is. Sure, it's something good which differentiates you from your competitors, but more specifically? Some people state that their USP is good customer service, fast dispatch times, stuff like that - but is that really unique? Isn't that just good practice - something everyone should aim for?

Other people offer customisation of the product. I can see that makes the product unique to the customer, but surely anyone who makes something by hand can somehow work the customer's name into it somewhere - so it's hardly a USP.

Another way in which the USP has been described is as something which allows a customer to instantly recognise a product as being yours - which makes it sound like it could be a ladybird embroidered on the foot, or something. Again, that isn't really how I understand the term.

One conclusion I did come to, reading all this stuff, was that in my case, I should probably focus on a different USP for each of the different forums I use for selling the bears. At the Art & Craft Centre, for example, despite it's name, hand-made items are in the minority. There are lots of manufactured items (indeed, I sell manufactured bears alongside the bears I make), and quite a few people there don't make anything themselves. The fact that BigFeetBears are hand-made locally therefore, might constitute a USP in that particular forum. Selling my bears on Etsy, on the other hand, where there are so many hand-made items, the 'hand-made' thing can hardly be described as unique.

On the other hand, even at the Art & Craft Centre, I'm not sure 'hand-made' is enough of a USP. It is an Art & Craft Centre after all: new visitors might reasonably expect the items sold there to be hand-made - as a bare minimum. Although it's not that way in practice, I could use a similar argument to that used with Etsy: if people expect to find hand-made items there, why should the fact that my bears are hand-made be in any way special or unique?

So what else? It's got to be something that appeals to my customers specifically, and which my competition does not have - which brings me back to the question of who, specifically, are BigFeetBears' customers and who is it's competition?

This might sound like a course of questioning which isn't going anywhere, but I did actually have a bit of a lightbulb moment. First of all, at the Art & Craft Centre, at least one way of defining my customers would be that they are those people who come through the door looking to buy a gift. My 'competition' therefore, must surely be all the other people who sell there - even though they sell completely different stuff. The question is, how to persuade people to buy a teddy bear rather than, e.g. a piece of jewellery or a scarf.

The best comments I've had about my bears - from people who buy them, and people who just come up to tell me this - is that they all have different expressions. Customers seem to 'click' with bears; even where I have several of the same design, a buyer will 'take to' one of them over and above the rest. At the Clare Priory craft fair last year, for example, I had five of my little vintage-style bears - all of the same design, although they came out with small differences - like their heads tilting in slightly different ways. It was really striking how people would come up repeatedly just to look at one particular bear - even though there were five of the same design.

My theory is, therefore, that people buy bears as gifts because they have character - because the customer recognises a little bit of personality in them which you don't find when you're buying, e.g. a scarf. That's no insult to scarves, mind - I guess if you're a scarf seller, you might choose to emphasise the functional and/or fashionable element of the product, which doesn't apply to teddy bears at all. But the point is that you attempt to get the customer to think along lines which best suit your product.

So, the customer comes in looking for a gift and sees a scarf they like - "Hmmm, that would be useful in this weather, and it's a quite unusual design - so-and-so might like that." Then they see a teddy bear with an intelligent expression. If they're still thinking along functional/fashionable lines, they might pass him by. If on the other hand, the teddy bear seller can persuade the customer to think differently - to think of the gift they are giving as something which should express a particular sentiment, rather than just being useful - then the customer might stop and pick up the bear.

And of course the customer might leave the Centre, completely confused after thinking in so many different ways, having bought nothing. We do often get people coming up to the cash desk - "it's like an Aladdin's Cave in here - I could buy everything!" Then they buy a card.

Anyway, after all that hot air, I do have a few useful conclusions - albeit only minor ones (maybe I ought to go into marketing myself):

When you define your 'competitors', you might look - not just at people selling similar things to yourself - but also at people selling within the same website, building or shopping centre.
The USP of your product might differ according to where you're selling it. So, for example, if you have a high street shop, the USP might be that your product is hand-made, whereas if you're selling on Etsy or Folksy, you would need to emphasise some other aspect of its appeal.
Whilst the USP is often defined as a benefit which you offer and your competitors do not, in the area of non-functional gifts you might need to throw out the idea of 'benefit'. Instead, think about the appeal of your items and how it differs from the appeal of your competitors' products. You don't necessarily need to suggest that your products are better than those of your competitors - but you do need to get your customers to think along lines favourable to your own products.

And, as a final conclusion, the unique selling point of BigFeetBears is that, if you're looking for a gift, these are gifts with character and personality. A gift does not need to be functional. It's often said of gifts that 'it's the thought that counts' and a teddy bear could express that thought perfectly!

New prototype bear

2012-03-11T09:29:00.002Z

We've had double glazing put in recently, and to allow them the space to work, I had to move all furniture away from the window. In doing so, I've uncovered a corner of the room which is perfect for photographs! There are usually no clear empty corners to our house: everything is stacked up - in a nice, busy, well-used way, certainly - but then whilst our junk looks good to me, it probably doesn't to everyone else. So I often find it difficult to get good photographs, with no junk in the background. I usually end up going outside, which is freezing in the winter and often too bright in the summer.

The trouble with my new-found photo space though is that it is in the corner where the bed usually sits (lies?). And the bed doesn't move easily - one end of it falls apart when you try to shift it. And the only alternative space for the bed is in the middle of the room - right in front of the desk where the sewing machine is.... which makes working a little difficult!

It's not the bears I'm worried about so much as the vintage lingerie. I have been thinking that I might open an Etsy shop for the vintage, but my current photos are not suitable, so I need to take some more. There are only, ooooh, about 500 pieces to photograph.

Anyway, this is my latest prototype bear...

A little rough round the edges, certainly, but the mohair version will be more pristine.

I am not entirely certain about this one. He has a wire armature and I'm not sure how stable he is. I have some tougher wire to use on the proper version, but I'm still dubious. It seems to me that if somebody landed on him from a great height, he would be completely flattened!

I'm not 100% sure about the stance either. I don't know whether it's the bandy legs, or the way his bottom is lower than his shoulders... I do like him though, despite this. He looks like a cub to me, rather than a full-grown bear. I am going to go on and make him in mohair though (or try to!). I'm sure I will develop the pattern in other ways later.

4 little dressed bears!

2012-03-03T18:06:00.000Z

The dungarees are finished for my little red bears! I will spare you the twenty photographs I have of them (although, if you wish to, you will soon be able to see them on the website), and just post a few to show off all my mother's hard work.

I went to work today with four dressed red bears, four rabbits and nine teddy bear bouquets (the latter of which I had to dust assiduously, before putting them out!) - so it all made a nice change. I feel like the unit is full of colour and pizazz again!

And onto the next project... bears (and rabbits) for the Thirteen Brushes Gallery.

Drumroll please...

2012-02-29T17:07:00.001Z

My latest completed project... teddy bear bouquets!

Please excuse the multiple photographs - they took so long to make, I wanted to make sure I photographed them from every angle.

This is my second Valentine's idea, although I'm hoping people will appreciate them as gifts even though Valentine's Day is long gone. They are little bears (approximately 3.5 inches) attached to willow twigs (approx 27 inches), and I have included a piece of red twisted willow too. I have packaged them up to look like bouquets - each bouquet has two bears to it. They have 'Hand-made by BigFeetBears' labels, printed on clear plastic and attached with a piece of red satin ribbon.

Naturally, after all that work, it turns out that they don't photograph well(!) - the plastic wrapping picks up dust incredibly easily.

This will be the first time I've made something for BigFeetBears which is so fragile. I am slightly worried that they might get broken or damaged at the Centre, but we'll see how it goes

Anyway, next step is to get the dungarees made for the four little bears. I'm hoping to take all the would-be Valentine's items in this Saturday. I also need to start making some rabbits for the Thirteen Brushes Gallery - if they'll still have me, after being out of touch for so long.

Good news and bad news...

2012-02-25T18:34:00.001Z

Which would you like first?

Okay, the bad news is that my four little Valentine's bears are still naked, and I still haven't finished the second Valentine's idea I was working on.

The good news is that I have been at work, at the Art & Craft Centre today, and things are certainly looking up, sales-wise! Two more little bears have found homes this week, and the manufactured toys that I sell are trickling out steadily.

Last year, I found that January and February were particularly good months for me - which always seemed strange, since many of the other sellers at the Centre said that the after-Christmas period was slow. I reasoned that it's the nature of what I'm selling. People buy stuff for other people at Christmas, and then come January, they're willing to spend a little money on themselves. Mohair teddy bears are perhaps the kind of the thing that you have to look in the eye and fall in love with.

Disappointingly though, that particular sales pattern turned out not to be much of a trend. January this year was terrible. February has been better, but it still does not match last year.

I have been focusing more on smaller, less expensive bears recently, and although they are what customers at the Centre seem to like, my online customers appear to be not quite so keen! Last year, in January and February, I sold a lot of big, one-of-a-kind bears via the website, but I haven't made any of those for a while. Time to start thinking about the big bears again, maybe? I do miss making them - the realistic bears particularly.

Well, when I finally get these Valentine's bears on their feet, maybe I will revist the big realistic bears.

New from Snailspace Bears Inc.

2012-02-21T08:42:00.002Z

I have made so few bears so far this year! At the moment, all the things I'm working on seem to take an age to prepare. I have made four little red bears (ahem, for Valentine's Day) - all with a lovely, chubby, rounded shape. They are currently waiting for their dungarees to be finished though. I was thinking of making little drawstring bags for them too, but they've been so long in the making, I think I need to get them on the shelf as soon as possible now.

I have also been working on another Valentine's idea (I am determined to get all my 'seasonal' ideas out this year, even if not in the correct season), which involves lots of the tiny little bears with simple felt limbs. I'm off to work in a minute, with thirteen tiny heads and bodies to sew together. Hopefully, I will be back to show the results of that in a day or two.

Anyway, below are pictures of one of the four, currently naked, Valentine's bears.

Computer problems

2012-02-15T23:25:00.013Z

I know this is hardly the most well-read blog, but we had a horrible experience here recently that I'd like to warn my little readership of six about.

We have a Dell computer, and last weekend, we started having trouble with the screen: it went dark - so dark that we could barely see anything on it. Anytime we went to pick up the email, it took us five minutes to locate the mouse cursor before we could click the 'Get Mail' button. Anyway, we spoke to various friends and family members to ask if they had any idea. They didn't, but Dell Customer Service is second to none, apparently, so we decided that - come Monday - we'd ring them and try to get the problem sorted out.

On Monday, we googled 'Dell support', and obtained a telephone number. My mother started off the call - since the computer is registered in her name - but she passed it over to me after 10 minutes, in the mistaken belief that I might know more about what the person on the other end was talking about.

The guy I spoke to said that he needed to determine whether it was a software problem or a hardware problem. He tried various things, and then set up remote access to our computer. I must admit, I was a little offended when he lightened the background picture on our desktop, and then came back onto the line and said 'is that better, madam?' No! And actually I can recognise the difference between a faulty screen and a dark background picture!

Anyway, after much humming and haaing, he then passed me over to his 'senior colleague', who opened some kind of program file on our computer and showed me a long list of files. Did I recognise any of these? A few of them I did, but most of them were completely new to me. She explained that when you spend a long time online, your computer downloads various things and, as these things build up, you get 'software conflicts', which cause running problems, and possibly the screen problems we were experiencing. I was a little dubious - I've never heard the term 'software conflicts' before - but there was a certain logic to it. She said that the solution was to have your computer properly maintained - in fact, it should be serviced every three to four months. That stretched my credulity a little too. I'm sure we are a little lax about 'servicing' our computer but... every three to four months?

She then said that she could do it for us, via the remote connection and that, in fact, their technicians could return to do this on a regular basis. A one-time service would cost £74. Fair enough. But they could sign me up on two year subscription for just £189.

At the time, I was more concerned with getting our monitor fixed than arranging for the long-term maintenance of the computer, so I said sorry, I'm not the main bill payer in this household; I would need to have a conversation with someone (preferably the main bill payer) before I could sign up for something like that. She was fine about that, and said she was going to pass me over to a colleague, who would arrange the one-time maintenance.

The change in tone when the third person came on the phone was dramatic - he had a sustained, aggressive sales pitch that he wasn't going to let me interrupt. Did I know that our computer was facing this threat, and this threat, and that his technicians had identified this problem and this problem, and that we desperately needed to sign up to a two-year subscription! I tried to break in at several points, but he went on and on.

So I sat there and fumed. I may not be the sharpest tack in the pack, but I do know that when someone's trying so hard to sell you something... back away, slowly... My big question was, why was the guy from Dell Tech Support trying so hard to sell me something?

When he finally came to the end of his spiel, I said, "Look, as I told your colleague, I'm not the main bill payer in this household; I can't sign up to a two-year subscription." There was a pause and then, "Well, if you just paid an extra £40, you could get a better deal!" Eventually I passed the phone back to my mother, and when she couldn't persuade him we didn't want to buy his subscription, we put the phone down on him.

But I was so mad! Who was it that said that Dell's customer service was second to none?!

I stomped around for a little while, getting more and more annoyed thinking about it, and eventually I decided that I would ring Dell back and give them what for. I went onto the Dell website, thinking that I would need to ring a general customer service number - rather than the tech support number we had rung before. And strangely, all the Dell numbers I could find started with 0844 - instead of 0800 as the first one had.

So I googled the first number, and found it was registered to a company called 'Guruaid'. I went back onto the Dell website and searched for 'Guruaid', without any luck. I found a link on the MoneySavingExpert site to an 0800 number tracker - which suggested that the number we had rung probably wasn't valid. What? You mean I'd just had a two-hour phonecall with a company that wasn't even remotely linked with Dell?! Now in full witch-hunting mode, I googled 'Guruaid reviews' and found two sites. Both had a number of gushingly good reviews (which smacked not a little of self-congratulation), but also numerous bad reviews. These latter described googling such things as 'McAffee Support', 'Dell Support' and 'Norton Support', all of which brought up the offending 0800 number. They described phonecalls which went along much the same lines as my call had. They described paying the subscription fee, failing to get their computers fixed, and then being refused a refund.

Finally, I went back on the Dell website and found the number for technical support. I got through immediately. They had me plug the monitor into my laptop and, having established that the screen was still dark, they said that there was a problem with the monitor and that they would send me out a new one. Hmmm, and what exactly do I have to sign up to in order to get this new monitor? How much is it going to cost me? "Oh no madam, your computer is still under warranty, you don't have to pay anything."

Our beautiful new monitor with its lovely bright screen arrived today, and I'm sitting here looking at it now! Dell's customer service is indeed second to none - they're a fantastic company!

I guess what I was trying to say - with this incredibly long story - is, if you're trying to find a telephone number online for the technical support department of a particular computer company, be it Dell or anyone else, make sure you go onto their official website.

Disaster!

2012-02-03T11:24:00.000Z

Not only am I feeling really rubbish at the moment - some kind of cold/cough thing - but I've just had a bit of a bear-making set-back. Ever since I started making bears, I've been recording the patterns for them. Obviously, where I'm making limited edition bears, I need to keep the patterns, but even where I don't repeat bears, I often tend to develop new patterns from bits of the old. If nothing else, it allows me to keep a handle on proportions.

Anyway, these three big notebooks - containing every pattern I've ever come up with - have disappeared!

It's an immensely horrifying prospect, but after spending the past couple of days searching and re-searching, and mentally coming to terms with my patternless-ness, I'm beginning to think that it could be a good thing. Maybe it'll be a bit of a shot in the arm - it'll kick me into coming up with something new.

The good news is that I do still have a few paper patterns kicking around - the mammoths, the rabbits, the panda and the Cheeky-style bears - so I'm not completely at a loss. The bad news is that I don't have paper patterns for the Valentine's bears I was hoping to make this week, so I'll have to redo them.

I'm not doing well with this 'seasonal' thing. I have made seasonal items, but not in the right season!

Diana

2012-02-02T13:07:00.000Z

It's freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing cold today, so please excuse the rubbish indoor photographs of my latest rabbit. And yes, by the way, Tamasin's Kitchen Bible is a great book - as is Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard.

This is Diana - a cotton version of the rabbit pattern I've been working on recently. I had a few concerns about making her in cotton, and now I remember why. Not only is it quite thin and difficult to sew up the openings after stuffing, but it's very difficult to joint. I remember trying a bear in cotton a little while ago - I may even have blogged about it. When I put the joints in, the whole thing went down the toilet: every time the joints were turned, the cotton twisted with them - the fabric just wasn't 'heavy-duty' enough.

With Diana, I have used nut & bolt joints for her legs, but her arms are string jointed. Because she is bigger than the other rabbits I've made, her head is heavier, and I thought string-jointed legs might not be sturdy enough to hold her upright. The nut & bolt joints work okay - although as suspected, the stitches over the openings are not particularly neat. When you sew a stitch through cotton and pull it tight to close an opening, the hole made in the fabric by the needle stretches and widens considerably. There must be a way of solving this - lots of people make 'softies' out of cotton fabric - but I haven't figured it out yet.

I'm not very happy with her nose - the print of the fabric is busy enough without it, but I can't think how to solve that one either - I can hardly leave her without a nose.

The general conclusion I've come to is that cotton rabbits don't really work [sadly]. I'm still very enamoured of my black cashmere rabbit, so I might try a larger version in cashmere.

Henry

2012-01-25T15:26:00.001Z

I was saying, in my last post, that my rabbit design - originally made in cotton - lost some definition when made in mohair. I have been thinking more about this. Making them in cotton would recapture that definition - but for me, cotton tends to be a little light-weight, even using interfacing. The seams pull and wrinkle more easily than sturdier fabrics like mohair, and it is more difficult to close the openings neatly. Maybe I'm just spoilt, using mohair - as I've said before, it's a fantastic fabric to work with, but I'm not sure customers always hold bears in higher regard for the fact that they're made out of mohair.

I would like to try a cotton rabbit - although I may increase the size, so I'm not fiddling around with tiny, tiny seams. In the meantime though, I have stopped at a halfway house, with Henry! Henry is made in cashmere - the smoothest, softest, silkiest fabric - perfect for rabbits, particularly their faces.

The first picture below is the most representative in terms of his colour, but I have lightened the rest of them slightly so that the details are properly visible.

I love him to bits - I think he's turned out really, really well.

My bear-on-all-four-feet isn't going so well. I was hoping to make a version of him for the gallery in Coggeshall, but I think it's going to have to be rabbits for the moment. We'll see how the cotton one turns out.

Enough with the secrecy

2012-01-19T14:55:00.001Z

Okay, things still aren't going particularly well. I'm now up to 2.5 things made in 2012 (in almost 3 weeks!). I don't think my idea of building up a stash of bears and then unveiling them all on the relevant holiday is going to work. My brain just doesn't work like that - I'm no good at secrets or surprises, and if I don't sign off properly on one task, I can't focus properly on the next. And 'signing off' on bears has come to mean posting their photographs on the blog and putting them up for sale in the unit.

Maybe I'm not a particularly 'seasonal' person either - although I still have high hopes for Valentine's Day (high hopes of making some Valentine's bears, that is).

Plus, I'm not particularly happy with my 2.5 things: it's building up to be a big anticlimax.

So, I kept meaning to make rabbits last year (the Year of the Rabbit, apparently), but never got around to it. When I was deciding what to make in the New Year though, rabbits were right at the top of the list of things to do. I already had a head design that I liked; the problems were a) the ears - which, if set into the head, require one to sew through four layers of thick mohair, and b) the body - I wanted to create what I tend to think of as a 'chimney pot neck', similar to that of my panda bears. As it turned out, there was a c) - the feet, which took ages - but anyway, here is the prototype.

I kind of like him. Slightly cross-eyed maybe, but he has character! He is string-jointed apart from his neck, and the really lovely thing is that his ears are string-jointed too - so they rotate! He's not for sale, so I've been a bit lazy about naming him. His name is Bob.

For some reason, I'm not as keen on the mohair versions. This is Greg...

And this little pile of fluff is Pancake...

The mohair versions lost the clear-cut shape of the prototype, which was one of Bob's charms, I thought. They also seem to lack detail. I think that's the trouble: if something is made in plain cotton, the detail is in the shape. If fuzzy fabric is used, this both conceals the shape and increases the level of detail needed.

Anyway, I'm currently debating whether to make any more. And I'm considering making little floral drawstring bags for them.

In the meantime, this sad little figure is next on the list. I like the shape, the pose, even the skinny little legs - but the legs are a problem for other reasons. They are made out of flexible wire, and I need to reinforce it with fabric to the extent that it doesn't move. It is proving difficult (she says, through gritted teeth)!

And, some nice music!

@:>"£££?//

2012-01-12T16:56:00.001Z

Do you remember how, in comic books, whenever someone cursed, this would be indicated with a row of symbols/punctuation marks of some kind? That is what the title of this post is supposed to be. It doesn't look right somehow though - that punctuation is all wrong (too many pound signs?). Also, I've just noticed, there's a smiley face in there.

Anyway, the extensive cursing in the title is down to the fact that things are not going right. My... somethings (see last post) are not turning out to be very interesting to make. I have made exactly one of them (in almost two weeks?). I have sewn together the pieces of the second one, only to find that I didn't have any more of the right size joints, so I've had to set the whole thing aside whilst waiting for the new ones to arrive.

Which isn't terrible - it's just that it drags the whole thing out a bit longer. I'd rather get it over with. I have moved on to a new pattern, for a bear standing on all four feet. Hopefully I will have something vaguely interesting to post soon!

A small snag

2012-01-05T10:01:00.001Z

I have hit a problem in pursuit of my 2012 aim to be more seasonal. For some reason I have started working on a design for Easter - despite there being several 'seasonal events' before that. There's nothing like six long-winded, labourous attempts at one small leg to bring you down with a bump after all the blithe, high-minded resolutions of the New Year.

Anyway, I have finally completed the prototype of this... something, that I'm making for Easter, and I've started wondering what I'm going to do about blogging it. Do I finish the 'real version' and then blog it straight away? Do I wait until Easter? In some respects, it would be nice to wait until Easter - so I can pull off the sheet and shout "Ta-da!", unveiling an impressive collection of previously-unseen, Easter-themed items. On the other hand, I could spend every minute from now until February 14th making secret stuff for Valentine's Day, and I would have nothing to blog about in the meantime. And, come February 14th, well... is there such a thing as 'bloggers diarrhoea'?

I think I'm going to have to change the way I blog, either doing so less frequently or finding other stuff to write about (the retail side of things, for example, or my long-neglected vintage underwear business). I have been thinking about posting recipes, and food photos, since that's something I've been into lately. Unfortunately, most of my recent attempts to cook something interesting have been dismal failures, and I haven't quite got the hang of taking photos in the evening, with all-artificial light.

Ah well, I'll see how it goes. If I feel I'm letting the side down, I might sneak in a photo of this... something... that I'm making for Easter.

91 bears

2012-01-01T13:56:00.003Z

Made it to my second-best target! 91 bears in 2011 - not quite as many as I'd hoped, but certainly an improvement on last year. Unfortunately, I haven't got a photograph of two of them... but I have made 91 - honest! The two missing bears are mentioned at the end of this post.

In the past couple of days, I have finished up a bear and two mammoths. Here's the bear: Benji

And here are the mammoths: Deliah and Agatha...

So, of the 2011 bears, there are 19 mini bears...

...14 Cheeky-style bears...

...14 mammoths...

... 6 mohair mammoths...

... 3 extra large Union Jack mammoths and a baby mammoth...

... 11 realistic bears (ahem, the pink bear in the middle is supposed to be realistic in design, if not in colour)...

... 3 OOAK character bears...

... and lots of little things: three 3-piece bears, 3 flying bears, 2 weird owls, 4 bears which made up a family, and 8 hanging heart bears (2 of which are not pictured).

In 2012, the big thing is that I really really need to improve my work rate. I'm back to my 100 bears target - although, of course, anything above that would be great. I would like to come up with some new designs, and particularly, to develop the realistic bears more. I would also like to put a bit more work into seasonal items, sell some bears for charity, and brush up on the presentational stuff. And, once and for all, I am going to get the website sorted out!

As for me, I am going to get fit this year (yes, I know, that was a resolution last year as well), and develop some hobbies - so lots of cooking, reading, visiting of historical places, and going to hear live music!

Some desperate last-minute bear-making

2011-12-30T19:01:00.001Z

Hello! And a belated Happy Christmas! I'm afraid I couldn't work up the energy for a blog post over Christmas - I'm just not a Christmas person. It all seems like too much to bother with. I have been trying my best to view the world through red-tinted, holly-trimmed glasses - mainly for retail reasons; are there any shops which show no signs of change at Christmas? Anyway, my attempts have been half-hearted at best. Given the choice I think I would hibernate from the beginning of December to the end of January. Actually, make that from the beginning of December to the end of December. Because New Year's Resolutions [weirdly] are very important to me.

One of my long list of resolutions last year was to make 100 bears in 2011. I failed, I'm afraid. Come to think of it, I failed to hold on to any of my resolutions. And I'm on course to fail my second best target of making 90 bears also. But I will get very close. These are two bears that I've made recently. First, Oliver - who I've made several times before - but who, this time, has a chick on his head(?)

Then, another bear (currently unnamed), wearing a lovely felted kaftan which my mother made for her (him?). Do men wear kaftans?

Update: I have called this little bear Christine. Happy New Year!

Carey

2011-12-23T13:04:00.001Z

I'm not sure if this one looks male or female, so I have cheated and picked a unisex name - he/she is named after either Carey Grant or Carey Mulligan. Carey is another realistic bear, although I have made alterations to the neck, to try to get a smoother line across the head and neck.

I like his nose better than Huckleberry's I think, but his paw pads definitely need more detail.

I seem to have come full circle here. I started off, way back when, making realistic bears; then I changed to simpler, more cheerful, colourful, character bears; now I'm back to the realistic bears. It would be nice to have a mix of both at the Art & Craft Centre. Unfortunately, because of the different styles, they do sometimes look strange sitting next to each other. And the realistic bears, which are necessarily made in blander, natural colours, tend to fade into the background somewhat when displayed with the pink and blue character bears.

Anyway, here are Carey's photos - and yes, the ears were intended to be at different angles.

Huckleberry's waistcoat & Muriel

2011-12-17T08:42:00.000Z

Good morning! It was a really strange sunset yesterday. I went outside and most of the garden was dark, apart from two trees which were lit up in brilliant orange. Just thought I'd share...

Please excuse the quality of these next photos - they were taken in the dark this morning, with the flash. This is Huckleberry's waistcoat. It's the wrong colour for him, but the fit is near perfect. I love the way it rides up at the back slightly.

And this is Muriel! She is a tiny bear - measuring just 4.5 inches sitting on a shelf; 7.5 inches from head to toe. She was awful to make, and took a ridiculous amount of time, given how small she was. It was trying to pack those bulky joints into such a tiny frame. At one point, I had her arms jointed before her head (not the way I usually do it), but I had to remove them again, because there was no way I could have gotton the disc for the head joint into the space that was left. Not that there wasn't room for it - there just wasn't room to actually fix it in place.

Anyway, I might have another go, because she turned out quite well after all that. She has a lot of steel shot in her, so she sits very well.

Huckleberry

2011-12-16T16:12:00.000Z

Are huckleberries pink? I think they might be black actually, but it's too late now - the bear has already been christened. It's not as bad as my bright yellow bear, called Poinsettia.

Huckleberry is a return to a previous design. I haven't made this one in a long time. I'm not sure exactly why. I think I made quite a few, developing the design differently with each bear, and then something went slightly wrong, and they were no longer coming together in the right way. That, and the fact that I needed some designs that were quicker to make, for the Art & Craft Centre.

I am very fond of this shape though. It's all in the silhouette. He has a very simple face - and I should probably work more on the detail - but he has a lovely realistic shape, with short sturdy little legs. He could do with some detail on his paw pads, and a smoother transition from head to neck maybe. I'd also love him to have a tail. I've never managed that successfully though - it's either too high, or too low, or it sticks out at an odd angle.

I'm thinking of getting rid of the double-neck joint. The point of the double joint is to allow him to be posed on all four feet, in addition to his ordinary sitting pose, but it doesn't work very well, because his arms and legs are at a slight angle to his body. So maybe, combine the head and neck for this design and then create a separate bear that stands on all four feet, with different head and limb patterns.

Lots of different stuff

2011-12-15T12:54:00.001Z

I am behind with my photos of our new downstairs toilet. First of all the porch. If you remember, we had the step taken out, and at one point there was a big hole in the concrete floor where they were fitting pipework. It is now all tiled - and this is what it looks like...

I will take another picture when all the building materials are out - presuming we haven't already stuffed our junk back in there by that time. I did get these photos taken just in time though. Literally five minutes later, the IKEA delivery men arrived. We have bought a cupboard - like a sort of sideboard thing - to go along the right-hand wall of the porch (on the right as you look out from the from the front door). So the pieces are now stacked up everywhere and you can barely see the tiles at all.

In the downstairs toilet, the sink is in place (although not fully fitted yet), and the door has been hung. It is clad in these vertical panels - which is what the lower part of the space under the stairs looked like, before the building work started.

When you open the door, the space looks really big! There are actually double doors, although the left-hand door will be narrower, and bolted in place. It will just be a lot easier to clean with two doors though.

Porthole window, above the door.

Toilet!

Ooh - look who turns up when you get the camera out!

Don't tell me we have a spider in residence already.

I have managed to get a few bears finished, whilst all this has been going on, but they're currently waiting for clothing. My mother, on the other hand, has been knitting furiously - not only finishing jumpers, hats and boots for the twins, but also dressing every bear foolish enough to be sitting around without any clothes on.

Bingley - the bear I was going to take apart - has a lovely new fair isle jumper.

At my unit in the Art & Craft Centre, I sell a number of manufactured bears, suitable for children. The most popular is probably this lovely big, floppy, ultra-soft polar bear - now wearing a beautiful ribbed pull-over.

Phew - and that's it for now. Hopefully back with some more bears soon.

Percy & Boris

2011-12-09T10:43:00.000Z

First Platoon Washing-Up Brigade (in mufti): "ATTEN-SHUN!"

Two more of these little bears, called Percy and Boris. Having made them, I've been looking at them thinking, 'Hmmm, they are rather military-looking with their arms like that'. Is it me, or do they also look rather European? It's something about the portliness, the high-waisted trousers, the loud check print and the suggestion of facial hair - it looks like they should be able to yodel rather well!

Ned

2011-12-06T10:06:00.000Z

Brrrr - it is horrible weather for taking photos outside!

I have finally finished the bear I've been working on. This was the one I was thinking of making for my two tiny nieces - although I'm not really sure anymore. He is quite brick-like - very square and solid - perhaps not the thing for a baby?

Ah well, I will try Ned at the Art & Craft Centre, and see if anyone likes him.

He has been a pain in the neck to make - mostly because of his flippy feet - but, as you can probably see from the picture below, I played about with the proportions quite a lot too...

Five practice bears! No matter how many times I read about other people's working methods, and how they make repeated versions of something before getting it right, it always bugs me that I can't get it right second time around (everyone's allowed one mistake). Note the middle bear in the picture above (with the ginormous red feet), where I thought, 'Aha! This design works! I will break out the expensive cotton fabric!' Naturally it turned out to be the most ridiculous-looking of all my attempts. If you're going to be ridiculous though, why not do it in gingham trousers with strawberries printed all over them?

Anyway, I just wanted to add one more cute cat picture. My last two photos of Rory have featured him looking really peeved, and I just wanted to correct the impression...

Betty

2011-12-04T10:27:00.000Z

Meet Betty (I can't believe I've never had a bear called Betty before). I'm thinking of making another in brown mohair, and calling her 'Brown Betty'.

Betty is a similar, long-legged design to Gerald, from the last post, although slightly smaller, and with a modified face shape. Whilst I was making her, I found some sparkly pink, printed cotton and thought, 'Ooooh - paw pads!' Then I finished her and decided she really needed clothes. Unfortunately there was only a small scrap of the sparkly pink fabric left.

So I left it to my dress-making mother, who made a really sweet little bodice, and a crystal pleat skirt. After that, there was just enough left in scraps to make a nose out of the same fabric.

She was sort of starting to look a bit 'circus performer', so I sewed metal snappers to her paw pads to allow her to hang acrobat-style.

Old bear, new trousers

2011-12-02T12:59:00.000Z

Here he is, Gerald, in his new dungarees. He does look rather chubby in them - which is good! Teddy bears should definitely be on the chubby side.

I have re-embroidered his nose, but he is otherwise very much as I made him, years ago. And whilst I think he is quite striking - particularly with those trousers - it makes me laugh every time I look at his ears. They are sewn on dead straight, with no curve to them at all.

Fingers crossed he finds a home soon.

Extremely slow progress

2011-12-01T13:15:00.000Z

I didn't mean that title as a reference to our current building work - there has been lots going on, but it's been mostly behind-the-scenes, hard-to-photograph pipework. This picture below is not actually in the cloakroom itself - it's behind the little wall they built to put the toilet against. There will be a door at the front of this space, to box all the pipes in, but to leave it accessible for maintenance work (and no doubt, for storing some of our junk)

Sorry the picture's a little bright - Rory is looking rather luminous here.

No, the extremely slow progress is with the bears. We seem to have so many babies around at the moment- either in the family, or belonging to friends (belonging?) - that I thought I really ought to come up with a pattern for a simple unjointed teddy bear. I have made bears as gifts for babies before, but always from commercial patterns.

Well, this pattern is giving me fits. I am so far on my fifth version of it (fingers crossed this one turns out alright). It's incredibly frustrating to work on a pattern for an entire week, and still having nothing to take in with me when I go to work on Saturday.

Luckily, this Saturday, I will have something. I don't think I ever showed a picture of Charles and Gerald - two of the first bears I ever designed and made myself. Anyway, Charles and Gerald became Charles and Geraldine when my mother made them bride and groom outfits to wear. They had been sitting in the unit for a long time, with very little interest, so my mother made a pair of dungarees for Charles, in an eye-popping print (see here), I rechristened him Eric, and he found a home soon after.

Poor Geraldine meanwhile, was left standing at the alter, and sat alone in the unit for the next 8 months or so. The solution? A reverse sex-change - back to Gerald - and another eye-popping pair of dungarees. She could still be Geraldine in her dungarees of course, but to be honest, she does look more like a Gerald. Or he does.

I just need to re-embroider his nose, but hopefully I will get some photographs up tomorrow.

Finally... bears!

2011-11-27T09:49:00.002Z

I'm much relieved to finally have a bear or two to show you. These are two little bears called Polly (left) and Pippa, made for the gallery in Coggeshall. They are the same design as Loulou, who also found a home there a week or two ago. Their little dresses and hats are made from a felted jumper, although unfortunately when my mother came to make them, she found that the sweater wasn't as felted as she'd thought, so everything had to be edged.

They do look quite Christmassy too. I have a long list of things I'm supposed to be making for Christmas, and I haven't really gotton round to any of them. Christmas at the Art & Craft Centre isn't usually a great time for BigFeetBears: the manufactured toys are doing reasonably well, but the one-of-a-kind, mohair bears are looking rather miserable. Their time usually comes in January/February - I guess when people have finished buying Christmas gifts for other people, they might buy something for themselves. The trouble is, I have been withdrawing bears from the unit, and I haven't taken any more in, what with one thing and another, so I have very little for the post-Christmas rush! (Well, I say 'rush'....)

I actually changed my mind about taking apart some of the bears (see this post). I have taken Izzy apart, but Bingley is still sitting on the table, actually looking very handsome. I would like to change his paws, and maybe his nose (it is black against dark brown mohair and doesn't show up well), but I think I might keep him substantially as he is. He is very difficult to photograph, being so dark a colour, and I have trouble displaying him in the unit, for the same reason - I think he needs some 'context': a few other dark brown bears, maybe a more natural wood-finish background, rather than stark white shelves.

I didn't have the heart to take Rowan apart either - he is a lovely bear. So I have donated him to the raffle being held at the Art & Craft Centre for St Helena's Hospice. Hopefully, he will find a good home.

A small toilet update...

2011-11-25T12:19:00.002Z

A little bit has happened since I posted last. With the toilet that is - sadly not with the bears. The new light are in...

There are two of them - one at the very top, and one on the sloped section of ceiling. The blob at the back isn't a light, it's a movement sensor. I personally think that an eyeball painted on it would be very effective! Effective as decoration and in inhibiting people from using the facilities!

The hole in our front porch has been filled, and the new steps are in progress - here...

And here is Rory perusing the new concrete. This will be tiled eventually.

Poor Rory hasn't been right recently. He has had weird moody spells where he jumps on Maude (our other cat) and follows you around, whinging and trying to bite your knees. He had a very bad accident a few years ago, and apparently it can take several years for the injury site(s) to become de-sensitised. We think the temper might be due to his injuries hurting, so my mother took him back to the vet for some painkillers yesterday.

She emerged with her purse considerably lighter, the painkillers, a bottle of flea killer, and this strange little plastic vial, which attaches to a plug, which you then plug into a wall socket. It apparently releases pherenomes which have a calming effect. So, we're all feeling quite relaxed at the moment.

Anyway, here's Rory - before the pherenomes - looking a touch peeved. That ankle he has stuck out the front - that's the one that was pinned after his accident, and he always tucks it out one side. His opposite hip was broken as well.

Bathroom tiles

2011-11-23T09:32:00.000Z

These are the sparkling turquoise tiles we're having on the back wall of the downstairs toilet. They're probably rather brighter than this - particularly when the lights are shining on them. It was just very difficult to get a good picture; my camera lens isn't wide enough.

The lights are now in - although they were done after I took these pictures. There is a sensor to detect movement, and the lights go on automatically. Without the doors on, the lights have been going on every time someone passes through the hallway, but it gives you a chance to re-admire the tiling every time, so it's not a nuisance.

Ahem... our downstairs toilet

2011-11-22T11:04:00.002Z

Okay, sorry this is a bit off-topic, but I have a sister in Peru and an Auntie in LA who won't get to see the building work we're having done at home, so I wanted to share some photos.

We recently had our upstairs bathroom redone, and the builder gave us a catalogue (absolutely fatal!), in which there was a picture of a downstairs cloakroom tucked into the space under the stairs. It was really 'bijou' and neat, and since our downstairs toilet is next to the kitchen, moving it would allow us to extend the kitchen, which has been on the 'stuff to do' list for a long time.

So, here's the first stage in pictures.

This is the insulation being put in under the stairs and the little wall behind which all the pipes will be hidden

This is the dirty great hole they made in the floor of the front porch, for putting in the pipework.

These two pictures just show the space from another angle - this is how it looks from our front door.

In the meantime, the tiler has just been and gone, putting the most lovely shiny turquoise tiles on the back wall of the space (will post a pic tomorrow), and the electrician's here now. It looks really good already, but looking at these pictures, we really must do something about those stairs!

2 Mammoths

2011-11-20T13:45:00.000Z

Nothing particularly new to show, unfortunately, although I have been making. I have two mammoths here - repeats of previous fabrics, which turned out well. I have also finished two more little bears for the Thirteen Brushes gallery, although they are still waiting for their dresses to be finished. They are lovely - Christmassy in a non-commercial way.

Re-thinking

2011-11-14T20:17:00.001Z

I was working at the Art & Craft Centre today: it was terribly quiet - we're into the pre-Christmas lull. At least I hope it's just a lull. Anyway, all that peace and quiet gave me time to contemplate the unit, and didn't take long before I started to feel very dissatisfied with my efforts to decorate and stock it.

It's certainly true that I have done very little stocking or decorating of late. I've been... well, I'm not sure what I've been doing. Completing commissions, indulging a new-found interest in cooking, reading a bit, preparing for the various renovating/decorating jobs our household seems to have embarked on recently... in other words, I've done a whole lot of dithering and not much else. My problem is that I've never been able to multi-task. To any extent. If I get into cooking, I don't concentrate on work. If I throw myself into a book, everything else is secondary. If I'm making a bear, the rubbish/laundry piles up and we eat badly (and late at night) until something gives.

Anyway, the unit. I guess, looking at it, it just seemed to be full of a) hand-made bears which I've had for a long time, and b) manufactured toys for kids. In the first case, I'm thinking of having a clear-out and dismantling those bears which haven't sold (sob!). Here are three of those which face the chop:

Obviously, I think they're really lovely, charismatic bears. In different ways though, all three of these were slightly experimental, and didn't quite work out as planned, so maybe that had more of an impact than I expected.

In the second case, well... the manufactured stuff was only ever meant to be a tiny part of the unit - something to offer kids, when I have a whole unit of not-suitable-for-children-bears (it just slips off the tongue, that phrasing). I need to redress the balance - preferably with the introduction of many more hand-made items - some bears, some mammoths, some other lower priced stuff...

Which leads me onto the third problem with the unit at the moment - that it shows no signs of Christmas being imminent (is it imminent, in the middle of November?). Anyway, from a retail perspective, it's imminent! Somehow, the urgency always passes me by until, say, 20th December, by which time it seems too late to bother. I've never been on time for Christmas yet. I believe I do have a few cards stored away somewhere though, and a little bear (hand-made) in the sweetest little santa suit and false beard (not hand-made). Some other stuff would be nice too - maybe some tree decorations? A few of the kind of ready-to-hand-over gifts that come ready-wrapped with a Christmas card tied to the outside of the package? Something a little reindeer-ish, perhaps? My wreath idea, which I had last year but never got around to?

Plenty to be getting on with anyway. Speaking of which, I had some nice news yesterdays. Loulou - one of the bears I made for the Thirteen Brushes Art Gallery - has found a home! They have asked for a few more bears within the same price range, so that's first on the list!

Cassandra

2011-11-04T15:19:00.000Z

I know I said I'd finished with the gallery bears, but I got everything cleared up (partially cleared up), and then sat down to relax for a bit, and I could not stop thinking about the one more mammoth I had time to make before I had to deliver the bears.

So here she is - rather tackily photographed standing on a bag for life, in the garden. I'm afraid it rained all morning so we had to rush out between showers.

She is a new colour - a lovely caramel shade. I'm never sure about making mammoths out of mohair, because I can't really charge enough for them to cover the costs of the fabric. This particular fabric though - and the red/brown that I've used for previous mammoths - is a silk-mohair mix. I remember being really excited when I first found this stuff at a teddy bear fair. Having worked with it a few times, there is something I don't quite like about it though - not for bears, at least. Strangely, it seems to work for mammoths. I don't know what it is about it - I can't explain it - there's just something different about the feel of it.

Anyway, I'm glad I've found something that that fabric works with.

We delivered the bears today to the lovely people at the Thirteen Brushes Art Gallery in Coggeshall. The gallery is in the perfect spot and Coggeshall is very pretty. It reminds me of Dedham a little bit - except that the street layout is more extensive. I don't think the Gallery's website is up and running yet, but the address of the prospective website will be http://www.thirteenbrushes.com/. The gallery opens next Saturday, on 12th November.

Mortimer & Bailey

2011-11-02T15:36:00.000Z

Just to set myself straight on a question posed earlier... "the question is, never having made a bowler hat before, and without a pattern (the few patterns I've found on Google use a hat block, which I don't have), can I make two of them in the next three or four days?"

No. The answer is no.

It has been infuriating me all morning, this! I'm sure it must be possible to create that rounded shape without the hat block, but every pattern I've found requires one. I had a go by myself, but unless you like your bowler hats with pointy bits (I don't, as it turns out), it doesn't work.

I had a go at making a fez, which has a simpler construction, but that didn't work either - wrong materials, I think.

And to top off a day of failing to make hats, these bears are practically unphotographable! Either you add enough light so the eyes are visible - in which case it looks like the garden behind them has burst into flames - or you reduce the light enough that you can actually make out the texture of the white fur - in which case the two of them look like they're sitting there in the dark. Grrrr.

Mortimer is the more poe-faced bear; Bailey is the one with the ear sticking out sideways.

That will be it for the gallery for the moment. I was intending to make a mammoth, but I'm out of time. Besides that, the house and I both look like we've been dragged through a hedge backwards - I really need to do some cleaning up!

New mammoths

2011-10-29T23:15:00.000+01:00

I managed to get my commission mammoths finished last night and photographed this morning.

I am really pleased with the way the way they turned out. My favourite is the one made in the black velvet, although it's a shame that she couldn't have tusks - the fabric just frayed so much though: every time I stuck a needle through it, a big hole appeared.

Having said that, I'm not sure white tusks would have suited her. Perhaps tusks made in the same black velvet?

I really must have a go at some other creatures though. I have a wonderful fabric I could make pigs out of (or 'a pig' - it's only a fat quarter); and I would love to try a patchwork giraffe. I guess really, as a bear-maker, I should make a little 'block bear' like that too. I did make a polar bear once, but it was quite a loosely-based design.

Anyway, before all that, the pandas. I'm not having much luck with the eyes at the moment. Never mind - plough on.

Loulou

2011-10-28T21:24:00.001+01:00

Phew! It's been absolutely mad recently. The bears for the gallery are due before the 8th November - that being the day it opens - and I finally managed to get one complete yesterday! Meet Loulou...

Quite sweet? I made the hat from coils of fabric from a jumper, which had felted in the wash. Then I came home one day to find that my mother had made the little fringed dress from a sleeve of the same jumper - it fits her perfectly! She looks very 1960s - a happy coincidence, since I'm totally into vintage clothing.

As I think I've mentioned, I'm also hoping to make two pandas for the gallery. They are all sewn up, jointed, stuffed, closed, but I'm struggling with the eyes. I also thought they ought to have hats - preferably bowler hats. The question is, never having made a bowler hat before, and without a pattern (the few patterns I've found on Google use a hat block, which I don't have), can I make two of them in the next three or four days?

Hmmm.

Anyway, also on the 'to do list' were three commission mammoths. I am determined to get them finished tonight, and photographed early tomorrow morning before I go to work. They are all complete except for eyes and tusks. One of them is made from printed black velvet, and is absolutely gorgeous!

Anyway, if I get them finished in time, I will post the pics tomorrow.

Hanging hearts

2011-10-18T19:07:00.000+01:00

This was played on Strictly Come Dancing last year. I'd never heard it before, but it's a great song!

Anyway, things have been progressing at snail's pace here. To make it worse, I have commissions! Deadlines! And I'm not getting anywhere! I have managed to get another of my Cheeky-style bears made, but she's not ready to photograph yet - she's only half-dressed. I am really pleased with her though.

I was asked recently to supply some bears for an art gallery which is opening locally. There is no formal agreement, but I'm working on the assumption that I need four bears completed for the gallery by the beginning of November. This Cheeky will hopefully be one of them - if her costume comes together in time. In addition, I hope to make two largish pandas - like Humphrey - and maybe a woolly Viking mammoth!

I've also been asked to make three mammoths for someone else - including one in a fantastic solar-system-print fabric! I would love to be able to give that mammoth one of those transparent, spherical, astronaut helmets, but I sadly don't think that's really accomplishable in fabric.

Finally, I was asked to make one of my hanging hearts as a Christmas decoration - these ones. I have mixed feelings about them. When I was at the Clare Priory craft fair, I had the opportunity to hear people's feedback on them: a lady come up and said, "Oooh look - they've got little bats clinging to them." Hmmm. Anyway, I kind of looked at them differently after that. I'm not sure where the bat-thing came from, but they could be little rats - or little anything. It's only the fact that I am a seller of teddy bears which indicates that they are in fact, teddy bears.

So I wanted to change the design a little - and give them a more teddy-like face. Here is the result. The first five pictures below are of the commission heart.

What do you think? Little bears - or little capuchin monkeys?!

Well, whatever they are, I am pleased with them. The lovely thing about them is that you can actually be quite expressive with the limbs. I love the penultimate picture!

The down side is that they take ages to make! But it's coming close to Christmas - and they may sell as tree decorations. And I can't afford to be too fussy at the moment - both September and October have been really quiet months at the art & craft centre.

I have two more, single bear hearts which I forgot to photograph before I took them to the Centre, but I will try to get some pictures next time I go in. In the meantime, two largish pandas coming up...

Sven

2011-10-09T11:47:00.000+01:00

I have a new bear. This is Sven - who wears a similar viking helmet to Thor. I had to make the horns smaller - and I've got a feeling I should have made the hat a bit shorter too, so that it looks like a little cap - rather than a flower pot.

Anyway, I am hoping to make a few more bears of this sort this week - but dressed differently. I would like to do a test to see how important clothing/accessories are, when people are buying bears.

I also have a few commissions to make, and several large pandas. Our house is empty again now, after all the family have moved out. Tis all very quiet (and rather sad), but hopefully I will get more work done!

New bear!

2011-10-04T10:43:00.000+01:00

My little bear in a wheelchair is finally finished. Look at that face! Sometimes I look at her and think she's really sweet; at other times, all I can think is that she looks unbearably sad, with those big watery eyes.

As I said before, I got this bear all sewn up quite quickly - she is a design I have made before, although I have altered her legs slightly, so she sits properly in the chair. But that bit was simple enough - it was the face that I got stuck on. In particular, I don't think I've really mastered the clay eyelid thing. I tried very hard with this one. I spent a long time getting the shape right, and then I painted them in a dark red colour. It doesn't really seem to make much difference though - they still look black in the photos.

The main problem though is that the eyelids are not quite flush against the face. I'm going to have to try something else, I think.

At any rate, the technique may not have been quite right, but it did work well for this bear. She will be appearing on the website soon!

Thor

2011-10-01T08:14:00.001+01:00

Have you ever heard that limmerick?

The God of Thunder rode out one day

Upon his favourite filly.

"I'm Thor!" he cried,

And the horse replied,

"You forgot your thaddle, thilly!"

That's what my goofy, Viking mammoth reminds me of, so I called him Thor. Do you like the hat? I think I was imagining something flatter originally - I was looking at pictures of the hats that the Asterix characters wear - but this seems to suit. Maybe if I make this mammoth again, I will put little wings on the hat, in addition to horns!

I still haven't managed to do anything with my little red wheelchair bear. It's annoying me, because I know the longer I leave it, the harder it will get. I am working at the art & craft centre both days over the weekend though, so it will have to wait until Monday. Never mind, maybe a little break from it would be benefiicial.

Two new mammoths

2011-09-30T12:41:00.002+01:00

Hello! We are enjoying an unexpected hot spell here, so I rushed out with the mammoths to take photos in the garden. There is another - a furry one - but I am determined to make him a horned Viking helmet, and I haven't got to grips with the design yet, so photos of him will have to wait a bit.

I am discovering that there are certain mammoths which sell better than others. The plain, pale, floral ones have taken the longest to find homes. The mohair mammoths sell very quickly, and the one winged beastie I made sold quickly too. The navy blue floral mammoth with the shifty eyes is a replica of a commission mammoth I made a little while ago. She is very sweet, so I'm hoping someone will like her.

I have been busy this week - not just the three mammoths, but also a long-legged bear to sit in the little doll-sized wheelchair my aunt sent me from the US. It is the sweetest thing, but strangely proportioned for a teddy bear. Luckily I specialise in strangely-proportioned teddy bears! I am a little stuck on this one though. I have the same old problem - I take a lot of interest in design, shape and silhouette, but when it comes to details - like facial features - my imagination tends to fail me. So I currently have [what I think is] a lovely shaped bear, but with no features. I've keep trying various things, but they just don't look right. He is currently sitting on my work table with two little pink beads pinned to his nose (the large nostril look?) but that's not going to work.

I really need to put some work into my teddy bear faces!

Anyway, here are the mammoths. I will be back with photos of the furry mammoth and the wheelchair bear as soon as possible!

Humphrey

2011-09-22T15:02:00.003+01:00

Meet my new 11" bear, Humphrey!

Please excuse the photographs - they're all over the shop. It's one of those bright days which (although lovely) make it very difficult to take photos. Either the bear is in the sun and looks bleached out, or he's in the shade and you can barely see him. I still haven't gotton to grips with this camera.

Anyway, Humphrey is the same design as Poinsettia from the last post - the elegantly named 'leaning back panda'. He was tough to make. This design involves a lot of ladder stitching of parts, and with such long fur, it's difficult to see what you're doing. The eyes were also a pain - and almost completely unphotographable. The problem is, firstly, that there are a lot of seams around the eye area, what with the muzzle and the eye patch, making it difficult for the eye to lie flat, and secondly, that with two layers of mohair - the patch and the underlying white fur - it is difficult to get the spike on the back of the eye to go through a tiny hole in both layers. I'm wondering whether next time, I should paint the eye patches on. That would alleviate both problems, but I've never had much luck painting white mohair black - it always seems to dry a faded grey colour.

Another reason Humphrey was such an effort was probably that I left a big gap between Poinsettia and Humphrey. They take so long to make, that once I'm finished a bear, I tend to think, 'Phew! He's finally finished! Now I can do some housework/paperwork/work on the website/work on the other website/even read a book! Then my rhythm is all disrupted and it's difficult to get into making the next one.

Did I really say I should be making minimum 4 bears per week?

One of the things I have become convinced of, in making Humphrey, is that I ought to be more experimental with materials. I've already noted that customers don't always put a premium on mohair bears, and that my polar bear design might look better with a shorter pile length. I'm thinking I might try more Poinsettia-type-bears - either making them in a different, but still interesting fabric, or making them in plain cotton and embellishing.

Anyway, I hope you like the pictures. Humphrey is definitely the most realistic panda I've ever made.

P.S. I have just noticed, if you click on one of the photos, a lovely new slideshow thing comes up!

Poinsettia

2011-09-13T21:24:00.001+01:00

Hmmm, Poinsettia - is that how you spell it?

Anyway, I have finally finished my next bear! She is a bit of a strange one - but I am really proud of her, for lots of reasons. I started out with the aim of altering my panda design. I was really happy with Benjamin, but I thought he would look more panda-like (in terms of demeanor) if he were leaning back more.

So, I was making a cotton prototype of the new leaning-back design. It took absolutely ages to get right, because of the weighting. The head is the heaviest part, and usually I would put bags of steel shot in the feet to counter-balance that. With the new design though, the head was so far back, that wasn't sufficient: she was still over-balancing. I tried loads of things. Eventually, I ended up with steel shot in the feet, steel shot in the stomach, and using an extra-lightweight stuffing in her head, neck, arms and upper body. And her feet still sometimes don't touch the floor!

But she no longer over-balances, so I decided that I was happy with that - the feet-in-the-air-thing just seems to add to the nonchalant panda pose.

Anyway, having made this cotton model, it was so sweet, I thought I really ought to make her into a proper, full-colour bear. First I patched her body all over in recycled denim, so she has this really cute blue onsie. Then I thought she ought to have a jacket. I'm really chuffed with how it turned out. It is the first item of clothing I've ever made (for a bear, or anyone else). Usually my mother makes the clothing, but she's a bit tied up right now. It took me about twenty tries - and that's no exaggeration - but I think I finally got it right.

Anyway, she was left with a very white face, hands and feet, which looked wrong, so I ended up patching the body over with yellow cotton. This gave me a chance to cover up all her original seams (although she'll be a nightmare to repair, should she ever need it) and to give her wrinkles behind her ears (see last pic), which is a feature I always wanted to try. Glass eyes, clay nose, embroidered mouth... I think she turned out really well. In case I forget to measure her later, she is almost exactly 11 inches, sitting.

There are a few disadvantages to the patching technique. Because I didn't turn any edges in, I had to fray check them all, which has left her a bit... crispy? And I expect the fabric will continue to fray a little bit - even with the fray check - so she will look tattier and tattier as time goes on. And, because I patched her after she was jointed and finished, there are necessarily areas where the white cotton shows - particularly around the joints.

I don't think that's a problem for her though: she is an 'odd'-looking bear - I think that's just part of her character. It is nice to create something that looks (and indeed, is) a bit experimental. We'll see if anyone likes her. In the meantime, it's onto the proper leaning-back panda!

Stuff

2011-09-05T21:22:00.001+01:00

After living in a house full of kids for over a month... my new tune:

A couple of days ago, I received an order of manufactured soft toys. There is some really lovely stuff - old-fashioned characters like Paddington, Peter Rabbit, and Miffy, along with Elmer the Elephant, which is really really cute. Mind you, I always feel guilty buying in things. I took them to the Art & Craft Centre today to stock the shelves. It looks great - really full and colourful - but the ratio of manufactured : hand-made has definitely tilted the wrong way. I need to get busy again. On the plus side, the one weird owl I have left, and my union jack mammoth and hanging bears, all came alive in such colourful company. They looked wonderful!

Anyway, I haven't really got anything to post, I just wanted to show this video, if I can get it to work. We had our annual village show last weekend, and because we have a massive village green, lots of dedicated kite flying hobbyists come with their biggest and most fabulous kites. And look what we saw (cheers Austen):

Gus

2011-09-02T11:46:00.000+01:00

How does this sound: "Gus... is-the-polar-bear... at the theatre door..." Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum-dum dum, dum-dum!

This design has been giving me fits. It is the same pattern as the bear in this post. I spent ages trying to get the head shape right. Then, when I'd finished the bear, I had a clear-up (always a mistake) and somehow managed to throw away most of the pattern pieces. There were a few bits of the head pattern left, so I redrew the body pattern, and the remaining part of the head, and made this bear. Vinnie's head was much wider, for some reason, and now I've made Gus and his head is much wider too.

It could, of course, be that the redrawn pattern wasn't identical to the first one. I'm wondering though... the first bear, Phut, was made in a very thin sparse mohiar, whereas both Vinnie and Gus have very thick pile coats. The plucking of the muzzle means that the head loses breadth, whilst still retaining it's width - maybe that is what is causing the difference in shape.

Before I made Gus, I sewed a muslin mock-up, just to check the design, and that face seemed more like the original. Maybe using a thinner fabric would give a better face shape.

Restoration: Jarvis

2011-08-29T11:21:00.007+01:00

A long time ago, I started buying sad, weary old teddy bears on Ebay, with the intention of restoring them. I've never tried to restore an old bear before but I figured that making bears myself should give me some kind of heads up. Well, they all sat on a shelf for - oooh, it must have been at least a year, probably more like two or three.

I have been watching the blog of the lovely Polly - of Pud Bears and Friends. Her own bears are lovely, but recently she has been showing some of the old mohair bears and dogs she has restored. They are gorgeous! Reading her discussions about it, and seeing what great results she gets, has given me a poke in the right direction. I tried to pick a bear that needed quite simple repairs - Jarvis (who I think is a Chiltern). He had a baggy, saggy body, and his limbs seemed to be almost completely without stuffing - they were just flat. He also had holes to the paw pads of his hands, and his nose needed restitching.

I made several major mistakes along the way, unfortunately - one of which was that I forgot to take 'before' photographs. Blast! So all the pictures here are of him after my amateurish attempts at restoration. You'll have to take my word for it that he looked much worse before!

I started out by opening the seam at the back. At some point in the past, it had come open and been quite badly resewn. It looked like his body was originally filled with kapok - with wood wool at the top and base. The wood wool was in quite good condition, but the kapok had completely disintegrated into billions of tiny, dusty little particles! It was very difficult to get out, and someone knocked on the door midway, so I had to go and answer it with grey eyebrows!

His joints were cotter pin, but made with long nails, bent into an 's' shape on the inside. The hardboard disk looked rather worn, but I decided not to try to remove them, since I think that particularly type of joint (with the nail) dates him to a particular period in history.

Instead, I opened the top of the arms, removed the stuffing (another kapok nightmare, but with wood wool at the top of each limb), and then turned them as far inside out as I could, given the joint. I removed the stitches holding the paw pad (weirdly, they seemed quite sticky - something like beeswax, or just age?), traced the shape of the pad and then cut a new one in dark brown plush fabric. Re-sew, turn right side out, fill with polyester stuffing, and ladder stitch the top.

I'm a little worried about this. The paw pads - in addition to the holes - were faded almost white. I have read somewhere though that you should just patch the holes - leaving the original in place. It makes sense: obviously if you take out all his original features, he will lose much of his vintage charm. In this case though, I do think the paw pads were too far gone to patch.

I made a big mistake with the paw pads to the hands. There was a hole to the back of one hand, and since it was right near the edge and I didn't have anything to patch it with, I decided to simply sew round the hole. The result is that it looks like he has a bite out of one paw - poor thing! Note to self: always patch the holes.

His legs were also baggy and flat, so I changed their stuffing too. I decided not to redo his foot pads - they are faded, but with no holes. Interestingly, his legs are cut completely flat at the top, and the corners are just tucked in when the seam is closed.

Another strange feature was that, in his back, just above the open seam, there were a number of threads, criss-crossing back and forth over the seam, with long trailing ends dangling into the body. The ends were not attached to anything, but when I opened the arm and leg seams, there were further trailing threads, so I'm thinking the threads started at the back of neck and were threaded through to each of the limbs. Erm... why? I haven't quite figured this one out yet - if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Anyway, I restuffed the body and limbs, and sewed up all the openings. I resewed a hole in his bottom seam(!) and then noticed a little hole to his chest - not on the seam. Note to self: always patch holes.

His nose was a bit of a mess, so I decided to remove that before putting on a new one. That, I think, was another mistake. Not only was it really difficult to remove, leaving big holes, but it was very difficult to restitch. I started out with thick black wood, but that looked far too ungainly. Then I tried a black felt template sewn on - over which I was going to stitch in ordinary Perle cotton. No matter how much I tried though, I could not get the shape of the template right.

Eventually I just embroidered it in Perle cotton. It is a little wonky (I don't usually embroidered my bears' noses), and I think it should be a little taller - from top to bottom - but it's not too far away from the original. If I do this again, I think I will leave the remenants of the original nose in place, and simply stitch over it.

I then tried to give him a bath. I think with mohair, you're meant to stick to surface washing, but he was (is) quite grubby, so I practically soaked him, with a cloth. I used washing up liquid and tried scrubbing him lightly with an old tooth brush. As far as the actual fabric goes, it wasn't successful - those stains won't shift. His last remenants of fur though came up as a lovely fluffy blonde fuzz!

So I think that's about it. One of his ears is coming out of the head seam slightly, so I will sew that down. I'm also considering a little patch to the hole on his chest. My mother has promised to knit him a cardigan - since clothes are meant to be one of the best ways of preserving old bears.

Another concern I had about this was stuffing him with polyester. It seems rather inauthentic. However, the alternative would have been kapok - which presumably would have disintegrated again at some point. I could have replaced the wood wool, but I didn't. On the one hand, I think the soft polyester is far more forgiving to the vintage fabric (he's an old man now - he deserves to be able to relax a little bit!); on the other hand, again, the wood wool would be far more authentic. I don't know.

I do think that I've managed to retain his original character though. He may not look - without the 'before' pics - as if he's had much done, but in some ways that's a good thing. It would be unfortunate if he looked completely different at the end of the entire process.

Once his jumper is finished, I will list him on Ebay to see if anyone's interested. Hopefully I can explain everything I've done to him much more briefly there!

DGBVintage

2011-08-26T23:12:00.003+01:00

For some reason, I haven't tended to write much about the vintage side of things on here. I guess I struggle to focus on two different things at once: when I'm making bears, the vintage site always suffers, and vice versa. I have been focusing heavily on the bears recently and have let the other website slide.

It's still something I enjoy though: it's all part of the same thing to me - an interest in fabric, design and construction.

I haven't changed the front page of the vintage website for a long time, so I've been faffing around in Paintshop Pro tonight. This is what I came up with...

It looks like a bit of a mish-mash, doesn't it? I guess I was thinking of holidays and postcards, which is where the hand-writing (and the kisses!) came in. I always have this problem with front page layouts - I'm not commercially-minded enough to come up with a strong advertising message; I just do something pretty.

Ah well, that's my vintage post for this year - I will be back to bears tomorrow!

Erik

2011-08-25T18:49:00.000+01:00

Meet Erik - with a 'k' - Eric, the Viking mammoth! I have actually made a mammoth very similar to this before, but he found a home before I could get photographs of him. The furry mammoths are really sweet (although this one actually manages to look a bit ferocious in the first pic). The only problem is that it's difficult to sew the tusks on with such thick fur.

I did hit on an alternative idea - although it was too late to make for this one. I was thinking of a little Viking hat - you know, with the steel side-burns, and the bit going down the nose, and the horns on each side. That would save me from having to sewn horns onto that fur. Next time.

Maureen the Mammoth

2011-08-23T17:39:00.000+01:00

I was asked to make a mammoth out of a darker floral fabric, so it could sit on the floor and hold doors open, without looking grubby. I had a terrible job trying to find floral fabric with a dark background! Eventually, I bought a vintage dress - a sort of 1980s prom-style dress, but in cotton, with a widely flared skirt. I have to say I like Maureen better than I did the dress - which is good news - but I'll need to find something else to use the fabric for, since there's rather a lot of it (t'was a very flared skirt).

It was rather tricky trying to figure out where the flowers should go. It's a large print, so I was trying to place the pieces so as much of each flower as possible was visible. I'm still not convinced that was the right decision, since she's ended up with one big flower on her left-hand side and one big flower on her right-hand side. Perhaps a little too symmetrical? I do like the one white ear though, and the collection of little purple flowers to her forehead.

I also tried to cut the pieces so she had a clear patch of navy blue where her eyes would go. It looks good I think, but the black eyes against the navy needed something to make them show up. So I gave her eye whites, which means she looks up too - appropriate if she's standing on the floor.

Hopefully, she will be liked!

Fern

2011-08-19T16:22:00.001+01:00

Another little mini bear, called Fern. She is the same design as Esmerelda, in my last post.

There is a slight frown there, isn't there - I think it must be the fur falling over the eyes.

I seem to have barely had time to think this month. My sister and her family are staying with us whilst they sell their house and fight their way through the process of buying a new one. They have two kids already, and she has just had twins. It is lovely having them so close, but the house is frequently in uproar, and it's very difficult to concentrate on work.

Anyway, I was reading a vintage teddy bear magazine the other day - The Wonderful World of Teddy Bears - and I came across an article about bear artist Julie Shepherd. I know of her because she writes articles for Teddy Bear Times magazine now. Anyway, according to this article - this vintage article I was reading - Julie Shepherd considers herself a hobbyist (or did at the time) and makes only a small number of bears: "on average, not more than three or four a week".

Three or four a week!!!

It rather puts my two-a-week target to shame - particularly since this is what I consider to be my 'job'. Having said that, I have been finding that I am getting faster at making bears. My two owls (see here), I made both in one day, and Esmerelda - from the last post - was made in just one day also. The trick, I think, is to be organized: I frequently have to stop in the middle of bear-making because I find I don't have enough of the right size joints, or eyes.

Having abandoned my quest for every bear to be complete unique and original in design also helps - although I hope the bears I make still look quite individual.

From here on in though, the target is a minimum (a bear minimum, no less) of four bears a week!

Esmerelda

2011-08-17T08:28:00.000+01:00

Must make more mini bears... must make more mini bears... This is the first one, a little bear called Esmerelda - measuring 8 inches in total, from ears to toes, and 6.5 inches in her natural sitting position. Sorry, just a really quick post - off to work now!

Strange little birds

2011-08-14T08:10:00.002+01:00

I'm not sure if these work or not. I've been wanting to make an owl for quite a long time now, and these are they. They've actually turned out as planned (for once), but I'm not really convinced they look like owls specifically (as opposed to just 'birds'). Many representations of owls seem to have a sort of 'v' above the eyes - a sort of horn-rimmed glasses look. On these birds though, that destroyed the innocent, boggle-eyed impression - it gave them a vicious frown - so I decided to leave it.

They are made from two wool jumpers, which somebody tried to wash at too high a temperature, and they felted. The eyeballs are white cashmere; the eyes are plastic locking eyes; the beaks are clay. They each have a bag of steel shot in their bottom, so I thought I could probably market them as paperweights.

I also wanted to post these - I'm having a bit of a Pogues thing at the moment. These two songs are from their first album.

Updates

2011-08-08T19:57:00.000+01:00

A few updates, since I haven't posted for a while. First off, I made some wings for the hanging bears...

Does that work? It's not a great photo, and I'm not sure they don't look even more macarbre against the church window, but actually I do like them like that, and I think they'd look great against a cleaner, more well lit background.

Sales have been really good recently. I sold Frank - my big union jack mammoth - and somebody asked me to make another one for them(!) Since he was so striking, and made such a big impact in the unit, I made two...

They are really lovely. Unfortunately, the big mammoths take so much time to stuff (and so much stuffing to stuff), that I can't really say they're fun to make.

I have also found homes for quite a few of the mini bears I made for the Clare Priory show (I really need to make some more), and today, Benjamin too found a home! I was actually working at the Art & Craft Centre when someone carried him up to the desk. I was so chuffed, I was completely dumbstruck - I don't think I said a word to them the entire time!

Having packed him off, I then looked around for something to buy - in celebration(!) - which is silly because the money goes straight towards paying the rent for my unit. Anyway, so I had a silly moment and bought this...

Is this really pretty and eye-catching, or is it cheap and tacky? It was certainly cheap (it wasn't that silly a moment!), but is it tacky? I seriously have no idea, but I like it anyway. It does make typing rather clunky and clumsy, but it's very pretty all the same.

One final thing to add to this strange round-up of completely different things: Tracey Hill - a photographer who's had a unit at the Art & Craft Centre for a little while - is leaving. I worked with her for a little while. She is really lovely, and her work is beautiful, so please take a look at her website, and if you live in the South East and you need a photographer, do get in touch with her.

Sky blue mammoth

2011-08-02T13:33:00.001+01:00

You know that thing where you know just a little bit of a tune, but you don't know what it is, or where you remember it from? Well, I recently managed to put a name to another tune...

What a great piece of music! Anyway, I really dropped in to show some picturs of my new mammoth. I found some lovely cloudy blue fabric with little birds printed across it.

And he has wings!

I'm still not completely happy with the wings - they look a little bit like cornish pasties, laid end to end. But this is the fourth attempt and they look far, far better than the first ones I tried! I will make a few smaller pairs and try them on the little bears of the last post. Somebody said to me recently that they looked a bit macabre(!) I hadn't been thinking about them like that at all, but maybe the wings would prevent any confusion...

New bears

2011-07-30T08:32:00.001+01:00

A quick post before I rush off to work - how do you like the new bears? These were the ones that were going to have wings, but in the end it didn't seem to suit. They are made from a sort of brushed cotton, and dyed with coffee (the fabric was originally a really bright yellow). They have cashmere muzzles. The legs are sewn on, but the arms are string-jointed. The whole bear is about 12.5 inches.

I am actually really chuffed with them - although there are several things I'm not sure about. The wisdom of unjointed legs? The fishing line threaded through the little points on the top of their heads? And of course, the not-suitable-for children-thing. If you saw these in a shop, wouldn't you think it was some kind of child's mobile?

Anyway, I thought they were quite nice. Even nicer was the fact that I really got my nose to the grindstone yesterday, and made two of them in one day! Very chuffed.

Open edition bear

2011-07-26T18:55:00.001+01:00

It seems like a long time since I last posted. I have made three mammoths and two small bears since I last posted, but the taking of photographs has been delayed somewhat. However, I did manage to get photos of one of the bears this morning. It is the Merrythought Cheeky-inspired design...

This one is called Boyd.

As might be obvious by now - my having made quite a few of these - I have decided to make this into an open edition bear. I love the design: it has the right combination of simplicity, character and happiness.

In the meantime, my bear-with-wings has become a bear-without-wings, but he does look quite cute all the same! I am hoping to make another two the same, so I can make a display out of them. Hopefully, I will be back with pictures soon.

Thomas

2011-07-15T13:37:00.001+01:00

Since the craft fair at Clare Priory, I've decided that small bears are the way to go. I will still make big bears, but I'm thinking that I will make fewer of them, and they will all be one of a kind, whereas my smaller bears will be less unique (although still looking different). The craft fair has also reinforced my determination to come up with more new designs this year. I am working on one now - hopefully my first bear with wings!

Anyway, in the meantime, I have a little cashmere panda to show you...

More thoughts on the craft fair...

2011-07-12T21:32:00.002+01:00

I have been thinking some more about the craft fair we did at the weekend. As I said, it really affected my view on both making and selling bears. These are some of the things I have been considering.

At the Art & Craft Centre where I have the bears, I only have to be there one day a week. On other days, the pay desk is manned by other unit holders, doing their one day a week. I've always considered this to be a big advantage - a) because it means I can stay at home and work on new bears, b) because I'm not good at selling bears - they always seem to sell better when I'm not there(!) This craft fair has shown the disadvantages of this set up though. Sitting there, trying to sell bears face-to-face ('trying' being the ever-present, operative word here), I found out a lot more about what people like, what they thought of the prices, etc - I got a lot more consumer feedback than I do at the Art & Craft Centre. The mammoths, for example, were really popular, as were the little, blonde, Cheeky-style bears. As for the tiny, string-jointed bears, hanging from a ribbon, almost everybody who came to look at my stall picked them up. I did sell some: the problem seemed to be that they weren't sufficiently bear-like. One lady thought they were bats! In contrast, at the Art & Craft Centre, my only measure of the popularity of the designs, is when they sell - and since the expensive mohair bears sell so seldom, that isn't much help at all.
I find it very difficult trying to launch into a teddy-bear-related conversation with complete strangers, who may - very likely - have no interest in teddy bears whatsoever. I was also worried about the awkwardness of 'signing-off' conversations with people who weren't interested. I can see myself describing the way the bears are made, and the customer saying, "Right - well, bye then!" In fact, I didn't pluck that out of thin air: I think I have seen that happen before (although not in relation to bears - I've never been quite brave enough to create that kind of sales situation). I was determined to have at go at Clare Priory though, and actually, people did seem to warm to my conversational attempts. In some cases, it was almost as though they liked the bears, but didn't quite have the impetus to buy one. My stumbling explanations of inspiration and method were the prod they needed (maybe I just bored them into it). There were a few awkward moments, but no one seemed to mind. And I guess I didn't, after a while: having somebody want to buy something you've made yourself is a really lovely feeling!
Teddy bear names tend to be a bit of an afterthought for me, and in fact, with my mammoths and the limited edition bears, I've never bothered to name them. I thought I would try naming everything for Clare Priory though, and actually it made a big difference. In a few cases, it was almost like people bought bears on the basis of the names. Certainly everyone checked the names before they bought the bear. At one point, in the afternoon, a lady returned to the stall to see if Celia was still there. I was standing there thinking, "Oh God, who the heck is Celia!" Clearly though, names are important.
Another way in which people chose the bear they wanted to buy, was by expression. I've seen this before actually, at teddy bear fairs, but my interest - in making teddy bears - has tended to be in their shape; the physical design. The face, to me, is almost like window dressing. I had customers pick up each bear, one at a time, though, and consider their expressions. And interestingly, the bears made in my panda design - which do look quite sad and droopy - were probably the design I sold the fewest of. So more attention to expression please!
The final point regards pricing. I dropped all the prices for the craft show, and clearly it made a difference. What was very, very noticeable though, was that none of the people I spoke to seemed to place any importance on the fact that the bears were made out of mohair. I love mohair! I am a mohair addict. Thinking about it though, the advantages of mohair are mostly to do with the making process - it is just simply the best fabric to work with. From the buyer's point of view though, there are plenty of much more lustrous, tactile, faux furs. Mohair is meant to last much longer, but this doesn't seem to be something that strikes people very hard when they are actually buying the bear. Maybe it is different with teddy bear collectors, but for non-collectors (which is mostly the people I deal with), they don't seem to see any benefit to the fact that the bear is made out of mohair. So, why use it? It is very difficult to find other fabrics which do the same job. You do get faux furs with a woven, rather than a knit, backing (the latter is too stretchy to achieve any defined shape with), but these are almost as expensive as mohair. Clearly though, I ought to be putting more effort into sourcing alternative fabrics. If I could find some, it would cut down the cost price of the bears considerably. The other point, with regard to price, is that perhaps I should be cutting the 'time' element out of the pricing equation. If a bear takes me a couple of days to make, I am loathe to sell if for less than, e.g. £30. But I am not the fastest of bear-makers. It has never been an issue for me to make as fast as possible: to me, it takes a little thought, a little consideration, which can't be rushed. For those designs which I make repeatedly though - like the mammoths - I should be able to work faster. Certainly, with practice I should get faster. But in the meantime, I can't charge people for my slow work.

So, there it is - my new direction! I need to try to sell more face-to-face, and talk to the people who look at the bears in the Art & Craft Centre. I need to name everything, and put more work into expressions. And I need to source alternatives to mohair, and price purely on the basis of materials, without too much consideration of the time each bear takes to make.

Fingers crossed - lets see what happens!

Smiley face!

2011-07-11T10:45:00.002+01:00

Following on the theme of random body parts which express how I feel about craft fairs (see previous post), the title of this post was either going to be 'Burnt Fingers' or 'Smiley Face'. Luckily it's the latter.

Over the two days, we sold nine items - seven bears and two mammoths. For someone who mostly only ever sells one bear per fair (if she's lucky), that's pretty good. Here are the lucky ones who found homes...

And actually, thinking about it, we must have sold ten items - because there was also the bear with the butterflies, which didn't quite turn out as I wanted him to. He was one of the first to go though.

Clare Priory was lovely. I never quite figured out exactly how it all worked, but in addition to having this gorgeous old historical building, there were monks walking around, and a shrine that we went past everytime we had to rush out to the loo. Opening on the Sunday was delayed until the church service was over - so it wasn't just a big, touristy event; it had a very strong local and historical feel to it.

The Priory had all these lovely walled gardens surrounding it, in which most of the craft stalls were placed. There were three big marquees, and then lots of small gazebos pitched around them.

And there were a lot more crafts - as opposed to bought-in stuff - than you find at a lot of craft fairs. Favourites were the teddy bears (Valerie Noy - the lady who rents space in my unit - was there, with an enormous collection of bears), the Embar pottery stall, the toadstool stand, the button jewellery, the place selling herbs, the bloke making wicker baskets and bird houses, the kids' painting area (we had my niece and nephew there), and my mother bought a leather case for her blackberry which was really lovely! There was also somebody doing what I think were sculptures made in resin(?) - in particular, a big giraffe with a sort of painted patchwork look about him. I didn't buy anything, although I was sorely tempted, but my family did.

It was actually quite interesting being there, selling face to face, and in some ways it has changed my attitude towards making teddy bears. Anyway, I will talk about that later - in the meantime, I've got loads of clearing up, and catching up to do!

Freezing feet!

2011-07-08T21:50:00.001+01:00

We went to set up our stall at the Clare Priory Craft Fair this afternoon. Gorgeous building; beautiful grounds; great atmosphere - even just among the few stall holders setting up tents - but my knees are starting to knock anyway.

I think I will look a little out of place - i seem to have only a quarter of the amount of stock that other people have. We have a gazebo the same as everyone else, but we have a table at the front, stacked with stuff. Other people have stuff stacked on the table, hung on the walls, side tables filled with stuff, boxes of extra stuff stacked up at the back...! I think we are going to feel a little amateur.

Anyway, I have had all the pep talks - from myself and other people. I'm going to make eye contact, smile at people, talk about the weather, compliment them on some aspect of their appearance, make a fuss of their dogs and then, somehow(!), slide seamlessly from that to talking about teddy bears. As opposed to hiding behind the stall and refusing to come out!

I am not optimistic, but I am going to have a go. What worries me is that - whilst you can try to launch a conversation with someone who is standing at your table, looking at your wares, how do you do so when no one approaches your stall?

*Sigh*

Usually I'd say - if it stresses you out so much, don't do it; there must be some other way - but I'm coming to the conclusion that, no matter what you make and how good it is, if you don't put yourself out to sell it, you won't get anywhere. So here goes...

I just wanted to show a few more of the bears I have made for the craft fair...

My favourite is the yellow bear - the middle picture. He is imperfect, but it is the expression that gets me. Beneath those jowels, he has a sheepish little smile! Anyway, wish me luck; I'll let you know how it goes.

Craft fair update

2011-07-03T21:36:00.003+01:00

Wow! I'm not exactly sure what I did, and how I did it, but I think there was some kind of update involved. Anyway, now my pictures are so much bigger, and they don't have those annoying borders round them. It's fabulous! The question is, do I go back and alter all previous pictures?

I haven't posted for a while, so I just wanted to update. I have been working hard, but I'm still not nearly ready, and the craft fair is next weekend. I suppose I can always raid the Art & Craft Centre for bears to fill any gaps, but I really, really wanted to take stock that was entirely new.

I wobbled a bit for a little while - struggling for new designs. Then I thought, this is ridiculous - it can take several weeks minimum to come up with a new design I'm happy with. There's no way I have the time to create several of them before the craft fair. So I'm taking a different tack and using it to sort of look back on the most successful designs. Or as many of those as I can make in a week anyway! The first of these is the panda design. I have made four small bears, but the fourth is not very good, so I'm not showing it here(!) and I won't take it unless I desperately need something to fill space. And then I'll sit him behind a taller bear.

But these are the three good bears, anyway.

I'm currently working on five mini bears in what I have called my 'hoof' design - hopefully they'll be finished tomorrow. Then I would like to make another antique-style polar bear, because that design turned out really well. I would like to make some smaller things - the kind of stuff you can buy with a couple of quid in your pocket - but I'm out of inspiration (and time).

Bear designing - step by step

2011-06-25T15:06:00.056+01:00

Okay, got a day on the desk at the Art & Craft Centre; not many people about; internet connection up and running - what better time to create the truely massive, picture-heavy post about the development of my latest panda design! Skip this one if you're not interested....

I always start - particularly with realistic bears - by looking at photographs, and sketching and describing the shapes. This helps me to work out what the pattern pieces should look like.

The face shape of pandas is very different from that of other bears - in fact, it tends to look different depending on which angle you look at it from. I think probably the best description of it - with regard to making a replica - is as a wide circular disc, with the muzzle and forehead built on top.

Here, I've just drawn a roughly panda-face-shaped piece - cut two and sewn them together and stuffed them.

Pandas have a large central bump to their forehead. I've started here by cutting a circle and darting it at quarterly intervals. It has turned out to be far too big a lump though, so I think I'm going to have to try something else.

Here, I've switched to a two-piece pattern with a subtly curved centre seam. My first attempt at this had a dart in it, but this flattened it far too much, so I've done it again without the dart.

This is what it looks like pinned onto the face frame. It still looks a little flat...

Now it's too pointy!

This is a better shape. And when sewn into place onto the face frame, it looks... like some awful gigantic growth! But designs often look quite awful in their half-finished state - press on! The next step is the muzzle.

This has two side sections, which join along the top, and a gusset underneath. It is too beaky though. It needs to be broader and squarer.

This is better. Looking at the profile picture though, the top of the muzzle needs to slope more - and possibly the underside of the bump should also be shallower: there's far too sharp an angle between the two. The end of the muzzle is too square, and the whole face just has far too many sharp edges. This could be solved by combining the head bump and the muzzle into one.

I love this shape! This is the perfect panda, to me!

The one thing that is worrying me is the flatness of the back of the head. I'm wondering whether I should alter the face frame to include more bulk there. However, I think possibly - looking at the photos - a panda's neck starts from the top of the back of its head. In other words, there is no 'back of the head'. So the next step is the neck.

I start with a basic triangular pattern - curved along the outer edge. Despite my precise measurements, for some reason it turned out to be far too big. So much trimming... and this is what I came up with. It's not bad - but there's a bump at the top which shouldn't be there.

I've come across a bigger problem here though: although this bear isn't the biggest I've ever made, because pandas seem to have proportionally bigger necks than other bears, the circular disc at the base of the neck is 100mm in diameter. Commercially, joint discs are only made up to 88mm. Either I need to reduce all the pattern pieces, so I can use a smaller joint, or I'm wondering if perhaps I can have larger joint discs made?

I think I might make some foam board joint discs, just to use in the prototype. Even if I can't get bigger joints, and have to reduce all the pattern pieces for the finished version, I find it easier to work with big bears.

Second attempt: this is he with the circular disc, and the foam board joint, inserted into the base of the neck. There are several problems here: one is the gap under the chin, which shouldn't be there. The other is that - when viewed from the back - the neck seems to taper towards the base. Really, it should be wider at the base.

This is better: I have removed the gap under the chin by sewing the circular disc at the base of the neck directly to the chin. He does look like he's studying his toes in that first picture, but I think this is probably just due to the looseness of the pins. Once the neck is sewn securely to the back of the head, I think the angle of the head will be better.

I also widened the base slightly (it is now 120mm in diameter), and it does look a lot better from the back.

The next step is the body. Again, much drawing and describing to try to get a handle on the exact shape. Basically, the panda photos that I have been looking at show short, wide bodies. And they have a distinctively slouchy look - almost as though the top half of the body is upright, but the lower half is horizontal. To illustrate, when you see, e.g. an American black bear sitting down, his tail trails behind him. When you see a panda sitting, his tail is in front of him - almost as if he were lying on his back.

Anyway, ignoring the [inconvenient] question of how the legs are going to attach, the real question here is how to create that half-horizontal body shape.

I'm going to try it with a two piece back - since I think most of the shape is there. The stomach is a single piece. I've sewn them together here. There are wrinkles in his bottom though, which need to be dealt with - I think I need to remove some of the fabric there.

Take two: I've removed some of the fabric from the bottom. This is more like the shape I'm looking for - sort of... The trouble is, it doesn't sit up on its own - hence why it's leaning against the bird food tub. It does look rather like a sack of potatoes.

The lower half isn't horizontal enough. A dart across the stomach will help.

This is really painful! I finished this last night, and went to bed very depressed - thinking it looked terrible. This morning though, looking at it, there are problems but there are definitely good points too. I like the shape in profile - that dart across the stomach is right, I think.

With regard to the negative points, the body is too big in proportion to the head. And it doesn't look good from the front. Really the body should look triangular - narrower at the top than at the bottom. I'm going to try darting the shoulders to make him narrower at the top.

I took the body pieces apart completely, and lopped a chunk off the top of each, so he's now shorter. It does look better. The stomach dart is creating some horrible wrinkles at the sides though, and the shoulder darts have done nothing at all to narrow the body at the top.

When I took the pieces apart, it was quite noticeable that the stomach pattern was wider at the top than at the base. This is because of the circumference of the neck. However, in fitting the neck disc to the body last time, the body did seem too wide at the top, so I'm going to start over with the stomach piece, re-drawing it so it tapers at the top.

Big step forward! The tapering at the neck is about right here, I think.

A couple of problems: for one thing, the body still doesn't sit up on its own. Also, the stomach, at the front, lifts off the table just slightly. I'm going to try adding some more fabric to the bottom, to prop it up a bit more at the back. Also, a dart underneath, to flatten it, and maybe a little more fabric at the front, beneath the edge of the stomach, to make it drop a little.

Bleh! One step forward, too steps back! This is awful. The body does sit up on it's own now, but the wrinkles are horrible. This looks like a gigantic wrinkled foot! I think I need to go back to the last step.

Okay, I've taken out the dart underneath - which I think is what was causing all the wrinkles - and the extra fabric to the edge of the stomach. All I've kept from the last step is the added fabric to the bottom. And I think I'm back on track. I like this - particularly the chimmney pot shape to the neck.

Hmmm. I like this from the side, but there's still something going wrong with the front view. The face still looks too small in proportion to the body. I think what really annoys me is the fact that you can see the neck joint beneath his chin. In photos of real pandas, the big face seems to block out the view of much of the neck and shoulders.

So, perhaps a bigger face?

Oh God - I don't like this at all!

The first two pictures are where the neck is pinned quite high on the head. The result is that he looks up rather, so I tried pinning the neck lower down (see second two pics). The angle is better, and in profile it looks alright-ish. The front view is terrible though; the face looks incredibly round and moon-like, with a tiny skinny neck beneath!

It does conceal the neck joint though.

I'm really not sure what to do now: my favourite photo is the profile pic in the previous step - but the front view of that version is all wrong.

But this larger face doesn't seem to work either. Looking at realistic pictures of panda, they have wide faces, but the shoulders are wider still than the face. Putting arms on this panda will balance out the neck slightly, but there's no way they're going to be bulky enough to be wider than the face.

What to do?

I have to admit actually, I'm sitting here typing, and the panda prototype is sitting next to me. He's looking at me (or he would be if he had eyes), and from a certain angle, there is something kind of endearing about him.

This is the trouble: if I spend too long with a prototype bear, faulty as it may be, it starts to speak to me; I start seeing the little ursine character in it.

Okay, I think I'm going to continue with the larger face. For one thing, I've already spent several days on the body, and I'm so tired of it. Secondly, I'm hoping the reason that he doesn't look right is that he has no arms or legs. Let's face it, no one looks great in that state. If it still looks bad once I've added the limbs, I'll revisit the head/body proportions and see if I can't come up with another solution.

In the meantime, onto the legs.

Look at those long legs! They have to be unjointed - simply because there's nowhere to put joints. The body has funny front corners, and legs jointed behind the corners would stick straight out sideways. Here, I've taken a standard leg pattern, that I've used before, flattened it at the top and then cut away fabric from the inside to draw the leg inwards. It fits nicely over the front corner of the body.

It needs to be much shorter, obviously, but otherwise, I think this might work.

I've just finished two shorter legs (just before the light disappears completely). Tomorrow, I'll sew them on and stuff them. I can't believe I managed to get it moreorless right the first time, after all that faff with the body. Such a relief!

Ta da! I love this - so cool, so nonchalant. The only down side for me is that he's no longer looking very realistic - he's looking a bit Baloo-like. I think part of the problem is that the legs go out sideways. Looking at pictures of real pandas, they have very strange legs - short and flat, and sticking straight forward - often looking rather piddly in proportion to the rest of the body.

I don't think I can do that on this body pattern though. Apart from anything else, he needs his legs that way for stability - they are creating a sort of tripod effect.

I will go with this. Maybe I might have to give up on the 'realistic' theme - but I think he is going to be a fantastic panda all the same.

Mmmm. My first attempt at the arms. That photo on the left is actually what I was aiming for - although the arm looks like it's pinned on upside down. The idea was that the arm followed the line of the body - going down the side, then out over the stomach, with the wrist hanging vertically over the edge of it.

It doesn't work though. Then, just because I was a bit stumped, I tried it the other way up, and actually it doesn't look too bad. It needs to be longer, and if I can find a way to turn the wrist a little, so the hand doesn't stick straight up like that, it would be a big improvement.

This is perfect. I have lengthened the arms, and rounded them out a little, and then cut them off at the wrists, and re-sewn them at an angle. They don't sit perfectly against the body, but well enough.

Ideally, I guess, I would have had weighted, unjointed arms, so I could make them much bulkier at the shoulder and heavier against the body. I don't think I could get away with a completely unjointed bear though.

This is good though! He looks casual but alert (it's the ears, I think, sitting bolt upright).

So, that is the long, drawn-out story of Benjamin the panda! Click here to see how he turned out.

Leaflet

2011-06-24T08:34:00.005+01:00

I was working at the Art & Craft Centre a little while ago with someone who's much more clued up about the business side of things than I am. I was telling her about the leaflet idea. She said, firstly, that all I needed for a leaflet was a couple of good photographs and a block of text, explaining the process. Secondly, that producing booklets containing 40-odd colour photographs would turn out to be very expensive.

Given that I've spent several days struggling with this blasted leaflet, this conversation put a bit of a damper on things. On the other hand, I'm really glad I talked to her about it: she's right, and she's probably saved me from spending a lot of time and money going in completely the wrong direction (thankyou Tracey!).

Having had this conversation, the more I think about it the more the booklet I'd planned seems completely wrong for the intended audience. And come to that, who would be a good audience for such a booklet? The original intention was to explain why the bears are so expensive, but writing a small book in order to do this is like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. In fact, it's like missing the walnut entirely.

People who are looking for a £4.99 teddy bear, pick up one of mine, and express shock over the price tag, are probably not going to be interested in such a booklet.

People who like the bears and buy one as a gift might be vaguely interested - but it would still probably be far too much information: they would be equally happy (if not happier) with a one-page leaflet which dealt with the subject more succinctly.

The only people who might possibly find anything interesting in such an exhaustive account are those who design and make teddy bears themselves - a limited market, particularly among the customers at the Art & Craft Centre.

So, definitely no booklet.

I am still considering the idea of putting the photographs together in a folder, and leaving it in the unit for people to look at if they want to (this was my pet idea - it's kinda hard to let go of it completely!). This would cover all my bets, without being too expensive. I would also find out exactly how interested people are in the process. If it's a bad idea, it won't do any harm.

I'll probably still post the photos on here too - you can always ignore that post if you're not interested!

In the meantime, I wanted to show you something I found on someone else's blog a little while ago. Do you remember I made the little wren from Abigail Patner Glassenberg's wonderful book, The Artful Bird? I wanted to go on and have a go at some bird designs of my own - but British birds. Well, someone has beaten me to it, and they are wonderful! I was reading the Domestic Sluttery blog the other day (click here) - a lovely blog, particularly good at finding quirky little independent web shops. Try for example, Present and Correct, Our Shop, and Re.

Anyway, one day they had a link to the work of Abigail Brown on The Make Lounge blog. Look at this:

Isn't that just so sweet! God, I wish I could take photos like that!

I would still like to have a go though - although it's the crow family that I would particularly like to make. It's still a way off at the moment though. I'm still working towards this show. I have made three little bears and am working on the fourth. They are finished: I am just contemplating embellishments. Hopefully I will have some pictures soon.

Enoch

2011-06-10T12:20:00.010+01:00

I'm going backwards and forwards here - another bird? Leaflets? Bears? Leaflets? - no, birds! Sometimes, there seem to be so many things I'd like to do that I end up sitting there dithering, not doing anything at all.

Luckily I managed to keep it together this time - so meet my new bear, Enoch! Is it me, or does the face bear more than a passing resemblance to that of a West Highland white terrier? This is actually the panda design (Benjamin), only smaller (12"), and not with panda colouring. Why, oh why, did I spend ages trying to come up with what I always thought of as a distinctly panda-ish shape, and then go and make a non-panda teddy bear out of it?!

I guess, if I'd been going for realism with Enoch, it wouldn't have worked - because this is a panda shape (or a Westie shape, if you prefer). It's because he's a character bear that it works.

Anyway, much as I need bears to fill the shelves in my unit at the Art & Craft Centre, I'm saving Enoch for the craft fair in July (God, its the 10th June already!!!).

Birds - part II

2011-06-07T12:51:00.012+01:00

Well, either you can't get the type of wire Glassenberg recommends, in the UK, or you can but it's called something else, and I've no hope of identifying it from a picture on the internet.

I sulked about this for a little while, and then I hit on another idea. The wire I used originally was manufactured in some complicated arrangement, wherein two length of it are encased in rubber tubing, and - along with another, slightly slimmer, piece of wire - are put together and encased again in rubber. I had to strip off both layers of rubber to get to the wire.

Anyway, I thought I'd try using the slimmer piece of wire. And it doesn't look too bad...

Maude rather fancied him too...

The next step was to wrap the wire legs and feet in floral tape. I admit I was a little dubious. I have never used floral tape before. To those of you in a similar situation, floral tape is like a thin, papery tape, with a slight stretch to it, that doesn't appear to have any 'stick' to it at all.

It works though. As Glassenberg explains, it is waxed, and as you work with it, the wax warms up and seals together. The only really noticeable indication of this is that, as you work, your fingers start to feel 'tacky'. In the meantime though, it is fairly easy to unstick and redo if something goes wrong in the process. Genius idea!

Unfortunately, we only had green tape, so here is my delicate little bird with his big swamp monster feet...

Tee hee!

I think I made the feet too big - which is why it looks like he is wearing green rubber gloves. These would be fabulous feet for an eagle though - or indeed, an owl.

Do we like this pattern? Yes - at least, I do. There are little things about it I would change - the shape of the head, the length and thickness of the neck, the inclusion of the outer wing pieces, the attachment of the tail. But the main body of this bird has a fantastic shape, and the wire legs - and particularly the floral tape - are a great idea.

I think I need to practice making small, delicate wren-feet, but before that, I'd like to try making an owl - for whom these big feet would be more appropriate.

Birds

2011-06-06T12:05:00.009+01:00

No progress on the leaflet yet, I'm afraid. I'm getting rather nervous about this craft fair: it's getting closer and closer and I'm not anywhere near ready.

One of the things I wanted to try making for the craft fair was birds. A while ago, I found a wonderful book by Abigail Patner Glassenberg (of the While She Naps blog - see sidebar). There are a number of patterns in the book, but perhaps the best thing about it is her explanations of the techniques used. I thought I would have a go at some of the patterns - the owl, in particular, is gorgeous - and then see if I could design some birds of my own.

Whilst I've been dithering over the leaflet, I decided to have a go at the most basic of the patterns - the wren, shown on the cover of the book.

I had difficulty sourcing the right kind of wire. Eventually, I just went into an electrical shop, and asked them for some 'very strong wire'. I think I went overboard though: it was very, very difficult to bend, and forming the small, delicate little feet proved impossible...

This is he without his beak, wings or tail.

Actually, I'm really chuffed with him(!) The body design is lovely, and even though it's only made in cotton, he's actually really tactile. Very, very sweet.

I have finally managed to source some of the recommended type of wire online, so I will order some and redo the legs of this bird.

What's worrying me about this is that the proper wire is presumably thinner, or at least much bendier, than the wire I'm using here. If I were to design a bird, and make him in this way, then put him in my unit at the Art & Craft Centre, I can almost guarantee that the next time I went in, he would be lying on the shelf with his wire legs bent at an unnatural angle.

The arrangement at the Centre is that, in taking a unit there, you are required to work one day a week on the desk, and one Sunday every couple of months. Although I go into the Centre more frequently than that - to clean, to restock, to tidy - I don't go in every day. So people tend to fiddle with the bears, or pick them up and put them down elsewhere, and not everybody is as careful as I would like them to be. The result is that often when I go into the Centre, it looks - either like the aftermath of a wild party, with the bears lying about drunkenly - or like a yoga class, where everyone's practicing 'the tree', 'the crab', or whatever.

Teddy bears are quite hardy creatures - although I have occasionally found bears without their ears (on one occasion, without his teeth) - but I am not sure a little bird would stand up to that kind of treatment.

When I first took a unit at the Centre, I did consider putting everything in glass cabinets. The problem is, if you don't put locks on the cabinets, people will just open them, and the problem persists. If you do put locks on them, on the other hand, the fact that they have to request assistance seems to put a lot of people off. Besides, I always thought of teddy bears as very tactile: people should be able to pick them up and stroke them, move the jointed limbs, examine the stitching, etc. You cut off that kind of contact if you use locked cabinets.

I guess I could have a glass cabinet just for birds. Or a few strongly-worded signs. Let's see how the legs turn out when made with the recommended type of wire, first.

Ta-da!

2011-06-02T12:15:00.014+01:00

Okay, he's not a Steve - he's a Benjamin. But at long last, he is finally finished. We had lots of things happening recently: family staying with us, computer problems... but I guess I was dragging my feet too: it always takes me a while to get used to new designs.

Anyway, the pictures. Being black and white, he was a pain to photograph. Here he is in a pink paper hat that my niece made for him. Definitely his best look, I think.

It was really difficult to get a good picture of his eyes - I could only get them by over-exposing the rest of his face.

Hasn't he got tiddly feet!

Anyway, now onto the leaflet - hopefully I will have some pictures to put up soon.

Panda update

2011-05-24T10:30:00.004+01:00

My prototype panda is finished! This is the plain cotton version I'm referring to: whether I can replicate the effect in mohair is another question entirely. I am very chuffed with this design, although I have had so long to get used to him that I am dangerously close to thinking he looks fabulous in plain cotton and doesn't need to be made in mohair!

He has not turned out to be as I expected. He definitely has realistic elements, but there is something quite unrealistically cute about him(!) But I guess that's teddy bears all over.

It has become quite a marathon, this panda-making project - although I am having a breather now, waiting for the fabric to arrive. Every time I go to work at the Art & Craft Centre, I see my sparse-looking unit and think, 'hmmm, I must get to work, and make some more bears to bring in'. I have done that now for two weeks on the trot - then home again, back to the slow, laborious task of piecing together my panda, and nothing gets made for the unit.

He is quite a chunky chap though: when he finally gets to the Centre, he will fill a large gap!

I am not sure what to do about the leaflet idea now. I have about forty photographs (almost as much work went into taking the photographs as into designing the bear), and I haven't even started on the actual 'making' bit yet! At this rate, it's going to be a book, rather than a leaflet. Maybe a 'look book' is a more practical idea though - a folder of annotated photos of the process, which stays in the unit, for customers to flip through. It does seem a shame not to give people something to take home: customers often ask if I have a leaflet or something. If they're buying it as a gift, they understandably want the recipient to see that a lot of work has gone into the making of that gift. I shall have to see if I can condense the whole thing.

I wrote a few weeks back (here) about different definitions of the concept of 'one of a kind', and something which seems to go hand in hand with this is different... uh... experiences of the pattern making process. Often, in the world of one of a kind teddy bears, it seems that everyone can simply imagine a teddy bear,and then put that design onto paper straight off. I'm sure there are plenty of very talented people who can do that, but I also think that this is partly an impression resulting from the fact that teddy bear makers don't talk/blog much about the long, messy process of putting a pattern together. Emphasis is often put on the hours that go into the details of the bear - the air brushing, the hair styling, the needle sculpting - but not the actual pattern making.

I'm not sure why this is - perhaps it's because bear makers are actually, in practice, more realistic than their marketing suggests, and don't often start completely afresh on a new design. Or maybe it's because nobody wants to destroy the magic of their gorgeous, beautifully finished bears by dredging up images of them in a less than perfect state... the first design attempt, where the bear has a pointy bottom, or a wrinkled muzzle - or, God forbid, doesn't look anything like a bear at all.

When I first started out though - and, to some extent, still now - I found it very intimidating. Coming up with workable patterns takes me dozens of attempts (well, dozens might be an exaggeration - but you know what I mean: lots of them) and what I was doing at home seemed a far cry from the way other bear makers described the pattern making process. Back then, the failure to get it right first time felt like incompetence.

As with the whole 'one of a kind' thing though, in recent years I have been reading blogs by people who create other forms of soft sculpture, and a number of them are particularly good in that they make plain the relatively extended, developmental nature of the process. It has given me confidence to see that people who are as good as they are - who produce such beautiful work - don't necessarily go from an idea to a perfect paper pattern in the blink of an eye.

Anyway, not without some trepidation, I have photographed each and every attempt at this panda - even those attempts which were complete rubbish. I might actually publish them on here, in addition to producing a leaflet. Although I might be guilty of it anyway, I wouldn't like this to be one of those blogs which was like, blah, blah, blah... ta da (new bear)! Blah, blah, blah... ta da (new bear)! As if the whole thing happened easily, without any swearing, hair tearing, and piles of unattended washing up.

Anyway! The fabric is on order, and when he is complete (he's a Steve, I think), I will post some pictures!

Panda design

2011-05-13T20:27:00.003+01:00

Helloooo! I haven't been able to post for the past couple of days (not that I've made anything to post) because we've had a computer virus. I was looking at panda pictures on Google, and suddenly a big sign came up, with a virus warning, and then Internet Explorer shut down.

It was incredibly crafty the way they did it! Immediately after Internet Explorer disappeared, the desktop icon for our regular anti-virus programme also disappeared. A window for a different anti-virus programme (the name of which escapes me) popped up, and it purportedly did a quick scan and informed me that there were lots of nasty things on my PC - would I like to register with them and pay lots of money for them to get rid of them.

Puh! As if I would fall for that! So I got rid of that window, and looked for our regular anti-virus programme, which wasn't there. I did find another icon though for a programme called Spy Hunter, so I opened that and performed a scan, and cleared away the offending viruses. At least, I thought I did.

I was then asked to restart the computer, and when Windows came back up, nothing worked! Luckily, since we know little about technical computer stuff, we have someone to call on in such emergencies, so he came out and battled with it for a couple of hours. Apparently, Spy Hunter is a legitimate anti-virus programme, but it was hijacked by someone and used as a cover for this particular virus. Everytime we restarted the computer, Spy Hunter opened automatically, and once it was open, everything else locked. Not only that, but it got faster and faster - the first time we re-started it took 30-40 seconds; by the fourth or fifth time, it opened within a couple of seconds!

It was all very gripping - I had no idea computer stuff could be so exciting. Anyway, our man in the know finally won the battle, and uninstalled Spy Hunter - or the spoof Spy Hunter. But be warned! If you get a virus warning and then Spy Hunter appears, get rid of it, quick! Better still, call someone else in to get rid of it!

Before we called in our expert, I had been sitting here at the computer thinking, come on - I should be able to sort this out. I'm sure there's an entirely logical explanation for why nothing works. In retrospect, there was nothing logical about it, and I didn't stand a chance of fixing it.

Anyway(!) As I said, I didn't have anything to post anyway.

I mentioned a while back that I was hoping to come up with some sort of leaflet, showing step-by-step photographs of the process of bear-making, just to show customers how much work goes into them. I have got one step further though: if I'm lucky (and it's looking increasingly likely that I won't be) I will have a leaflet showing the process of designing and making bears!

I have been meaning to create another panda design for some time now - ideas keep cropping up - but I've always found pandas very difficult, so I have kept putting it off. They have funny shaped faces - not just different, but difficult in that (to me, at least), they seemed to be different shaped depending on which way you look at them.

So I have started trying to put some ideas together, interrupting myself every step of the way to whip out the camera and take a photo. It is very distracting! And the really annoying thing is that, if my ideas are rubbish and it all comes to nothing, I will have my failure documented in excruciating detail! So fingers crossed.

I will be back in.... weeks(!) to show the finished bear - or just a pile of discarded pieces, if it doesn't work.

Baby mammoth

2011-05-11T10:32:00.007+01:00

One baby mammoth! I did get him finished yesterday, but it was too dark by then to take photographs (my indoor photography is awful). He is quite sweet, and I think - in terms of the Art & Craft Centre - perhaps a more 'buyable' size? I suppose it really depends on the price.

I was slightly worried when I first got the body together - being so small, he is much lighter than the others, with less weight to hold him stable. But he stands up perfectly well anyway. Everything was much more fiddly to sew. He actually took about the same amount of time to make as the medium-sized elepahnts.

And, so you can see how small he is...

I spent yesterday morning setting up a shop on Folksy - having finally figured out how to make my photographs square. It's not exactly full to bursting at the moment, but do take a look anyway (click here).

Now, hopefully back to some bear-making!!

More mammoths!

2011-05-09T18:33:00.023+01:00

I seem to have been particularly prolific at the blogging recently (maybe I'm just all talk). No, the work has been going well too: I have some more mammoths for the show in July.

Lots and lots of pictures coming up!

I can't get good pictures of this first one. The floral print is the right colour, but the background behind the print is actually more cream than pale green.

And I'm not completely sure this next one works. This one isn't a camera glitch: he really is greeny-brown. I liked the fabric because it looked sort of faded and vintagey (shabby chic!), and I thought that the darker colour would make the tusks stand out better. He does look like a bit of an ugly duckling next to the other mammoths though.

This one is almost twice the size of the others. I was a little disappointed: I had hoped he would be sort of foot stool-size, but he isn't quite there. He is about 13.5 inches tall. And there were other uncertainties: I wasn't sure I'd cut the flag out the right way (would the red cross have been better across his back?); trying to stuff him firmly was a bit of a nightmare; and those little blue triangles above his eyes - a sort of art deco eyebrow effect?

But, he has a nice chunkiness to him, and he will certainly stand out at the craft fair. I was thinking of taking him into the Art & Craft Centre - he would certainly go a long way towards filling the empty shelves. But then, by the same token, if he found a home before the craft fair, there'd be a massive gap in my stall there. Hmmm.

And the three of them together, so you can better see the sizes...

I have one more I'd like to make before I move on: a little mini-mammoth. Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with him.

Family

2011-05-08T12:35:00.012+01:00

I have just realised that, a little while ago (in this post), I inadvertantly left a cliff-hanger! I said that I was making a family of bears. However, I took them into the Art & Craft Centre, and I never got round to photographing them.

So, I went into the Centre this morning to get some pictures. Please excuse the plain, boring background to the photos. The mother bear is called Peggy, and the two younger bears, Samuel and Theobald. I believe I have left the baby bear unnamed.

I have just realised also, I forgot to take measurements. Ah well, you can contact me if you're interested, and I will leap in my car and rush down to the Centre to measure them! To give you some idea though, Peggy is about 12 inches in a sitting position.