Stanley

I'm sorry I haven't posted much recently.  At least when I have posted, I actually have something to show - quality (I hope) over quantity!

I think I might have mentioned wreaths in the past?  Teddy bear wreaths?  Well anyway, I had this idea for teddy bear wreaths and Stanley (as in, Stan Laurel), shown here, was supposed to be the bear that graced the first wreath.  Unfortunately he is slightly too big.  Even more unfortunately, being sewn in a circular shape (his limbs are unjointed) means he doesn't look very natural sans wreath.  Unless you're holding him, in which case he's all curly and puppy-like.  I think a bean bag is probably the best way to go for this one.

With these wreaths, I was hoping to make it look as if the bear was hibernating.  I bought some plain willow wreaths, and I was going to make one of my floppy unjointed bears to curl up inside each wreath.  I was looking at hibernating-type pictures though and I found this one, of a hibernating dormouse which I thought was a much better pose - particularly since the wreath will be upright, rather than lying flat.

Anyway, now I'm off to try out a smaller version of Stanley.  In the meantime, I have been creating a new Pinterest board, with my most favourite of the bears I've made in the past (it's not finished yet - I'm still going).  Do have a look.  I find it really strange to see.  On the one hand, it seems to me to be a good thing that there are so many different designs there.  On the other hand, the lack of any strong, recogniseable style is surely a weakness? 

BigFeetBears on Facebook and Pinterest!

I've been talking to people about Facebook and social networking recently.  BigFeetBears has had a Facebook page for quite a while, but I've never really got into the habit of updating it.  However, I am going to give it another go!

So the link to the Facebook page should be on the left, and below each post, there's a teeny-tiny symbol which allows you to add a link to this page from Facebook, should you wish to.

I have also been investigating Pinterest.  It's a fabulous site!  Why didn't I do this earlier?  I have created a panda board with all the pictures I used when I was trying to come up with my panda pattern - plus a few more very sweet panda pictures that I've found subsequently.

I've also started a meerkat board, for the meerkat pattern I've yet to finish! 

For personal interest - collecting images you really like - it's great, but I'm not quite sure how well it would work for a business actually promoting their own products - particularly a tiny business, with very few products, like my own.  I can't see the point of just pinning pictures of all the bears.  They are, after all, available on Etsy.

One thing I might do though is use it to create a gallery of previous designs, bears which have since found homes and are no longer available.  I had a gallery page on my now-defunct website and I always thought it was useful because occasionally people would ask me to create a bear similar to one of those in the gallery. 

For some reason I am having trouble uploading pictures from my computer, but I imagine it's possible to use a photo-sharing site - like Photobucket or Flickr - and then pin from there.

Anyway, do visit my Facebook page, and the Pinterest boards and do have a look at my Etsy shop - I have been adding more of the bears!