What Have You Been Up To Mrs. B?

Well now, what have I been up to?

I have just spent a busy ten days in Victoria, teaching two wonderful groups of ladies how to make Sierra. At the end of it all we had 18 "Sierras" in various stages of completion. I have to say that these workshops, which lasted three days each, were jammed full of techniques and I think all of the girls who participated were exhausted, but extremely happy at the end of the third day.

On day one we made feet! This was an optional extra workshop to create trapunto leather foot pads which were then sewn into the legs ready for the following two days. I was really pleased with how well this day went, and we had some beautiful feet at the end of it. Such a simple technique for absolutely stunning results!

On one of my free days, I designed and made "Mr Jingles" after requests for something small for my next workshop at Bear Essence (in May). These  workshops are already filling fast! After some consultation with the girls in one of the workshops and the addition of his accessories this little fellow was named after the mouse in "The Green Mile"

Well that's about it, apart from a mountain of housework and weeding in the garden and of course more bears, that's what I've been up to. I also need to find some pickle recipes for our abundance of cucumbers, the plants are at peak production right now and don't look like they're going to be giving up any time soon, so it would be nice to put some up for use later in the year. And I promise, my giveaway will be coming real soon!

Being A Tree

There are three here!

 The other day I was pottering around in the garden when I noticed some unusual looking branches in one of our White Peppermints. I wandered over for a closer look and found these three fellows roosting for the day. I think they are this year's young and still learning, obviously. If you want to be a tree, choose one that looks like you! The White Peppermint is not endemic to this forest, Chris sowed the seeds of these trees many years ago when we first came to live here. He's chuffed that these Tawny Frogmouths have chosen them for their occasional daytime roost, but they do kind of stick out! If they had chosen any number of other trees around here I would never have noticed them! They really do look like part of the tree when they choose one that matches their plumage. Contrary to common belief these are not owls, they are related to Nightjars. They don't have the strong talons of owls and feed off insects and the occasional frog, not rodents and apparently they sit and wait for the insects to bump into them rather than actively hunting!

This weekend I'm off for a drive up into the highlands of Tasmania, to Tarraleah for a teddy bear making workshop. This is the first gig of the year, it all starts from now.......I'll soon be off to Tooradin again for some more workshops at Bear Essence and then up to Sydney for the Sydney Teddy Bear Fair and a workshop at Teddy's Bits.
I don't know about you, but these things have crept up on me. All of a sudden, the holiday is over and things start to get busy again. So I had better get on and do some more sewing today, I have such a lot to get through and it seems not enough time to do it! So until next time......"happy trails to you"......
Ooooh and I know I mentioned a New Year Giveaway.........well, make that a Valentine's Giveaway, look out for it real soon!

The Best Investment!

2 cups of flour. a cup of salt, 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar, some oil, some water and a few drops of food colouring, stirred all together for a few minutes on the stove and you have made one of the best things a three year old could wish for! Good for the imagination, and creativity.....not so good for the matchbox cars that get driven through it though! The joys of play dough! (I will have to have a major clean-up after he goes, we have blue spots from one end of the house to the other! All in the name of little boy fun, so well worth it)

Still having fun with my grandson, and in between a little bear-making is also getting done.

Season's Greetings

Just ten more days until Christmas! WHAT??????

 On Christmas day we will be sharing a lovely meal with family, much of which will home grown, picked fresh from our gardens. Tonight my son and grandson arrive from Melbourne, which is just as well as we have an over-abundance of strawberries. And Tobias LOVES strawberries, so he can help in the eating of them! I love having a food garden, I hate buying inferior vegetables and fruit and paying too much for things that have been sprayed, with who knows what! This year we have added a new poly tunnel to our growing area, and in it we have some very lusty plants which will give us tomatoes, capsicums, aubergines, chillis, cucumbers and hopefully some cantaloupes! My, that sounds like an awful lot of food! (It is a big poly tunnel!) In a few days I will send the boys out to find us a nice Christmas tree to put up, I don't like the artificial ones. I like the piny smell in the house from a fresh tree. (It's ok, we only take them from where they shouldn't be growing, they're weeds really). On Face Book I've been seeing everyone posting photos of their decorations, the whole house decked out in Christmas cheer......it will be all I can do to get this place clean! Let alone decorated. (Maybe I'll blow the cobwebs off my wreath and hang that today) I really should put some effort in this year, since we have Tobias staying with us and at three and a half he's old enough now feel the excitement of the festive season. (For me that's what Christmas is all about really, the children).

Anyway, in case I don't get a chance between now and Christmas, I want to wish everyone everywhere, peace and joy, not only for Christmas, but for 2012. May the coming year be filled with all things wonderful! However you wish to celebrate......MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!
Aaaaaand look out for a New Year's Benson Bears giveaway, coming soon! Just to say thanks for your support and for visiting, and especially for reading.......  :o)

Back To My Roots

While I was overseas in September I had an email inviting me to teach a workshop at Tarraleah Resort in the highlands of Tasmania. Tarraleah is one of Tasmania's old "Hydro" villages, which were built last century to house the workers and their families when Tasmania's hydro-electric schemes were being built.
My father was one of these workers, and in the 1950's and 60's our family lived in Tarraleah village, my first five years were spent there! I haven't been back to Tarraleah since childhood and this invitation came out of the blue, and of course I was intrigued. The development of Tarraleah as a resort  saved the village from becoming a victim of time and derelection. The workers cottages have been restored as accommodation, though my sister tells me that "our" house no longer exists. There is a range of different accomodations to suit all budgets from luxury through to a caravan park. If you would like to learn more about Tarraleah here is the link.
The workshop will be a basic bear for beginners, this entailed me making a sample "teddy" suitable for teaching novice bear makers. It is quite some time since I've made a teddy bear, and it was rather lovely to return to my bear making roots (though embroidering that nose was a challenge!) I'm rather excited about these weekend retreats, there is one next month (17th and 18th) and another in January (21st and 22nd), I really am looking forward to seeing "what they've done with the place"! Take a look at the website and check out the events callendar, there is a range of different weekends on offer over the Summer.
Perhaps some of my Tasmanian readers might be interested in a beary nice weekend retreat?

Decking the Halls

At last I have something to write about! Well actually I have lots to write about but I simply haven't had time to sit down and compose.
This will be a quickie to let you know that in a week I will be participating in a Mini Christmas online show.
The theme of the show is "Deck The Halls" and participating artists have been working hard for some months to bring you pieces in keeping with the theme.

So, if you want to treat yourself to something a little special this Christmas be sure to come along to the show. It runs from the 11th to the 14th of November. I'm sure you will be delighted with what you will find when you visit.
I'm off to NSW tomorrow, on Sunday I have my final "in the fur" show at Mittagong followed by a two day workshop at Teddy's Bits I'm home again on Wednesday ready to do some catching up.......I really do need some home time!

This Was Unexpected

The other morning I had a phone call from my sister Susie wishing me a Happy Birthday, this was somewhat unexpected as she usually forgets (our family was never all that good with this sort of thing). We arranged a meeting in town for coffee and Susie gave me this gorgeous little "Sukeshi" doll. When I saw a group of these on her blog I was taken with "P'tit Fauve" particularly, because his little face reminds me so much of my grandson. Tobias gets just this look on his face on occasion, usually when he's thinking up some mischief! I think it is so special to receive a little something hand~crafted, and this little one is such a treasure. If you want to see more of Susie's work you will find it here. I wish I had a photo of Tobias with "the look" so that you can see what I mean!
Tomorrow I'm heading off to England and Germany. I'm looking forward to seeing my daughter in London and catching up with family in Germany and England. I'm teaching two workshops in Bremen and one in Somerset, and I am also exhibiting my bears at Teddies 2011 on September 11th. I'll be away for three weeks, so things will probably be a bit quiet around here. I'll tell you all about it when I get back!

The Name Game

I have seen many photographs of polar bear cubs when they first emerge from their winter snow caves, they look so small and vulnerable in the vastness of the Arctic wilderness. There is one particular photo that I often hold in my mind of a cub trotting along in pursuit of it's mother, you don't see the adult in the picture just this tiny cub in a huge, snowy, vastness. It makes me smile because he's such a cute little guy, but I also feel an incredible sadness at how the future looks for polar bears. That photograph seems to embody the fragility of their existence in the face of diminishing suitable habitat, it is such a tragedy that we may lose this magnificent species (one of my favourites) in the very near future as the ice caps disappear.

In this latest bear I have endeavoured to capture the vulnnerability of a newly emerged polar bear cub. I have used a very dense alpaca for his coat, which I have had to extensively trim to carve out his features (otherwise he would just be a big fuzz ball!) He has a Locline "spine" and he also has it in all his limbs but I have kept him softly filled so that he is a very poseable bear. I  added a bag of stainless steel pellets to his tummy to give him a nice weight. He has needle felted eye surrounds, which have enhanced his juvenile appearance. I really like how this one has turned out, in fact I think it may be my best work to date! Now all I need to do is think of a name...............

You'll have to forgive my odd set up for these photos. I could have taken a trip up Ben Lomond and posed him in the real snow up there, but quite frankly I didn't really want to get that cold for a couple of photos. So you get the old polyfill "snow" instead!

Cross Over

In bear making as in a lot of things, there are the "given" ways of doing things. The pattern we first use will determine pretty much how we approach our bears. For years I have been unhappy with the way the fur sat over the toes on my bears. The traditional pattern for a bear's leg is made in two pieces plus a foot pad, and therein lies the problem, that seam over the centre of the toe area. I have been dabbling a little in dolls over the last few years and have found that there are techniques which definitely cross over between dolls and bears, and in dolls is where I found an answer to a couple of bear design problems.
I wanted to get a flatter looking foot for my bears and looked at doll patterns for a solution. So now for a number of years I have been making bears with a two piece leg like a doll's leg with the toe sewn flat (but with no footpad). I then hand appliqued leather pads to the feet, which were stuffed and sculpted to get toes like this. This achieved the flatter foot I was after, but I still had problems with how the fur was sitting over the toe end of the foot because of the seam running down the centre of the foot.
Just recently I have sloved this annoying problem by again looking at doll patterns. I now I have a three piece leg with no seam over the toe, plus a foot pad. I can then use different techniques for the pads, including sculpting the pad after the legs have been stuffed, or using a combination of trapunto and needle sculpting  to get some very nice feet. The bear I have just completed has given me alot of joy, I have managed to get some great articulation in him using Loc-line in both his body and his limbs, and I have spent hours playing with him enjoying the realistic movement in him. I feel I'm getting closer to what I'm after in my bears and that is what is so rewarding about all that I do, the evolution of design, the solution of problems and the joy of achievement!

This bear has the "new" feet, but isn't my latest.You can see how nicely the fur is sitting over the ends of his toes.

RSI And A Bear Named Mon

There were alot of names to write out, then cut into individual slips and then screw up into little balls and now my hand is suffering a little RSI! We need a DRUM ROLL please! The name drawn from the basket is Linda Down (Lombard Bears)! Congratulations Linda, and many thanks to all who entered into the spirit of the game and left name suggestions, I'm going to file some of them away for future reference.

Soon Mon will be on her way to a new home.