I Always Get It In The End (and you might too)

It seems that I can puzzle over things for years, trying various methods of approach that don't work and then all of a sudden all falls into place and the solution to a particular problem presents itself when I wasn't even trying (perhaps the phase of the moon or the alignment of the stars were perfect)! This happened today. Over the years I have tried and tried to sculpt a leather nose for my pandas which has the distinctive shape of a real panda's nose.  Many times I have tossed the resulting misshapen mess into the bin and reverted to my more typically beary nose. Today it's a different story, I wasn't even putting serious thought into it just fiddling about with a piece of green felt, trying out different shapes, "et voila" there it was in my hands, a panda nose! I'm so happy about this, but you are going to have to wait to see it, as this head is barely recognisable as the beginnings of a panda! (Does have a cute nose though)
My real reason for posting today is to let you know I'm having another giveaway. I see that I am inching my way to 300 followers (thanks y'all), good enough reason to celebrate along with midwinter I'd say ;o)
Tomorrow, on the shortest day of the year here for us down under, I will post a photo of the giveaway bear. So stay tuned, there will be some rules!

Meanwhile here's a little shot of Funi from our trip to the Adelaide zoo in January.......just to give you an idea of what I'm on about when it comes to noses and pandas :o)

Wee Bear

This is Wee Bear, I'll be making one just like him as the giveaway gift. I thought he looked a little Christmassy and it being December and all........
For such a small bear ( 2.25"), he has lots of features. He is made in alpaca fur, has a tiny sculpted leather nose, sculpted feet and paws and he even has claws! His little jingle bell hat is sewn from the softest leather.

So if you want to be in with a chance to win this little bear, become a follower of this blog if you aren't one already and leave a comment here or on the previous post. If you mention the giveaway and add a link to your blog I'll add your name twice.That's it, nothing to it really, I'll draw a name on the 10th, in the mean time I'll put my skates on and get the bear done!

Teo, the Sunbear

Hi everybody, I have finally finished the sunbear sample for my UK workshops. This is Teo, named with the help of my dear friend Ruth.



Teo has a wired jaw and a long tongue. Sunbears are also known for their claws, so I have made quite a feature of these using a natural leather which contrasts nicely with his black mohair. He also has a locline spine and jointed wrists which make him very poseable. Of course he has my trademark leather nose and appliqued, sculpted leather feet. Now all I need to do is email his photo to Susan at Bear Basics and send her the list of ingredients, the pre-sewing instructions and the pattern.



I can't believe how quickly this trip has come around, I'll be off in a few short weeks! I'm not sure if I'll reach my 100th post before I go, I've been quite slack with my Blogging lately. I promise I will let you all know when the time comes, so keep an eye open for a giveaway in the not too distant future :)

Therapy

I spent all of yesterday in therapy. Not really but it sure felt like it. I've started the enormous task of sorting out my bearmaking supplies, starting with my huge stash of fabric! Wow, I never realised how much I had until I saw it all in one place, not scattered in boxes all over the house :) I also realised that my penchant for alpaca is more than evident when I perused the pile, I would say that is constitutes around 90% of my stash!

And the leathers! I spent several hours stripping down various pieces of opshop leather clothing, getting rid of linings, zippers, studs, shoulder pads and ended up with a big pile. I found some small pieces that I've had for years from which I may be able to squeeze some fabulous feet, but I seem to have mislaid them again.......perhaps swallowed by the heap. I'll have to go through it all again to locate them because I really, really want to use those pieces! Though there are lots of other pieces to choose from :)

You know all those bags of scraps you accumulate, the bits that are too small to do anything with but are too big to toss? You know, you've had them for years and still they accumulated, well I TOSSED them! Yep, I know I was never going to use them and they were taking up precious storage space. I have a friend who teaches primary school and I will donate some of the better pieces to her for the children to use in their art, with Easter around the corner they can make some furry bunny collages.

There is still so much to do, all the incidentals like hardware, I've dealt with the software ;) sewing thread, the magazines which seem to breed, the bits and pieces scattered far a wide all need a home where I can lay my hands on them without spending precious hours rummaging. I'm determined to be more organised this year........er um I think I said that last year, perhaps if I keep saying it, it will happen but maybe not over night!

Thanks for listening, I may take a break today and actually do some sewing......after all there's a gorgeous pile of alpaca beckoning and bears in my head.

Oh and don't forget to sign up for my blogiversary giveaway, I should have some idea of what it will be in a few days, Bye for now :)

Dreaming

I keep having dreams with Ralph in them. This morning he was running and playing with another large dog, a New Foundland, they were so well matched and were having such fun! In reality if Ralph had come across a dog as large as himself he would have come to me and hidden his head between my knees! He did this at the vet's once. We were waiting and the surgery door opened to reveal a rather large Rhodesian Ridgeback, Ralph took one look and "hid" himself! Poor boy, he was such a softy! In all these dreams Ralph is young and vigorous again, I like to think that it's true...........I don't think I'll ever be able to get over his loss, but I do feel happy when I'm dreaming him.

My hands are a total disaster, no prizes for these manicurist's nightmares! I've been doing alot of leather applique, which always leaves my hands in a mess. I use really tiny glover's needles, and they have an extremely sharp three sided point to them which shreds my fingers, but slides through the leather with ease. I have a friend who is a potter, who develped a severe dermatitis from contact with clay (real handy, that). Anyway he treats it with the ointment dairy farmers use on their cows' teats when they get cracked, it works a treat. I have a small jar of the ointment somewhere, I'll have to hunt it out and use it I think. The same stuff is used by many hand embroiderers, too. I imagine it can be bought very cheaply from a rural supplies store, I was given my jar years ago and only use it when my finger tips get severly cracked from multiple needle jabs. A little dab on the offending digit with a "bandaid" over it, and overnight the crack will be all but completely healed! It really is that good! I just thought I'd hand this on to all you fellow sufferers out there.

I have to finish my bears for the next online show "When You Dare To Dream", in September. The photo submission deadline is looming, but I've found it very hard to really get motivated since we lost Ralph. Still, I'm almost done and I'll be getting the photos done in a couple of days. Then I can concentrate on bears for Adelaide and London.

We've been having some fabulous Winter weather lately, with big blue skies and lots of sunshine. I can really relate to being a cat on days like this. I can turn my chair around to bask in the sun streaming in through the bay window, I could almost start purring! Now that we're well past the shortest day, I swear I can hear the birds gearing up for Spring. Soon they will be gathering up tufts of Ralph's undercoat that I've left out after brushing him, and lining their nests with it. It's so soft I'm sure it makes a beautiful lining to nestle into, the little babies will be tucked up nice and warm.

Where has the Sun gone?

I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever see the Sun again! It seems we have had an endless succession of foggy and overcast days, but very little rain. Today we finally got rain with the cloud, at last, but we are still in drought. We have had no-where near our usual rainfall, I just hope that the next few months will see a return to normal (whatever that is these days).
I've been struggling with a new polar bear pattern today, but I'm having a hard time getting it to work the way I want. This might be the first head to hit the bin in years! (OH DEAR) Having done this one today, though, I think I know how to tweak this new pattern so that I get what I'm after, so after I've finished this I'll have another go. I'll probably not throw this poor head in the bin either, I may be able to use it to try out some new ideas I have brewing, could be interesting......
Yesterday I popped into an op shop and found a couple of great leather jackets to cut up for paws and noses. For those of you overseas, op shops are thrift stores (US) or charity shops (UK) the name is short for opportunity shop. Us Aussies are great ones for shortening the names of things, but I guess it can become quite confusing for people overseas :) I find these stores a great source of leather, particularly the lovely mottled leather from those "stone washed" leather jackets that were all the rage some years ago. No-one wants to wear them these days so they are all turning up in the op shops, happily for me :) I've added this photo of Bronson's feet so that you know the type of leather I'm talking about, and to show you what I can do with it. Well so much for the photo, it's not uploading, I'll give it another go in the morning......ho hum.