An Amazing Week!

Wow! What a week I've had! The Black and White Ball concluded last night after a week of wonderful bears, critters and fun. I was surprised yesterday, and honoured to learn that I was the joint winner with Laraine White from New Zealand, of the public's choice vote, with my little panda Meixin. Later in the day the winners of the Australasian Creative Design Awards were announced, Katrina Ndrejica won the biggy and the runners up were Kim Russell and ME! So all in all a pretty amazing week with great sales to top it all off.

I can now reveal the bears and critters that I created for the show. I decided to stick with the black and white scheme and made a family of Emperor Penguins, a couple of Pandas, a couple of Polar Bears and a Tassie Devil! All but one found new homes over the week and I'm fairly confident that the last one will too. I'm so very happy with the outcome of my first online show, I'll certainly be participating in many more to come:) A huge thank you to Sandi Smith of http://www.bearlysaneteddies.com for all her tireless efforts in making this event such a wonderful success and experience for all involved!

Meanwhile I've been working on a new panda design, which will be finished today. I'm really pleased with this one, and hopefully I will be able to get some photos later and get his cute little face up in here.

Here's a Giggle!

Just for fun, I thought I would show you where my bear making began. This little fellow is well over 25 years old and still lives with me having survived my children's growing years. He's a little flat these days, but still cute. He is made in a very cheap synthetic fur which was all that was available to me in the days before the internet and specialised teddy suppliers. I sold quite a few of these bears, I wonder if the others have survived the ravages of time equally well? I couldn't even get eyes back then, and I fashioned them myself using circles of felt with a little embroidered highlight. At least you could say he was child-safe, and that was my market back then. I think they appealed to parents because they were all a little individual and not clones churned out in a factory. I hope he brings a little smile to you today, I think you will have to agree that my bear making has come a long way over the years!

Well tomorrow is the big day! The Black and White Ball begins at 8am, I hope you will find the time to drop by and meet the bears and critters that will be on offer, and remember that there will be new additions each day of the show.

Here He Is!

I've just finished Bronson, a new bear in the lovliest brown alpaca. I've had this piece for quite a few years, just waiting for the right bear. Bronson is truly one of a kind as this fabric is no longer available, it has a very unusual shaggy look with a blended mix of browns and a few blonde guard hairs, which suits this bear so well. I've had a great deal of fun working on Bronson's feet, I used a wonderful piece of mottled leather to applique his pads which were then sculpted and shaded to create his lovely feet. I will be putting some more photos and information on my website if you want to find out more about him.

It's just a few days to the Black and White Ball, Monday is our big day! I'm starting to feel a little anxious about the whole thing, I'm not too confident on the computer and I just hope it all goes smoothly. With Sandi at the helm I'm sure everything will be OK :) So don't forget to pay us a visit at http://www.teddybearsandcritters.com/ and remember that there will be new bears and critters added each day for the whole week! Be sure to cast your votes in the Australasian Creative Design Awards which are being held at the same time and place.

Publication

My little bear Bonnie along with her tiny Bunny, is featured as a project in the latest edition of Australian Bear Creations. It was a challenge for me to create a bear with a feminine look, as my bears are, on the whole decidedly male. I'm not totally convinced I have actually made a "girly" bear with Bonnie, and think perhaps she is really a boy in a ribbon. If you wish to create your own Bonnie all you need do, is get hold of the magazine (which is available in most Australian news agencies or by suscription directly from Woodlands Publishing) and there you'll find the full instructions for her. If however, you don't want to make her yourself she will be available from my website later. I have decided to only make one of these sets, so if you wish to own them you'd better pop over to the Benson Bears website and read all about them! First in best dressed as they say.

Excitement is building for the Black and White Ball, there are quite a few collages up on http://www.teddtbearsandcritters.com/ if you want to get some sneak peeks at what will be on offer. The Ball will run for a whole week and there will be new offerings each day, so it will be worth your while to pop in each day to see what's new. Sandi has done a wonderful job of organisation to keep us all on track and focussed. Now she has the enormous task of setting up the "ballroom" with all our photos and their associated links (rather her than me, that's for sure!) Meanwhile I will be concentrating on getting a sample off to Susan Davies at Bear Basics for my UK workshops. I have finished two little pandas for Teddy Bears of Whitney's 2010 catalogue, they are such a sweet pair, I'm sure Ian Pout will be happy with them. I'm also itching to get on with a new large panda in the gorgeous alpaca that has been waiting quite some weeks now! Of course there are always orders and the neglected garden and housework to do, so busy, busy...........

A Sneak Peek

At last I have finished all my pieces for the Black and White Ball, I submitted all the photos almost by the skin of my teeth, (if there had been any internet problems it could have been embarrassing) and now I can give you all a little sneak peek at what I will be offering when the show begins on June 1st. This is only half of them, the others are in the Australasian Creative Design Awards and have to remain annonymous for judging and for the public vote. It has been such fun and a real challenge to take part in this web venture, I'm looking forward to the next one.

We have a new show in the planning, this is an exhibition of some of Australia's master bear artists and is called "When You Dare To Dream", it will run for two days in September (5th and 6th). By visiting the TBACA website (http://www.teddybearsandcritters.com/) you can read all about the show and see the list of the participating artists, there should be some exceptional works on offer at this one.

I'm going to be such a busy girl over the coming months! I have to prepare for this show, design and make samples for Teddy Bears of Whitney's 2010 catalogue, design and make the samples for my workshops in the UK and NSW, prepare for the South Australian Doll and Bear Show in August and Hugglets in September! Will I have time to breathe I wonder? As they say............. "housework only comes before sewing in the dictionary" ;)

Autumn

Autumn has definitely arrived, we have abundant fruit from the garden, the trees are turning golden and I'm having to trawl through my recipes for 101 things to do with pears! I have a fabulous little book written by fellow Tasmanian, Sally Wise called; "A Year In A Bottle", it's packed full of great recipes for times of glut. Later today I'm going to try her Pear Ginger, which sounds delicious.

The Kurrawongs are feasting, they're driving Lily mad and she spends alot of the day racing around the orchard trying to catch one, though I don't know what she would do if she managed to do so. I've given up shooing the birds out of the trees, we have too much fruit as it is.

I'll have to put some of the apples through the juicer and freeze it. I did this last year and was totally blown away at how fresh it looked and tasted after several months, makes you wonder what happens to some foods in manufacturing that it seems stale before you've even brought it home from the supermarket. I've noticed this with the jams I've made from our fruit, the colour is so vibrant compared to what is available commercially.

Yesterday a big parcel arrived from the US with a couple of yards of wonderfully long and dense alpaca fur fabric inside, some more black and white to make more pandas! I'll have to rework my large panda pattern some more, I want to get it just right before I cut into these pieces, because the fabric is so beautiful and it was very expensive.

I've almost finished my collection for the Black and White Ball, which is just as well since the deadline for submission of the photos is the 1st of May. I'm going to try and set up a light tent inside to get the photos, the days have been very gloomy lately and I need a more reliable set up so that I can get a really good set of pics.

Easter Bunny

We had the cutest Easter Bunny visit us today, Tobias and his parents were here for lunch. Tobias exhibited an amazing Pavlovian response to the little bell around the Lindt Easter bunnies! He's going to be a chocolate fiend like his Dad, I think. I wonder if he would have the same response Sam had to a chocolate overdose? This happened when Sam was about four and he ate a large chocolate rabbit in one sitting.......and my mild mannered son became the child from Hell for a whole week afterwards! After that, I only bought the children small eggs which were strictly rationed over many days.

I'm still working away at my pieces for the Black and White Ball, I'm very pleased with them so far and I'd really love to show them off here, but I have to keep them to myself until June. So very frustrating! It has been a challenge being restricted to Black and White, I keep thinking of bears in other colours, but I guess they can wait until I've finished this collection. Then I can GO TO TOWN. I'll be delving into my fabric stash for all those other colours......I know where all the black and white pieces are :)

Black and White

I have started work on my pieces for the TBACA (http://www.teddybearsandcritters.com/) Black and White Ball, online show, and also The Australasian Creative Design Awards which will be held in conjunction with the Ball. What fun it is to think of all the creatures in the world that are black, white or both! There are lots of them out there, and my being a panda and polar bear fanatic helps. That doesn't mean my collection will be all pandas and polar bears. I'm working on something entirely different today, but you will have to wait for the show in June to see what I'm talking about!

At the weekend I traded at the Doll, Bear and Miniature Fair in Launceston, I like doing this show, no air travel just a quick drive down the road. It always surprises me with good sales too. I also made a contact for some workshops in Hobart later in the year, so all in all, a very successful weekend.

On Friday, our 10 month old Grandson stayed with us for the night. It was his first night away from his Mum, and he cheerfully took it all in his stride. He's such a happy, easy going baby and what a joy to wake in the early morning to him happily playing "patacake" on our faces! I must admit I was rather tired all of Saturday, this ol' girl isn't used to getting up to a baby in the night, but that really doesn't matter when this little boy brings such joy to our lives! I'm looking forward to his next "sleep over".

Workshops in Boronia

Last week I taught two workshops at Bear Essence in Boronia. They went very smoothly and we had some very happy bearmakers with some lovely creations. The majority were making Jiao Jiao the panda, but I also had some bears being made from older workshops which kept me on my toes.

On Sunday we had the Sydney Teddy Bear Fair, which, though quiet sales wise gave me some new contacts for more workshops. Of course, one has to have bears to sell, and things have been going so well from my website (http://www.bensonbears.com/) I didn't have all that many bears with me! This weekend we have our little Doll and Bear show here in Launceston, so again I will have a busy week preparing for that. I wonder sometimes, if it's worth still doing shows. Their success can be so sporadic, but I do know there are collectors out there who will never buy a bear online. These are people who like to feel the quality of what they're buying and you just don't get that from a photos, no matter how good they are. Having said that, I'll be participating in my first online show in June and I'm very eager to see how well that goes. You can find information about it at, http://www.teddybearsandcritters.com/. It 's called The Black and White Ball, and I guess there are going to be lots of pandas and other black and white critters on show. It should be interesting to say the least. Of course I'll be flat chat getting everything ready on time so all of next month I'm going to be really busy!

I have a new large bear finished, and if the weather clears a bit today I should be able to get some photos taken of him. Bart was picked up at Sydney on the weekend, a surprise birthday present, and very surprised Lyn was too! I have also had an email from Matilda's new Mum, she travelled very well and her ears popped out of the box in perfect order. I was a little concerned that the bilby's delicate ears would be squashed in transit, but all was well thanks to the wonders of bubble wrap!