This is Amazing

For Christmas, I received from Chris this amazing book of bear portraits by Jill Greenberg. When I first looked at it I thought they were incredible drawings, however on reading the text, I realised that they were indeed photographs and that they were given their unreal appearance with Jill's studio lighting. I find myself having to look through this book, in awe of the beauty, power, and even the comedy that has been captured in these portraits. It is truly a book to treasure and one full of inspiration for me in my bearmaking.

Furbles :)

I have just heard from Ann-Marie Dodd that she has received the Christmas ornament I made for her in the TT swap, so now I can show you what I made! I think everyone should hang "furbles" on their Christmas trees so that little bears can have a rest upon them (glass ones would be way too slippery and uncomfortable). This was a fun little project, which started with the red and green fur bauble which I had kicking around in my work space while I contemplated where to take it. Eventually this little polar bear popped into my head, I think he looks like he's had a big Christmas and now he's needing to rest his little head.

Wishing all my blogging friends a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and a fantastic New Year

Final Workshop For The Year

Saturday and Sunday were spent workshopping with a wonderful group of girls overlooking the marina at Belrieve, on Hobart's Eastern shore. Another little hug of Kiko's were all but completed by the end of Sunday and all went home pleased with their accomplishments.

On Friday I dove down a very damaged midland Highway. The road surface was appalling in places having suffered the ravages of Tasmania's wetter than usual winter. It was good to see the farms through the midlands with a green cover, full dams and well fed sheep grazing on grass rather than rocks!

I headed straight through Hobart on Friday evening and down into the Huon Valley to visit an old friend from my art school days. We spent the evening reminiscing and catching up, and I got to view some of the beautiful work Ian Clare is producing after a break of a couple of years. A wonderfully talented potter, I'm so pleased he is back at work.

Another one down, one to go.

A hug of new little "Kikos" came into the world after four busy days of workshop fun in Tooradin at Bear Essence. There were some familiar old faces as well as quite a few new ones, and it was lovely to catch up with the girls at the shop. The new premises are wonderful with a great workshop space, and a bakery around the corner when we were peckish, (that could be dangerous).

I have just one more trip this year, I'll be driving down to Hobart on Friday for another Kiko workshop over the weekend. How nice it will be not to have to fly, I think I've seen enough of airports for a while.

I'm actually looking forward to the drive in our "new" car (new for us anyway). It seems to have an awful lot of bells and whistles, and I know it's going to take a while to familiarise myself with them all :)

Off Again

It seems that I have only just come home from NSW and I'm off again. This time I'm heading to Melbourne to teach two workshops at http://www.bearessence.com.au/. The Newcastle and Castle Hill workshops went well and I sold quite a few bears too, so I'm pretty happy with my recent trip. The weather in NSW was very hot while I was there, with temperatures climbing into the high 30's in Western Sydney (where I was). This poor little Tassie girl really felt it.............thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to the inventor of air conditioning!

I taught a one day, head only, class in Newcastle and I was really pleased with how it went. It was a very busy day and I completely forgot to take any photos, which is a shame as the bears were all looking fabulous at the end of the day. This was a new venue for me with a couple of familiar but mostly new faces. Jeanette has a great set up, with her craft room occupying the original dwelling on the property which is a very well appointed space for workshops Anyway, they must have enjoyed the class as I've been asked back for a two day workshop, which will probably be in March.

The two day workshop in Castle Hill was Kiko, which is a bear packed full of new techniques and kept the girls busy. All of them were very happy with their achievements at the end of the class. When I got home to Tasmania it seemed that winter had revisited, with a cold Southerly blowing and a dreary few days.

On Tuesday, a package arrived all the way from Sweden and inside was this gorgeous tree ornament made for me by Ann-Marie Dodd (http://www.bearmetoo.se/) as part of the Teddy Talk Christmas ornament swap. Ann-Marie is so organised! I'm yet to start mine.........I'd better get cracking as it has a long journey to make :) This fellow has an amazing needle felted face with the typical "goofy" look of Ann-Marie's bears, I'm so lucky to have received it, and I'm looking forward to hanging it on the tree. I was actually thinking of giving the tree a miss this year, since neither of the children will be here, but I guess I'll have to change my mind about that :)

I'm on the very early morning flight to Melbourne tomorrow, ready for a busy four days of teaching and catching up with some beary friends.........I'll be sure to get pics.........

Am I Really?

Sandi Smith (bearlysaneaust.blogspot.com) and Helen Gleeson (barecubdesigns.blogspot.com) have both passed on this blog award to me. Now I'm not too sure if I deserve it, am I really "over the top"? But it looks like a little bit of fun while I'm digesting breakfast :) The trick will be restricting myself to one word answers, though I suppose it will curb any tendancies to verbosity!
The Rules:
1: Use only one word answers
2: Pass along to 6 of your favourite bloggers
3: Tell them you have given them the award
4: Have Fun!

1. Where is your cell phone? Here
2. Your hair? Messy
3.Your mother? Clever
4. Your father? Clever
5. Your favorite food? Curry
6. Your dream last night? Something
7. Your favorite drink? Wine
8. Your dream/goal? Peace
9. What room are you in? Lounge
10. Your hobby? Hmmmmmm
11. Your fear? Warming
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Somewhere
13. Where were you last night? Bed
14. Something that you aren’t? Ostentatious
15. Muffins? Fruity
16. Wish list item? Housecleaner
17. Where did you grow up? Tasmania
18. Last thing you did? Eat
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pets? Sweet
22. Friends? Caring
23. Your life? Comfortable
24. Your mood? Mixed
25. Missing someone? Ralph
26. Vehicle? Dead
27. Something you’re not wearing? Bra
28. Your favorite store? Homewares
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? Lastnight
31. Last time you cried? Recently
32. Your best friend? Chris
33. One place that I go to over and over? Town
34. One person who emails me regularly? Ruth
35. Favorite place to eat? Home
I am presenting my award/tags to:

http://www.bearsintooradin.blogspot.com/

http://www.lesbears.blogspot.com/

http://www.robynroe.blogspot.com

http://www.thislittlebear.blogspot.com/

http://www.susiemcmahondolls.blogspot.com/

http://www.alena-eliseeva.blogspot.com/

Mmmmmm that was harder than it first appeared to be!

"Lindsey"

Look who Chris brought home from the P.O after work yesterday! This is Lindsey who was made by Sandi Smith from http://www.bearlysaneteddies.com/ for our TBACA Christmas swap. He's a sweet little alpaca bear with the cutest handpainted sleigh, he'll fit very nicely into my hug of small bears. It's pure coincidence that we both made cream coloured bears and dressed them alike in green felt! Perhaps Sandi and I share some deeper connection which caused us to be on a similar wave length when we were creating these bears. Whatever it is, I'm extremely pleased to add Lindsey to my collection, thank you so much Sandi :) A new album has been created on the TBACA website and this is where the swap bears will be displayed as they come in, you might like to have a peep at them (just click on available bears in the navigation bar at the top of the TBACA page and you'll find it)

I have a couple of pleasing new designs to take with me when I fly to Sydney on Friday. I have a one day workshop in Newcastle on Saturday, the Mittagong Doll and Bear Fair on Sunday and then a two day workshop in Castle Hill on Monday and Tuesday. So a busy few days are ahead for me. This is the last show of the year, after which I will be able to catch up with a few orders before Christmas, which will be a good thing!

I really must find some time in the next few weeks to reorganise my work space and materials, I seem to have spread myself from one end of the house to the other. I find this disorganised state of things very frustrating and wasteful of time, especially when a particular something I need eludes me. I do seem to spend an awful lot of my time rummaging through "stuff"!

We've been having some very warm weather here in Tasmania, the garden is going gangbusters as are the weeds and I suspect there will be rather a lot to catch up on in the garden when I get back from Sydney. With this warm weather the snakes are on the move too, so I will have to keep an eye on Lily while we're out on our walks.

"Mr. Wonderful"

Sandi emailed me this afternoon after the days postal delivery, and she is delighted with the bear I sent her for the TBACA Christmas swap. I haven't named him yet so Sandi has nicknamed him Mr Wonderful! (Which I think is a pretty good name so perhaps he'll keep it) Here he is in all his "Christmasness" :)

I don't usually dress bears so this is a bit of a departure for me, but I wanted him to have a distinctively festive air. His costume is made from Christmassy green, wool felt with a red cotton trim which has a cute starry print and red star shaped buttons. Mr Wonderful has a matching Christmas stocking which is embroidered with Sandi's name and in the stocking is a mini bear. I think tomorrow will be delivery day for Sandi's bear to me.......I can't wait!

Today was a gorgeous Spring day, and I spent some time in the late afternoon down at the lakeside with Lily. I could have stayed longer but chores were calling me home. I watched a family of black swans out on the water, the cygnets are about half grown and still grey. They were a lovely sight but they moved farther out onto lake when they saw us, rather cautious of Lily's water antics. She was having a heap of fun with a stick, pushing it around in the water with her nose while blowing bubbles! So funny! Lily loves the water and even in the middle of winter she'll jump in after a ball or stick! (Brrrrrr)

Aaah At Last!

I popped into my sister's Blog yesterday eager to know if I had won her 100th post give away......no such luck :(

But here's the news, Susie now has a website at long last. So if you're interested in seeing some amazing dolls and figurative sculpture, you should go and check it out. You should get there by clicking on the image above.

Today I'll be sending my Christmas swap bear off to Sandi, so when I know she has him I'll put his photo up so you can see him. Sandi has created a new album on the TBACA website where we will be able to showcase all the swaps as they are completed.

In a little over a week I'm flying out again. This time I'm off to NSW for a show and also a couple of workshops and I'll also be receiving the trophies from Sandra Wigzell for the ABC awards won by Kumo. I also have to take some good prints of Kumo with me so that Maureen Christie, http://www.christieart.com.au/, can paint his portrait, another part of my prize. I'm interested to see what Maureen does with Kumo's portrait, as I've only seen traditional bears painted by her.

We are finally having some beautiful Spring weather. The apple blossom has almost finished, we have the small beginnings of a vegetable garden, and we have been gorging on asparagus! I did some more weeding over the weekend and actually caught a little too much sun on my shoulders.

Greetings for now from sunny Tasmania :)

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny

I have been making miniatures for the last couple of days, some traditional teddies for a change. I can tell you that embroidering their noses was a real challenge for me, since it is quite some time since I've done one.

Ever since I worked out how to put a realistic leather nose onto a bear's snout, I rarely do embroidered ones and I guess I've lost the knack, being somewhat out of practice. These little fellows are just 2 1/4" tall and fully pin and disc jointed. I've really enjoyed making them, apart from their noses that is (one of which had to be unpicked and resewn it looked so bad!)

It is surprising that I can manage to get my big hands to work these tiny bears and at times I do find them frustrating in the extreme, but I always get a thrill when one is completed. I rather like them without any ribbons or frills, I sometimes feel that miniaturists over accessorise and the poor wee bears become overwhelmed by all the bits that have been added to them. But then, apart from very early on when I dressed my bears in little hand smocked dresses and the like, I have always preferred to leave my bears bare.

I have also completed a bear for Sandi Smith who is my partner in the TBACA Christmas swap. This one was quite a departure for me and it even elicited a very positive response from Chris, who doesn't often comment on my bears. I won't show it to you until I know Sandi has him, as I don't want to spoil her surprise. We will be having a showcase of the Christmas swaps on the TBACA website a little later on, too. I've never made a specifically "Christmas" bear before and until I made a start on him I had so many different ideas I didn't know what I was going to do. In the end I just pottered on with it until a rather charming and very "Christmassy" fellow resulted, I just hope Sandi feels the same about him :)