Workshops

Here are a few photos of my recent workshops in Bremen, Germany.


I had Iris as an interpreter when my explainations foundered in technicalities

On Friday we made Christams ornaments. This was quite a nice one day project, the mohair balls were made before the workshop so that we had all day to concentrate on making the miniature polar bear to go on top.

Here's a better shot (thanks Heike!)

I was a little anxious to teach this tiny bear, as I haven't taught anything this small before and miniatures demand a different set of skills. (Sorry about the quality of the image, I cropped it from the larger photo below, but you get the idea....)

A couple of the ornaments, snuggled with some "Sierras"

At the end of the day I was extremely pleased with the results each of the ladies achieved on this challenging little bear, one day I might even make one of these for myself. Every year I think I'll get one done for our tree.........hasn't happened yet!
On Saturday and Sunday we made "Sierra", again a bear with lots of different techniques to learn. I love seeing group shots of bears made in workshops, they all have their own characters and as you can see, choosing a different fur changes the bear's character completely!

The sample head I took along for the "Sierra" workshop

These workshops were held in the home of Holger and Claudia Schlue, near Bremen. While we all enjoyed our bear making, Holger put his skills at work in the kitchen and cooked up some wonderful luncheons. Claudia makes lovely little bears which you can find here

Ralphie on Wooly Mamouth ivory!

And now I must show you this special pendant made by Iris Heerdes of Spirit Bear Scrimshaw. Iris used a photo of Ralph from my blog to create this scrimshaw portrait of him, she really has captured him very well. The piece measures 2cm x 4.5cm, I am amazed at the detail Iris has managed to get into such a small piece. She works through a microscope in order to get the detail needed and uses Wooly Mamouth ivory! Now isn't that something? This ivory is being unearthed in the Tundra and sent all over the world for use where, in the past, elephant ivory was used.
That's about it, I started sewing again but I think I have to ease myself into it again, my hands have had a two month break and I can feel that if I push it I will end up in strife with them again. Today we have had some glimpses of the sun, I'm impatient for Spring.

Yes I'm Here!

Yes I am here. Though it may not seem like it, if you have been following this blog lately.........not much activity at all! But in my defence I have this to report.
I am just back from six weeks abroad, I think my body has almost readjusted to the Southern hemisphere again. Jetlag is a strange phenomenon. I have found myself waking at three or four in the morning wanting to eat, my body thinking it's lunchtime and then at times during the day I get overwhemingly tired and I have to force myself not to succumb (otherwise it will take all the longer to retune myself to Tassie time) I think I am almost there, (or here) last night I managed to stay asleep longer, so I am feeling a little more alert today.
It was quite a shock to arrive back in winter after some gorgeous days in Italy (I have a tan!) though, as luck would have it, we spent much of our break enjoying Britain's wettest June on record! But to look at it positively, all that rain has kept the countryside beautifully green, and we had some lovely walks in it. But after all those wonderful, long, midsummer days with their twilights lasting long into the evening, I'm finding it a little difficult fitting everything into our short winter days.

English country garden, family barbeque, the summer that was.

The house was very cold, damp and bleak when we arrived home, a fair indication of that, was the solidified bottle of olive oil on the kitchen bench! And of course, while we were away the mice (rats) played! One of the joys of country life.........ugh! Wallabies and rabbits have also demolished anything that was still growing in the garden, so before Spring we have some serious fencing repairs to make. We also had some huge wind gusts in our absence that have lifted the poly off our tunnel.......so yet more repairs.
I'm actually itching to get back into my bears again too. Other than a couple of workshops in Germany, during which I made three littlies I have done NOTHING! But that was a good thing because I can happily report that my trigger thumb has gone! Basically all it needed was rest, and that is certainly what it got.

Our daughter with her Grandmother toasting with tea.

The trip was a good mix of relaxing and full days of sightseeing. Our first few days in England were fabulous with wonderful warm weather (hot even). We caught up with our daughter in London, then moseyed on down to Somerset for a family barbeque and then on down to Sidmouth in Devon for a few days (with mother-in-law) We did a couple of walks down there, one in which we became completely bushed after being turned around almost 180 degrees in a wood! I don't know how that happened, we had an ordinance survey map to help us and still we ended up somewhere we weren't supposed to be.....hmmmmmmm. Still, in that part of England you are never very far away from "somewhere" and we soon found our way and could have a good (if puzzled) chuckle at ourselves.
We then headed back to London and caught a concert (Mazzy Star), it was also the Queeen's Jubilee weekend so there were a lot of happenings (despite a distinct turn for the worse in terms of weather). Then it was off to Amsterdam for a couple of days, with the weather being much the same there as in London!

Amsterdam in a snapshot

We then flew on to Rome. Ah! Bella Roma, what a city! So much to see, certainly too much to see in four days! I loved that you could be wondering around looking for somewhere to eat, maybe, and around a corner you just about bump into some ancient bit of a building or a column or something equally amazing. There's old stuff everywhere! But of course all the well known "old stuff" is really crowded, walking through the vatican museums was like being herded cattle.....literally! There's no stopping to view something more closely, just an inexorable progress through numerous galleries to the prize, the Sistine Chapel. And while Michelangelo's ceiling is a wonderous thing to behold, I found the whole experience to be a tad underwhelming, as by the time we had reached the chapel I was entirely fed up with feeling like part of a herd.
Our best experience in Rome was the day we caught the train out to Ostia Antica. Where? Well, if you're ever in Rome and you want to see lots of really cool "old stuff" WITHOUT THE CROWDS, then head out to Ostia Antica. A short train ride out of Rome. An ancient site that was once a port but which was abandonned after the river changed it's course, and which was subsequently buried. This is somewhere where you can really get in amongst the ruins, there are some lovely fresco remnants and mosaics to see, and I think there is still much to be uncovered.

Ostia Antica, where are the crowds?

After Rome we headed north into Tuscany and four nights in Florence. Another beautiful city, with lots more "old stuff" to see. We climbed the Duomo, from which there is a great view of the city. If I'd had my wits about me I would have counted the steps, but then I probably would have lost count with all the puffing and panting, and the standing aside to let others pass back down......not a good place if you're in the least bit claustrophobic (but google tells me there are 463 steps) We also saw Michelangelo's David in all his glory, another amazing work from this astonishing artist.
From Florence we took a couple of day trips out into the Tuscan countryside to San Gimignano and Sienna, two beautiful towns. But what I really want to do, is get out into the Tuscan countryside and walk! So that is on my wish list, rent a villa somewhere lovely and get out into the real Tuscany.
So, apart from some more wet days spent in England and a brief visit to Germany for my workshops, that's my trip!
I'll write some more tomorrow, about my workshops and I also have something really special to show you. For now I have cleaning to do, I want to start some sewing and I have such a lot still, to catch up on.

KINGSTON

Last Thursday I travelled down to Hobart for my polar bear workshop in Kingston. The weather was glorious and Autumnal, the days were warm with gentle breezes. There was a group of eight ladies for this three day workshop and they all seemed to enjoy the break from everyday life to indulge in a little bear therapy.

Fancy footwork

On day one we made feet. This is a really lovely day in which the trapunto is done for the bear's footpads, ready to be sewn into the legs. By the time all four footpads are sewn everyone was a dab hand at getting around those curves on the sewing machine.

Sherroy's blue-eyed baby

Shellie at work on her head

On day two we started the heads. There is a lot of work involved in this bear's head and by the end of the day I think some of the girls were wondering if they'd get far enough along with their bears to finish them. On Sunday most of the heads were finidhed and four of the bears were almost completed and the others weren't all that far behind

Sally loves Rolley

Sharon made her first ever bear at this workshop and she did amazingly well, I think we may have  a new convert there.

Sharon's first bear almost done.

It was a wonderful weekend, but I have to tell you I was exhausted by the time I had driven home again and my hands were giving me grief! But they seem to have settled down again to their usual level of achiness, so I'm back into it again with orders to fill and the Melbourne Teddy Bear Fair next month. I also have two workshops coming up at Bear Essence after the show (Mr Jingles)

A celebration!

Therapy

It's a bit like banging your head against a brick wall.....nice when you stop! So it is with the ice, holding onto this cooler brick for fifteen minutes at a time is hard going. It sends an ache into my hand and up my arm, I can feel the cold going into the sore joint at the base of my thumb and sure does feel good when I get my hand back into my 'handeze' glove for warmth. That said, I do think this regime might actually work! I think I have more movement without pain today. I managed to keep the glove on all night too, usually I get annoyed with it and end up taking it off at some point during the night. I'll be sure to let you know how it's going.....

Footsteps A Little Closer To Home

Having been soundly reprimanded by my big sister for not being a good blogger, I really am going to try harder from now on. I don't know what happens, the days slip by and before I know it..... another month has passed me by.
I have been quite busy. Making bears, gardening, cooking and with a little reading in the mix, an all together satisfying way to pass my days.
After doing a little research I have concluded that the problem with my hands is "trigger finger" (or thumb in my case)-tendonitis basically. So I'm trying a little ice and heat treatment to see if this will help. Ideally I should give my hands a complete rest, but this isn't really an option with another workshop next month plus a show and workshops the following month in addition to filling orders! I'm hoping the problem isn't too far advanced and that this course will help relieve the pain, rather than having to resort to cortizone injections or worse still, surgery! (Fingers crossed......not really...too painful!)

This big boy came with me to Tarraleah and inspired a workshop.

So, onto next month's worshop. This one is in Kingston just South of Hobart, such a nice change to have one closer to home! This is with the lovely bunch of ladies who joined me in Tarraleah earlier in the year. I took some bears along with me, and the group were all taken with this big boy, so I offered to treat them to a special three day workshop. The first day will be trapunto leather paws, the second day we'll work on the head and on the third day we will finish the head and get everything together. It should be a great few days, I'll be able to spend some time with my big brother in the evenings and have  some lovely beary friends to pass the days with.

And we'll be making feet something like these.

I also need to find some time to do something with the apple crop before the birds get them all, some I'll juice and freeze. I have a wonderful apple chutney recipe from my sister-in-law, Irene, I'll definitely be making some of that and maybe stew and freeze some too. So I have plenty to keep my days busy. Oh, oh, oh, and I seem to remember a little something about a giveaway.......soon, soon, I promise!

Abundance

Right now we are gathering so much from the garden that many of our meals are almost entirely homegrown. I have just munched my way through this salad and apart from a little marinated feta cheese sprinkled over the top the entire bowl was picked fresh from the garden moments before I ate it.

As I enjoyed the fresh vital flavours of the salad greens, herbs, tomato, cucumber and capsicum, I realised how lucky we are to be able to grow so much of what we eat. The addition of our new poly-tunnel this season really has contributed a great deal to our garden's bounty (and it's not even finished!)

The cucumbers have gone rampant and we were in danger of disappearing under a mountain of them so I resolved to pickle some of them over the weekend. I dug out my trusty old book of preserve recipes, given to me by a friend many years ago. I found just what I was looking for, a recipe for bread and butter cucumber pickle. Much slicing and dicing later, and a little cooking, I had these gorgeous looking jars ready for use later in the year when the garden won't be so productive.

Today I've also been out picking blackberries. I have been keeping an eye on the roadside brambles while out and about, waiting for them to ripen. We had a little rain in the past few days and this seems to have really brought them on, so today I stopped on my way home from an errand and picked myself a bucket of these glossy, black jewels. I'll put them into the freezer so that they are there for us in Winter when a nice blackberry and apple pie might be just the thing to chase the winter blues away. Or even better adding them to a raspberriy crumble, where their inclusion acts as a foil to the intense flavour of the raspberries, creating an all together devine combination of fruit under an almondy crumble mix.

As for the studio, right now I'm working on a polar bear cub. He's just a pile of bits at the moment, but in the next day or two he will come to life as I work on him. I'm having to take things a little easy at present, my hands are playing up again. I have to mix things up a bit so I don't run the risk of further straining them.

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)