Taking It Outside!

I know my blog is called Inside My Studio, but the weather today was so pleasant I decided to take my studio outside!


This new design I am working on was inspired by some wonderful scruffy, sparse, short mohair which demanded a vintage looking bear. I wanted them to have a classic well loved look, but still have that "Tami bear" look. I quite like them, and I hope my collectors at The Hunt Valley Show will too!



Missy was watching me out of the screen porch window, crying to be let out.


I decided to let her out, and thought I might get some nice photos. As Missy is an indoor cat, she was far too interested in exploring the great outdoors to bother to pose for me!


I mostly got shots of her looking this way...


and that (she was very gifted at turning away just as I snapped the shot),


and many of her tail end!


I did get one shot I really liked of Missy in my sons' clubhouse.


We have had such a dry summmer that many people are predicting a rather colorless fall. There are already a lot of trees which have dropped brown leaves, but one maple tree in our yard was dressed for the season!


Yes, I did actually get some work done. What a lovely day!

Finishing Things

No matter how much I tell myself that I could work more efficiently if I focus my attention on one thing at a time, I always seem to have several projects going at one time. I guess maybe it works better that way for me. I really can only focus on one of them in any given moment, but I might work on a doll one day, and a bear the next. I usually have several bears in progress at once, so it seems to take longer to finish one, but then after the drought, I end up with a few finished bears in a matter of days!

Here is Edward Bear #2/3 made for a collector's order:


Here is Christmas Edward, a special version of Edward available from My Friends and Me next month:


And here is Karl and his yet to be named friend, my first two bears for the Handmade Treasures Teddy Bear Show in Hunt Valley, MD, November 13, 2010. Technically these fellows aren't finished as I still need to make accessories and photograph them properly, but they are finished enough to have been given their first hugs!


Then there are the really long term projects. In February, I started to sculpt a ball-jointed doll. The first part seemed to go relatively quickly--getting the body and head sculpted, but making joints was new to me and took quite a bit of trial and error.


I have also had some great practice sculpting hands for this girl as I have sculpted three pairs to get the appropriate size!


I still have some details to work out before she is cast in resin, of course, but with a bit of imagination you can picture her as whole!




After I work on these epic projects though, sometimes I need the satisfaction of making something fast! I made this pincushion(inspired by this blog and this one) for myself in just a couple of hours!




It feels good to finish things!