I'm Back!!!

After weeks of just sneaking tiny moments here and there, it feels so good to have had some real studio time this week! I actually finished two bears which have been in progress for a while, and made these little felt toy animals. These hand-sewn, hand-colored, wool felt cuties are accessories for a special bear I'll be sending to Silly Bears, and they were a joy to make.

 The finished grouping will be four, but while the patterns I designed for these three came out just as I had hoped (even though I've never designed paterns for these animals before), the last fellow didn't work out. Can you believe it's the bear's pattern that's giving me trouble?! Oh well. I'm going to have another try tomorrow.

So where are the bears? I'll be getting proper photos of them soon, but in the mean time, here are some photos of a bear I finished back in April! This is Mack and he has found a home in the UK.

Bye for now!

Where are the bears?

There seems to be a serious lack of bears on this blog. I have not finished a bear since the Philly show in the beginning of May. I have some in progress, but none are finished. I am very sorry about this, and I am positively itching---no, aching---to get back to full time creating!

Many of my readers know that I have two careers. I am a full-time (usually) bear artist, and a part-time elementary school art teacher. I teach art at a small parochial school two days per week, and usually spend most of the other five days working in my own studio, but I seem to be having a hard time keeping up with both this year. On those occassions when I feel like I am not keeping up, I wonder if I should let the teaching job go, but I LOVE it.  I love my students, I love the other teachers, I love our new principal, and I think I love teaching art as much as I love making it!

 As most teachers know, the actual class time you spend with your students is only a part of the time it takes to be a teacher. It is the biggest part of course, but planning, set up, clean up, organizing, researching, keeping up licensure requirements,  inservices, meetings, grading, etc. all add up to a sizable amount of time as well. For me, there is also the time I spend putting together the student art show at the end of each school year, and this year, the time spent painting, moving, and organizing my new classroom space and my curriculum! This is how I have spent the best part of June (my first month of summer "vacation") and I am still not finished! I volunteered for the painting part , but really didn't anticipate that taking as much time as it did (I've put in well over 100 hours--creeping up on 200), so I am just now moved in and trying to get things organized. At the beginning of this undertaking, I was looking forward to the start of school this fall with great excitement for the new classroom and for the new (to me) art teaching philosophy/ methodology I plan to employ. Right now, I just feel overwhelmed. I have to keep reminding myself how nice it will be and how much the students will love their new studio!

BUT I want to make bears. I NEED to make bears! Where are the bears?

Vacation Sketchbook Play

My family and I rented a lovely beach house in Outer Banks,  North Carolina the first week of June. It was a wonderfully relaxing vacation. Early morning and late evening walks on the beach, days playing in the sand and surf, afternoon naps, and evening family time made up most of our time. It was perfect!

I also spent a couple of afternoons playing in my sketchbook on the house's screened porch in the delightful company of my young nieces and nephew who worked along side of me in their own artistic persuits!

Here is what I worked on. This is a collage page I made with found images that represent a few of my favorite things. My childhood passions are always a part of me! I still need to decide how to finish it.

I also finished this drawing which I had started earlier. I was drawing from an image like I usually do when drawing a face, but I was becoming frustrated at trying to copy it. When I put the image aside and finished the face on my own, I was much happier with it.

Sean said, "She looks like your face! I don't mean like she looks like you, but like your style of face, the face you like to draw and sculpt."

Maybe this should not please me, but it did. Perhaps I should be dismayed that my drawings and sculpts all look the same, but  I don't think they do. However, I do think that most professional doll makers have a recognizable style, a quality in the faces that makes their dolls appear related to one another. 

Looking at some things I have been working on recently I can see it a bit too. They are not the same, but They do look to be created by the same person. I think I have a recognizable style with my bears and I am pleased that I am beginning to develop that with my dolls. Now I just need to actually finish some dolls!

Heads to finish.

In her wonderful book Designing the Doll, Susanna Oroyan shares this photo of one of her pieces:

Heads to Finish by Susanna Oroyan

The book is one of the very best resources for doll making, filled with techniques and ideas, and also wonderful inspiring photos of every sort of "doll". But this piece has always been one of my favorites in the book! I can so relate to it! This is because not only do I always have ideas floating around in my head, but I have quite a collection of heads lying about my studio. Some are in boxes never to be finished as I have lost interest, but some ever-hopeful pieces wait patiently at my sculpting station, for me to carve out a bit of time to work on them.

The head to the far left of this photo is going to be finished like the sketch to the far right. I began to sculpt the head last year and I did the drawing in 2010! The cone bodied girl is going to be an angel for my Christmas tree. I started her in November of last year, but she has been in my head for at least five years! Between the bears and the dolls I want to make, the paintings I want to do, the book I plan to write (and on and on) I will surely run out of time on this planet before I run out of ideas! I have never been bored when my time is my own.

I carved out bit of time yesterday to refine this Paperclay head. This little face makes me so happy, and I know I will finish her someday as a one of a kind ball jointed doll. I love her mouth and nose. I am working on sculpting eyes rounder and ears less flat. I actually carved off her ears (I love Paperclay) and started again with them. I think they are much improved, and I am liking her eyes a lot better too. She won't be finished in time for the Philly show in May, but that is just as well. I think I would like to keep her! I took lots of photos because it helps me see what needs work still. I think she looks sweet from every angle (as long as you can imagine the second ear finished that is).

It's back to bears now, though. I have plenty of them floating around my head and my studio right now too!
Here's a sneak peek at a few for Philly.

Pulling Strings

I have always been interested in puppets of all kinds. The way one can make these in-animate objects appear to come to life with hidden hands is something I still find delightful (Although I know many folks who find it creepy!) My toy-making adventures as a child included hand puppets with felt bodies and heads made from styrofoam balls covered in fabric or paper mache, and full-bodied animal puppets stitched from my own patterns made with plush fur, in addition to the childhood puppetry standards-paper bag puppets and sock puppets! My brother had a fantastic clown marionette when we were young and I wanted one of my own, but never thought of making one. In recent years though, I started a couple of times to create a marionette bear, but became side tracked with other projects (as I often do).

Then, last month, when I came an online marionette class taught by one of my favorite doll sculptors, Diane Keeler, I had to do it. It was a birthday present to myself. The class was fantastic, and I finally finished a marionette! It's a young Mad Hatter. If you'd like take a class from Diane yourself, you can find some here along with classes from other talented artists! www.aforartistic.com

Here are some in-progress photos:

The parts are sculpted from polymer clay

Diane Keeler demonstrated her step by step
method for sculpting perfet ears!

My experience in doing "face-ups" on my BJD collection helped with the
painting!

The wig is made from a scrap of mohair plush in
 the "use what you have" spirit!

I am pleased with his chubby hands.

This is a "use what you have" project. I bought nothing new.

Here is my finished marionette! 

The Teddy Bear Extravaganza has begun!

The Teddy Bear Extravaganza at www.teddiesworldwide.com has begun! Visit the show to see new work from 75 talented bear artists from all around the globe.

My studio is buried in bits and parts from all the projects I have had going --bears for this show, bears for the show in Philadelphia-- an online marionette class (I'll share about that here soon), and even a couple of dolls! My mind feels just as cluttered, but it's all fun stuff and now that the online show has started, I'm going to take a moment to clean up the studio and I'm going to take a walk in the nice sunshine to  clear my mind!
I made one of me new smaller bears with big bear details--

Arlo

Arlo

I also enjoyed working with a new little classic style design I made for this show. "Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!"

Happy

Happy

Joy

Joy

Sunny

Sunny

The Teddy Bear Extravaganza preview has begun!

Introducing Happy! This traditional style teddy is my preview bear for the Teddies Wordlwide online show! He's named for the song by Pharrell Williams that was in my head all day the day I finished him, and decked out for a birthday celebration--mine!  visit www.teddiesworldwide.com to see the preview and vote for your favorite bears! Then, be sure to come back March 21-23 to see the show!