Look, Mom! No Hands!

Or arms even for that matter! Help!



Here is a bear that I am working on. He will have a doll to hold like "Theodore Loves His Teddy" so I have made wire armatures for his arms. I use electrical cable, duct tape, and quilt batting. I bend the paw into shape, then wrap it with duct tape. I cut away the plastic coating on the end and clip all but two of the wires flush with the plastic. I used the remaining wires to wrap around the joint bolt. The armature is wrapped with quilt batting that is secured with strong thread.





The bear is finished now and his arms will help him hold on tight to his little doll. In the mean time though, he wants to hold hands with Paddington!



I'll post progress on his doll next.

"And I Really Want a Pet Pig!"

I am excited to say that my Teddy Bear Sterling has been nominated for a 2008 Golden Teddy Award. This award is sponsored by the Teddy Bear Review Magazine and my bear will appear in the magazine along with the other nominees and the subscribers will vote on their favorites. It is very exciting. There is an awards ceremony in Washington DC and I would love to attend. This is my fourth Golden Teddy nomination and I have never been to the ceremony (although I did win once.)
I heard a while back, but I received my official notification and my ribbon in the mail today and I got excited all over again! As I read through the material I said aloud, "Oh, I really want to go to Washington DC."
To which my eight year old son Brendan replied, "And I really want a pet pig!"
I cracked up thinking he was trying to be funny. Then I looked at his earnest little smile, and he said, "I really do. They are cute, and smart, and funny. Can I have one?"
Not as cute and smart and funny as you are, Brendan! Aren't kids the best?

Theodore Loves His Teddy!

I have finished my bear and doll combination piece, but I wanted to show just one more in progress photo. My sister in law does not like to see the stage in my bear making in which body part are complete, but not attached to each other. She says it creeps her out-like I'm some sort of sicko who has torn apart a Teddy Bear! I supposed she might be even more creeped out by HUMAN parts scattered about the studio...Sorry, Beth!


Anyway, here are some photographs of the finished pair!

"Theodore Loves His Teddy!"




And here is one with just Teddy.




I hope the Toy Shoppe likes them!!!

More Teddy Pics

I've finished sculpting the head and here are some pictures of it before it is baked. It still looks more like Robin Williams as TR, but I am pleased and I can't wait to finish him!

I'm Sculpting Again!!!!

Whoo hooo! I love to sculpt faces!

The Toy Shoppe saw my "I Love My Teddy" piece in the Teddy Bear and Friends magazine and asked me to create some doll and bear combo pieces for them.

"I Love My Teddy"



They definitely wanted a piece with Teddy Roosevelt, so that is what I am working on. Fun, fun, fun! I love to scupt children most of all, but Teddy is a blast too. He has the perfect caracature face. Just look at this photo.




It is also fun to work on a cartoon-like style. I am exaggerating his features and I have sculpted his moustache rather than applying mohair because he is meant to look like a Teddy Roosevelt doll, not the actual person. The moustache is a funny part because, both this time and the last time I sculpted Teddy, I worked a long time thinking my sculpt looked nothing like him, but when I added the bushy moustache--bam!--Instant Teddy Roosevelt!




He needs a lot of work still but I'm pleased with the start. I can see looking at this photograph that I need to make the nose narrower at the nostrils. He reminds me of Robin Williams playing TR in "Night at The Museum"(Great movie, BTW.)
Sitting and watching my progress is the bear who is meant to hold this Teddy doll.



He is made with my new body pattern and an open mouth.

Photoplay!

OK. I learned that with a cloning tool in Photoshop, I can get rid of the seam in the background of this picture. (See the post below for the original photo.) Pretty cool, right?
Brendan's Paddington


I also learned that if I just play around in Photoshop like a little girl with her hands in fingerpaint, I can do this! Really cool, right? Well, OK, I'm not ready to do my own web design yet, but it was fun and I kinda like it!

Enlightening Experience

Well, after years of taking all of my Teddy Bear pictures outside, and freezing my fingers off (and other body parts, too)in weather like we are having today, I bought a light tent studio. I still really like the look of the pictures I take outside--the bears look good in their natural habitat--but magazines and stores require pictures with "plain, uncluttered backgrounds". It will also be nice not to have to depend on the weather to cooperate when I need to photograph a bear.

I have taken some photographs with my new light tent, and of course I will have to experiment to find out how to best use it, but I do think it will work out.

This is how the studio is set up. My camera tripod is, of course, empty because I had to take it off to take THIS picture!



Here is a photo of Brendan's Paddington now fully outfitted with his hat and coat. (He did a beautiful job with the clothes, too, didn't he?) This photo is one of the best I took, because the bear is smaller and less of the light tent shows. If I had aimed my camera a bit more carefully none of the tent seams would have shown.I'm learning!



I also learned that I don't care for the black background--not the one that came with it anyway, the folds show,(I know, I know,I could iron it, but who wants to do that very time?) and it washes out the bear.



The white background shows the folds a bit too, but not nearly as much as the black, but I think the bear's color looks great with the white. The other backgrounds included are bright red and bright blue, and they are shiny. I am thinking that I will use the included backgrounds as templates to cut the blue felt and the tan vinyl that I've used before to fit in the tent. Neither of those are wrinkly at all. This photo could be cropped better as well.



Here is one more.I was thinking that photo editing software could adjust the backgrounds, too. For example, I think could use the cloning tool to wipe out that seam area behind Paddington's ear in this one, but I'd rather not have to fool with that too much.



Anyway, this was an enlightening experience!