Philadelphia Artist Doll and Teddy Bear Convention

The show was so wonderful I am still buzzing with excitement! I am sitting here trying to get my brain to slow down long enough to write a post about all of it, but there is just too much! The workshops and seminars, the signature gallery, the meals and events were all top notch. It's always great to see friends from other shows, and this time I met so many new people. I have seen wonderful bear artistry at shows, and this one was no exception, but the artist dolls have blown me away! I have admired the work of these artists online for years and it was great to finally meet them and to see their work in person! I also had the opportunity to take sculpting workshops from two award winning artists, Diane Keeler and Mark Dennis. They are both gifted teachers as well as being talented sculptors! Next year, my plan is to be more prepared. I'll arrive with MORE sleep, bring MORE bears, and MORE money!

As usual, I was so distracted with it all I practically forgot I had my camera. However, I did take a few pictures and Sean got some of the award presentation, so perhaps these will help me tell the story, but the only way you'll be able to understand how great it was is to go yourself!


Participating doll and bear artists were invited to create pieces for a special one of a kind signature piece gallery and competition. These were just a few of my favorites...

Francisco Carreno made a wonderful Steam Punk themed bear and donned themed garb himself! He looked great. I had seen Francisco's work in magazines, but always thought that with all that detail it would be bigger. Very impressive!

Here is my own signature piece, K'eyush.



 Deb Canham made this beautiful vignette! Sadly, my photo didn't do it justice.

This wonderful sculpture is by Mark Dennis!



This is Diane Keeler's piece. Lovely!!!

I love this one, but I cannot recall the artist name--I'll have to look it up. Maybe if your eyes are better than mine you can see the card.

Stephanie Blythe made this gorgeous Little Red Riding Hood! Her work is graceful and detailed and much smaller than I had thought before seeing it in person.

There were several workshop offerings and as I mentioned, I too two sculpting ones, but I was so focused on sculpting I didn't get out the camera.

On Friday there were lectures, and I chose to attend Martha Burch's one on costuming and accessorizing.

Her expertise in this area is apparent! 

  



My table display...needs more bears! I'll do better next year.

My table

Michelle Lamb's table



Darlene Allen's table




Christine Shively-Benjamin's table





Wanda Carson's table

 


Nancy Wiley's table--I bought the book and will be buying the doll!




Jacquie Pollit's table



Amy Thornton and her table



Hellen Bullard Award of Excellence Award winners




Beverly Port Collector Award of Excellence winners




Beverly Port Artist Award of Excellence winners




K'eyush and his awards!







K'eysush was put on layaway at the show so I get to enjoy him a wee bit longer in my home.

It was a wonderful weekend, and I am already making my plans for next year. Hope to see you there!



Getting Ready!!!

I am getting very excited about the Philadelphia Doll and Teddy Bear Convention this weekend! (See my show schedule for more information.) I'd be even more excited if I were not so tired...As usual I am sewing away into the wee hours of the night trying to get just a few more bears finished. I may even be sewing in the car while Sean drives the 10 hours to Philly...or maybe I'll sleep.

Sorry I have no time for a longer post. I just wanted to share a couple of my favorites from the pieces coming along with me to the show. First up is my signature piece, K'eyush ( His name is Inuit for bear cub)

Next is Toklo...

This is Xing-fu

Here is Leo...

And finally a group shot of some bears waiting to be packed up for the trip!

Maybe I'll see you there!

A Measure of Success in the Modern World

"Mom, do you know what's really cool?" my 12 year old son Brendan asked me the other day.

"What?" I said.

"You are Googled enough to be a suggestion," he said enthusiastically. When I looked puzzled, he explained. " You know how when you start to type in something you want to search in Google, it tries to guess what you are looking for? It makes suggestions based on popular searches. Well, you only need to get to the first e in Eveslage before your name shows up. That means lots of people try to look up your name."

"That is cool!" I said. I love Google! It has helped me find answers to important questions, such as "Why does my son get 104 degree fevers that recur every month?" as well as to mundane ones like "Is Fred Rogers dead? (from Mr. Rogers' Neigborbhood)"

And now I know it helps my collectors find me. Very cool indeed!

Portrait painting

My mom and I have been taking an oil painting class called Portrait Techniques of the Masters since last fall and we are learning so much.  I had not touched oil paints since high school and even then I only made two paintings. In class, we mostly paint  models, but after doing  four paintings of lovely people I do not know, I decided to try my hand at painting someone special to me. This is a portrait of my son Brendan at about age five (done from a photo, obviously, since he is now twelve).

We start the paintings with an underpainting to get the values in place. I was pretty good at this, I think, because it's like drawing, which is something I've always done.

Then we added more color each week...

 I loved this stage. It reminded me of an old hand colored photograph. I almost wanted to leave it like that.

 Adding more color seemed to "flatten" his face a bit.

In the photo I was working from, Brendan was holding a different bear. He requested that I paint Teddy Bob (a plush Steiff bear which was a favorite of his for a while) into the painting instead of the one which was there. He was also holding his video game which I didn't want to include. Since I didn't want to have to "make up" the hands and since Brendan's hands were much to big for the picture as they are now, I recruited my five year old nephew to be a "parts model"! I loved the hands in this one, but I turned the bear around.

                           

Our teacher showed me how to push the contrast and color up to get the form back. He's finished!

 

I love it! When we start the class again in the fall I will do a young Alex portrait.

Work Table

I got a new work table for my studio from Ikea earlier this year. It is actually a Hemnes desk and a Hemnes "sofa table" back to back. Together the pieces have a large workspace on top and a good amount of storage. I quite like them.

This is how they looked when first I set them up...

 And this is the way it looked when I was working furiously for the Teddy Bear's Tea Party online show!

Here's my lovely assistant, Missy. You can spot her in all the messy-table photos. She prefers the mess, I think. More stuff to lie on!

Is it time for bed yet?

Good night!