Late to the Party!

I have been working like crazy trying to have as many lovely Christmas bears for the online show as I could, but sadly, there are three which I did not finish. I plan to list them on my website sometime within the next week. If you are on my mailing list, you will receive a notice as to exactly when it will be, as soon as I know myself!

Messy worktable, busy hands!

Christmas Treasures online show is now open!

The Christmas Treasures Online Teddy Bear and Gift Show is now open at www.teddiesworldwide.com!

Here are some pieces I created for the show:

Burton

Tatty Clown

Snowbeary

 "Cubcakes" Willoughby and Wimmick

The Preview Has Begun!

The preview for the Teddies Worldwide Christmas Treasures Online Bear and Gift Show is open now!

My preview bear is a 13" cub who is all decked out for playing in snow. Her cuddly white alpaca plush snowsuit, inspired by vintage "Snowbabies" figurines, is part of her body, but her hat, trimmed with fluffy mohair is removeable. Please visit www.teddiesworldwide.com to see Snowbeary and all of the other preview bears and to vote for your favorites!

Snowbeary

Show News and More

This weekend, the 9th Annual Christmas Holiday Teddy Bear Show and Sale will take place in Hunt Valley, Maryland ---without me.  It is always a wonderful show with delightful artists, great promoters, and lovely collectors, so I was very sad to have needed to cancel. I have been struggling to keep up with bears this year due to commitments at school, and illness in my family. If you are going, I will miss you, but I sincerely hope you will enjoy the show as much as I always do.

This weekend is also the beginning of the preview for the Teddies Worldwide Christmas Treasures Online Bear and Gift Show. The show itself will take place November 21-23, 2014, and I am happy I will be a part of this show as I had planned. The preview begins this afternoon at 4:00, and collectors are invited to check out the artists who will be in attendance and to vote for their favorite preview bears. I do hope you will check it out!

I editing this post because I've just received some lovely news I wanted to add! There is a new Teddy Bear magazine making its debut, and an article I wrote as well as a feature on my work will be included in this issue! Bear Beautiful is the brainchild of artist Helen Gleeson, and it is available as a digital magazine and a beautful bound book! I hope you will visit the site and take a look!

http://www.bearbeautifulmag.com/ 

Smokey

This big cuddly fellow is Smokey. He is going to live in North Carolina and his new mom wanted me to name him after the nearby mountain range. I think it suits him! I am not adding to my order list at this time, but I am trying to get the orders I have finished between shows and school and life! Smokey is one of these orders. I am so thankful for such patient collectors!

Making Faces!

What's the Buzz?

Today I was blessed to attend a very lovely and soul-refreshing retreat for my art teaching job. As a teacher in a Catholic school, some of our required inservice time is spent on religious instruction and spiritual growth. Our inservice days  mean a day off from students for the full-time teachers, but they usually require me, a part-time teacher, to work on an extra day. I was looking forward to today's inservice, though. I always think of retreats as a way of putting the busy world on pause, of stepping away briefly, and devoting time to prayer, reflection, quietly drinking in the beauty of creation with all of my senses, and breathing in peace along with that fresh earthy smell that comes after an autumn rain. Today's retreat did not disappoint. It was the perfect balance of instruction, and discussion along with plenty of time to spend quietly walking the gorgeous  wooded grounds along the Little Miami River. He leads me beside cool waters. He restores my soul. Indeed He does! I really must make time to take my own personal retreats!

At the retreat, since the attending teachers represented two different schools, there was an "ice-breaker" activity in which we were to ask questions of our fellow teachers and then introduce them to the group at large.  When my well-meaning colleague introduced me, she told everyone that my "hobby" was making Teddy Bears (she didn't ask me that question, because she said she "already knew the answer").  Making Teddy Bears is not my hobby, it is my work.  This distinction is a bee in my bonnet and she set that bee a-buzzing! Teddy Bear making is not a hobby; it is a business I have spent 20+ years building, a craft I have spent 30+ years improving, and it is my full-time job. It is my work. It is work that I love, but it's not a hobby anymore than my teaching job is. (By the way I love my teaching job too!) I asked myself why it matters, really, and the answer boils down to time.  I would like people to respect my bear-making time as work time. Sometimes people who have some legitimate claim on my time (my family, my friends, my principle ) want more than I can give and I hear " but you only work two days a week..." (Sometimes I only hear them think it, admittedly, but it's there between the lines of "Well, why can't you do it on Monday?" and "But you're off on Fridays, aren't you?") No, I only teach two days a week; I work every day.  I would love it if people would respect the time commitment I have to my full-time job as much as they do my part-time one.

Ah, well. It's been a lovely day, anyway, and I have some other lovely news to share! I have already posted this on Facebook, but thought I'd share it here too.

My Bear, Emmett, the Steampunk Time Traveler, has been chosen as a finalist in the Excellence in Bear Artistry Awards! Many thanks to the judges for this honor. The public voting has already begun and is open until October 31st. Visit http://www.bearartistry.com/how-to-vote to see all the finalists and cast your votes!