Under pressure ...

With six new bears in my work basket waiting for me to wave my magic wand, two shops waiting for orders and a major show imminent, I must admit to feeling a little pressured this week! 

Time to take a breather and not exactly smell the roses, but rather enjoy my dahlias ...

'Roxy'

'Melody Mambo'

'Melody Dora'

Ah, that feels better! 

Back to work now Paula ...

Casper, a brother for Casabian!

This is 'Casper', brother bear to 'Casabian', (the bear I mentioned I was finishing in yesterday's post) ... he will be hopping on a plane and following 'Casabian' to Singapore shortly. 

After stuffing two such large bears one after the other, I can honestly say I am looking forward to working on some slightly smaller designs.  I used to make much bigger bears in years gone by, some even as large as 32", but these days 23" is about all I want to handle!

23" 'Casper' will soon be heading to Singapore!

I have another shop order to fill next week, this time for a UK shop in Stoke-on-Trent.  I'm really looking forward to making these bears ... I get to make a panda (which I haven't done for a while!) a pretty pink careworn girl bear and two careworn boy bears - should be fun!

Casabian

I should be stuffing this chap's brother bear today, so this post will be brief! 

Introducing 'Casabian', a chunky 23" bear destined for a super new teddy bear shop called 'A Bear Place,' which has recently opened in Singapore.

23" 'Casabian' will be flying out to Singapore tomorrow!

What with bear orders, the Guild of Master Bearcrafters, my blog, website updates and so on, my days seem to fly past way too quickly at the moment and  I have two more shop orders to fulfill before I can start work on my next collection of show bears.  'Teddies 2010' takes place in London on the 12th September and although it sounds as though there's still plenty of time to prepare, I know from past experience the weeks will disappear in a flash and before I know it, I will be in full panic mode, yet again!

Putting the world on hold ... for a little while.

It's hard not to feel a little cut off from the outside world when you work from home and since our lovely holiday in Kefalonia recently, I must confess to feeling more than a little 'cooped' now that I'm home again.  To put this to rights, I decided we'd take a stroll around Leybourne Lakes with my daughter and Stuart's grandson on Saturday afternoon, to breath in fresh air, enjoy a change of scenery and take a little gentle exercise in the sunshine ...

Fay watching geese on the lake

Stuart and Calvin say hello to a passing swan

Fay and Calvin chat about life, the universe et al ...

View across one of the beautiful lakes ...

A little Fay and Calvin fun!

Stuart and Fay taking their 'end of walk' ice-creams very seriously!

I think we are very lucky to have the lakes so close  by ... it's such a great place to put the world on hold for a few hours and share time with family.

A Kefalonian Memory

At last I have a new bear to show you .. it seems ages since I have been able to finish a bear!  I have called this lovely clown 'Kefalonia,' because her palette reminds me so much of the soft pastel shades of the Kefalonian villages we drove through on our holiday ...

'Kefalonia'

This pretty clown already has a new owner here in the UK, but I thought you might like to see her anyway!

A past life present.

Have you ever wondered what bear artists did before they were bear artists?  Thanks to the amazing reach of social networking technology, I recently received a reminder of a past life ...

1981: Eighteen, with attitude!

Back when jeans were spray painted, lip gloss tasted of strawberries, the Hairy Cornflake ruled the morning airwaves and Ipods had yet to be dreamed of, my first job at the grand old age of eighteen, was as secretary for an entertainments agency in London.  I used to scrape myself into a pair of skinny jeans, plonk myself on a train and arrive at an office in The Strand by the skin of my teeth each morning, just in time to make coffee for the bosses.

Venigmas' recording 'Strangelove' ... good old 7" vinyl!

There was an mean ol' electric typewriter on my desk with a frustratingly unique perception of the art of spacing between words, oh how I hated that thing!  But once envelopes had been addressed and invoices typed, I was sometimes invited to type song lyrics for 'Venigmas', a job I loved!  Venigmas were a gutsy Glaswegian indie band, busting to make it big in the music industry way back in the very early 80's.  I was eighteen years young, loving my time as a fly on the wall in studios and watching them strut their stuff on tiny stages in smoky pubs and clubs on the indie band 'circuit' ... memories guaranteed to make me smile even now, almost three decades later.

Anyway, to cut a brief story even shorter, I'd like to share a little music with you here today!  

Introducing a very old friend of mine, Owen Paul McGee ... once upon a memory, lead singer with the Venigmas ...

I do hope you enjoy Owen's music. If you would like to know more about his work, please visit www.owenpaulmcgee.com 

... and if the urge takes you, why not follow it and visit,

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/2373288/About-Time/Product.html?ptsl=1&ob=Price&fb=0to to purchase a copy of Owen's album,
'About Time'.

2010 URSA Awards - Vote Now!

The online 2010 URSA Awards are now open for public voting!  Please spare a few moments to vote for your favourite entries in each category:

http://cyberdendesigns.com/URSA-2010/Category1.htm

By the way, I have entered dear old 'Nesbit' in category 6, the 'Hugely Huggable Bear' category ... 

Good luck Nesbit!