We're having (another) heatwave!

 

Another sweltering hot afternoon in the All Bear workroom...

So hot in fact, I pulled the window blind down (I let it up for a moment to take this photo) and the room is in darkness. The fan is blowing hot air feebly around the room and to be honest, I am wilting. The weather forecast seems to offer no relief for the forseeable future, so my apologies if website updates seem a little on the slow side at present.

Sadly, my garden is also wilting. Hosepipes are now a convenience of dim and distant memory, permissable only at rainy and cold times of year when they are least needed, or so it seems. The roses put on a brave stand against this heatwave and I do what I can to help them, by lugging heavy watering cans around the garden in the evenings, but what once took only a few minutes with a hosepipe, has become a slog under the new regime ... and I swear I use exactly the same amount of water. Sometimes there is little rhyme or reason to the edicts of water companies!

In all seriousness though, this week drought orders have been issued to seven areas in the UK. Kent isn't yet on the least but it may well happen. Given that the streets regularly pour with water from broken pipes and some areas, my daughter's included, have been without water to their houses because of poor management and broken pipes, the current situation is frustrating to many folk, as you can imagine.

Of course, I speak of mere inconvenience, but there are also reports of serious wildfires in Europe and now in the UK too. So frightening for residents and wildlife as those of you who live with such yearly threats overseas, will understand firsthand.

Here in All Bear Land, we are simply sweaty, weary and frankly, pretty bored of relentless sunshine, which quickly loses appeal without cool running water to keep the Grandchildren entertained and the garden green. If I sound a tad disgruntled, I confess I am. Such heat drains me these days and I am missing my midday walks with the dogs, who are in danger of becoming couch potatoes!

Anyway, enough of my overheated moaning. Normal service will resume and I am sure it won't be too long before we Brits are all complaining about the rain instead. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed a peek at the bears and dolls on the cabinet behind me!

Spring Cleaning

Was tidying my workroom cupboard earlier and came across this lovely photograph of a past collection of big bears I created several years ago. I remember the photo was taken by my sister ... she did a great job and we had loads of fun together in her studio that day!

 I'm not sure why the photo landed up in the back of my cupboard, but it made me smile today, so I have put it back out on display. I perched the pic behind my teddy bear trophies which were also gathering dust, but have today been washed so are now sparkling when the sun shines through the window. 

All this organising and cleaning can only mean one thing .... surely Spring is just around the corner?!

:-)

A cosy corner

Last week, I treated myself to a little art desk for my birthday, after realising that if I had a tidy up and organised myself properly, I would be able to free up enough space to transform a corner of my workroom into a cosy art corner.

I am thrilled with my new work space and looking forward to playing with my art materials safely away from Rodney's mischievous reach ... that naughty cat just can't resist stealing paintbrushes!

Rodney

Now that I have my teddy bear work station on one side of the room and my art station on the other, I will be able to tuck myself away and create to my heart's content whenever the mood strikes - and best of all, can leave my work out on the desks and close the door in the knowledge it will stay safe until I am ready to return to finish it!

I am so very grateful to have such a lovely creative space to work in. It is full of my crafty bits 'n pieces, pictures of my kids, craft books and teddy bear materials. It has everything I could possibly need to hand. Until he bought his own house several years ago, this was my son's bedroom, but I claimed it back when he flew the nest, then, with the help of my husband, turned it into my creative sanctuary. It is a lovely bright sunny room, full of 'happy' creativity and the perfect space in which to create teddy bears ... and now also, to paint!

:-)

Getting organised for 2017

With all the Christmas and wedding preparations of the past few weeks, I didn't have time to introduce my latest teddy bear 'Winterberry' before I shot off to Whitstable to celebrate my son's wedding day. Winterberry was a lovely classically styled teddy bear in a rather untraditional purple colour ...

19" Winterberry has been adopted

And I am delighted to tell you, this lovely teddy bear was adopted just in the nick of time for Christmas.

So, my final teddy bear of 2016 had found a new home just before Christmas but by New Year, my workroom was still in a right ol' mess! With the help of my grandson, I spent yesterday morning organising it and when I end this post, I will be pouring a cuppa, heading upstairs into a nice tidy workroom (thank you for your help Toby!) and starting work on my very first teddy bear of 2017. 

I hope to introduce my new teddy bear to you very soon and in the meantime, I wish you all a very happy, safe and creative New Year! 

xxx

That's not tennis!

My bear making has been limping along at a snail's pace lately because I had a flare-up of tennis elbow; twenty years of bear-making takes a toll on joints unfortunately.  I've had to start using a support which I wear below my elbow while working ... thankfully, that is helping.  So, the pink 'n white bear I mentioned in my previous post is waiting for knitted dungarees (knitting is particularly painful with this condition) and her ears still need stitching on (mustn't forget to do that!) ... but we are making progress, albeit slowly.

On the plus side, having to rest my arm has at least provided me with much needed time to tidy my workroom, which is now lovely and organised ... 

I'm relieved to say my arm is feeling a bit stronger now and I'm looking forward to making a lovely bear crafting mess in here again in a few days' time!

Teddy bear making, the process

When I recall my days of making and selling a minimum of three bears each and every week, I realise I must have been driven to work many more hours in my single parent days! These days I prefer to work at a more gentle pace, particularly as my poor hands don't cope so well with long hours any more ... bear making takes its toll on finger joints over time, unfortunately.  Anyway, we should all make a little extra time to smell the roses now and again ... it's good for the soul!

Even a fairly straightforward classic teddy bear takes about twelve solid hours to create - from drawing and cutting out the pattern, trimming the mohair edges by hand to give a professional finish, then pinning the pieces together ready for sewing, setting in paws, stuffing, making the head, assembling, jointing and finishing.  Yes, making a traditional teddy is a very involved process.

So I'd share my latest bear's work-in-progress photos to show the process. The picture above shows a stuffed head with muzzle closely trimmed on top.

I usually pin the ears roughly in place at this point and use a couple of black pins to give me an idea of where to place the eyes. Then I start to scissor sculpt the rest of the muzzle.

I always work on the head first and when I'm happy with the muzzle, move on to nose embroidery.

Once the nose and mouth are sewn, I think the bear really starts to take on his personality!

But as you can see, it's only when the eyes (vintage boot buttons in this case) are inserted, he comes to life ...

When both eyes are in place and he can look straight at me, my teddy bear is ready to be assembled.

After I have jointed the head to the body, I half stuff his limbs and measure where I want to fix them.

When making a traditional bear, the traditional method of jointing limbs and head is to use two hardboard discs, one inside the body cavity and the other in the limb, then make a crown joint using a cotter pin and washers to secure.

When teddy has been assembled, it's time to stuff him, add his growler and close all seams by hand.

Lastly, there are claws to be stitched and ears to be sewn on; again by hand.

To finish teddy, I like to give him a thorough brush with a teasel brush to remove any fur trapped in the seams and generally spruce him up before deciding how to accessorize.  As this is a traditional teddy, I opted for a smart satin bow.

Before teddy can be offered for adoption, I like him to have studio photographs taken for my website as it's important to represent the colour of his mohair as accurately as possible and the Iphone pics snapped in my workshop aren't really suitable ... and of course, a beautiful photograph taken on a decent camera is hopefully worth a thousand words!

So that's the tale of how one of my traditional teddy bears is made.  I may not make quite as many teddies as I once did, but I guarantee each bear I do create is made with as much love and attention to detail as ever his predecessors were.  They are, as always, special teddy bears for special people.

Oh and if you were wondering - yes!  The bear in this post is now available for adoption from my website. His name is 'Elliot'!

Thank you so much for your kind interest :-)

www.allbearbypaula.com

Update: Elliot has been adopted.

So this is George

I snapped a few Iphone pics from my desk as I worked last week ...

Stitched and ready to stuff.

Nose embroidered so now it's time to insert the glass eyes.

Painting melted wax onto this fellow's nose ...

Using a hairdryer to melt the wax deep into the embroidery thread.

Buffing the first layer with brown paper.

Another coat of wax, more melting and more buffing and this bear's nose is now complete.

End of day workroom pic - hey, hello bear!

And finally, a posh studio photograph session! 

So this is George. 

:-)

Let's get to the good stuff!

There will be no 2013 retrospective from this bearmaker, instead a tidy workroom, pink 'n fluffy bear in progress, a show on the horizon, orders to fulfill, fabrics to purchase, interview questions to answer, a new calendar to create ... as you can probably tell, I'm not in the mood for dwelling on what has passed, so let's get to the good stuff and stride forward into 2014 instead!

Cuppa on my desk, daytime telly burbling, slippers on ... yep, after the Christmas break I reckon it's about time to rev up my creative motor and start work on my first bear of 2014!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Damp squib?

Creativity is a strange thing, sometimes it's at the tip of your fingers and other times it drifts away, taking a sabbatical without warning.  All kinds of unexpected hiccups trip up creative flow but thankfully, it usually demands to be noticed once again when the distractions settle.

In progress on my work table this week

My creative flow took a significant hit two years ago when Dad passed away and since then has graced me with an occasional half-hearted re-appearance, but generally speaking, has needed constant nudging, cajoling and even pleading with, to encourage it to shake itself from lethargy.

'Twink' - my latest owl shelf sitter, completed this week

Luckily for me, our wedding plans sparked my creative instincts again earlier this year thanks to the support of my closest family, who reminded me that creativity should be above all else, fun.  We worked hard for many months to create a wonderful wedding day, the very best kind of fun, but boy was it was tiring - I found myself waking up in the morning, more tired than I went to bed the night before!

  

Once our wedding day passed, a penny started to drop ... I have been feeling exhausted pretty much since Dad died, an overwhelming lethargy had my creativity firmly in its grip and the vitiligo (de-pigmentation of skin) I'd been ignoring for years, had also noticeably spread.  It seems I'd been so busy worrying about and organising life events, I simply hadn't noticed my health.  Fortunately my daughter was far more in tune, insisting I talk to the doc, so eventually I did as she asked and surprise, surprise, discovered I have an under active thyroid gland - which probably explains why I haven't been firing on all cylinders for quite a while!

So the moral of my story is, if your creative spark has become more of a damp squib, please don't ignore the clues like I did.  Happily, now my treatment has begun, I am already feeling less tired, much brighter and thankfully, eager to create again!

A note to self ...

You may remember when I moved into my new workroom at the start of last year, I bought a memo board ...

Back then I was more interested in which fabric to use for covering the cork pin board and how to make it look as pretty as possible, but when my sister Tina drove up from Hampshire to visit this weekend, she nipped upstairs to take a look at my new workroom and commented on my memo board, making me realise my pristine board had evolved somewhat during the months it has been hanging!

It's so much more than a pretty wall hanger now ... now it tells stories! 

There's a lovely thank you picture from my young niece, a pair of felt paw pads cut for a teddy who decided otherwise, little scented polka dot sacks given to me by Stuart's mum, photographs of my favourite rose blooms from 2010 and also one of a beautiful Camelia bloom - the camelia was a gift from my Dad many years ago and came with me from my old house when I moved ... I worried it might not survive transplantation, but it thrived and was heavily laden with the most gorgeous blooms last Spring.  There are also practice pieces of knitting, held by sweet little butterfly pegs given to me by my daughter.  On a more businesslike note, I've pinned reminders to order new wool felt for bear paws and cute bow ties in assorted colours hang, waiting to adorn new teddy bears.  There's a precious photograph of me with my kids, taken many years ago on a very windy visit to Brighton pier and my burgundy rosette congratulating me on my first ever Golden Teddy Award nomination.  The pegs beneath hold several lengths of  gorgeous hand dyed silk cord made by a lady in America and sitting under the memo board is the teddy bear tin given to me by my sister Fiona after a holiday; it contained Cornish fudge years ago, but now holds emboidery thread for new teddy bear noses ... oh and beside the tin sits one of my favourite china pigs collected years ago.

So, as you see, my memo board turned into a story board - it wasn't planned, it simply evolved in its own sweet way, which coincidentally, is pretty much the story of my entire life!

Sanctuary

When I look back to the arrival of 2011, I remember trying to embrace the coming year, but with an empty room upstairs after my son flew our happy nest and so soon after losing Dad, it wasn't the easiest of times.  When Stuart took matters into his own hands and began to talk about decorating and moving my workroom into my son's old bedroom, I decided I'd better get my act together and make a concerted effort to put on a brave face ...

An empty room at the start of 2011 ...

There were several noticeable benefits to moving my existing workroom, the first of which was a lovely big fitted cupboard in my son's old bedroom - perfect for storing all my craft supplies.  His room was also bigger and brighter than my current room, so the final decision was made and while Stuart filled the many holes left by my son's stereo and tv equipment, I set about the serious business of mulling over colour schemes and all things pretty ...

Stuart spent the next couple of months decorating in his spare time, patiently putting up with my 'left a bit, right a bit ... no left a bit ...' directions ... and gradually my new workroom began to take shape.

It was important to me the room wasn't only a practical bear crafting workspace; I needed it to feel like my room, a nurturing environment for the bruised inner Paula ... so I chose colours, pictures, ornaments, precious bits 'n pieces, many of them gifts from loved ones, with every bit as much care as the furniture items ...



And after all the weekends of Stuart working so hard to make everything perfect for me, suddenly my beautiful new room is ready to use!

I am truly looking forward to spending many, many, happy hours working in my special new room and also to spending many, many, more years with the very special man who made this possible for me!

My new workroom - an update

In case you've been wondering, my new 'den' is really starting to take shape! 

First I moved my special chair into place ...
and carefully placed my favourite photograph of Dad right beside.

Then challenged myself to build a (very simple!) shelving unit to accommodate all my craftbooks ...

... and they are now in situe in my new, super-organised craft cupboard.

Stuart built a smart display cabinet for my bears, bits 'n bobs ...

Which I am absolutely thrilled to bits with!

And my lovely gallery of 'special times' makes me smile every time I walk through the door ...

My cute knitted dog doorstop, a gift from my son and his girlfriend, is now 'on guard' at the foot of the door ...

... beneath a pretty welcome sign (also a gift) ...

All I need now is a new desk to work on and a sewing chair - they've been ordered and should be here in a few days, so there's not much longer to wait until I will be able to add the final finishing touches and declare my new workroom officially open for bear business!