A winter warmer!

Yippee! Bear Artists Online has announced another new show for the 2007 calendar!

I've put my name forward because the last show really inspired me and I'm sure a pre-Christmas show will do so again.

The 'Bear Artists Online Winter Warmer Show' will take place on 3rd November, so please pop the date in your diary ...

Hey, if I listen carefully, I'm sure I can hear sleighbells already!

CLOWNING AROUND!

So, what have I been up to lately?

Well, do you remember I mentioned my clown challenge in an earlier post? I'm pleased to say I've finally finished my first entry! He was created from oddments and somehow they came together to make a really cute bear! I did wonder while I was working if I was being overly ambitious with the colour scheme, but everything worked out beautifully in the end.

I'm afraid 'Jimjams' was snapped up really quickly, but I'd like to share him with you anyway ... I really enjoyed making him. Mind you, I had such a fiddle making a hat to fit! I may be a bear maker and able to knit, but I will freely confess, I am definitely challenged when it comes to my dress making skills!

URSA AWARDS!

Oh boy, oh boy! The URSA Awards are now open for voting! It's one of those nerve wracking times when I wonder whether I'm as daft as a brush for entering and whether or not egg will be plastered all over my face by the end of the voting period. Exciting, daunting ... competitions are such a belly churning time for this bear designer!

'Crocus' is my entry and whilst I love her dearly, I wonder whether or not I should have created a more contemporary piece for this competition? It's so hard to judge! I decided to work with a very classic design, using a harlequin colourway, in the hope it would show that bears rooted in traditional skills still have their place in today's bear art. Well, we'll see! The voting is done entirely by the public, which is a great way of giving the bear industry the opportunity to really listen to collectors' preferences.


There are so many great entries in this competition, it's going to be great fun going through them all to place my vote! I hope you will join me and place your vote too ... this is the link you'll need to enter the URSA AWARDS and support our wonderful world of teddy bear art!


First, I must post a link to 'Crocus' in Category 3 ... just in case you'd like to vote for her!


http://www.cyberdendesigns.com/Category3.htm


And this link will take you to the opening page of the URSA's ... have fun!


http://www.cyberdendesigns.com/C-VotingBeginsPage.htm

Cup of tea?

This piece of mohair has been teasing me for several weeks. I loved the antiquey rosey beige colour, but just wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.

Eventually I decided it would be perfect for one of my 'Timeless Teds', a collection of traditional bears for collectors who prefer their teds classic in design. After my recent fun with flambouyant clown bears, I thought the time was exactly right for a Timeless Ted, so I set to work and Amelia (who bears my Grandmother's middle name) was the result.

I think the subtle shade of mohair, blended with cotton velvet paw fabrics works beautifully on this bear, but she needed a little something to finish her. First I knitted her a cardigan, but it really didn't suit her at all, so I put that to one side and had a think. That was when I remembered the delicate cotton crochet collar I had recently come across and tucked away for 'just the right bear'.

Trouble was, the collar was pure white cotton and that really was too strong a statement for Amelia's subtle colourway, so after pondering for a while, I decided to take the plunge and tea-stain the collar. Three strong teabags and a good rinse with fabric softener later, voila! A gorgeous antique shade of ivory beige ... perfect!

For anyone wanting to try this, bear in mind that tea can be acidic and so you will need to rinse your fabric thoroughly after staining. I simply boiled up three 'Yorkshire Tea' teabags, strained them and used the bowl of tea to plunge my collar into. I left it for a couple of minutes and then sloshed it clean in fresh water, finally rinsing it through with fabric softener before leaving it to drip dry overnight.

The morning after the night before ...

The inaugural Bear Artists Online Summer Show has proved to be a great success! About half of the 160+ specially designed bears made available for sale found new owners, a successful outcome by any show's standards.

Staying open for 24 hours to accommodate time zones around the globe, gave the show a wonderfully international appeal and the blend of artists from both the UK and abroad, provided a unique opportunity for a truly inspirational show. Best of all, we had such fun! Many of us kept in touch throughout the show via the BAO forum and I think it's fair to say, we all enjoyed our new online show experience.

Four of my show bears sold during the show and the last bear found his new owner a few hours later as a result of a collector finding her way to me after the show, so yesterday was spent in a flurry of packaging materials as I boxed and taped, addressed and posted. All bar one of the bears are flying off to take up residence across the USA and Domino is the only bear destined to stay in England!

So, back to work for me today ... I have no bears available for sale at the moment and need to rectify the situation!

BAO A great success!

I woke at 7am this morning to find three of my five Bear Artist Online Summer Show bears had sold while I slept! How exciting!

After answering my emails, I dashed across to the BAO website to see how things were going and discovered the show was well underway and already a resounding success! By 3am BST, we had already received 18000 hits on the show site and sold 35 of the bears already! WOW!

Teatime update: At 6.30pm BST I can report the show has now sold 66 of its bears and there are still several hours left to go until the doors are closed! I can't quite resist checking my inbox every few minutes ... I hope I can stay awake until the witching hour to keep in touch with everyone, but I fear I may doze off in the armchair!

The show runs until midnight tonight, so there's still plenty of time to browse through the fabulous bears, I warn you though, be prepared, you may well fall in love!

And at long last I can stop the teasing and share my own show bears with you properly ... I hope you think they are worth the wait!

So, introducing Billy Buttons (bowtie), Domino (black and white), Dippitty (sleepy lids!), Dolly Daydreams (pink and white) and Whisper (standing) ... as you can tell, all bar Whisper are as the result of my recent 'clown thang'! I hope you enjoy them as much I enjoyed creating them!

They range in size from 15" to 23" and are all one-off pieces.

As I had so much fun with the clowns, I've recently thrown down the gauntlet for a clown challenge on the Teddy Talk forum. It should be fun to see how many clown variations we bear designers can develop ... I'll keep you posted!

A little Porridge anyone?

I'd like to introduce you to my latest 'Half Pint' cub bear, 'Porridge'. He's just 16", which by my standards, is quite little. (A positive giant to miniaturists though!) You may recognise his knitted waistcoat from my earlier posting ... as soon as I started work on Porridge I knew he would be exactly the right bear for that waistcoat - it really suits him doesn't it?!

Those buttons have set me off on a quest to find out more about button collecting too ... there are so many fabulous vintage buttons out there and hunting them down is much more fun than buying modern buttons from my local haberdashery (although time spent mooching there certainly has its pleasures too!)

The 'Bear Artists Online Summer Show' starts at midnight on Friday! I'm very excited about it. There are over 160 individually designed bears created especially for the show and I think it's going to be a heap of fun. I hope you can pop in to see what's happening!

Here's the show preview link for a taste of what's to come ...

http://www.bear-artists-online.com/showentry.html

Well, my latest big bear 'Rudyard' sold so quickly, I didn't have time to mention him earlier ... so I will post his photo here for you to see, as I wave him goodbye across the Atlantic to the big 'ol US of A!

I'm going to take a breather today and rather than start work on a new bear, I'm think I'm going to relax a bit and do some knitting in the conservatory ... there was gorgeous sunshine streaming in through the windows earlier, but now ominous black clouds are rolling my way, so I shall knit a cardigan in readinness for my next new bear, while the rain thunders against the glass!

If you want to get ahead, you gotta get a hat!

You may have noticed, my website is crying out for new bears, so this week, I'm back to work on a new big bear for the website. It's not going too well so far, because I made the stupid mistake of only cutting out one side of his back and then running out of fabric. Yep, twelve years in the business and I still make daft mistakes! Once I realised what I'd done, I quickly ordered some more fabric (thank heavens for internet shopping) from my UK supplier, so I don't think I'll be too delayed in finishing him. The fabric is absolutely beautiful, a real treat to work with ... dense Schulte straight pile 'zotty', a fabulous soft taupe mohair with soft frosting, oh yum! It's definitely one of my all time favourite fabrics.

Yesterday I tucked myself away in my sewing room to plan my design, cut out my lovely fabric (with the exception of one half of the back of course ... grrrr!) I trimmed the edges of each piece to give a professional finish to the seams, pinned and machined and today I will sew in the footpads, finish the machining and set to work creating the head, which is my favourite part of the process. With luck, this bear should be ready for the website in the next few days!


XXXXXXX

Stuart had a wonderful day at the races when he went to Royal Ascot on Tuesday, by the way. His group was in the Royal Enclosure, very posh! There is a very strict dress code for this event, top hat and tails for the men and beautiful dresses, complete with hats (no strapless dresses please!) for the ladies. I'll include a couple of pics for you ... by the way, if you look really closely, you can just make out Her Majesty, the Queen, in the fuschia pink dress and hat in the centre of the top photograph. You'll probably need a magnifying glass to see, but I promise, that really is her!

Just one more ...

With a show looming large on the horizon, it's always impossible to resist the urge to create 'just one more' bear! The 'Bear Artists Online Summer Show' is only 11 days away, so I've indulged myself and spent the past few days working on another big bear. I'm delighted with the way he has come together and I'm really looking forward to showing him off properly, but as I don't want to spoil the excitement of the build-up until the big day I'm going to keep all the bears under wraps until the show begins. In the meantime, I will just share a tiny snippetty peek here with you today to give you a taste of what's to come on the big day!

'Domino'

Stuart has gone to Royal Ascot with colleagues today. Top hat, tails, the whole kit 'n caboodle! He looked very handsome in his penguin suit, but that hat! It did make me chuckle! I'll try and share a pic if I can get my digicam back from him without him having erased the photographs I took this morning. I was invited to accompany him, but all that dressing up is really not my thing, so I'm going to watch from the proceedings on the tv this afternoon instead, where I can admire all the gorgeous frocks and hats, without having to wobble on high heels of my own. I'm strictly a flip-flops and trainers kinda gal!

Talking of cameras, I've been very frustrated this week. After umming and ahhing for absolutely ages, I finally treated myself to a beautiful digital SLR camera recently and I have been itching to play with it, but the memory card didn't arrive until about five minutes ago, so the camera has been sat in its box teasing me all week. I'm really looking forward to using it for shots of my bears and also for landscape pics when we visit Devon in a few weeks.
Oh boy, am I ready for a holiday!

Fair exchange is no robbery.

Here's HUGHIE!

Recently one of my suppliers contacted me to ask if I would be interested in receiving a sample of a new fabric they were introducing, in return for photographs of any bear I could create from it, so they could use the pics to give their customers an idea of how the fabric looks when made up. I thought it sounded a fair exchange, so set to work and 17" 'Hughie', now available for sale on my website http://www.allbear.co.uk is the outcome.

The fabric is less dense than I would usually choose to work with and has lent Hughie a very sweet faced, slightly tousled, appeal. I thought the gorgeous traditional dark amber glass eyes worked very well with the colour and was drawn to traditional gold velvet paw pads to complete his overall look. I created a new pattern for Hughie and am pleased with the outcome. He's a lovely size, a manageable 17" hug ... just right! Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you, I've given him a growler too, so that when you tilt him forwards for a cuddle, he can growl his appreciation.

Now I must get back to work on my BAO Summer Show bears ... let's see if I can get at least one more completed before the deadline ... I can't wait to share them with you them properly!

XXXXXXX

It's been an odd week really. A week of mixed feelings. I don't know if you will remember, but for many years I worked with my sister Fiona creating bears under the 'Auntie Bears' banner.

'Becks' by Paula Carter and 'Scrump' by Fiona Smith ... created mid 90's.

We were proud to be bear makers and shared a great deal over the years as we created our niche. Many's the time we've dashed excitedly to the local newsagents desperate to get hold of a teddy mag we know our work is about to be featured in, or have packed up the car with our precious teds and made our way, Thelma and Louise stylie, to take part in a bear show.

Showtime! Early days ... The 'Auntie Bears' stand.

We've planned for the future together, built British Bears on the Net together, launched our charity project 'Dare to Care' together, munched cake, drunk copious amounts of coffee and above all else, laughed and sighed together, during our decade shared as teddy bear designers.

'Beau' by Paula Carter and 'Lottie' by Fiona Smith .. these were available exclusively in Singapore, an edition of ten bears apiece.

However, time moves on and lives take unexpectedly different turns, so a while ago Fiona made the difficult decision to move into a completely new field of work. Initially she felt she would want to return to bear making on an occasional basis and would be reluctant to give up entirely but subsequently, she has become so involved with her new world, she can no longer imagine herself returning to teddy bear design work.

Naturally this is very sad for me, because I miss all that we built together and shared as sisters in the bear world, which let's face it, can be a lonely place to be whilst working, but I am pleased Fo has found fulfilment in her new role and am grateful to her for all the support she has given me over the years and for the huge stash of bear making materials she so generously donated to me a few days ago. Who knows, with luck maybe one day she will get the urge to create again and if that happens, I'll be ready, willing and able to help with components, coffee and of course, cake!

High Spirits with my sister Fiona, on my 40th birthday!

Beartease!

Oh dear ...

It's no good, I've can't wait until the 30th June to show you my Bear Artists Online Summer Show bears ... but I've promised I'll be good and keep them under wraps!

What a dilemma!



So, I have a little tease preview especially for my blog visitors. Here are snippets of four of my show bears ...


You'll have to visit www.bear-artists-online.com on the 30th June 2007 to see them properly though!

Exciting isn't it?!!

A bit of a yarn.

Since the birth of my first child more than twenty four years ago, I've loved to knit. In recent years it's a craft which has supposedly achieved fashionable status as a result of celebs spotted clacking needles in the corners of film sets, but more often than not over the past two decades, I've found it to be a skill with the potential to raise quizzical eyebrows from those less well informed, who can't believe knitters are anything other than of pensionable age, with a penchant for knitted socks.

When I was a little girl, crafts were valued in school. Sewing, knitting, cooking, beadwork, crochet, woodwork, metalwork; each skill was made available to us. My own children haven't had these opportunities at school, which is such a shame. It seems traditional craft skills are not high on the list of priorities in these computerised, mass produced, days.

I am hopelessly left handed and I remember my teacher struggling to teach me to knit and at best, helping me to achieve a wonky, not to mention loopy, garter stitch square, to be stitched together with many other similar shaped offerings into a rainbow coloured blanket, for the local old folks home. So, by the age of seven, we were already beginning to understand the value of creating something 'useful' with our hands, relishing the process of turning a simple piece of yarn into a small contribution, and sharing the process in a companionable circle.

It's probably those very early days, which rooted my first instincts for craftwork firmly in place. I remember too, watching my mother clack at lightening speed as she churned out jumper after jumper for me and my sisters to wear. Not for us the shop bought school sweaters, Mum took pride in knitting sweaters for us to wear to school. Not that we appreciated her efforts of course because in those pre-pubescent days, we yearned to wear the same thin knitwear our friends' mums purchased in the town!

Mum tried in vain to progress my knitting skills, but 'wonky, loopy' simply couldn't be improved upon, it seemed there was little hope for left-handed me. Years later, when penniless and pregnant, my early craft instincts were resurrected and led me to purchase an instruction book. With grit I worked my way through, determined my new baby would have a full layette when born. I mastered the basics and knitted frantically throughout my pregnancy, taking such pride as my bottom drawer began to fill with tiny lacewear!

When my son was born two years later, I kept on knitting and as you can see, at the age of three, he loved his Thomas the Tank Engine sweater. He's twenty two now, so more than happy for me to turn my knitting skills away from him and towards my bears instead!


These days, bear-making has to take priority, but I still manage to find time to clack my bamboo needles now and again. I've just finished this little waistcoat (recognise the buttons?) for a teddy bear and as you can see, I have several other bits n' pieces on the go too.

My favourite place to knit is the conservatory, it's so relaxing to be surrounded by my garden. With a mug of coffee ready on the table while I work, it really is the perfect place to hide away from the stresses and strains of real life, while I knit to my heart's content!

Yay!

... I heard today that one of the bears I sent to Sue Pearson's shop in Brighton a couple of days ago has already found a new home! What lovely news!

Just finished my third bear for the Bear Artists Online Summer Show this afternoon and I will begin work on the fourth tomorrow. There's not much time before the deadline, but with luck I should have five or six special bears ready in time for the show. I'm relishing the freedom to create these bears, there's something very inspiring about a show on the horizon!

Buttons 'n brambles.

Oh dear! What a weekend! The rain poured heaven's hardest, the wind howled and the weight of sodden clematis proved too much for the rotten fence. I woke to find a tangled mass of greenery and crushed wooden slats leaving a gaping hole at the edge of the garden. I spent the whole of Sunday with Stuart, clearing the site and getting soaked to the skin in the process. Now our beautiful garden is a shambles; the saddest thing being that I won't get to see the clematis flower this year after all. On a brighter note, at least the fence will be replaced and I will be able to start work on the garden again ... after all, I do love grubbing around in the mud!


That aside, this week I've been nice and cosy in my sewing room, working on designs for the 'Bear Artists Online Summer Show'. The online show takes place at www.bear-artists-online.com on the 30th June, so I really do need to get my nose pressed firmly to the grindstone.

I'm really looking forward to this show, I think it's a great idea for showcasing bear art, so when the organiser invited me to take part, I couldn't resist. Today I'm working with some beautiful tipped alpaca and lately, I've been hunting for interesting bits 'n bobs to work with and came across these fabulous buttons from the 1930's . I'm certain they will be perfect for a special couple of bears.

I'll let you know how I get on with everything at a later date, but I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than that today, because I will unveil all the new bears at the BAO Summer Show and until then I'm sworn to secrecy!

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside.

"So, where are the bears Paula?" I hear you say! It's true, I've been a little quiet on the subject of my bears recently, but don't worry, I haven't been neglecting my work ethic in favour of lazy days, sipping pina coladas in the sunshine ... what a thought! (Mmmmn!)

No, instead I've been a busy little bear maker, hard at work creating three shop exclusive bears to travel to Sue Pearson's lovely teddy bear and doll shop, in
Brighton.

I've just settled them into their box and tomorrow, Bertie, Popcorn and Twiglet will be en route to make their debut at the seaside!




This is Bertie, a lovely honey coloured 20" alpaca growler.

And here are little Twiglet who is 15" and his panda bear friend Popcorn, who is 17.5".

See, didn't I tell you I'd been busy!

I'm it???

Remember 'tag, 'you're it!' from your schooldays? I was a hopeless runner, all gangly legs and arms, so I remember those days all too well! Laura has tagged my blog (and there was me, toddling along in my own sedate way, oblivious to such fun and games in blog land!) so apparently I am now obliged to reveal seven hitherto unknown snippets about myself, before I reach out and tag YOU!

Ready, get set, here I come ...

1. My favourite perfume is Paloma Picasso.

2. I can't bear judgmental people ... it doesn't hurt to be kind, so why not be kind?

3. My Dad bought me this great 'woolly jumper' money box for my birthday this year - isn't it fun?! I love it!

4. 'Sitting on the dock of the bay' by Otis Reading, is my all time favourite song.

5. Confessions of a weeny bopper: In 1976 I saved my pocket money for ages so that I could see the Bay City Rollers in concert.

6. I can't bear mice, they give me the heebie geebies ... something about their tails and the way they scamper ... shudder!!!

7. After only getting two thirds of the way through several books before losing interest in the storylines, I've just picked up Dicken's 'The old curiosity shop' in the hope of a darn good story to keep my attention.

Okay that's my lot, now I'm off to tag seven 'someone else's'!

Settling in.

The show was great! Such fun ... my foot didn't stop tapping the whole time. Trumpets, trombones, the ohsosexy sounding sax, Jools on piano, Ruby belting it out, superb musicians, superb boogie-woogie. What a joy! Needless to say, we got lost both on the way to Croydon and on the way back home, making a very late night for this ol' lady, and would you believe the car park barrier broke down after the show so no cars could exit?! Such is my life!

It's a beautiful day here today, sunny and warm. This afternoon, I'm going to sit at my patio table in the garden while I sew. I've been enjoying my new garden since moving here several months ago and even though the fence is in desperate need of attention around the boundary, I'm determined to wait until the Autumn to replace it so that I can continue to watch the plants blooming throughout the summer. It seems as if there is a new plant to discover almost daily! The previous owners were obviously green fingered and it was their pretty garden which ultimately sold the place to me. It's such a peaceful place to spend time and these days I have the sound of birdsong to listen to, rather than the wailing sirens I used to hear at my old house!

I've even planted a small herb collection and am using the fresh herbs in my cooking! How domesticated is that?!

After twenty three years in my last house, I thought the move here would be tough, but oddly enough, it was only the leaving that was hard, the new start is proving to be just what I needed and I'm pleased to report, I'm settling in just fine and as you can see from the pic below, so is Toffee, my cat!

Simple pleasures.

I'm sat here with a steaming cup of strong coffee, made in my favourite mug, bought from potter Roger Iving's studio in beautiful Boscastle, Cornwall. One of the simple pleasures I enjoy, is my daily ritual of supping my morning coffee in the peace and quiet of the house, after everyone has left for work. Heaven. I love that this mug was handmade by a local potter in one of my most favourite places.

I've walked along the pathway to the cliffs in this photograph, scrambled over the rocks and braced myself against the strong winds gusting in from the Atlantic, many times.

After a visit, my ritual is to stop at the pottery on my return and purchase several pieces of Roger Irving's unique pottery to bring home with me. Needless to say, after more than twenty years of Cornish holidays, I now have mugs aplenty to share cuppas with family and friends and for those of the tea drinking persuasion, I have several very special double spouted teapots too!

This afternoon I will treat myself to another little pleasure. It is Friday after all, so surely an escape to the hairdresser's can't be classed as too self-indulgent? After all, a girl has to make the effort to 'maintain', doesn't she?!

Besides which, tonight is Jools Holland Night! We're off to see him in concert and I just know that listening to his fabulous boogie woogie will be an absolute treat!




Don't worry, I'll be hard at work again on Monday, but in the meantime, just this once, I'm allowing myself some Paula time!

Let's bring on the clowns ... there ought to be clowns!

I'm often asked how I find inspiration for new designs and it's a hard question to answer because there are so many things that trigger ideas.

I absolutely love working with colour and after working with the more muted, traditional shades of my Timeless Teds, I felt instinctively it was time to inject some colour back into my designs.

One Sunday morning, I was watching a re-run of 'Antiques Roadshow' in bed (!) and I saw the most beautiful Steiff clown bear from the mid 1920's. He was similar to this bear, but in beautiful shades of faded grey/lilac with a gentle burst of watery purple shades in his collar and hat ... such a beautiful bear!

I hadn't realised clown bears were quite so early in design and it led me into a little research. What a pleasure that was! These pictures are from the early 1920's and 30's ... a golden era for teddy bears! American bears, German Steiff bears, English Chiltern bears ... I was delighted to find such fabulous manufacturers introducing bold colour so early on in the history of the teddy bear.

Pictures of vintage clown bears are quite hard to track down, but via the internet and through browsing my collection of 'Christie's Auction House' catalogues, I began to develop a feel for these fine old bears and that of course, led me to want to develop my own range!

So, this week I've been working on a plan to draw these wonderful early designs through to our present day, incorporating a few gentle contemporary 'brush strokes', to bring them up-to-date, but ensuring I retain their original charm.

I'm very pleased with my first big bear in this new collection ... but no, you can't see him today, sorry!

You'll have to be patient because he's under wraps for the time being! I'm sure you won't mind me sharing these pictures with you in the meantime. We have a wonderful heritage of fine bears with many a silent tale to tell and these particular beauties make me smile ... they were the flambuoyant bears of their day, stylish bears with a devil may care attitude! Teddy bears with a certain 'je ne sais quois'!

Bears with flair!

My own 'Billy Buttons' will debut at the 'Bear Artists Online Summer Show' www.bear-artists-online.com on June 30th, so I hope you will join me in making this a firm date in your diary to log on for his grand unveiling!