Hubie, a Little Dreamer!

Say 'Hello!' to Hubie, everyone! Let's see if we can get him to get up from his nap...

There we go! This is Hubie, my entry for the NTBAA. He was created for Class D, which is an "All from the Same Pattern." The pattern was supplied by Jan Aldogan.

 

The competition rules called for a dressed and accessorized teddy bear. As I am not much of a seamstress I turned to my knitting and needle felting to kit Hubie out with an oversized, cuddly night cap with a star tassel and a soft and fluffy cloud on which to lay his weary head. Hubie's soft, dense mohair is dotted by tinsel that sparkles like starlight. Dreams were a natural theme for this cuddly little fellow.

Hubie's star, cloud, face, and paw pads are all needle felted. He has soulful, green, German glass eyes and is weighted in both his hind feet and his ample tummy. 

Tomorrow I will be filling out my entry form and mailing Hubie off for his adventure in England. After he comes back he will be the first of my bears to look for a new home with someone who will love a little dreamer like him. 

Thoughts

Needle felting is a lot like life: it takes a really long time to get it right and at times it's pretty harrowing... but it's pretty much impossible to pass the point of no return. Just keep poking away at it and eventually you'll have something worth showing.

Next Project: Hubie!

With Fliederchen getting ready for her trip, it's time to begin my next project.

I mentioned last time that my third bear is for a competition, the The National Teddy Bear Artists' Awards 2013 to be exact. I'm participating in Class D. I have a very specific image in mind how this bear is going to look so I'm excited to see how closely I can match that vision.

Originally, I had intended on making my contest bear with the lavender mohair I used on Fliederchen, but when my mother-in-law expressed a desire to learn to make bears I had her pick out a fabric for the order I was preparing to make with my birthday money. I ordered it in double as I figured I would save a little money that way and make a bear from it myself. I found it (and the matching white I got to go with it) to be so charming I switched gears immediately and "Hubie" sprung into my mind fully formed.

Photos just don't do it justice. If I had a dime to my name I would order more of it, the silver, and especially the gold sparkle which I have not yet had the pleasure to hold. It suits the "dream" theme of Hubie most excellently. I got mine at Mohair Bear Making Supplies (image borrowed from their website) and I can't recommend the whole "sparkle" series enough. I'm so glad I have enough for another bear (primarily of the silver) to be made after Hubie.

I'm doing Hubie's flat sewing, now!

Fliederchen!

Let's welcome Fliederchen! 

She wants you to know she's sorry for the crumby pictures. My one "back drop" (aka table cloth) had a toddler related accident. She's not going up for sale so in the end we decided just to snap some informal images. Here she is checking out the view from our rather, um, "rustic" deck. The weather was so blustery I thought she might blow away despite being weighted!

Anyway, formerly "Lily," Fliederchen experienced some bumps and bruises on her path to coming into being. I overworked her face to the point where I couldn't quite get her eyes even. Her ears also had a hard time lining up. Trying to be clever, I tried felting on her paws before jointing her which worked wonderfully well on her feet but unfortuntely her hands turn "outwards" slightly.

All things considered, she wound up with a lot of character, and after deciding who she was destined for, I changed her name. Fliederchen means Lilac in German, which is my mother's favorite flower!

Fliederchen was a real learning experience which is a good thing because I hope to enter Bear #3 into a beginner's competition. Fliederchen will be on her way to the states next week to give my Mom the Easter kisses I can't!

She is five way cotter pin joined (I learned the 'crown' method this time which I love. Her leg joints are TIGHT.) She is worked in a semi-sparse lavender and white mohair with needle felted details an hand painted "sparkle" eyes. Her ears, nose, mouth, eyes, and paws are shaded using prismacolor  markers. 

Less is More

Alas, alack and woe! My first major bear making incident.

I couldn't leave well enough alone, and decided that my 'finished' head could use some eyelids. I intended to do them on my next bear- why not a little practice? I tacked one on one side with my fine needle felting needle, fiddled around for like an hour, examined it critically, decided it didn't suit, and took it off. I had been able to remove other very gently applied felt pieces without damaging my mohair and I didn't this time either but...

The wool underneath the eye had compacted. Arg! What a newbie mistake. I may be brand spanking new to bear making but I know my way around a felting needle. Suffice it to say, it was a definite "head desk" moment.

I'll need to see her all assembled before I decide if she is worthy to be my first "for sale" bear, but I don't think that this incident has ruined her chances. It was a little harrowing there for a while. I had to open and re-stuff that side of the head to try to counteract the shrunken wool and it took two or three tries to get the eye to match the other. When all was said and one I *think* I have salvaged the situation.

In summation, here are the lessons Ally learned tonight:

1. Sometimes, it is best to leave well enough alone.
2. Be careful of felting up your filler wool.
3. Be committed when you put on eyelids.

Bears, Blogs, Beautification!

It's been a busy week in the Raidel household!

My latest bear is nearing the finish line in terms of her needle felting. I hope to finish her feet tomorrow, and after that it will be a waiting game until my new hoard of cotter pin joints in assorted sizes arrives. After that I'll apply her "makeup" and mark her as my own before she goes out into the world.

With the cotter pins comes a piece of fabric intended for a very special project- my very first non-bear. That's hush hush for now, though. All I will say is that it involves a very luxurious piece of Tibetan lamb's wool I recently found in my "dragged over here from America" fiber stash.

My NEXT project is equally exciting. I've decided to throw my hat in the ring and enter in the National Teddy Bear Artists. Naturally, I'll be in a class 1 competition. I have a very firm picture of how my bear should look in my head. It will be interesting how closely I can mirror my vision in reality. The final piece will have felted eyelids which will be a first for me. Additionally, I hope to make two accessories: one a needle felted piece and the second knitted. It will be nice to stretch my knitting wings again. It has been a long time.

I am going to digitally submit my entry form and fee tomorrow. Then there will be no going back!

During a break in the marathon needle felting, I took some time to beautiful my blog. There is nothing more soothing than a tableau of my beloved ginkgo leaves.

I'm rambling at this point. To end on a high note, here's a little preview of Lily before she got her pretty smile:

Lily in Progress

Hello!

I've been a busy girl since my last foray into teddy bear making. I have enough fabric to make four to six bears with a little bit of creativity and thriftiness, stuffing, weighting BBs, several gorgeous eyeballs of German origin, and I am currently awaiting a small hoard of various sized joints and bolts so that I might never again face the disappointment of receiving 50 cotter pin joints that are about half the size I actually need for this particular project.

All I need now... are the patterns.

I always like to go my own way so I decided pretty quickly that the only time I'm going to work from other people's patterns are when they are far above me and I have something to learn from them. This is good both from the point of view of my personal growth as an artist, and also from my personal growth as a mercurial purveyor of all things cute and cuddly (aka, I can sell the results if they are sufficiently felicitous.)

As I already tackled the one pattern I own, it was time to get creative. I had no muslin or other "test" fabric. The nearest fabric shop is quite a ways away, and I had no interest in dragging my toddler on the necessary bus and subway trip to get there... so I dug in the closet and found an old pair of my husband's holey bluejeans. I knew I kept those suckers for a reason...

 Meet Lily, my very first self-made pattern. My goals with Lily were threefold: create a bib of a contrasting color, design arms with "downward facing" palms, and give the legs that more realistic, vaguely anthropomorphic shape I like so much. I also wanted the limbs to be fairly thin in comparison with my first bear, which proved to be a success though quite challenging to turn.

I sized the head up by about 2 mm in every direction when I cut it out of my real fabric (ditto for the ears.) I am kind of regretting that decision and I am toying with the idea of setting the larger head aside for my second bear from this fabric.

I am making lily out of a semi-sparse lilac mohair with a bib of likewise semi-sparse white. Her nose and muzzle will be needle felted in white and blended with scraps of the lilac mohair. I hope to make her nose and muzzle more delicate than my first bear, which is why her nose is substantially smaller.

I am just finishing up the flat sewing. Wish me luck! I am just in love with the bibbed body and I intend to use it on at least one more bear in this batch. The bib was harder to do than I expected but so worth it in the end. It's so sweet in the real bear.

Wish us luck! (By us I mean both bearmaker and the bear.)