A few Photos...

I've spent a lot of time in the last few days taking photos of various bears I have on hand at the moment, and the evenings spent cropping and resizing in Photoshop... phew, computer work can be tiring!

I thought I'd share a couple of the photos with you....

Well here it is December already, where did the year go?? After the last Online show, and my last class, I was feeling like I could sort of relax.... but then I realised that it's not really ALL that long until the first show of the year..... and I have a special project I wanted to work on *last* Christmas/New Years that I didn't get to start, except plan in my head... Well, fingers crossed I get a chance to start it this year.

Also have a special project to work on for a workshop next year... this will be a high stress project because she has been designed on paper with input from a wonderful student, and people have seen the sketch.... so people other than me have a visual of what she is supposed to look like! I usually don't worry too much if something doesn't turn out looking like the idea I had in my head or in my sketchbook, because nobody else knows what it was *supposed* to look like!:)

So hopefully come February I will have some new designs, my special long term project and special class project done, or at least started:)

I'm also planning to list some new bears on Bearpile soon... the two girls above will most likely be listed very soon..... hmmmm, sounds like I better get this posted and get to work! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

... except for the Chinese hackers! My apologies to anyone who was spammed inadvertently by me this week- Someone in China hacked into my gmail account and sent out spam to absolutely everyone in my address book... soooo embarassing! I am always so careful but I guess they are just such sneaky so-and-so's! Google even kindly showed me a log of the IPs of who had logged into my account!

So instead of finalising my Teddies Worldwide show page today, I spent most of the day making sure my laptop was virus/trojan free and changing passwords. Not fun!

Don't forget everyone, that the Teddies Worldwide Holiday Bear show starts tonight at 1am Sydney (Australia) time- which also happens to be 9am Saturday New York time, or 2pm London time.... if you're not in any of those places, I will leave it to you to figure the rest out:) I hope you stop by and take a peek at the bears, 75 wonderful artists are contributing, so there's sure to be something to catch your fancy... http://www.teddiesworldwide.com or follow the link on the top right hand side...

I'll leave you with a full view of little Daisy who is also attending the show dressed in her "Australian Summer Christmas Day best":) ... I hope you stop by my page and visit the other 5 bears I have for sale.

I've outdone myself this time!

Hmm maybe I *shouldn't* draw attention to how long it's been since my last blog post.... hehe.... I've had lots of shows to get ready for but I really didn't think it had been so long since I last wrote.

June saw a trip to the wonderful show run by Kympatti on the Gold Coast, July was a trip to Sydney, August was preparing for Hugglets in London and Euro Teddy in Essen, Germany.. and finally, the show closest to home for the whole year, Woodend, on the other side of Melbourne.

Now just one show left to go, a new online show run by Daphne of Backroad Events in the US... of course being an online show everyone can attend! My page is all ready to go on Saturday morning, New York time. Mind you, I am not sure *I* will be so ready to go at 9am New York time- as that is 1am Sunday, eastern Australian Summer time.... will be interesting!:)

Since I am not sure I am clever enough to put the banner in here, I will add the link to the show in the column to the right....... -->

The little gal in the photo is a preview of my show bears... little "Daisy"... I do hope you pop by and check out the show. It looks like it will be a wonderful event, with 75 artists from all over the world.

Bye for now,

New Bears on Bearpile

Well, Autumn seems to be upon us here at last... some cooler days and chilly nights.... soon no doubt we will be wishing Spring was here!:) But this is a good time for Bearmaking... which is just as well because there is lots of work ahead for all those shows!

I've just spent some time this afternoon uploading some new faces onto my Bearpile page, if you'd like to take a look the link is just over on the right there--->

Hope you enjoy taking a look!

NBR (not bear related)

A few days ago I was browsing on Flickr and came across some wonderful photos of dewdrops on grass..... the photos stuck in my mind, then yesterday morning I looked out the window and noticed the sun sparkling on the grass outside. Quick as a flash I ran to get my camera, popped on my macro lens and snapped away. I hope you don't mind me taking time out from the bear pics to share them with you!

Just working on finishing off some new patterns that will be available exclusively from Gerrys Teddy and Craft Designs soon... the four designs will be on one CD, all ready for you to pop into your computer and print out as you need, or individual paper patterns. I'll also be teaching two days of classes for these guys just before the fabulous Gold Coast show in June... the classes are just about full, so it will be a busy couple of days!

The patterns for Primrose, Peony, Pansy and Poppy will be available soon...

In Print, Rosebud

A little while back I was thrilled to be contacted by the Editor of Teddy Bear Review magazine and asked if I would consider designing a project for their magazine. How could I say no?? It was a little scary knowing not only did I have to design the pattern, do the instructions and the model, but also do the photos..... what a challenge.

Anyhow I made it just under the deadline (yay! hehe) and just last week the magazine has been printed and the final result is out there for all to see:) I am not sure if the subscription copies are out yet but the electronic issue is available (thank you for the heads up Sarah!:) ). Fingers crossed she came out looking well and I missed nothing too major in the instructions! It's amazing how tricky it can be to put everything step by step in writing and photos, regardless of how many times you have done it before. It will be so exciting to see it on paper when my copies of the magazine arrive!

On another note, it feels like Autumn is setting in here finally, things are cooling down, daylight savings ended last weekend and days are getting shorter. Winter is on it's way! Hard to believe we are already in the 4th month of the year!

Well yet again I didn't get the chance to give a preview of the bears I was taking to the Sydney bear fair! The show was great as always, wonderful to catch up with all the Artists and people attending the show. A special treat was meeting a collector visitor from Singapore who I had chatted to on email recently, what a nice surprise that was!

As always Melissa put on a great day, I don't know how she manages to get it done.

I had forgotten how humid it can get in Sydney in Summer... ok I guess it wasn't technically Summer anymore, but it was close enough to it for me!:) So sticky and humid you would have thought you were in the tropics. ONE thing I don't miss about Sydney!

Also big thanks to Valma and her lovely ladies that came to the classes I gave in the couple of days prior to the show. As always lots of fun, and wonderful to see the new little faces coming alive.

So back again and into work, classes at Bear Essence and more booked in for June... after the Gold Coast show... already looking forward to that one!

The bears in the photos have just been listed on Bearpile... hoping to list regularly there during the year.

Back to work for me..

Well I have been working on new pieces for the Sydney Teddy Bear Fair early next month, and a couple of other things that I can't really post pics of at the moment. I rarely have new pieces finished until they are going into the box for the trip to the show, so I don't have any new bears to show you just now...

So I thought I would share these lovely flowers that I just noticed the other day. They are Hoya flowers, I think also called "Wax Flowers". The centres look just like the wax flowers in old Bridal headpieces, and the petals are all velvety. Very unique and lovely- I wish I could get faux ones to trim the bears with!

Hopefully I will get to post some bears before the show.......

I did it again...

Ok, how does so much time disappear inbetween me posting? hehe... I don't know how that happens... Maybe I should make a new year's resolution to post more? Hmmm, I guess if I did even that would be 10 days late hehe.... Christmas has come and gone, and now it's 2010.. I just can't get used to that twenty-ten thing...
Well I haven't done all I planned on so far, but I have done a few new designs, at least two of which will be new patterns ( I am sure you will have figured out that's the ones above) and actually learned some new things with Photoshop, with much Googling and a little help from my friends hehe. Why is it that even the "Photoshop for Dummies" is a bit advanced for me??:)
Anyhow, above are Cookie (the dog) and Rosie... Rosie stands about 14cm (5 1/2") tall and Cookie is quite a bit smaller sitting at 6cm ( 2 1/2") These new little guys will be on the "menu" for the classes at Teddy's Bits in Sydney in the days before the Sydney Teddy Bear fair in early March. Boy that's going to be here before we know it! Working on some more new things for the show, hopefully I will get some teasers up before then.......
I hope the New Year is wonderful for us all....