A Change of Scenery...

Since getting back from Brisbane I have been at work preparing for the next show, in Sydney. Last year when we went I didn't take any dolls at all, but this time I decided to do some new pieces. Of course neither of them are finished yet! I expect they will be about 24" tall, two different faces that will use the same arms and legs, and each will be finished differently, different hair/eye combos, different outfits. Making bears spoils me, not having to do multiples in an Edition and getting them exactly the same, where as with dolls, if you do an edition you have to make sure you get them as identical as possible.
While that is easier than with a bear ( for instance, stuffing doesn't change the shape of a face, or the nose embroidery doesn't change the expression) doing editions of dolls has its frustrations. For instance, ensuring you have enough of a fabric lace trim or flower to finish the number of dolls in the edition... you can bet sure as anything, if you choose something and don't have enough to finish all the dolls before you even start making them, the colour fabric or style of lace you use will be discontinued before you even finish the first one!:)
Or maybe thats just me and my bad luck!:)
So, madly working away on dolls *and* bears, and a new miniature bear pattern for the upcoming show, as well as planning out what to take to Hugglets. Phew a busy time!

Heading North For the Winter

Well, I'm off this weekend to hopefully sunny Queensland! Brisbane specifically, for the Winter Wonderland show ( http://www.winter-wonderland.com.au ) The weather has turned decidely wintery down south in the last few days- not surprisingly since it is Winter after all!:) - so I will be crossing my fingers for some nice sunny days up there. I always look forward to going to shows I haven't been to before, or like this time, one I haven't been to in a while, because it's fun to see new things to admire and buy:)
The photos above are a little sneak peak of Victoria's handsome groom, Albert- well at least I think he's handsome, but maybe I am a little biased! As with Victoria (featured in an earlier blog post) , he was designed specially for Bear Essence's Bear Tales pattern 'magazine'. If you make bears (or critters!) this is a wonderful deal, a whole year of pattern booklets posted to you- and Kim gets some wonderful pieces for you to make! Well worth checking out.
Back to work for me, lots of bears to finish off before I fly off on Friday afternoon!

testing...

Some people will attest to my lack of Photoshop skills (Sarah?? lol)... even "Photoshop for Dummies" is a bit over my head! lol. I've just been trying to add a blurred border to my pics to make them more interesting, my trusty book mentioned above was no help:( Google searching tutorials, the same. Poor Mum came to the rescue, and voila! So here is two posts in one day, because I might forget how to do it again, and I want evidence that yes, I did do it once upon a time:)
This is one of my little bears perched on a Mushroom in the front yard. It was a bit smaller than the one I took with Sarah's bear. These mushrooms were so magical looking, I think all up there was 5 or 6 of them over a couple of weeks. Sadly they are all gone now, hopefully they will be back again next year!
Now, off to practice mly newfound skill on more photos!

Time Flies..

I don't know where the time goes between posts.... I always think I am doing well at keeping up then when I see the date on my previous post I know different!:)
Getting ready for a show this weekend, close by here in Melbourne, and teaching classes at Bear Essence. We also lined up next term's classes already! We are doing Babycakes, kind of a large bear for me, and also doing a separate hat class- no bear, just hats, small hats:). I will update the Class section in the sidebar with dates.
As usual, classes were a nice mix of familiar faces and new- one of the students had not finished a bear before. It was a nice reminder of how exciting it is to finish that first face:) Thanks all for coming along!
Working on some new patterns, and I will probably make them my next blog post:)
For now, here's Babycakes, for the next class at Bear Essence....

More Exciting News....

Not going to IDEX or Toy Fair in January/February this year with a whole swag of new dolls and bears gave me the time and chance to do something I have wanted to do for a few years now- enter the US Magazine contests. Thanks to the staggered deadlines I was able to enter both the TOBY awards from Teddy Bear and Friends, as well as the Golden Teddies run by Teddy Bear Review magazine. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, the Golden Teddies nominees were announced last week and I was absolutely beyond thrilled to have found out both my entries were nominated in their categories!
Bella (top) in the Small, Dressed category and Pirouette (below) in the Miniature, Dressed category. As with the TOBYs, the public's choice vote will follow later in the year.. and as with the TOBYs just having got this far is thrilling and such an honour!

New Bears, New Shows!

Well, even though I didn't manage to post a sneak preview of some bears *before* the show on the weekend, I am quite pleased with myself that I managed to actually snap a few pics of my new teeny tiny Panda. Mind you this is mostly because of a certain person (thanks Sarah! lol) asking me to!:) This little girl reminds me of a Liquorice Allsort, and only measures about 2" overall. I was pleased that the little ones I made from this pattern were snapped up quickly at the show on the weekend, so I have a few more on the drawing board for the next show!
Speaking of the show.... while it *was* a little smaller than before, it was pretty successful for those who did attend. I know I wasn't able to leave my table until after 1pm and by then there was quite a few tables with empty spaces! Kim McDonalds bears were just about wiped out when I managed to go take a look, only two little cuties left.... I was disappointed as I love to admire Kim's work.
On other show news, I have signed up for three more shows! eek! Next up for us now is another local show here in Melbourne (will update the show listing when I have the exact address) at the end of May. Then it's off to Brisbane in June for Winter Wonderland- which is kind of amusing to us Southerners since it's hardly Wintery in Brisbane in June, compared to what it will be like in Melbourne!:) Then............... in September... I have been lucky enough to have been accepted into Hugglets show in London! You can imagine how excited I was when I got *that* email! I can't wait!

Wonders will never cease....

If you've visited my blog before, you may notice it looks a little different- I finally learned how to fancy it up a bit with a cute background. And I have to say- it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! Not sure if it will stay this way just yet but at the moment I am quite pleased with myself, even if it was just a matter of copying and pasting codes from the page of a very talented designer:)
As for the pics, they are some new patterns we have done. The little Elephant girl is "Eloise" and the bottom two are "Lolly" Both are smaller than my previous patterns, but judging by the response from the show in Sydney, more and more people are getting brave and are coming to the dark side of making tiny bears!