The Tea Party Has Begun!

I hope you like my little preview photo :) Please visit my page at www.teddiesworldwide.com. Good luck to all people taking part and everyone hunting for that perfect bear!

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

Tea Party Preview

I'm a bit late updating, sorry! Apologies if you're following me on Facebook or my mailing list as you're probably already heard what happened.

Ok, so my elephant's not allowed to be my preview as it turns out: I mis-interpreted the rule 'your preview bear photo must be x pixels wide' as 'your preview (animal) photo MUST BE X PIXELS WIDE' rather than 'your preview BEAR photo must be x pixels wide'... there was also a rabbit preview last time so I'd thought I was ok: sorry to disappoint you all but you have to wait a few more weeks to meet Darjeeling the elephant! In the meantime, Wedgwood the bear has stepped up to become my emergency preview item: sadly this means he will be less elaborately costumed than I had intended but at least I have a bear up there :)

Anyhoo, please vote for him! You can vote by clicking the banner on the right: there's loads of lovely teddies to look at there too! I am now hard at work trying to finishe the other bears and animals who will be in the show before the deadline and hope to have more news for you soon... The show opens on the 23rd and I really hope you'll drop by to see my collection :)

Thanks in advance for your votes!

Chloe and the Lugly's xx

Hello everyone!

Well the sun is shining here in the UK and it's a perfect day for the park but I can only tell you that because of the light coming in through my bedroom window because today I am a Slave to the Machine... the sewing machine that is! I am however pretty much finished with troublesome Mr. Elephant! He's been a bugger but finally I am at a stage where I can say I'm glad I decided to make him because I think he's turned out well. I'm not supposed to show photos before the show preview is revealed on the 9th of March but I wanted to add a few snippets just because I'm so pleased with the details on this little guy :) I hope you like his toes and tail! More will be revealed on the show page on March 9th.

So far I have three little bears and one big 'un, and an elephant finished. I want to add another bear to the list and hopefully a sloth and a hare too: that seems like a lot though, when you consider how little time there is before the show starts! If I was a normal student still I think it would be easily manageable but I obviously can't afford to let my sewing affect my work in school. Fingers crossed I can get my hare sewn up this weekend so I can draft his jacket pattern and get him ready for the party.

Anyhoo, it's a short and sweet update today but I hope to have more photos for your soon! As soon as the show preview opens I'll link you here and also upload extra pics on Flickr as I'm only allowed two vertical shots for this show.

See you then!

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

How I Design Things :)

Well, seeing as it's now half term I have a LOT of sewing to do this week to catch up with my minimum number for the Teddies Worldwide Tea Party show, I thought I could waste some time writing a post about how I design new creatures :P I'm hoping to design, trial and finish an Indian Elephant for the show which is something I've never made before: I'd need to have it finished in time for the March 7th preview deadline too so it might not be feasible, but I'm always ready to take on a daft challenge :P

I started this beastie by doodling in my lectures last week: normally I do all my drawings from reference pics so these aren't that accurate, but it did let me think about adding something new to my work: a loc-line skeleton. I've read a lot about using this stuff on Joanne Livingston's awesome blog and I'm hoping it will allow me to give this ellie a bendable trunk and spine... if not I've just made a pointless, jointless all-in-one body and head pattern for no reason :P

When I got home I looked for better references on the internet. It's probably no great surprise that a lot of my references come from Disney as I am a massive Disney nut. I love the elephants and hippos in Fantasia and so I started there and found loads of character references to build on. I also went to Chester Zoo this weekend with my boyfriend and got snapping! Best bit? Watching a big male peeing on a baby elephants head, and then seeing the baby drinking the wee from the floor of the enclosure. Wow, elephants are classy :P

Anyway, weeing ellies aside, today I've started the long, loooooong process of working out a pattern. I think a lot of bear makers have the skill to just see a bear in their heads and form their 2D patterns mentally, but I don't have the skill to do that: I have to sculpt and drape. What I do is get a load of tin foil (a-loooo-min-um foil for my American friends :D) and scrunch it up into a vague animal shape. I then layer plasticene over the top: using tin foil means less plasticene to struggle with! Usually I sculpt head and body seperately (sometimes on different scales too!) but this guy is all in one as you can see from the photo. Now it doesn't have to be perfect as the detail is added later with needle sculpting: all I get at this point is hollows that need darts and the general pattern shape. To do this I lay plastic from A4 plastic ringbinder wallets over the sculpt in straight lines and then pin it into place, marking seam lines and darts as I go. I started at the top and worked my way down with this guy because that piece was the easiest part!

Anyhoo, now I have paper versions of those initial pieces ready to go. Ideally what I should do now is use canvas to make a practise version because they rarely go well the first time but ARGH the mohair is calling me... what I may do instead is make a paper version by using sellotape to hold the pieces together so I can check the fit.... shouldn't, but probably will.

I hope that makes sense? It really works for me and I'm hoping for some budding bear artists out there, this might be a trigger for your designs too :)

Chleo and the Lugly's xxx

P.S. Mmmm.... tasty wee.....