What I'm (Slowly) Working On

Hi everyone,

It's been a while, but I thought I'd update you on what I'm doing at the moment. My work rate has to drop during the school terms, but I'm still designing and working on patterns in the hopes of taking on a new show in the North this year!

Anyway, my new design is one I need to hurry up with really, given the time of year, and that's a rabbit.

As usual, I started my design with a sketch and then my plasticene model which you can see to the left - I know some talented people can just draw out an idea, but pattern draping makes much more sense to me! Actually I kind of reinvented the wheel here and made the same shaped head as a previous bear, but ah well... The plan was to have a triangular head with lower set eyes which hopefully you'll agree was a success from the photos below! I left my prototype with little eyes but will make them bigger before he finds a home...

 Now I had planned to make a bigger version of this guy so whacked his pattern into my scanner and printed it out on a larger scale... bigger than I thought actually, but percentages are deceptive when it comes to pattern sizes!

 One of the reasons for increasing the size is because I've recently invested in a small airbrush to help with my shading, normally done with copic markers on very small areas; I love it! It's even shaped like an elephant... hope you like the results of the first coat on my bun.

Well, he's still just a head resting on an egg cup in my living room, but hopefully this weekend will give me a bit of time to work on his body, or he'll be a very out of season rabbit... speak soon!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Post Hugglets Update

Hi All!

Well it's a week since Hugglets 2014 and about time I updated you all on what happened I think! I've added my preview photo above in which you can see the bulk of my tweedy gang, inspired by my holiday in the Lake District earlier this year... From the left they are Grizz the titchy sloth, Rigby Bear (who has found a new home with a gang of other Luglys), Montgomery bear and Sapwood the Rabbit.  I still have some tweed left and did enjoy working with it so I'm sure I'll be using it again in the future.

I was pretty nervous as usual as I only do one fair a year at the moment so I know I'm a new face to many, but I was pleasantly surprised as three of my creations found their new homes within the first hour or so!  I was very pleased to see my bears picked up as I've worked hard on unifying the different patterns I make so they all look like Lugly bears.  In addition it was nice that no one thought my sloths were hideously deformed bear this year: I think I have a certain BBC documentary and Neil the sofa advert sloth to thank for that!

The last creature to find a home was Boris the sloth, the only big sloth on my table this year.  I did have two little ones, and all three are trialling my latest addition: hand cast resin claws.  Boris was so new that I didn't have any official photos of him, so I hope you like this one taken by his new owner of him wearing a lovely scarf: doesn't it suit him?

All in all I think it was the best show yet, although better footwear is going to be my priority next year... thanks for coming to say Hi if you did, and hopefully I will be at a few more fairs in the coming years, especially if I can finally learn to drive!  I think having the Paypal Here machine was a big help this year, although it's a pain having to log the wi-fi on every single time, but people were very patient and waited for me to sort my codes out.


 I will be listing the remaining faces on my shop, as well as on Facebook and probably Bear Artists International as well but it might take me a few days, so if you saw anyone you loved on the day, let me know :)

Since the show I've the feeling of being in the lap of luxury: what do you mean I get two whole days where I can choose what to do?? I have so far filled that time with a few new PlayStation games, reading a growing pile of books and also trying once again to learn to knit.  I am already ok at crochet and working on a mega rainbow granny square blanket, but knitting foxes me because I learned left handed and now want to convert to right... You can see my first attempt below with the cast on stitches carefully hidden as they were the more tense loops of yarn I have ever had the misfortune to work with ;)  The woman in the book is definitely too happy in my opinion! I keep getting massively baggy edges (anyone know why?) but otherwise it's not too bad... don't think I'll be cable-ing any time soon though!


I think my next project will be a revamp of the website, with the mobile market in mind, but I've fallen behind in my understanding of web coding so may have to enlist the help of a professional... if anyone knows a good place to start, that'd be great!  I'm also in the mood to work on foxes, more sloths and possibly a few more British critters; got to use up that tweed somehow!

Anyhoo, speak soon,

Chloe and the Lugly's.

Rigby Bear and a Question About Accessorizing

 Hi all!

Well it's been a while since I last did a proper update on the blog... too long really!  I've been a little more consistent on Facebook because it's easier to add work in progress photos via my phone, but no excuse really!  I finally finished a little bear that I'm really proud of so I thought I'd make a show of him.

His name (after much discussion) is Rigby Bear: I want to keep with old fashioned names for this style of bear I think.  He's the second finished bear of this style, but the first started as I had to order more fur from America in order to finish his left leg, oops!I really think he was worth the wait, he looks very different to his twin who was made in matching blonde fur and has definitely highlighted how important the finish is to the look of the bear over the pattern itself!

He's about the same size as one of my big sloths albeit skinnier so I will have to take some photos of him with one as I think that'd be a cute couple.  His fur is fancy kid mohair and a gorgeous chocolate brown, the same shade as Bombardier my first Bomb style bear.  The facial pattern is very similar to his as well, but as you can see he has a more traditional neck joint as well as cotter pin limb jointing.

I often concentrate on entries for the years competitions around this time as I have the Easter holidays to get my act together, and I definitely think Rigby is a good contender! Now it's just the eternal question "to ribbon or not to ribbon" to answer.  I do admire those people who conjure up elaborate costumes for their bears but I can't see mine in them (beyond a hat, bow or waistcoat perhaps?), which puts me generally in the Bare Bear categories.

For me this presents a bit of a challenge as I have entered the same competitions with bears from similar patterns (such as Seymour the Sailor Bear and Bruce the Bomb, shown below) and the accessorized bear has gotten nominated, even when I have preferred the totally bare one... it makes me wonder if it's important to think up something that gives my bear that little extra character before I submit his photos... what do you think?

Anyway, I hope you like seeing Rigby after a long absence.  I hope I can finish a small scale sloth I've been working on with help from my first ever resin cast claws (exciting!) before long, as he's looking pretty cute so far too! At the last Hugglets I went to (by the way I'm there again in September!) quite a few people said they wished my creatures were smaller and whilst I think some of the designs (Bomb bears especially) need that large footprint, I'm happy to have a go at a little sloth shrinking!


Let me know if you have a "to ribbon or not to ribbon" opinion :)

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Have a Good Christmas!

Nearly Christmas everyone!

I'm hoping to get in a little design time after Christmas or possibly just work on smoothing out the Baby Bomb Bear design, but I'm having a lazy week right now... Hope you like the Christmas hats on my sloths above! (I'm shipping them with any adopted sloth, squirrel or rabbit from the main shop site, accessible here: http://www.je-suis-lugly.com/Gallery.htm).

I will update my creation of Baby Bomb story when I'm on my own computer, but until then here's the finished chappy: I just realised I have no direct link on my website to my Facebook page so that's something I need to update, as most of my spontaneous updates happen there these days...

Anyway, hope you have an excellent holiday, and see you in the New Year!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Starting to Make a Bear (Bear Club 1)

Hi All!

Well Half Term is finally upon us, which means I have a bit of bear making time.  Just before school broke up myself and six interested students came together to begin Bear Making Club: it's the first time I'll be teaching people of their age (although I did show three girls at my American University, but that was a bit more informal!).

For us, the process has begun with DYEING FABRIC (always dramatic, generally coupled with witch-like cackling and stirring of suspicious looking pots of bubbling liquid).  All of my students have chosen their colours, but I was trying to match a paint chip for a commission: hopefully you think I was successful?  Student selections were mostly brown with some lilac and green thrown in.  Next fortnight we'll start drawing out and cutting patterns, before the real fun begins.

Meanwhile (because I won't have a club update this week due to the holidays) I thought I'd chronicle the real first step for me as a bear maker: pattern design.  I've done this for my hare before, but thought it might be useful to have a bear reference in time for the inevitable club assembly at the end of the year.

I always start with a simplified sketch and plasticene model of my creature, generally made piece by piece rather than whole model at once, hence the disembodied head.... I'm aiming to make a baby version of my big Bomb bears: they'll have a traditionally positioned neck but I want them to have the head dimples I like in my Gem style bear and the tendency towards obesity of the Bombs.  The aim is to have a 'one day' bear which would be more affordable but have the look of a chunky bear.

So, once I have my model I will lay plastic from plastic wallets onto the model and pinning it in place: this helps me to work out my darts as you can see from the top of the head here.  It takes a while to work out the best layout but I prioritise the front of the face and try to avoid too many seams there.  Once I have the whole of the head covered, I will peel off the layers, draw them out on paper and try to make a mock up. I make my trial bear heads in mohair now, having learnt too late that the difference in stretch is difficult to compensate for.  If it's a massive body (like a Bomb or Sloth size) I will make a canvas version first, but I often ruin good mohair because I can't wait: bad habits die hard!

 I'm now at the stage where I have something like the head I'd planned! As you can see it is MUCH BIGGER than planned: I always forget to take pile length and type into account... this is a hand dyed alpaca from Intercal so it's very fluffy.  What was hopefully going to me a 'minimal adjustment head' has become a 'mega needle sculpting head' but ah well, I like the look so far.  Sadly this is my last 4mm eye so I have to wait for an order to arrive before I can finish his face off!

Going to work on the body next: planning a fairly chunky one similar to Gems, but the arms and legs will hopefully be stubbier so I need to take that into account... might need to make a set of limbs at the same time to balance him out...

'Till next time!

Chloe and the disembodied heads xxx

Post Hugglets Shop News!

Hi All!

Well, it's hard to believe that this time last week I was already in London, praying that my bag of lugly's had made it through the journey ok and thinking ahead to my first show since 2010...

Hugglets was a great day for me as I was very nervous about dipping my toe back into show land after a couple of years of limited time for sewing and design work.  I met loads of lovely new people including the lady and gent from Heirloom Bears who were on the stall next to me.  There was a lot of interest in my new rabbit and squirrel which was very satisfying as this was the first time they'd been seen in full (as I still don't have decent photos of them!). 

Anyway, the reason I'm updating is that I've just opened a shop on my website: finally!  I figure now I'm teaching full time I should be making the effort to have creatures listed on my site at all times, as I won't always be able to post direct to Facebook or mailing list... I hope you'll have a look: the shop is here but you can also find it by clicking the new 'Gallery + Shop' tab to the left on my website.  I will be adding more faces as soon as I've photographed them, and will be refunding any excess shipping costs until I've worked out how to set them fairly on the site: I think they're pretty good right now.

Unfortunately I didn't have much success with operation 'try and use Paypal via phone' at the show, in fact I think the technical issues may have cost Bruce a new home... if anyone has any ideas or experience with card readers I'd love to hear from you?

Thanks a lot,

Chleo and the Lugly's xx

Sneaky Hugglets Preview and a Payments Question

Morning all!

Well, it's getting close to that time again for me; hectic Hugglets time!  I had thought I was doing pretty well as I started on the newbies way back at the beginning of July but of course I have under estimated accessorizing and photographing time... Ah well. At least I can show you a couple of new faces today. These are two of the faces in this years flyers (I'll leave them in the entrance hall) so they are pretty much done, thank goodness!

Robin is one of three sloths coming to Hugglets this year: I've modelled his face on my older style of sloth to keep with my general whimsical seaside theme. He's the biggest of the bunch, around 11" sitting, and currently has a little felt lolly (although I may have added to him by September 8th!).

Sammy has been in the works for some time but I only just finished his hand crocheted hat. Crochet is something I taught myself in America to distract from the fact that I still can't knit, and I do like working on little projects like this one! In addition to his hat, Sammy will be bringing his hand made felt ice cream cone.

I do have a question for people planning to come to Hugglets, and it's about payments. I was planning to offer Paypal payments via my smart phone on the day, but appreciate that not everyone has a smart phone or is comfortable using Paypal.  I can buy a card reader that feeds off of my iPhone, but wonder how people would feel about that? They're set up by HSBC bank.  I'd love to be able to offer a more immediate form of payment as I know a few people reserved critters the last time I was at Hugglets but didn't make the journey back from the cash machine in one piece...

Well, that's it for now! If you're not there already, please join me on Facebook where you'll get more frequent updates, snap shots and random queries!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx