Medals

Medals, a photo by Je Suis Lugly! on Flickr.

After the big British Bear Artist Award news (*cough*1st and 2nd*cough*!) I've been trying to work out a way to get time to work on my creatures, on top of all the Uni work I have to do for teaching.

I've finally found a way of making the medals I want... I had sent some off to a company who were going to cast for me, but they won't reply to me and have kept what I sent to them... so upsetting. The medals I make on my own will naturally be more rustic, but I quite like the cracks and wear on them: makes me think the could actually have been made by the animals themselves somehow?

Anyhoo, I've found a kind of clay that you can use to make metals! This is copper clay: eventually I will make silver versions too... I'll be firing these with a bunsen burner in the practise labs tomorrow :P

In other news, I'm coming to the end of my first teaching placement. For those who don't know, my output of lovely creatures has somewhat slowed because I'm training to teach secondary school science. It's bloomin' hard work! Shown to the left is a selection of work from my Year Sevens: they had to design an organism that lives in a particular habitat. The pic's a bit small, but you can see I have a plant that runs away from its predators, a fire penguin who lives in a volcano and uses his firey head to blast through rock, and a critter that lives inside other animals and eats them from the inside out.

Teaching is AWESOME.

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

British Bear Artist Awards - The Results!

Amazing news everyone!

I entered the British Bear Artist Awards this year with a bear and a hare: no sloths as I'm accustomed to as I've never had much luck with them... I've been really, REALLY hoping for some good news, and now I can reveal...

Bombadier, entered in the Medium sized category, Modern style, has won first place!

The judges said the following about The Bomb:

• "Great comical appearance"
• "Made me giggle when I saw the original photographs"
• "Bursting with personality"
• "Right up to date"
• "It's tough for everyone out there and this bear truly stands out because of the way he makes me feel".

On top of that (as if I need any more happy!) Jack the Hare came second :D My sloths weren't even nominated, so for me this is a BIG deal. The highest I've placed before is Third, so I am dead chuffed!

I am trying to decide if I should sell or keep my lovely winners now.. I'm training to be a teacher right now, and so I have hardly any time to do anything other than lesson plan and write daft essays. My lessons today went brilliantly too, so as far as I'm concerned, this Thursday has been AMAZING. Anyhoo, I've been staring at the same half finished bear head on my desk for well over a month now, so I will be unlikely to finish him in time for Christmas... but usually I keep my winners. What do you guys think?

Woo hoo!

Chloe and the Lugly's xx

Two Lugly nominations at the BBAAs, woo hoo!

Yey! Both Bombardier the Bear and Jack the Hare have been nominated for a British Bear Artist Award!

Bomb is nominated in the Modern Bear category, so I'm sure he'll be up against some pretty cool bears... I'm very excited to have a nomination for him though, as he's such a new concept for me :) I'd be dead chuffed if he won an award! I'm working on a white bear from the same pattern but a little smaller... it's amazing what a difference such a small change makes.

Jack is my first ever animal nomination in the BBAAs, believe it or not. I think that last year my bear and my sloth got lumped into the same category because they both had needlefelted features, which is a bit annoying... surely you shouldn't compare such diverse creations purely because of one technique? I mean, you wouldn't have a seperate category for trapunto toes, or armatures... would you? Anyhoo, Jack is my first animal nomination: I know that'll be a really tough category. I'm likely to be up against some heavy hitters... I hope Jack at least looks like he belongs on the table!

I'm wondering if I should have a stall at the show this year? I'm just starting my teaching qualification and it looks like I'll be in school three or four days a week: eep! I don't know if I'll have time to make a pile of bears and animals in time for the show... I think I'll see how this first week goes and decide after that :)

Anyhoo, hope you're excited! I am! Please let me know if you're going to the fair and if you think I should get a stall or not... I was planning on having this as a pattern year rather than a sale one, but I do like meeting collectors in person...

Cheers,

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

Bombardier!

Do you ever have a moment when something just.... comes together?

I've been working on Bombardier's pattern FOREVER,it seems: I first decided to make a bear with a front neck joint nearly two years ago! Since then I've made three or four draft bears, way more than it took to get my first sloth pattern. It's been a frustrating journey, but I would like you to meet Bombardier the Bear at long last.



I've named him after a train company in the UK, purely because a) I've heard the name a lot recently, and b) he has got a massive BOMB ;)

You may also notice the complete lack of needlefelting on him... I may add felted toes in the future to this design as the embriodered claws are just not showing through, but for now I've left them off as I find more and more that bears with needle felting seem to get pigeon holed into one catagory for competitions and so on, and I would like to enter him (or this pattern at least) in the next year or so, starting with the British Bear Artist Awards. He's just in time to be entered, so please wish us luck!



In other news, I hope you've noticed the big revamp on my website? I'm still ironing out some problems, but I'm so glad to have upgraded at least from the teeny tiny site I had before! Fingers crossed it'll be polished and look really, REALLY fancy before long :)

Love,

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Magazine Features for the Summer :)

Magazine 3: Teddy Bear Times, a photo by Gantaeno's epic journey has begun! on Flickr.

Hi everyone! I was wondering why I had a few extra people joining my mailing list this summer... I've worked it out: I'm in two magazines this month!

The first photo is a 'Creature Feature' from Teddy Bear Times Magazine which is in the UK :)



The second photo is from Teddy Bear Review, and it's an article about the design process. I'm currently working on a second hare from the same ideas book, so it's nice to see Jack's face in one magazine, let alone two!

I hope I get more lovely surprises like this in the future too :)

I'm still alive!

Hi everyone,

I'm a month into my stay here in America, staying with friends in Ohio right now :) I'm staying with the lovely Tami Eveslage and her talented hands (and her family too!). I've not had as much drive to work on creatures as I'd like to (Hey! I'm on holiday, right?) but I have started work on a new bear: I hope you like the preview above?

Basically, I'm trying to improve my bear pattern whilst simultaneously removing the needlefelting from my work. I've noticed from competitions I've entered and shows I want to do, that a LOT of emphasis is put on the preference for bears... I see why it happens when it's a 'Bear Competition' but lets be honest: there aren't any animal ones! On top of that, it seems like if I enter an animal with needlefelting on it, I'm not just pigeonholed into the animal category, I am put into the 'needlefelting' category instead... this seems odd to me, especially as there's no category for any other sculpting technique? Like a 'Trapunto' category, or a 'Needle sculpting' category? Anyhoo... to broaden my ability to do more online shows, competitions and the like, I'm trying to come up with a bear pattern that I like, that is individual to my style and my drawings and actually looks like my work, without being felted: it's a challenge!

Here's the head I sculpted as a base for the pattern:



I hope you can see the resemblance? Sadly making him up in fur has been less successful so far, although I think it's mostly down to the fur stretching... I'll keep you up to date as I progress... just wanted to let you know I'm alive and sculpting!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Merle is rehomed :)

I'm very pleased to report that Merle has found himself a new home here in England: in a town my family originally came from :) It's been a crazy week here, moving back home from my life of luxury at the Manor (look at the gardens below... so beautiful), but I'm back now and have only a month before I set off for America! I'm working on one more sloth before I go: a dark haired big 'un who's hopefully going to be finished by the end of next week.



I'm also pleased to say that I have an interview for my PGCE (teaching qualification) coming up: I'm abit scared as there's a lot of pressure on my to ace this one (I fly out only ten days later!). lease keep your fingers crossed for me!

By the way, I am keeping an eye on the poll to the left there: foxes, mice and squirrels say ye? I shall have to see what I can come up with :)