Friendly Challenge!

Well, Charlotte and I read the other week about a few bear artists who completed a bear in one day from start to finish and as we cannot seem to manage more than 2 bears per week each we began to discuss how they might manage this. Charlotte is not an early riser and whilst she is home from contracts usually crawls down the stairs between 9.00 - 10.00 am. I hinted that the fast bear artists may probably get up at dawn and sew until midnight and that Charlotte would not ever be able to get up in time to complete a bear in one day.

Anyway, being girls that love a challenge she said she would prove that she could get up early AND complete a bear in one day. I work in an internet office in the afternoons for 4 hours and said to Charlotte “ok, if you could do that then I bet I could, if I pushed myself, make one bear in a day AND go to the office in the afternoon as I was usually out of bed at 7.00 am. We agreed to do this on the Friday and were allowed to get our materials ready the day before.

Friday morning arrived and I jumped out of bed and was cutting out at 7.00 am, not expecting to see Charlotte until 10.00 am but to my surprise at 7.30 am she padded down the stairs, had a quick breakfast and started to cut out her bear. We were both doing miniatures and hand sewing away. I had to stop and go to the office and we hadn’t gotten further than a couple of limbs sewn up, but these little bears need such small stitching and we are both always striving for perfection in our bear making. Anyway we were enjoying our friendly challenge and had a few laughs pinching each other’s pieces, hiding each other’s thread etc. We decided we wouldn’t go to bed until they were finished.

I came home from the office and Charlotte was way in front of me but still not at stuffing stage, I had a quick tea and was back to work. We were still sewing at 11.00 pm and as Charlotte had gotten up at least 2 hours earlier than she normally did she was yawning! My fingers were aching by that time and my eyes were also closing and as we did not want to spoil these little bears that were looking stunning already we agreed that we had failed our challenge and reluctantly put them down and went to bed. We are in awe of the people that can manage to make a bear in one day.

Anyway the next day we did manage to finish them and so glad we did not stay up and spoil them, we are so pleased with the result. Kiyoshi the panda (my little one) and Cloud (Charlotte’s little one) made their debut on Ebay Sunday night.

Fun of the Fair

I had a great day at the Pudsey bear fair on Saturday. Some bears went to new homes and my knitted bear wear seemed popular again. There was a steady stream of people coming through for most of the day. The best part is getting to meet all these lovely people and chatting. I also really enjoyed chatting to all the other artists, some I had met before at other fairs and also met some artists that I hadn’t met before, there are such a lot of talented people out there.

I was lucky that I had a couple of helpers on the day, my Mum wanted a day out so she came along and my daughter, Charlotte is home for a while and came along too bringing a few of her miniature bears to sit on the table. This enabled me to leave somebody on the table whilst I went shopping, another highlight of the day. I fell in love with lots of bears but this little one from Lynne of Flossy Bears really stole my heart on the day so she came home with me. I also bought new mohair and other supplies to keep me going for a while.

The table next to me had Rita Harwood of Woodland Teddies and she was demonstrating needle felting. I had heard of this craft and seen some wonderful bears made from this but some of the stories I had heard about the sharp needles and punctured arteries had put me off looking into it further so I had not seen it done until I saw Rita demonstrating. It was fascinating so we bought one of her kits. I haven’t yet got around to having a go but Charlotte has been in a needle felting frenzy since Saturday, I haven’t seen her face much since, she has been huddled over a piece of sponge, pricking, pricking, pricking, first she made a ball, then a bear’s head, then a flower for one of her mini bears that she had just finished (picture here on the blog) and is now in the process of a full bear and she hasn’t pricked her finger or punctured any arteries yet. I am surprised at how quickly she has got into it. I am seriously planning to have a go really soon.

The next Pudsey fair is March but I am booked for a local craft fair next month to try and promote artist bears and I am so looking forward to it.

Going to get my hands into my new supplies now and cut out some bears.

Warm wishes

Pauline