A new year, new approaches.

Well, that was certainly a frantic end to 2013! Several astoundingly successful craft fairs, and one disastrous Bear fair, leaving me with only about 20 bears at the end of the year, which is barely enough to make the stand look interesting!   Above is 'Noah', the first of my new pattern for this year, he only sits about 2 inches high, so quite pleased with how the proportions of the mohair fitted the design. Aiming for bigger, more interesting feet, and more impressive noses this year.  Have also started making some rather larger bears again, using split pin joints throughout, as my poor hands can't cope with the accuracy required with a long needle for buttons!

'Guthrie' is my largest bear in a long time, sitting about 5.5 inches tall. He's partly filled with pellets and steel shot, so he's quite a saggy, cuddly little handful!   I have draughted a pattern for one larger still, but don't yet have big enough joints for it - that's a purchase for my first bear fair of the year, on March 30th, at the Park Inn, Telford.  I have also been playing with some hand dyed mohair from Barabara Ann Bears, which is a bit more expensive, but so worth it! As well as the beautiful, mingled colours, the washing of the mohair fabric gives it such a soft 'handle' - very sensual bears!

This is 'Larch' in one of the hand dyed mohairs, I love the subtle colours, don't you? He is from the same pattern as Guthrie, and about the same size, but without the pellets. I love the zingy green backing.  I am also making a few dolls, which I will be taking to Telford on the 30th March, 'Primavera' is the first.

 They are similar to, but smaller than the dolls I made a year ago, as I found the larger size difficult to accomodate, and I think my customers may have the same problem?!

'Winter Warmer' is also partly made from one of the hand dyed mohairs, which takes a bit of the ferocity out of the red, I think. I plan to do the craft market at Cirencester on the first Saturday of each month this year - more often if Jiffy gets a job at home, but that's in the lap of fate! This will give a place where I am easy to find on a regular basis, if people feel in need of a beary cuddle! However, many of you can't get to Cirencester, and rely on seeing the bears online, so I'm looking at how best to make them available to you there. I have several ideas churning around in my head, and would appreciate your feedback on them.

While I have a website at present (www.mwmyn.com) it's not an ecommerce/shopping cart site, and I'm wondering if you would find it easier to use, if I were to make the investment in a 'click & buy' arrangement? Not everyone is comfortable with emailing and having a fairly personal engagement with me, I know. Also, my present domain name is personal rather than the name of my bears, so perhaps that makes me hard to find?  The investment could be quite expensive, so another thought might be to start another 'Orkid Bears' blog, and post each bear as they're available on there? Though you would have to scroll through quite a few posts to see them all :(  I thought about just selling through Facebook, but many of you aren't on/don't like Facebook, so that idea doesn't have any legs at all!

I really would be grateful for your thoughts on this, as it's all about you, my beary friends, at bottom, and I want you to be happy with what I do.  I hope to see some of you at Cirencester or Telford, in the meantime I wish you all a wealthy, healthy and fortunate 2014!

Stop the world, I wanna catch my breath!

Since the Alton Teddy Bear Festival on June 20th, life seems to have picked me up by the scruff of the neck and hurled me off in several directions at once! We had already decided that we wanted to stay in this neck of the woods, close to where we were both born, but putting it into practice has gone so fast, it feels like life is saying ' At last! Right, now you've made your minds up, let's get on with it.'

The bear world has also grabbed me and hurled me into a social whirl (online) that didn't exist when I was last making bears, I've joined several bear groups, resulting in bargain fabrics and appreciation of my work from directions I could only have dreamed of 10 years ago. Not at all sure I can keep up!  My bears are continuing to evolve, becoming more like those I made 10 years ago, with larger feet and longer muzzles - a bit more like real, adult bears, but with human characteristics, too.

We have cancelled the Bath fairs we were doing, as we weren't really doing that well at them, and it's a long way to travel - made for a very long, wearying day. However, Alton was such fun, we are booking more Bear Fairs and hope to be at Beaulieu in Decenber - and. of course, plan to do Alton again next year! I'm also hoping that the shows at Kensington Town Hall will give me a chance sometime, that really being the top show in this country, so an important showcase for any serious bear maker.

In terms of craft, rather than bear, fairs, we plan to do The Exchange fairs in Sturminster Newton on the first Saturday of each month, and the fairs at Digby hall in Sherborne every 3 months, run by the same person - the lovely Millie! *waves in the hope that Millie reads this* These fairs have a lovely atmosphere, and the other stall holders are all quality makers, so I heartily encourage anyone who can to give them a visit - you won't be disappointed! We will both be exhibiting at Sturminster tomorrow, and at Sherborne next Saturday - looking forward to seeing how Jeffery's paintings are received ;o)

 

If you would like to see more of Jeffery's work, check out his Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeffery-Nicholls/487100734687889?fref=ts

If all goes according to plan, I hope to be running a 2 day bear making workshop, in Seaton, Devon, in early November. No details yet, as the venue are still sorting things out at their end, but let me know if you're interested and you'll be at the top of the list!

Knitting Necklaces

Next week I shall be running a workshop to help people knit necklaces to this pattern, which I adapted from one I found in a library book, it's quite different from the original, so I feel it was my inspiration, but so heavily modified I don't feel bad in claiming it as mine.  There has been much interest from knitters in this idea, so I thought I would share the pattern for anyone who wishes to use it!

It is worked from this chart, threading the beads onto the yarn before starting to knit, putting the beads on the yarn in reverse order to which they will be knitted.

 

The above picture shows quite clearly how the beads are distributed, including the 20-30 beads each side of the central motif and showing how the feature beads can be included to make the lower edge more interesting.

You will need:-
1 pair 2/2.5mm needles
Ball of Goldfingering or skein of Perle embroidery thread
Quantity of small round beads (with large enough hole to thread on chosen yarn)
Optional - 7 feature beads for lower edge

Start by threading the beads on to your yarn , in reverse order to which you will knit them. ie the first bead to go on is the last one to be put on the yarn. Follow the chart, remembering to thread on 20-25 beads each side of the row of beads that form the lower edge of the necklace. 
The easiest way to thread the beads on is thus:- Thread a fine sewing needle with a short doubled length of ordinary sewing thread, thread the start of the knitting yarn through the loop of the doubled thread so that it hangs down and you have a loop of knitting yarn through the loop of the sewing thread. You can now start threading the beads onto the needle, and thence onto the yarn.

Cast on by the backward loop method, this enables the beads to hang loosely between the stitches and drape properly.

Cast on 3 stitches, slide 1st bead up to needle, cast on 2 sts, slide up next bead, continue thus till you have 20 - 25 beads cast on, then cast on 2 sts between each of the groups of beads at the centre of the necklace (one,two,three, four, five, six, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. If desired, one feature bead at the centre of each odd numbered group) Then cast on 2 sts between each as before till you have another 20 -25 beads on the second side of the centre, then cast on a further 3 sts, turn.

2nd row, knit till 3 sts beyond the last bead of the central group, wrap & turn (move yarn to front of work as if to purl, slip next stitch on to right needle, pass yarn back to other side of work, replace slipped stitch back onto left needle and turn to start working back in other direction. written as 'W&T')

3rd row, knit 5 sts, knit to end of 2nd row of chart, inserting beads as chart - you will find yourself setting in beads exactly above the previous ones. one bead less per group. When all beads have been knitted in, knit 3, W&T.

4th row, knit till 3 sts past the last bead in previous row, W&T.

5th row, W&Ting at the end of the row, continue as before from the chart till all rows of the chart are worked and you've run out of beads (assuming you counted right!)
When all beads are knitted continue to end of row, turn and knit one row, then cast off loosely.

Sew hook & eye fastenings to each end, then wash gently in hand hot water, use a little fabric conditioner in the final rinse and pat dry in a towel. Hang to dry by fastening, this helps the necklace to hang properly in wear. 

 Hopefully, the photographs will give you an idea of how adaptable this pattern can be, it depends on your choice of yarn and beads! The last example is knitted with multicoloured perle embroidery thread, which gives quite a lot of pzazz! If you have any problems, don't hesitate to email me for help at mwmyn@yahoo.co.uk, and feel free to pass the pattern around!

Bears & Beasties

 
Just over a year ago I returned to making artist bears, Which I had done from 1997 - 2005, when arthritis & RSI put a stop to it. After my accident in 2007, I thought such things were forever out of reach, so attempting my first sewn bear in 6 years was quite a big deal!  I don't expect to ever be able to make anything as grand as my lovely alpaca pandas, of which I am extremely proud, but one has to start somewhere!

Sunflower was one of the first of my new career in bear making, 2.5 inches tall, I was thrilled to be able to create him! Over the past year I have gradually pushed my boundaries, and had to admit that doing my favoured, traditional button joints is too much strain on tired & damaged hands, so I now  mostly use split pin joints, like those in the early manufactured bears, and used by most bear artists.  I am disappointed, but being able to make jointed bears of any sort is a truly satisfying thing for me, so - onward & upward!

Returning to using luscious mohair & alpaca fabrics has also been a joy, Feargus may be smaller than my big alpaca pandas, but I think he is truly in the same spirit, and we all know the best things come in small packages! I'm glad to say that he has been adopted by people who clearly appreciate my work, as they have also adopted others of my bears and encouraged others to do the same! (Thank you, Lisa!)

When I was running the original 'Orkid Bears' I also made other creatures and cloth dolls, which I would like to try later on, but I have, at least, started down that road by making the first elephants since 2004!

First, in lilac, sparse mohair (with button joints!)

Secondly, in 'cashmere'velvet. Generally, I'm fairly happy with the pattern, but the ears need adjusting in their cut - they're a bit too much like flags!  Next time I will enlarge the pattern and make a bigger version - Cielo & Flora are only about 5 inches tall.

The next creatures I have to put my revived designing skills to is dragons! This is the most complex dragon I made in my earlier incarnation as a bear artist - not sure i can manage something that complex just yet, but, with my Welsh heritage, I really have to make a dragon of some sort! So, watch this space :o)

Ongoing evolution.

Finally got my own website up! Take a peek at www.mwmyn.com, still some things to be tweaked, but now you don't have to trawl through Etsy to find my cuddly friends and adopt one!

In other news, have also managed to make real another idea, that's been in the back of my mind for ages - Jeffery's charming drawings of my bears on tee shirts for little people!  Tee shirts in tiny sizes are difficult to get hold of at reasonable prices, so I'm printing body suits (like a vest, but with poppers to hold it down between the legs) with long or short sleeves - more practical, anyway.  I'm focusing on babies at the moment, but will do adult sizes on request.

I have sent out my second monthly newsletter today - let me know if you'd like one in your inbox, too. As the cold weather creeps up on us, my output is likely to slow down, arthritis doesn't much like cold and damp :(

 I'm focusing entirely on the bears now, knitting is for my own satisfaction only, now!  However, in response to a wave of requests, I'm running a workshop on making my knitted necklaces next month, still have a couple of places if you want to join us. On the 4th December, at Sue's Crafts in Cheltenham 10-4, get in touch if you're interested.

Also considering running a year of monthly workshops on bear making next year, have a couple of people interested, how about you? We'll start with a simple velvet bear, then work on to jointing, etc, going through stuffing techniques, needle sculpting, fabric choices, and anything else people need help with!

Hatching a baby dragon!

I saw this delightful dragon online courtesy of Marjorie Crochets, and realised I needed to have a dragon in my portfolio! My eldest daughter collects them and we both have a dragon tattoo (though hers is much more impressive than mine!) so it's almost sinful that i haven't made one for some time.

 This was my result, using her pattern, but lots of odds and ends of different wool, so my tension was a bit dodgy, to say the least - my fault, not hers! So I had another go, using all the same yarn, and tweaking it a little bit, to use my favourite button joints.

Having sculpted the face, too, I think it's a great improvement! However, to my mind it can't be a dragon, even a baby one, unless it has wings!  Spikes up its back speak to me of a baby dinosaur, rather than a dragon, and lovable though a baby dragon is, it really shouldn't be a bit fluffy and soft - at least a hint of irridescent scales should be present!

So this is the result! Twitter & Instagram offered me several names, and I've settled on 'Lyla' and she will go on my Etsy shop soon (http://www.etsy.com/shop/MwmynsMakes) I shall twaek the design a bit more, I think the tail needs to be a bit longer and thinner, and more ideas are bound to suface in the middle of the night - design is always a work in progress!

Funky babies!

 

As a mother of 4, and a grandmother of many more, I despair at the impracticality and tweeness of most baby clothes! They are all pale colours that need frequent washing, and usually not that well made, so they only last for one child, which, in the current economic climate is certainly not good - having a baby is expensive enough, without having to buy new clothes for each child, my belief is that babies deserve good enough quality clothes that the standard items can not only hand down to siblings, but to the next generation!

This jumper, to fit a 3 to 6 month old, is knitted in a 51% wool, 49% acrylic yarn, so you have the natural warmth of wool, with the easy wash aspects of synthetics.  The neck is easy to get over a baby's head, and doesn't have a tight rib to ride up and leave the vulnerable kidney area to get cold.  The graduated colour gives interest, with out being too 'in your face' - probably most likely to be chosen for a boy, but, combined with denim could look good on a little girl, too.

This is a more 'girly' version of the same idea, worked in the same yarn, but a different colourway, and a traditional Fair Isle butterfly intarsia design, instead of the fishes.  Basically, I'm floating on the market the baby knits that I wanted when my children were babies, and my youngest daughter can't get enough of for her little ones!  Please let me know what you think about my approach to baby wear in the comments, I really need to know if I'm wasting my time!