Now, Isobel tells me that the Golden Bear Glove Puppet (Etsy Listing #82953359) has been ordered this afternoon, and sometime in the next week will be flying off to his Forever Home in Liberty Township, Ohio, US! That means there are now only two Glove Puppets living here with me in Heytesbury. Isobel really does have to get her fingers working and replace the others. They are the Fox Lady Glove Puppet (Etsy Listing #82957532) and the Brown Rabbit Glove Puppet (Etsy Listing #83387217): replacements for the Panda, Brown Bear and White Rabbit Glove Puppets are awaited! I'll definitely make certain there is a farewell picture taken with Golden Bear Puppet and me before he leaves!
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| Awaiting dispatch to his Forever Home |
Madame Lapin is on her way for the first part of her special, experimental photography session. She was posted to a firm in St. Albans, Hertfordshire called Outsphere UK & Ireland today. From what I gather (and I'm not a very technical Bear you must understand) the company specialises in taking photographs of objects and creating a 360 degree image as a final result. This is the first time they've had a Toy as a model - they usually specialise in things like filing cabinets, and specialist engineering items.
They're quite excited by this exercise - as much as Isobel is. When they've taken the "Before" pictures, Madame Lapin will come back to the Soft Toy Clinic for her treatment. Once that has finished, she will again go back to St. Albans for the "After" set of pictures to be taken. Then the whole exercise is going to be posted to the Outsphere website. PaulN, the person who is dealing with Isobel, told her yesterday that he just got some feedback from a recent client (the filing cabinet manufacture mentioned earllier) who says that they've sold more cabinets since the pictures were taken than they had ever done in the past! Isobel had better get her skates on then, because if that means more Rabbits are going to find Forever Homes as a result of Madame Lapin's experience, there will soon be none in the shop for us to sell!
There was also another piece of good news for Isobel today. When she visited The Fine Quality Feather Company earlier this week - to get the new polyester fibre which will be used to stuff my Big Friend, Rusty Bear, she was a little disappointed that there was no plush fur off-cuts to be sorted through. She was told that the Factory store-room had been cleared out before Christmas (whereas, apparently, last year, that did not happen until after the Festivities).
However, she was philosophical about it, picked up the 6 kilos of stuffing material and headed for our Storage Unit - where stuff that cannot be fitted into our flat is stored. When Isobel saw the dimension of the six bags, it was obvious that there was not room here for both the stuffing and Rusty at the same time! So, when Rusty is de-stuffed and sent to the Dry Cleaners, then Isobel will bring the stuffing back here. Once Rusty returns, he can then be filled with his new stuffing and returned to Philippa, in High Wycombe.
However, the good news is that The Fine Quality Feather Company rang us this afternoon, they've found a whole lot of fur off-cuts after all - and, in addition, have put aside some "silk off cuts" (a new offering!). They've been bagged up and can be collected from their Frome factory the next time Isobel is in the vicinity. That would not have been for another five or six weeks - but I bet Isobel will find some excuse to drive to Frome before that, because I know she (and Peter, too - because he enjoys rootling through materials as much as Isobel does!) is itching to see what they've found for her. That, too, will have to stay in the storage unit, because the cupboards here in the flat are stuffed to the brim with materials - to be used when needed.
While all this was going on, Isobel has been sewing the first edition of Big Koala - who started off as a patient in the Soft Toy Clinic, you will remember.
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| Big Koala between Ed Ted (still with us!) and me |
Isobel de-stuffed him, and will be posting about his treatment when he is completed. Suffice to say that, so far, she is satisfied that she has been able to resurrect him from where he ended up - in the garbage bin, because he was actually made of real hide, which was far too hard to do anything with once she had undone the stitches! She's still not sure whether he will be recognisable - but I've seen his body, and he certainly reminds me of Big Koala, so ..... watch this space.
Right - that's it from me for this post. I've enjoyed being able to tell you all this! Bye! Cy Bear
