Good afternoon Everyone:
Cy Bear is taking another week off from posting - or rather, I've decided to do it today, so that I can get it posted and duly publicised (by posting everywhere I can think of - Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Etsy Team Chat Threads and so on) and then get on with finishing off the third of the Fox/Wolf replacements.
Two of them are now complete - waiting to be listed. Have yet to decide whether they will have names, or just be listed as Fox or Wolf (as appropriate).
It never ceases to amaze me how two Toys, made from the same pattern, and utilising similar weight fabrics, can end up looking so different from each other in size. However, that I suppose is the point, and unique selling point, for Home Made cuddly toys.
The third (out of the four that Cy Bear posted about a couple of weeks ago
http://coldhamcuddliescalling.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/dressed-toy-production-line-foxes-and.html is almost there as you can see -
This is the second wolf, and the pink felt - on which the tail is laid - is destined to be used as the fabric for Wolf 2's scarf, which will cover the white empty space you see in the unfinished Toy.
With any luck, he should be complete by end of play today, or certainly tomorrow. (When selecting fabrics for the Cuddlies, I fear gender trendy colours do not play a part. I tend to select them on the basis of what goes best, from what I currently have in the fabric supply cupboard).
Meanwhile, as a follow-up to last week's post, when I told you about our expansion into selling in "The Artfull Buttoner", the newly opened craft shop here in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, I learned on Friday - when I dropped in to see how things were going - that our Purple Fleece Rabbit
https://www.etsy.com/listing/183226229/bunny-rabbit-toy-stuffed-animal-art-doll?ref=shop_home_active_14
has been successfully adopted, and was last seen departing the premises with his head looking out of a carrier bag borne by his new Best Friend. (He will be replaced just as soon as Fox No2 is done and dusted, by the end of the week). But, needless to say, I'm very excited by this unexpectedly fast development. I've signed a three-month contract, and will be exhibiting the Rabbits I told you about last week, until the week after Easter. Then, I think it will be a matter of taking a different selection of the other Cuddlies in - probably on a two-weekly basis.
On the Tulsa Puppet front, some more photographs of how the Puppet Bodies have been transformed into useable Puppets by JS, and I hope, very soon, to be able to show them here in a series of posts illustrating how they are all now looking in their home surroundings. I do like to keep up with my Toys and am looking forward to sharing the news with you all.
Then there was another unexpected development over the last week. A lady from Portland, Oregon contacted me to see if I could repair her son's beloved Teddy Bear, who had come off badly in an encounter with the family dog, just before Christmas. He now only has one leg! (Alas, the relationship with dogs and Teddy Bears is a necessarily fraught one - especially these days with the tendency for folks to give their canine friends Cuddly Toys to play with. How is a sensible dog to know the difference between his Teddy Bear and the one his Best Human Friend plays (and/or sleeps with) on a regular basis?) Even though I pointed out that the distance between Oregon and Nottinghamshire could well render the idea uneconomic, we have come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement, and Audrey, the Forever Friend of this lady's eleven-year old son, is hopefully en route to the UK for treatment. Description of her individual therapy programme will of course form a future post - as happens when a Patient arrives in the Stuffed Animal Restoration Clinic
https://www.etsy.com/listing/79124185/stuffed-toy-animal-restoration-clinic?ref=shop_home_active_1
Meanwhile, with all the sewing ahead of me, together with my Etsy duties for the day to accomplish as well, I'll close now. Cy Bear (and Hairy Bear11) are still comfortably ensconced in the bedroom, and send their good wishes to one and all.
Until the next post - hope everyone has a good week. Isobel
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