BESTeam Feature Blog - First for March

The Boosting Etsy Shops Team's goal is to offer support
and promotion of one another's Etsy shops primarily through our
personal Blogs, and also through our Twitter Accounts and Facebook Fanpages.
Commitment to this common goal is what makes our team the BEST! 

Anyone connected with Etsy cannot help but notice that jewellery designers form a large part of the handmade world! That fact is amply reflected within the much smaller, but wonderful world of the BESTeam on Etsy. So, having been a privileged member of the team since January this year, believe it to be high time on my part for an acknowledgement of these creative designers’ shops.

This feature has common themes of silver - mostly of the sterling variety, semi-precious and gemstones, and the colours pink and mauve: so, here goes.

The first shop today - a fairly recent recruit to the Team - is owned by Julian Oribe, who fully admits that its down to AdrianaLauraMendez’s designs, which feature crochet silver and semi-precious stones in their necklaces, bracelets, earrings and pendants. Now as one who used to crochet with more traditional materials of wool and cottons, but gave up because of all the counting involved, I’m awed at this display of original craftsmanship. The Brazilian Amethyst pendant is a great representative of the Latin/American/French background of the artistic designer and is the mauve feature of this blog.

Brazillian Amethyst Pendant in a crocheted sterling silver surround

Visit their shop at www.etsy.com/shop/AdrianaLauraMendez to see more beautiful, wearable jewellery.


Next comes a worthy representative of another Continent - Africa - in the form of Delia Benn, and the products she displays in her shop DeeDeeDzyn. She, too, is a fairly recent recruit to the BESTeam and her jewellery is rooted in her African origins. Using gold lame thread, and pink stones, her Lariat in Shades of Pink, also uses crochet as the linking medium - but what a different outcome is achieved!

Lariat in shades of Pink

Why not visit www.etsy.com/shop/DeeDeeDzyn” and wallow in the lovely items on offer?

Then my final choice for this particular post is made by Cindy “with love” to quote from her Etsy profile. She too uses sterling silver as a material of choice, as well as pearls, semi-precious stones and Swarovski crystals in her lovely jewellery design.

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Cindy can be contacted at her shop - www.etsy.com.shop/ckSilver or at the following:
www.facebook.com/cksilver; www.twitter.com/cksilver; or go to her blog at www.cksilver1.blogspot.com to read all about her designs.

Though I'm not into buying jewellery for myself these days - I'm lucky enough to have sufficient for my current social requirements! - I've two daughters whom I could easily see enjoying visits to these featured shops and not leaving empty-handed either!

As part of my BESTeam commitment, throughout the coming months (provided they accept me as a full time member) I hope to  be posting short features of each of the fabulous shops and talented craftspersons representing the team.  What is BESTeam?  It's The Boosting Etsy Shops Team and our goal is to give support to each other and to help promote each others' Etsy shops through blogging, Facebook and other social networks.  If you are an Etsy shopowner and are interested in learning more about BESTeam, please visit the team page on Etsy or have a look at the BESTeam blog.

The Tale of Mons. Reynard - and an update or two

Greetings everybody - welcome to 140 Followers of www. ColdhamCuddliescalling.blogspot.com!  What a great feeling it is to have got this far, and there are still a few more days before the first anniversary of the start up post! Wonder if we can make it to 150 before that date arrives?

Before going on with the tale of Mons.R, just a quick update or two.  The enlargement of patterns from my early  Mothers' Day present from daughter, Clare, has been solved!  Our local Newsagent/Post Office is able to do it, provided each small pattern piece is cut out.   I now have a complete pattern for Owlets, together with one I discovered among my old collection for an Owl Hand/Glove Puppet (call them what you will!)  These will form part of a new Cuddlies Section (yet to be labelled) at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com Shop in the near-ish future.  The Beaver and Owls will be the first members - to be followed, hopefully, by  Badgers and Seals.

I've also received a message from JS,  a.k.a. Mesatron  - an Etsy Buyer from Liberty Township, Ohio, who is now the Forever Friend of the Golden Plush Bear Glove Puppet.  He's sent me a selection of beautiful pictures of the Puppet, which  will be used as a separate post very soon.  Not much writing involved and a lot of great photos - as well as being the first of several promised tales of his proposed travels around the USA!

Now, to carry on with the tale of Mons.R - as promised:

The beginning of the upgrade

After sewing up the newly-washed body pieces and stuffing them firmly with the polyester fibre, the arms - with paws attached - were slotted in and covered with the rejuvenated tan felt coat sleeve pieces.  Having found some golden yellow ric-rac braiding in my sewing store, I thought Mons.R would look rather modern and smart with this addition so added it as a cuff before pulling the felt on to the stuffed arm.

Then the brocade trousers, which have  responded well to the washing, were put on and sewn in place at both the legs - where the boots get sewn on - and at waist level.

Next come the boots - and although I really do feel they look good (once they're finally fixed on), I really do struggle.  It's one of the times I do realise my fingers are not as agile as they once were.  Plus, there is a tendency to sometimes overfill the boots with stuffing (difficult to get the legs on) or not put in enough (and then the toy becomes wobbly on his pins and thus incapable of standing alone).  Many of my toys don't, in the end - but carefully propped up against a book, shelf or by the tail - as in Mons.R's case - they do.  In any case, when being played with, it doesn't really mean much to the Forever Friend in question.

When it came to the waistcoat, after ruffling through my scrap collection, I came across this bit which seemed just right, contrasting well with the tans and gold already being worn by Mons.R.  Those of you who have followed this blog since the very beginning, may recognise this material as being that used  to cover the appliances in my kitchen, which formed one of  the early posts in March/April 2011.  While  cutting out the waistcoat this time around, I found this label which provides an imposing provenance, doesn't it?  Before it covered my appliances, the material had formed extra long curtains for one of our near neighbours here at the Hospital of St. John.  We do claim to be environmentally friendly here at ColdhamCuddlies - think this just proves it, don't you?

 

The waistcoats for the gentlemen toys can be made from felt, in which case I don't usually line them.  However, to avoid them fraying over time, when making the waistcoats from other materials, lining is part of the package, even though it doesn't show on the finished product!

The re-made head was then added, together with ears - with a brown nylon lining, rather than the dirty cream felt one he arrived with, new eyes and a more prominent nose than he originally had, followed by his stock - which I decided should be green to co-ordinate with his new waistcoat.  Having done that, and because I was still not happy with the boots, I decided to add a green felt turnover (which also serves to hide the stitching involved in attaching boots to the legs!) to add a bit more colour.  (The boots had been stitched, and unstitched, several times by then, and the self-colour turnovers were looking just a little "tired " by then!)

Then, having added the yellow braiding to the rest of the jacket, I attached the coat over the arms and waistcoat, and arranged the stock  so Mons.R.  looks smart all round the top half!  I did not finish the jacket at this stage, because, of course, his tail needs to be attached and the jacket arranged around it before everything can be sewn in.

The jacket is now ready to be stitched in place.  The arms are attached with a ladder stitch, the collar pulled round to settle nicely round the neck, and finally his gold button is sewn in place - hopefully keeping the stock where it should be!

Presenting Mons.Reynard - in his 2012 outfit!

He now awaits the return of Mme. Lapin - expected any day - from her 360 degree imaging session at Outsphere UK & Ireland in St. Albans, Herts. after which they will be both wrapped up and sent back to IvyM in France.  Before they leave, however, they will be accompanying Cy Bear and I to the Heytesbury Spring Sales Day on March 10 - showing the visitors just what happens when patients arrive at  the ColdhamCuddlies Soft Toy Clinic (Etsy Listing #79124185).

Until the next time - a new Bear is going to be stuffed later this evening.  So, there will be some more toys to show off than expected at the Sale. Bye for now.  Isobel

As promised: finally, the Tale of Mons. Reynard

Cy Bear has been talking about it, and I've been thinking about it, and now - finally - here beginneth the Tale of Mons. Reynard - with the first installment of his rejuvenation treatment.

As those of you who regularly follow us here know, Mons Reynard (Mons.R) has been a patient in the Soft Toy Clinic (Etsy Listing # 79124185) for several months now.  He, and Mme Lapin (who is expected back from her 360 degree imaging procedure on Wednesday  or Thursday of next week), belong to my French-based sister-in-law, IvyM, for whom I originally made them over 30 years ago.  The exact date has been lost in the "mists of time".

When Mons.R arrived last August, he looked like this:

His "stuffing" did not allow a standing up picture

When I got to work on him, I was very pleased to find that apart from years of accumulated dust and stuffing that had deteriorated, there really was not too much wrong with him.  He needed a good wash, re-stuffing and a new set of boots, because the leather his boots are made from  in this picture was all that was available to me at the time of production and I never really liked them!  Plus, Edmonton, Alberta where we then lived was not as well supplied for craft materials then as it is now from all accounts.  In addition, I now have reasonably ready access to a selection of remnants of glove-quality leather and like to use that when making my gentleman toys.

In pieces, and clearly showing the dust on  Mons.R's  fur.

Mons.R's clothing - and broken boots!

Mons.R's boots had dried out so much over the years that once I got to work with my "Quik-Unpic " the stitches simply tore the leather as I worked to remove them.  As I'd already decided to change his boots, they were no loss!  His felt coat was in such good condition that I decided all that was required was a careful vacuum to remove his surface dust.  Then unpicking the stitching, and turning everything inside out would suffice to give him a "new" overcoat.  Felt, of course, does not respond well to getting wet, so I had been prepared to give him a complete new outfit, but really did not feel one was required.  I did decide, however, that modern fashion dictated that  some extra adornment might not go amiss.

The trousers have their own story which might amuse.  Some years before, shortly after Peter and I married, we were donated  an armchair by his mother who was packing up and moving permanently to Canada.  The chair had always been known as "Peter's" Chair, and woe betide any family member who sat in it when the "owner" was present!  However, over the years it had become - well - shall we say a little shabby.  So, I decided to have a go at some soft-furnishing and try to recover said object.  We found the material together, I think, in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk - the nearest big town to where we were then living - and after some hesitation, the deed was done.  Forever afterwards, it was known as the Gold Chair!  Alas, when we ourselves moved to Canada, the frame was in no fit state to accompany us, but I did retain the remnants from the project - and Mons. R was the ultimate beneficiary, as they became his trousers.

To return to the present, though:  I was not sure how the brocade would respond to washing after all these years (nearer 40 than 30!) but decided to have a go.  Using the well tried technique of soaking all the material designated for such treatment in cold water overnight, the next morning I gently washed each piece in lukewarm water and soft soapy detergent - and boy did the dirt come out!  I then rinsed them well  and pegged them on to a clothes maiden perched over one of our radiators.

Everything was dripping wet here - but the trousers did still cause some concern!

By the afternoon of the same day, everything but the trousers was ready for pressing into shape, so I waited a further 24 hours, and we were ready to begin the rejuvenation treatment in earnest.

There is a significant difference already in his appearance I think you will all agree!  Here is Mons.R's head ready for his ears to be replaced, with two new glass-look plastic eyes, complete with metal safety  washer.  (I had made his original ones using felt, and he had always had a somewhat "oriental" look, which somehow did not look quite right to me!)   His new boots are ready to be sewn together and the head and ears are resting on  his newly vacuumed felt coat!  You wouldn't think that the felt was over 30 years' old would you?

Showing Mons.R's original eyes!

Right - time to end this post:  the second installment will follow in a day or so.  I've got to do some sewing for the upcoming Spring Shopping Day this week-end, as you know, and there are still some more toys to make.  I've done 3 replacement Baby Koalas and cut out a new Bear which I hope to have complete in a day or two.  So the next post will have to be fitted in somehow.

In the meantime, goodnight, take care of yourselves - and be with you again soon.  Isobel

Mercantile Muse: And that award goes to......

Mercantile Muse: And that award goes to...... www,ColdhamCuddliescalling.blogspot.com. Many thanks for the helpful boost!