A Sequel to the Tales of The Italian Mob:

Good evening everyone - this is Cy Bear, Mascot to The ColdhamCuddlies enterprise reporting in with the latest news about my friends Ed Ted, Big Koala, and the other Bears and  Baby Koalas who form the group we've christened The Italian Mob.  We posted about them first on February 2 - Reporting the Departure of The Italian Mob, when they started their journey to Sequals, Italy with their new Best Friend, Mr. RFE.  Their mode of transport was a Jaguar car, and they were all in a black garbage bag - to keep them together and clean.

Then on March 19, I was pleased to tell you that they were staying for a while in Essex, while Mr. RFE was busy arranging all the travel details involved in taking his Jaguar car away from England, UK so he could drive  himself and The Italian Mob to Sequals.

Today, it is my great pleasure to announce that they've reached their Forever Home (in the case of Ed Ted and Big Koala) while the others are staying with Mr.RFE until he has decided who of his young friends in and around Sequals will be able to give them their own Forever Homes.  One of the Baby Koalas has a new Best Friend - called Jessica - and we learn that they have been inseparable since they first met.  He goes to school with her every day and is massively popular with all her school friends.

Isobel and I thought you would like to see some pictures of The Italian Mob outside their current residence - must say, after looking through the window in Isobel's work-room at all the rain that has been pouring down  just recently, that sunshine does look wonderful.

Here they are, sitting on the bonnet of the Jaguar - it's nice colour isn't it? - outside "The Castle", which is where a friend of Mr.RFE lives when she is in Italy, and is, I think, next door to their home.

Then this one is a close up of The Italian Mob - they look very pleased with themselves and seem to have settled in very happily.

Finally, here is another view of the Happy Mob!

That finishes my contribution to the blog for the time being.  Hope everyone of my Follower Friends (now having reached 184!) are well and that you all have a great week-end.  Cy Bear

 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 Fan pages.
Commitment to this common goal is what makes our team the BEST! 

BESTeam Feature Blog for May 13, 2012 -  FashionWire owned and operated by Connie Tescar

Connie describes herself as a wire wrap jewellery artist and designer - and I have to confess that I’ve never come across that term before.  However, the longer I am a BESTeam member, the more I come to realise just how many kinds of jewellery artists abound in our group, and the wide variety and scale of their artistic capabilities.  Connie is no exception, and kindly made time to answer some of my questions when I put them to her late last week.

Seeming to specialise in offering ear rings and pendants, Connie uses semi-precious stones and other materials and for this feature, I’ve decided to concentrate on highlighting some of the ear-rings.  Had I got pierced ears, they would certainly be on my shopping list - and I suggest they might well become strong contenders in many other folks’ lists as well.

Here’s one pair for starters:

When did wire wrapped jewellery first become your modus operandi?

December 2010 is when I started playing with wire. By January, I was a die hard wire wrapper!  (Now that’s a speedy conversion, if ever there was one - especially with Christmas within that time scale!)

Wouldn't this  make a good Christmas present?  It’s never too early to consider them:  in my book anyway.

Why that creative process in particular? Would you like to expand - without it being a tutorial, as it were.  (That rider is added, because not only does Connie wire wrap her jewellery, but she shows folks how to do it as well.  There are several tutorials included in her shop for those who have the finger dexterity to have a go.  That, alas, is something I now lack, and I don‘t think I‘d be safe with the soldering that I imagine must be required during the process!)
 Well, it all started when I visited my mother in December  2010. She showed me her new hobby, which was beading (stringing beads onto a wire). I thought it was really cool, and when I got home I bought some basic beading supplies and started beading as well. I started searching the internet for "jewelry making" tutorials, and came across wire wrapping. To me, it looked MUCH more challenging than just stringing beads, so I decided I wanted to do the harder and more challenging craft, and on that day I became a wire wrapper :)  (That sounds like some folks I‘ve come across:  given a choice between a molehill, or a mountain - guess which one many will almost always follow?)

Answering the obvious need for a challenge, how about this little example?

If you were not already a wire wrapper, do you feel there is another art form you might consider that would give you the same degree of achievement?  If so, what would it be?

I think I would do well with polymer clay and metal clay if I had the time to learn something new (which I don't).

Do you attend craft fairs, as well as sell on Etsy - and which selling method do you prefer?
I live in a very small Georgia town that doesn't have craft fairs and things like that, so sadly I don't get to do that. All of my jewelry creations are online in my Etsy store. Selling online works for me because I can do it at my own pace, in my own time. I work full time as an account manager, so I don't have any time whatsoever during normal work daylight hours to devote to my craft and my Etsy store.

Perhaps, Connie won’t need that outlet - with this example to show for her endeavours in the time she currently has available to her.

 Next time, I’ll concentrate on her equally lovely pendants, but in the meantime, why not visit her shop at

    www.Etsy.com/shop/FashionWire  or Twitter:  @wire wrapping
                     Connie also has a Blog:  http://connietescar.blog.com.

See you all soon - either with another BESTeam feature for you to enjoy, or at www.ColdhamCuddliecalling.blogspot.com with another toy story for you to follow.  Isobel

Introducing another New Cuddly and an update of a former one;

Please allow me to introduce you to Ben Barn Owl - the newest addition (as of half an hour ago) to the ColdhamCuddlies Family.

He is an experiment - using another pattern from the book which was the initial source for Winston Wombat earlier this month - but  Ben Barn Owl has just been completed  and listed in the shop at www.Etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies.

 He could have been online earlier, but there seems to be a blip on the photo-uploading mechanism (if that is the correct expression?) on Etsy this afternoon.  It took for ever to upload all five of them, whereas it's not usually a problem.  It was to begin with when I was an Etsy Newbie, but then it was a case of not having a powerful enough server - which is when I moved to Firefox.  That's the problem of having a computer that is now all of five year's old!  Cannot get my mind round how quickly electronic hardware gets "old"!  Once we've been to France (at the end of this month!), the next thing the ColdlhamCuddlies will hopefully help to finance is a new computer, which hopefully will serve me for sometime to come.  I certainly now use my laptop a lot more than I did when it first appeared on the scene in 2007 - but that was well before  I'd even heard of Etsy or conceived the Cuddlies enterprise!

To return to the Ben Barn Owl though:  he's made with the Light Brown Plush fabric that hs been used previously for the Baby Koalas (Etsy Listing #55190188) and the Light Brown Furry Bear (Etsy Listing #69778158).   As an experiment, Ben Barn Owl has turned out rather well, in my view - do hope you think so too, my Followers (now numbering 178).  Ben will be the first of several versions I intend to make in the coming months.  They will not all be the same, as his eyes will only be replicated once more. There are only one more pair exactly like Ben's, but I do have some Teddy Bear ones that are similar, and can be used for other the versions -when required.  He took me just a couple of evenings to make, so not a difficult proposition and one I've enjoyed doing. 

 I've been fortunate since starting the ColdhamCuddlies enterprise because eyes and joints have not needed to be purchased too often.  An elderly neighbour, who used to make Smaller Bears than Light Brown Bear - and still lives with over 100 of her creations! - was forced to stop because her fingers stopped working and donated her remaining supplies to me!  That donation is now rapidly diminishing and stocks will have to be replenished when the Shop (www.Etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies) closes for my vacation at the end of this month.  More of that anon!.

( Light Brown Bear is currently shown as "Sold Out"  in the shop (www.Etsy.com/shop/coldhamcuddlies), but I am in the process of sewing another version and will be showing the production process in an another post shortly.  The last Bear was part of The Italian Mob who departed to Sequals, Italy in February this year - posted about by Cy Bear on February 1 here at www.ColdhamCuddliescalling.blogspot.com).

Here is another photo of Ben Barn Owl, taken this afternoon in our garden here in Heytesbury, Wiltshire,  in front of a collection of yellow poppies that have appeared following our recent rains!

Before closing, in a post authored by Cy Bear on March 21 this year, you were introduced to Barry the Beaver, who was a custom order toy for a young girl living in Denmark called Astrid.  Astrid is mad about Beavers, and knows a lot about them,  so I was a little apprehensive as to how Barry would be received.  All is well, I am pleased to say.  Astrid's Grandparents delivered Barry to his new Forever Home just after Easter and last week, I received the following two pictures of Barry - just to prove how well he is settling in.

This one is with Astrid herself:

While this one shows Barry with his other furry companions.

That's the lot for tonight folks!  Must get back to the production of replacement Light Brown Bear - about which you will hear shortly.  Meanwhile, have a great week-end all of you.  Isobel