Here Comes Hector Hay Wolf - to join the ColdhamCuddlies Family

Greetings Everyone - Cy Bear dropping by to introduce the newest member of the ColdhamCuddlies Family to you.

Etsy Listing # 179170142

Hector Hay Grey Wolf is the Partner of  Hermione Hay Browney Gold Wolf ( Etsy Listing #178799382), who featured in Isobel's post here earlier this week. This photograph was taken of him standing on top of the desk in the Workroom here at The Hospital of St. John, and not the normal place where our photographs are taken.  Still, the colourful background actually shows Hector up better against the cream wall I think!

He has a Brown Tweed Jacket, with a tan satin lining, which covers a waistcoat made in the same Red Hay Tartan worn by Hermione.  Hector's White Felt Cravat, and double-button jacket hides this.  The waistcoat shown in the next picture  is actually the Buchanan Tartan, and made for a Custom Order.

 (Either fabric is readily available on request - as is the finished style of the jacket - and the collar.  The gentlemen Cuddly toys usually have a cravat at their necks, and this collar style tends to be used for the Ladies)

This picture is actually Mr. Buchanan Wolf  - as his jacket was being sewn into place.  He and his wife will be the subjects of our next post - because Hector and Hermione were made first so that Isobel could see how to make the Buchanans for MrsKN of Tacoma, Washington.  Isobel mentioned that we were delaying saying too much about them until we had received confirmation of their arrival, because we didn't want to spoil the surprise for her. 

 However, I'm delighted to say that we've heard from the USA that both Wolves travelled safely and we can expect some photographs of them in their Forever Home "at the week-end".  So I expect Isobel will wait until the pictures arrive before we tell you about Nick and Agatha Buchanan Wolf - as we have called them.  We really are excited at how quickly their journey was accomplished - Isobel  posted them from Warminster  on Friday, February 7 and they arrived in Tacoma WA on Tuesday, February 11. Now they did have an upgrade - from Standard Airmail Parcel rate to International Signed For rate - which does account for the rapid journey.

This is the second time we've used the upgrade route recently, and Isobel is thinking of introducing it as our normal postal delivery offer.  If she does, it will mean an extra £5.30 charge to The Americas, Canada, South Africa and Asia or £5.80 to the rest of the World (Russia,  Australia and New Zealand.  This will be added to the normal postal charge we show in our shop at www.ColdhamCuddlies.Etsy.com). Customers will be offered the choice, and should they decide to use the Standard Parcel rate, the difference will be refunded immediately the Toy leaves for his or her Forever Home.  But when a parcel travels so quickly to the furthest side of the USA in just 4 days from the date of posting, when the normal journey can take up to 4-5 weeks sometimes, I really don't think there is a problem in the decision!  However, THE CUSTOMER knows best and will have that option.

Now, having digressed somewhat, let us return to Hector.  Measuring 18" (40.55 cms) from tip of his ears to the soles of his boots, Hector's Head, Paws and Tail are made from a Flecked Grey Long Pile Faux Fur fabric sourced from my usual supplier.  Hector's eyes are Green Plastic, backed with a metal safety washer (an innovation, since Isobel discovered them in our haberdashery shop in Warminster recently).    His trousers are made in the jodhpur style favoured by English country riding gentlemen and fit into Brown Leather boots, made from an off cut of hand bag quality leather - which did take some sewing.  (It's a lot heavier quality than the usual glove quality leather we use for the Gentlemen's boots.)

He has a black  plastic nose - another new departure for the ColdhamCuddlies, who have all previously sported embroidered noses in either black or brown double knitting yarn.  The thicker pile of the current faux fur we are currently offering actually makes the plastic nose option a better one - Isobel spends too much  time loosening the pile from the needle and thread!  (Her language is sometimes not as ladylike as I'd like to hear when that happens, too!)

Like all COLDHAMCUDDLIES, Hector is stuffed with Polyester Fibrefil which meets all international safety standards, and he is made in a totally smoke free environment.

He is a Toy for all ages, but would make an ideal Forever Friend for Toddlers 3 years upwards - without any age limit.  Adults are more than welcome to adopt him - as has happened to his cousins, Nick and Agatha Buchanan Wolf.  

Hector's weight of 325 g (circa 12 ozs) enables him to travel as a Standard  Parcel worldwide - subject to the provisios outlined previously, which may shortly become Isobel's Shipping Policy for the Shop (www.Etsy.com/shop/COLDHAMCUDDLIES).

Isobel is now busy trying out another addition to the Cuddlies Family - Piglets.  They are going to be the smallest Cuddly on offer (being only 5 inches high - 10.25 cms).  They will be dressed, be Boy or Girl, and at present are in pieces waiting to be stuffed.  Isobel has had the pattern since she first began making Toys in the 1950's, but has actually never made them.  So, she's cut out 5 (three Girls - because we have a Custom Order for one) and two Boys).  It will be interesting to see how Isobel's arthritic fingers cope with their size.

I'm getting ready for some "expressions of feeling"!

Good night and good bye for the time being. It's been nice to be able to tell you about Hector.  Cy  Bear

After all the palaver - allow me to introduce Hermione Hay Wolf

Etsy Listing # 178799382

Hermione Hay Wolf is the first new 2014 addition to the COLDHAMCUDDLIES family of soft, safe Collectable Toys.  She is based on the pattern used to make our popular Foxes and Coyotes, but with the fabric used to create her head, tail and paws, she is both furrier and slightly bigger.

Measuring 17 inches (40.3 cms) from sole of shoes to the tip of her ears, Hermione is dressed in Hay Tartan (confirmed by Strathmore Woolen Company Ltd - from whom a recent purchase to supplement my depleted stock was made).  The dress has been decorated with two rows of Red Ric Rac trimming, fixed by yellow french knots embroidered at regular intervals around the hem.  French knots, in red and yellow yarn, have been used to decorate her White Felt Collar.

She has a Red Felt Bonnet, trimmed with Yellow Bias Binding which is tied under her chin.  This the only piece of clothing that can be removed.    Hermione also has a pair of White Nylon bloomers, edged with a White Cotton Trim.  They are fixed at the ankle, over her Black Felt Shoes.

She is designed to sit - although it may be possible to get her to stand for a short period, if her Bushy Furry Tail is balanced against a firm background.  Her ideal spot would be on the back of an armchair, the arm of the chair,  or on a  bed pillow - depending on where she would be played with most.

Her Head, Tail and Paws are made from a piece of Brown/Gold Plush, which is very soft and tactile to handle. She has no sharp edges, so is a Safe Toy for all Ages (but probably would be best introduced to a Little Person aged 3 years upwards)   She has Amber Plastic eyes, complete with metal safety backing and has a plastic Black Nose (the first time I've used such an add-on).   All previous Cuddlies have had their noses embroidered with Black or Brown DK yarn - as appropriate.

This shot was taken before she's had her bonnet made, and the Ric Rac trimming had also yet to be added.

Hermione has been made in a totally smoke free environment and is stuffed with Polyester Fibre which meets all international safety standards.

Weighing in at circa 285 g (11 ozs) she would qualify for travel by UK Royal Mail Standard Packet rate.  (Air Mail to All Overseas destinations circa  £5.70 GBP) or within the UK £2.70GBP First Class.

Buyers are requested to bear in mind that I no longer drive and am reliant on a rural 'bus service which enables access to a Post Office capable of handling packets of indeterminate size and weight, as well as international post, on Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays of any one week.  Thus, if a deadline is involved, please allow sufficient time for me to meet your dateline needs.

Hector Hay Wolf will be listed and a post published about him in the next day or so.  I'm waiting for the Buchanan Wolves, presently en route to their Forever Home in Tacoma, WA to reach their destination, as MrsKN the Buyer has yet to see the finished product.  I don't want any early revelation to spoil her anticipation - which hopefully will meet her expectations.

Meanwhile, I've cut out and begun sewing 5 Piglets - three Girls and two Boys.  The Three Girls will be paraded on a Piglet Catwalk for the benefit of my Customer in Italy and then she too will be sent off to await the arrival in April of her Forever Friend.  The remaining four will then be listed in our shop at www.ColdhamCuddlies.Etsy.com).

That's it until the  next time.  Hope everyone likes Hermione as much as I enjoyed making her.  It was Hector's boots that were - as ever - the problem, but that was eventually sorted!

Isobel

Well - You can't win them all! The Patient that "escaped"!

Good evening everybody.

 I'm pleased to be back, ready to tell you about our former Patient in the Stuffed Animal Restoration Clinic (Etsy Listing # 79124185) - who came in ready for a full treatment, and then returned home without even a stitch being sewn!

Beaugey Bear (that's how I think his name is spelled - his Forever Friend was somewhat unsure herself when asked to clarify!) arrived in time to be the centre piece for a presentation I recently made to the Heytesbury Branch of the Royal British Legion Women's Section.  (The subject was - you guessed it - Restoring Teddy Bears )   He had also been staying with us while his ear had been posted to my mohair bear  fabric supplier in Telford, Shropshire so we could match his fur and provide him with a whole new coat - as my initial inspection had indicated this is what he would require.

While waiting for this ear to come back, he witnessed the departure of our latest Koala - about which Cy Bear posted last week - and also participated in Koala's Farewell ceremony.

This picture was actually taken before his ear was sent off for matching to Mohair Bear Making Supplies Ltd,  the supplier mentioned earlier, and you can see Beaugey's original colour quite clearly.  When matching takes place, the fabric supplier matches the colour of the canvas to which the mohair pile is attached and it shows how it can change as Bears are played with and loved to bits during their lives.

However, as the first paragraph implies, the treatment did not take place - because Beaugey is destined to return to the den in which he has lived for the past forty-something years, and his Forever Friend - after thinking about my estimate for the treatment - decided that it was not worth putting him through the trauma of the treatment.  She would not do anything with him herself but wrap him up once more;  and she has no family or offspring who might be interested in giving him a home.  Thus, we both decided it was kinder to Beaguey for him to get his ear sewed back on again, and for him to return home to hibernate once more.

Before taking him home yesterday, though, I took some photographs of his current condition, and with the permission of Beaguey's Forever Friend, I thought I'd show them to you - and suggest how he could have been treated - because there was more than one way this could have been done.  Both would have probably cost much the same, but one would have been much more satisfactory than the other.

Beaugey's most obvious need was for a new left arm.  There was precious little of the original mohair fabric with which to work, which was the starting point for my suggestion that he needed a complete new coat - because the arm would have looked very out of place had I replaced it with what mohair supplies I had in stock - some of which were near matches, but not quite.  I also suggested that all his head and limb joints be replaced - because the current cotter pin discs were probably as rusted as the one in this picture.  Their size had undoubtedly contributed to the damage to Beaugey's arm.  The cardboard gets very hard as the years go by, and any movement eventually results in a hole appearing in the vicinity of the joint  - whether it is a leg or an arm, or indeed, a head.  The modern plastic replacements are a lot lighter, as well as having less sharp edges and they do not rust.

His legs needed to be stuffed, as they had got somewhat floppy and I suggested that his entire stuffing should be replaced.  What little I could see, and his estimated age,  led me to believe that Beaugey's insides were a mixture of kapok covering wood chips for his body and head, while his arms would probably have kapok alone.  That material,  after some years, tends to collapse and leave the limbs lookinglike  Beaugey's legs.  His pads were also a bit shabby and he would have been given some smart glove quality leather replacments once the stuffing had been added.

 (Those of you who have followed this blog since it's inception in March 2011 will know that I have some particular  bete-noires when it comes to stuffing materials used in Toys that I have had the privilege to restore over the months.  The worst are polystyrene balls, closely followed by wood chippings, and then kapok.  All were used at different times since Teddy Bears were first invented and some could be said to be dangerous - because of their inflammability.  Whereas, the polyester fibrefill that I now use has been tested to glory and is compliant with all international safety standards.)

His sweater had definitely seen better days - and, is in fact, part of the Forever Friend's late Father's sock which had been cut up so that Beaugey's chest wound would not be exposed.

Beaugey's Forever Friend said this splendid piece of patching was in fact the handiwork of her father, who seems to have been a dab hand with the needle!  But this too was added reason for my suggestion of the total coat replacement.  As you may recall - it's sometime since I undertook a complete replacement therapy on a Bear (the local supply of Bears for restoration is beginning to run out!) - where possible I never discard the original pieces, however damaged they are. This piece of body would have been difficult  to preserve, as there was not much left that wasn't patched.  Normally, once the pieces have had their warm water bath and dried out, I always attach the useable bits - each one to its equivalent piece on the replacement fabric - and each piece is cut with an extra quarter  inch seam.  The result is that when completed, the New Look Toy is usually a little bigger than when he started - because the original pieces have taken up their allocated space on each section of the new body.  The original Toy is still there (but out of sight).

These three photographs of Beaugey's head and face from different angles shows how his mohair pile had worn away, there's been some attempt to darn or patch him as the years have passed (Dad's sewing skills again to the fore!), but all in all the whole head would have needed to be replaced, as well as his body.  I would have retained his button eyes, because they still gleam with glee and with the aid of this photograph, I should have been able to make a stab at making his final look similar to the determined look he currently carries.

Finally, the ears.  Because they are rather smaller than the rest of the body, replacing them in the way I do the body - by attaching them to the new fabric would make the final result somewhat bulky, so I usually discard the original ears, once I have made a cardboard template from the existing appendage.  But, given the state of the one sent away to be matched (see below) it would have been difficult really to tack them to the new fabric had I ever gone that route.

I did mention earlier in this post, that there were two ways in which Beaugey could have been treated.  The replacement option I have detailed.  But the alternative was to remove all the stuffing and rusty cotter pin limb discs, giving him the usual warm water bath and drying him out - all in one piece, then darning all the holes with a matching yarn.  This might have been as difficult to achieve as getting an exact match with half a metre of mohair fabric (currently priced at a minimum of £72.50/metre + postage and packaging).  The time and effort of doing the second option would probably have taken about the same time (if one takes into account the time lapse between the order being placed and the fabric being delivered).  So the cost of the second option would probably have been about £50-£60.00 - whereas, the whole coat replacement option would have been about £60-£80.00, based on previous treatments offered in the Clinic.

Anyway, Beaugey didn't have to face either option in the event - and this is him the night before he went home to his den, with his well-travelled ear back in place.

Now, having reported on this latest event in the world of Coldham Cuddlies, it's back to the Wolf project.  MsKN's selected eyes have arrived safely, just in time for me to put the Yellow eyes into Mrs Buchanan Wolf.  Unexpectedly, a selection of Blue Eyes were also part of the consignment.  Although I had already made Mr. Buchanan Wolf's head including a pair of blue eyes already in stock, following a conversation this afternoon via email, it has been decided that the head will be taken to bits and the current blue eyes replaced with MsKN's choice.  That's the next job - after my usual battle with leather boots for Mr. Wolf!

See you all soon.  Isobel

The Experiment is successful: now for the partial introduction of the Buchanan Wolves.

Cy Bear calling in after a spell away from posting here.  It's just amazing how fast this New Year is going past.  Only a month today, it was Christmas Day - and here we are, nearly at the end of January already.

Isobel has been busy finishing off the experimental Wolves who are set to become part of the Cuddlies Family shortly and was able to send pictures of them, almost completed to MsKN - the author who has been waiting patiently for them to be done since she first contacted us in August last year.  The wonderful thing about this assignment is that there has not been a deadline - and Isobel has been able to finish Slippers, send more Cuddlies off to their Forever Homes and think about how the Wolves will be made.

I'm pleased to say that based on the photographs we sent earlier this week, the experimental Mr and Mrs Wolf have passed muster.  Isobel will  now get on with Mr. Buchanan Wolf  who has been ordered, while we await the arrival of some special coloured glass eyes that MsKN particularly wanted for her Mrs Buchanan Wolf.  They're called that at the moment, because MsKN specifically required them to be dressed in the Buchanan tartan plaid fabric which is presently worn by our Tartan Foxes (Etsy Listing #65456642).  Originally there were three of them:  now we are reduced to two - the one in the middle of this picture was sent to her Forever Home early in December.

We are still waiting to hear how she was received by her Forever Friend.  The person ordering them told us they had arrived at her home, but Miss Buchanan Fox with the yellow braid adornment was destined as a Christmas present for her Mum (whose ancestors were Scottish Buchanans).

MsKN's Wolves have the surname Buchanan in her story -a series of three. ( Isobel has read - and enjoyed - the first one) but MsKN is anxious to have some models wearing the plaid before her as she sits and writes the rest of her story.

To begin with, Isobel decided she would make two versions of the Gentleman Wolf and two of the Lady Wolf, and began with cutting out and sewing up their heads.  Since she was using fabric with a much thicker pile than the faux fur plush we normally use for our Foxes, she decided to experiment as she went along - and has actually shaped their faces in a way that she has not done previously, and she's used a plastic nose for Mr. Wolf - the first time she's done this.  (Normally, as you know, our noses have been embroidered with black or brown double knitting yarn).

 (It has been decided that we will be using Plastic Noses some more in future - they give a completely different "look" to the finished Toy!)

The same pattern is being used as the basis for the Wolves as Isobel uses for the Foxes and Coyotes in the Coldham Cuddlies Family, but because the fabric has such a different texture (it's much thicker), the head looks a bit bigger.  Apart from the eyes, which are actually green in this version, MsKN was happy for us to go ahead, as long as  her Mr. Wolf had Blue eyes.  This we've been able to do, and he doesn't look that much different from the photo we've shown you.

Isobel then made his clothes - with a smart Brown Tweed Jacket, and contrasting jodhpurs in the rather unusually striped velveteen fabric we have in stock.  Together with some smart brown leather boots, he looks like this - without the head attached.  MsKN did wonder if her Wolf might have a Brown Tweed Suit, and we were prepared to meet this request.  However, Isobel felt (and MsKN now agrees) that the finished Toy would present rather a dull appearance, so the striped trousers will now be produced once again.

The waistcoat is not made with the Buchanan Tartan and Isobel has yet to establish to which clan it actually belongs.  This will be established before we list both Mr. and Mrs. Tartan Wolf in our shop at www.Etsy.com/shop/COLDHAMCUDDLIES, but we thought you'd like to see what Isobel has been doing in the interval between this post and the one she sent last week.

(The sharp eyed Followers among you will doubtless notice that one boot is not level with the other here!  The finished product does have level boots!  All will be revealed when both the Wolves are listed, once the Buchanan Wolves are on their way to their Forever Home).

We've also found a new home for another of our Baby Koalas (Etsy Listing #55190188) - the order came in from  MrGC in Hong Kong earlier this week, with a plea that if possible, he'd like it to be sent to him before February 14.  As Koala was in stock, we arranged a rapid Koala Catwalk session with the three remaining Baby Bears, one was chosen - and having agreed to accept the package being sent via International Signed For  rate charged by UK Royal Mail, Koala was upgraded and  is now travelling as a "parcel" rather than a "small packet" - which his weight actually allowed him to go.  We're now all keeping our fingers crossed that he will arrive in time.  Here's a picture of him before he departed for his Forever Home.

There's another post being prepared - to be published sometime next week - about a potential Patient in our Stuffed Animal Restoration Clinic (Etsy Listing #79124185).  He arrived for treatment, his ear was dispatched for matching purposes, and then his Forever Friend changed her mind.  We'll tell you all about that next time.

In the meantime - it's been nice being with you all once again.  Cy Bear.