An order from Saudi Arabia: for delivery to Portsmouth, England

Hello everyone - Cy Bear calling you, as Isobel has been caught out - and she's not unhappy about it either! 

Earlier in the week, she'd been busy making Hairy Bear III, as a replacement for the one sent to Edmonton, Alberta in April this year.  Well, she got another order - this time from someone living in Saudi Arabia asking for her version of Hairy Bear to go to a young nephew living in Portsmouth, England.  We do like the whole international flavour of being involved with Etsy - it makes everything that much more exciting!

So, as she was mid-way in the production process,we thought we would tell you how Isobel makes us Bears, and she took this picture of the current Hairy Bear, sending  it to Yvonne B-P to illustrate her
Bear's progress:

Ears bottom left:  arms upper left;  head, minus facial features centre; the legs upper right and the body, minus limbs centre right taken on the ironing board.

Then the stuffing process began, with head and limbs being filled first.  Then the joints were applied and the limbs attached to the unfilled body piece.  Ears were attached to the head and the facial features (nose and mouth) embroidered with black double knitting wool.  The next stage is to gather up the neck space of the body prior to stuffing the body with the limbs already attached.  Bears can have joints so that the heads move around like the limbs, but Isobel finds that often the finished toy can have a wobbly head - and she doesn't like that.  So, all her heads are firmly attached  and we all feel (and look) a lot more secure.

Once the body is filled, the lower apperture between the legs is sewn up and then comes the difficult bit -  attaching the head to the body and making sure it is straight and firm.  Sometimes Isobel can do this first time:  with Yvonne's Hairy Bear it took her three trys before she was satisfied.  Here is what he looks like - with me sitting beside him!

Believe it or not - both Hairy Bear and I are made from the same pattern:  it's just that real Beaver Lamb Fur makes a bigger (more handsome - in my opinion, anyway -) Bear than the fur fabric from which Hairy Bear is made.  The fabric used comes from one of Isobel's sources - a soft furnishing factory in a town called Frome, about 10 miles from Heytesbury.  It is an off-cut (from making chair coverings) and if not used to make Hairy Bears, would end up on the local dump.  So you could say, we are environmentally friendly as a shop at www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com. 

That's all for today folks:  see you again soon.  Cy Bear

ColdhamCuddliescalling: Just looking in......

ColdhamCuddliescalling: Just looking in......: "No time for blogging for a few days - working on a new version of Brown Hairy Bear (heard today that there might be an order for him in a da..."

Just looking in......

No time for blogging for a few days - working on a new version of Brown Hairy Bear (heard today that there might be an order for him in a day or two:  a gratifying surprise), getting ready to entertain friends from the village to lunch and still trying to get the details of blogging properly sorted.  Cannot seem to get the hang of moving from this site to other blogs and back again - but will persevere and hopefully, soon, the penny will drop.

At the suggestion of son-in-law Alan, moved my browser to Google Chrome, because he said the whole thing was less cluttered.  Problem is, have got used to clutter when surfing etc, so have returned to Mozilla Firefox, because for some reason or another, my dealings with Etsy started to fail.  So, with the prospect of an order in the offing, have moved back almost to the previous settings.  That's my problem, I have a little knowledge:  and there is an old "saying" that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  In my case, it sure can be.  I click on invitations to do this and that, and find myself in a whole new world - which may (and in many cases is not) be what I'm trying to achieve!

Have today also managed to link my Windows Live site to RSS Atom feeds, which I've noticed a lot of folks have on their blogsites, so must be something I should be involved with, and while I'm inputting here I notice on the computer's edge something about "transferring data from ssl.gstatic.com" - now, I'm finding that anything with a "g" in front of it usually has a Google connection, and as this blog also has one, hopefully, that too will end up positively affecting my future activities.

Mulberry trees have been mentioned in earlier posts.  This is the oldest one, which might be almost 400 years old

So, rather than ramble on any more, thought I'd end up with a picture showing a view of part of the garden here at The Hospital of St. John - where Peter and I live - and within which most of the current photographs of the ColdhamCuddlies (http://www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com.)  have been taken.  The buildings in the background consist of the Residents' Hall (where jollies take place) and some of the flat (apartments).  We live on the top floor of another wing, built at the same times as these were - 1972 (and they are referred to as "the New Building"!  When other parts of the complex were existing since 1672, I suppose they can be!!

Hope to be back again with, or without, Cy Bear, soon.

ColdhamCuddliescalling: Now for the next project.......?

ColdhamCuddliescalling: Now for the next project.......?: "The Red Teds before leaving for their destination As has become customary since my arrival at Coldham Cuddlies ( http://www.coldhamcud..."

Now for the next project.......?

The  Red Teds before leaving for their destination

As has become customary since my arrival at Coldham Cuddlies (http://www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com/.) and becoming the official mascot, one of my duties is to say goodbye to those destined for pastures new.  In this case, for Little Red Ted it was  going Home:  Big Red Ted was the new boy!  Needless to say I'm thrilled that they seem to be happily ensconsed and now look forward to what happens next - especially after the mistake involving Little Red Ted's eyes and ears!  After all the poor little chap had gone through, too!

Isobel has just cut out the pattern pieces for the next version of Hairy Brown Bear - replacing Edmonton Hairy Bear and the room is floating in bits of fur left over 

A Bunny Tree, perhaps?



from the cutting out process!  Bit uncomfortable for folks with breathing problems, which is why most of the sewing involved in the Cuddlies' production gets done in the second bedroom, rather than in the living-room where Peter spends a lot of time.  Then, next on the horizon, in between Isobel trying to fathom how to get other sites' "buttons" set up on this blog - something that is driving her stir-crazy, for reasons I do not understand (nor want to) - are two new Foxes (a Mr and a Mrs - to be named when their final costumes are selected), a replacement Koala (for the one that also went to Edmonton, Alberta) and then, just maybe, another Teddy Bear rejuvenation project.  That's under discussion, so time will tell.

Meanwhile, it's nice to be able to talk to you all again.  Here's another picture with me and the Little Baby Rabbits.  Plans call for me to be pictured with all the other Cuddlies shown on http://www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com/ (one at a time) but that's going to have to wait - as the weather seems to be breaking and the light may not allow for the photo-shoots to take place.  Then between us, Isobel and I will introduce them to you in this blog - incorporating the information already included in their Shop descriptions and, where needbe, adding more.

Red Ted Bulletins - Final Posting

Making Big Red Ted was a doddle - compared to the problems encountered with the little chap.  Big Red was made using the same patterns as I've used for all the other Teds in the Etsy shop (http://www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com/.)   So instead of taking three weeks to sort Little Red Ted, it was only three days before Big Red was ready for stuffing and having his facial features added.


Here are the Two Red Teds together

Red Ted was made with Red Plush fur and stuffed - as all the Coldham Cuddlies are - with polyester fibre meeting international standards.  As I did not have chamoix leather to use for his pads, I used beige felt instead and the look fits him well, showing off his black, double knitting wool embroidered claws to perfection! 

Although they were not meant to, it's amazing how alike they look in their facial features - almost like father and son, don't you think?  However, as the two preceding posts indicate there is a matter of some 70 years difference in their origins!

Having successfully completed both toys, it was then a matter of introducing them to Mrs. P - something I have to admit to being somewhat apprehensive about (regarding Little Red Ted:  not Big Ted).  When introduced, Mrs. P said she would not have recognised Little Red Ted, but did approve of his new looks!  The shirt, trousers and cummberbund he arrived here with were declared to be redundant - "he now has fur again"!   Here is a picture of Mrs. P with both Red Teds sitting together.  So pleased is she with the final result and this picture that  it may feature as the family Christmas card later this year!  Now that is unexpected praise indeed!

Finally Home

Cy Bear's views on the whole episode will form the basis of tomorrow blog.  Meanwhile that's it for today"

The Rejuvenation of Little Red Ted - Part 1

As promised (or threatened?) recently, am now ready to tell you what has been happening in this field of activity in the life of the Coldham Cuddlies (all of whom are featured  http://www.coldhamcuddlies.etsy.com/).

 Little Red Ted (our name for him:  we don't know what his owner calls him) joined us at the end of March when his owner - I'll call her Mrs. P for this article - and I met at a meeting of the local branch of  The Royal British Legion Women's Section here at the Hospital of St. John.  Having seen pictures of Cy Bear, she asked me if I could do her a Big Red Ted for her youngest grand daughter. (She specified Red, because she had had one as a child herself and loved it to bits!)   When I went to see her to show a sample of the only red plush fur fabric I could find from my current suppliers, she introduced me  to Little Red Ted - who was indeed very much loved, but in such a sad  state of repair that I offered to see if I could rejuvenate him.  She was happy for me to do so.

So, in order to be able to create a pattern to carry out the process, I unpicked the seams - and found some problems.  In order to prolong his existence,  he had been "mended" very often - threads of at least three different colours had been used over the years and the seams were threadbare.  When he was made, hand made toys used very different materials. Polyester fibre had not been invented so he was stuffed with a mixture of kapok and wood shavings (large sawdust) and his eyes were glass with a very thin wire stuck to it (with what I do not know).  When the deconstruction process was complete,  I separated these items - and took this photograph to show what I found.

The wire on which the glass eye was fixed had just simply been shoved into the kapok, which provided a thin lining into which the saw dust had been poured.  No attempt had been made to stop the items from being pulled out and, even if they were the originals, the thought of what might have happened if "little fingers" had been active, is somewhat horrifying.  Mrs. P told me that Little Red Ted has been played with by her, her children, and grand-children, as well as having been attacked by a dog(s) in the past!  As it was, when I attempted to carefully separate the wire from the kapok into which it had been pushed, one of the eyes separated from the wire.

The cotter pins are very much thicker and heavier than the plastic joints which are now used when making Bears or other cuddly toys.  Little Red Ted's body was almost too small to handle five of them (head + four limbs).  So I decided to remove them totally and replace them with the modern versions which are much lighter and less cumbersome.

The next stages were to create cardboard templates from the original body pieces, trim round the edges and applique them on to calico sheeting.  I then cut out another set of pattern pieces in the new red plush fur fabric, laid the appliqued pieces on the matching new fabric pieces and sewed them up to create a new, unstuffed toy.  



                                                     

                                                                  Showing treated head pieces and an arm





The pale "cut out" areas are where the cotter pins had been placed



The next instalment in the rejuvenation process will follow in the next blog.