Year of the Titanic

The first issue of the new Teddy Bear & Friends arrived and I was surprised to see they printed my letter!  Neat!  They chose also to include one of the photos I sent, of my mourning bear.  You can see more of him on my website, if you like.

To commemorate the sinking of the Titanic, I'm proud to offer two pieces on the eve of the 100th anniversary.

Here's a sweet bear, inspired by the mourning bears offered by Steiff very shortly after the ship sank. My Mom made the life-ring, using authentic materials: cork and cloth. You can see more images by clicking here. He's $170.00US.

And here's a piece called: "Final Moments: the Titanic Ship Rats". Survivalists that they are, these rats are determined to make it to shore, one way or another! More images are here. The set goes for $530.00US.

If you have any questions, please ask!

Midsummer's birthday!

I spent most of Sunday creating Midsummer's head. I can't believe it took 5 hours to do his nose, mouth, ears and eyes! The nose went beautifully, but was complicated as the embroidery floss changed colors too often, away from the pinks I wanted. The mouth took three tries. The eyes... poor bear tried on so many eyes before he settled on the 10mm amber glass eyes. And the ears... I re-stitched them this morning as I thought they weren't on tight enough.

Well, today by contrast went smoothly! Whip, stitch, snip! And his legs were on, then his arms! Lastly his head! By about 5:00pm he was born, just in time to snap a photo before dinner! I need to take some better photos, but here he is, Happy Birthday Midsummer! He looks a lot like his brothers and sisters and can stand on his own.

So, what do you think?

And don't forget this is Freedom to Read week! We take for granted a lot of our freedoms, including to read what others have to say: be mindful that this isn't so in many countries. Appreciate your Freedom to Read!