While She Naps

sketching

It's raining and blustery in Wellesley today. I taught another session of Get To Know Your Sewing Machine this morning and now I'm home, sketching the project for chapter 13, while the baby naps.

I hope this guy doesn't give me too much trouble.

learning to make teddy bears

I am learning to make jointed teddy bears.  Although making teddy bears is not so different from making any other kind of softie, it is intimidating because there is a whole huge community of artist teddy bear makers out there and they are very particular about the way these things are made. 

There are long, complicated books solely about how to make teddy bears, and active online discussion forums.The teddy bear makers have national conventions and attract some hardcore collectors.

Artist teddy bear making requires some different supplies than regular softie making, including jointing tools like cotter keys and locknuts, expensive fabrics like mohair, and a hard-pack stuffing called excelsior. All this stuff is available through specialty suppliers that sell to the teddy bear making community. It's pretty intense, and pretty cool, really.

One of my teddy bear making idols is Peng Peng. She makes amazing sock monkeys, too.  I love that that her teddy bears don't look like any bear I ever had as a child. They are urban and hip and just all around awesome.

For a long time I have sort of avoided making artist teddy bears. It just seemed overwhelming. But chapter 12 in the book is a teddy bear (dang table of contents). Sure enough, the time has come for me to write chapter 12. See what I do to myself? Force myself to figure it out.

And as I start making these little guys I can see how this industry developed. These are really, really fun.

checking in

Hello! I am working and working with nothing to show here, but I decided to say hello anyway and give you an update on how things are coming along.

A week or two ago I met with Lauren who owns Sew Easy, a sewing studio that offers afterschool classes for kids. Sew Easy has had a location in Needham, the next town over from us, for 15 years and I have driven by many times and always wanted to know more about it.  Lauren recently expanded her business and opened a second location down the street from me in Wellesley. She and I had coffee and I'm really excited to be able to teach some adult classes - a first for Sew Easy - right here in town. 

In early December I'll be teaching a felt stocking class and then in January a "get to know your sewing machine" class.  I've met many women in Wellesley who have sewing machines that they don't use. In fact I was just talking to a mom in my neighborhood who sewed her daughter's entire Hermione Granger cape by hand because her sewing machine is in the back of her closet and she felt like by the time she took it out and figured out how to thread it and get it up and running it would take longer than just doing all the hand-sewing.  I'm on a serious mission to change that.

And I'm finishing chapter 10 of my book. This project is all about jointing. It is unbelievable to me how much I've learned about fabric and thread, specialty tools, and construction techniques since I first began this book. For me, the most professional growth happens when I am under pressure and have to learn how to do it all RIGHT NOW. Thick pile faux fur used to scare the crap out of me - no more! Invisible button joints? Oh yeah. Seriously, I feel powerful.

So that's the update. Nothing to show, but steadily working six hours a day five days a week. And I'm so happy!

hello and a shop update

I've had several visitors in my studio recently and let me tell you it is getting harder and harder to make it look neat and tidy in there.  Charlie went to open the blinds yesterday morning when we woke up and six toys fell on the floor. (Keep in mind that when I say studio what I mean is a corner, or now nearly half, of our master bedroom). 

Part of the problem is a bit of hoarding. Supplies, books, toys I've made. I had some friends over a few days ago for an art and craft supply swap. Everyone brought three supplies they were tired of and took home some new things to help them get reinspired.  And we sat at my kitchen table eating sesame cookies and sewing Betz White's felted wool flowers. So that helped some.

But the chaos continues.  I now have six bins full of fabric, pattern pieces and finished toys: one bin for each chapter in the new book.  This means that six chapters (!) are done.  Only 10 more to go. Oh my. So there will be 16 bins by March when the manuscript is due.

All of this is to say that I've updated my Etsy shop.  There are three penguins, a snake and a whale in there now. There really should be more. More will come.

 

a gathering

I went out last evening with what is tentatively being called Etsy Women of Wellesley (EWW - I think we may need a new name!).  We had a wonderful evening at Alta Strada in Wellesley Square, chatting and laughing together about how we run home after dropping our kids off at school and furiously pursue our other lives, making things with our hands, until the very last minute when we have to run out to pick up the kids again.

It can sometimes feel like creative, entrepreneurial makers are a rare breed in this town and I give huge credit to my friend, Elizabeth, for rounding us up for a great night out.  Elizabeth is a potter who makes incredible work in white porcelain.

I visited her home studio a few months ago and was just in awe of what she makes, and the space she makes it in.  And Elizabeth volunteers once a week at the take-it-or-leave-it at the Wellesley dump!  Lucky her. You should see her collection of bowling balls.

She and Laura have a vintage shop called Betty and June on Etsy together. This amazing piece of fabric caught my eye.

It would make a great summer tablecloth, with these mod dishes. They're plastic, too, and perfect for snacks out on the patio.

My friend, Carolyn, who is a photographer and who helped me design that free felt goldfish pattern you see over there on my sidebar, came, too. 

Celeste makes amazing modern wooden jewelry.

This bracelet is so gorgeous.  Maybe Celeste will invite us to visit her studio sometime to see how she makes these.  She wasn't able to make it last night, but hopefully she'll join us at our next get together.

It was great to connect with these creative women in town. If you live in Wellesley and you make things, we'd love for you to join us!

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My studio desk is a wreck, full of pieces of toys in various states of assembly, waiting to be photographed or, in most cases, rephotographed.  I'm taking all the step-by-step photos for chapter two of my soft toy design book right now which means I cut and sew and prep everything, then turn out the overhead lights, close the blinds, turn on the umbrella lights and set up the tripod and shoot a bunch of photos.

Then I run downstairs to the Mac and upload the photos and maybe 1/4 of them are good so I make a list of all the shots that need to be redone and run back upstairs to do it all again. And again. I'm learning with every shot, but it is all-consuming.

And then I'm writing pattern instructions and lessons and  I'm working on describing the toymakers' tools and materials. And soon I'll be designing the third project. I would describe the whole thing as intense in the best possible way, and immensely satisfying.

gathering materials

This week I was in touch with National Nonwovens, wholesale purveryors of the lovely wool-blend felt I have been working with. You can buy their felt retail at Wool Felt Central. Melissa, felt-crafter extraordinaire, originally recommended their felt to me and I have loved working with it these past few months.  The colors are so vibrant. It is a joy to work with.

I'm thrilled that National Nonwovens will be providing all the felt for the projects in my new book. And in the meantime, they asked if I would make them two butterflies for their booth at Quilt Market next month.

For butterfly #1 I chose black felt and did some cutwork with an exacto knife. I put some colorful felt behind the holes and then backed the whole thing with another piece of black felt and I finished the edges with a zigzag stitch.  I made the antennae with some floral wire painted black and two black felted balls.  The head has a little gusset to make it nice and round and I wrapped the bottom of the body with extra-strong black thread to make some bug-like ridges.  

I took this picture with my new camera set-up.  I'm loving the lights and the tripod.  My photo lesson on Wednesday was a big success and I feel so much more confident with the manual setting on my camera now. Ask  me to adjust the shutter speed or the aperture - sure! The best part? I can take pictures at any time of day.  I should have done this years ago.

getting started

Thank you so much for your enthusiasm about my new book deal.  I could not be more excited. And a bit overwhelmed. I have a lot of work to do, but it is the very best kind of work and I am ready. Or, I should say, I am getting ready. 

First, I have to finish the series of penguins I am working on so that they will be ready to ship for the show in July. I made a second penguin chick and a third egg. I think one more adult penguin and the family will be complete.

Over the weekend I went to Newtonville Camera and got some help buying photography equipment. Hooray for locally owned camera stores staffed with people who really know what they are talking about! 

For this book I will be taking all of the step-by-step photos. And I intend for there to be a lot of step-by-step photos. I want them to be clear and consistent. I want them to look amazing. To get the ball rolling, I emailed some of the photos I took for the Elements of Soft Toy Design series to the art department at Lark to get some feedback. They very kindly analyzed all different aspects of my photos and sent me a page of written feedback. 

I took the feedback to the camera shop and got a consulation with Josh, a professional photography who works there.  And I used some of my advance to purchase a tripod and a light kit. 

I took photo class in high school, in 1992, mainly because I had a serious crush on the photo teacher, Mr. Foo.  He had long hair, he was young, he rode a Harley to school and he wore these flowy white button down shirts. Taking photo meant there was a pretty good chance I'd end up in the dark room with Mr. Foo. I was pretty focused on that idea, and not so focused on learning to use a camara. 

Then, 13 years later, I started a craft blog and needed to take pictures everyday. After our Nikon CoolPix died a few years ago, I did a bunch of research about digital SLRs and bought a Nikon D40. I've enjoyed using it, but I only know how to use the automatic settings. I've wanted to learn to take better photos for a long time, and I've wanted to buy some equipment to help me, too, and now I finally have the excuse and the funds.

Tomorrow at 12:30 Josh is coming over to give me a lesson on how to use my camera and how to use my new equipment. My "studio" is really just a corner of our bedroom.  A very cluttered corner that was already full of fabric and sewing supplies, sketch books, stamps, ink, paper, wire and every other craft supply.  And for the next year, at least, there will be a tripod and lights with umbrellas and a table set up for photo shoots.  Fortunately there is still a little room for our bed.