Cara-Mello: Naughty Bear #2

This bear was created from an imported mohair that was HAND woven and HAND dyed. The mohair nap is stiff. He is fully jointed and contains armature which helps him to stand and also to make the arms more pose-able. I used fabric marking pens to distinguish his facial features. Cara in Italian means "dear, or dear one" according to Lucille; it also denotes his coloring.

Naughty Bears! Or I will NOT Be Thwarted!

Laying in bed last night...er, early am....listening to my poor Patch cough from a partially collapsed trachea and suffering from heart burn myself, I began thinking about this next blog. I had finished two bears this past week, both of which were NOT COOPERATING with their creation! I can remember my mother saying, "I will NOT be thwarted!" any time any one of us balked at what she expected us to do in any situation. Mostly it was because she EXPECTED us to perform at church, in PUBLIC, of all things, and we children were not wanting to display our lack of talents to everyone. Not to be "thwarted" mother would insist. (Her will be done and our will be damned!) I don't know if the thwarting issue came about because she was the ONLY girl in her family and also the YOUNGEST. I've found from my humble experience that the YOUNGEST child carries a lot of weight in any family with his/her demands being met ASAP, while the OLDEST has to acquiesce to these demands. It happens to me still at the old age of 65! (Politicians should be THWARTED, but they aren't any more. It's an interesting word....look it up!)

Anyway, in my desire to create and not to be THWARTED by any inanimate ole bear, you can see the results in the picture below (above?). All I need to create for this ole guy (besides a name) is an old leather book for him to place open on his lap. My other bear creation has not been photoed yet; he needs a name, too.

I must admit to being partial to "art bears" as I call my creations. I never get the faces to look exactly the same on any bear I create, and I have found that if I don't like the face, I need to embellish it to "fix it" until I AM satisfied with the piece. So, I tell myself that people do not look exactly alike (even twins) so why should bears all look exactly alike? So this is where the One-Of-A-Kind comes in. After all, by the time I'm finished with each piece, I am tired (of it) and am moved to go on to something else.

Just a Little "Catsup"....

Today is bright and shiny: February 1, 2010 (2-01-2010). An interesting number to write. I had to write it a few times this morning, as I had fasting blood work, a bone density test, and a mammogram. I figured I might as well get it ALL done in one day! In an hour or so, I'm off to the lawyer's to see about finishing up my duties as Eleanor Button executor. We also have 10 new puppies which came over early Sunday morning....aren't all babies born in the early hours between 12:30 am and 5 am.? Mother and babies are doing fine; a noisy bunch! Well, they can't see or hear, so life is very dependent upon a mother.

I've been finishing up some projects that have been around for several YEARS! Gulp....bears; a bear pincushion.... Getting primed for the bigger stuff: new dolls for the Rome Art Center show in June, and TBAI bear show in August. Since no one else is reading this but me, I'm recording some ideas I'm "toying" with.....Oh! a great PUN! These are for the adult collector and not for children to play with. (1) I Meet Myself Coming and Going(doll) (2) Looking at the World Through Rose Colored Glasses(doll) (3) CNYDAG challenge fairy doll (4) Where the Wild Things Are(bears) (5) I'm a Little Jazz BEARd (Bird), a Gershwin tune complete with saxophone...open mouthed bear....and (6) some smaller Bendi cloth dolls decorated with fibers and beads. Now that it's all down here, one can hope that I don't forget....to check this page for my list. LOL....age, y'know.

Tomorrow the woodchuck sees his shadow and we have 6 more months of winter. That's par for Central New York. I'm trying to think of Sunny Florida and pretend winter's not happening here!