digital things

I thought that I would like to wish everyone a "happy holidays"....the result was this card.
Then I started thinking about all the gift cards at the stores and wondered about the possibility of offering a gift certificate through my website . If someone wants to give one of my bears to someone... all they have to do is contact me via email. I send them a PayPal invoice which they pay. They print the certificate and "voila" someone gets to choose their own Glass Dragon bear ( or bear friend)! No one done it YET.... but maybe. I like the idea so much that I will offer it all year round; after changing the certificate's "look" to one more year round.
I think I've finished all my Christmas orders! Just in time for cookie baking and getting things ready for Christmas. The last group of Memory Bears left this afternoon.... and will be Christmas gifts to 7 grandchildren and a sister! This is the first time I've made them out of a quilted hunting camo printed coverall! I had the bears in a box waiting. Every time Dominic saw them he had to take them all out and put them all back!

I hope everyone has the best of Holidays and a Happy New Year!

December Ice Storm First Wave

This what happens when you stand at the back door wanting to get a picture of the lights draped with icicles.... and water from the roof runs down the back of your neck!

Christmas makings

I have been making some non-bear things and these are two of them! I've put them up on my etsy shop.......

and my website


Lili, our grand daughter, came the other day to work on her Christmas presents... it was one of those "dragonfly" days where her attention span was pretty short but we had fun! She will be coming back to add bows. I'd put up pictures but then the future recipients would know what she's making!

I did work on some bear things while we were off to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and as soon as I finish them I will be putting them up too! I couldn't take all the "bear making necessities" along with us which means finishing them up NOW!

We visited the Atlanta Aquarium ! It was fantastic... huge tanks with 1.5 feet of glass between you and monstrous fish!

On our way home we stopped in Tennessee at my brother-in-law's .... he has an rv park/trout farm in Allons. Priscilla and I took a trip to the Appalachian Center for Craft ( part of Tenn. Tech University) which sits atop a ridge in the middle of a TVA Lake formed from the Caney River. The views are spectacular as are the works for sale in the Center's galleries. They also offer wonderful classes and I am quite tempted!
On the way back to the trout farm/rv park Priscilla and I stopped at a local winery.... very small with NY-style grape varieties and the southern Muscadines. He, the vintner, actually produces a "champagne" and planned a champagne tasting later in the month. The winery is in Livingston, Tn.

Last Show of 2007

Today was spent in Des Moines at the last show of the year! I will miss the November show in Atlanta, but the promoter has switched it till the Spring.
Good news... the show was busy and the early birds were ready to buy. My sales were good ! I came home and changed a lot of bears on BearPile to adopted! FUN!
I have an order of memory bears and a few needle felted things left to do for Christmas... but after that I am free to do what I want for awhile!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween !!!

"The Clown"

I just had to do a clown after reading that the circus was coming to Kansas City.... so here he is. I had fun with his facial "adornment" and ,of course, he had to have a BIG red nose.
The Clown is off to Australia tomorrow ( as soon as a PayPal payment is made!)


I have been enticed into all sorts of needle felting groups via Etsy lately. Google has a group. Etsy has a "We love etsy group" . There is also a flickr group.... and so on. I went and took a look at the members' photos and just like in the bear maker groups.... the diversity is amazing.

If anyone is interested in more info, contact me at bettina.groh@gmail.com

Congratulations to Lois

Lili pulled Lois' name from the pot! She sends her congratulations to Lois and I will mail the pumpkin to her!

raffle for pumpkin

For those who have been waiting... I'm sorry but Lili has been too busy to visit this week and so I have not been able to draw the winning name. But she will be over this afternoon to bake cookies with her aunt and will do the name pulling then!

Christmas/Holiday things

First 2007 needle felted bear ornament



I have started thinking about Christmas/Holiday things and working on a few. There will a group of 2007 ornaments and probably some Christmas theme bears.

I made the first 2007 bear ornament the other day... and it is one its way to California! Another is on all my sites: etsy , BearPile and mine ....... if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comment box or contact me directly.

Don't forget the raffle.... 9 days left!

Don't forget the raffle!!

Those new to my blog... scroll down. There's a raffle to celebrate my first etsy sale! The drawing will be October 14th.

Celebration Drawing

I am having a drawing to celebrate my first etsy sale! It will be for this little needle felted pumpkin. It is 1.75" in diameter and 1.75" to the tip of its stalk. If you want it, just post a comment with your name and email address . I will put them "in a hat" for my grand daughter,Lili, to choose from . The drawing will be held on Sunday October 14... plenty of time to get it someone for Halloween.

first ETSY Sale!

Wow... just sold my "Open Mouth" pumpkin on etsy ! My first sale!! Such an easy one too... she immediately paid with PayPal and all I had to do was print out a packing slip , mailing label and pop it into the mailbox for our mailman to take!

I'm working on "character" bear... long arms and legs with an unusual face. I will post a picture as soon as he's done. No way he could be a girl bear!

Dye Pots

My large pots are still useful... for dying wool and mohair. Lately they've been filled with orange and black dye... for all those pumpkins. But then, it was a Halloween bear's turn. The result was PunkinPanda.

Omaha Doll and Bear Show

We spent Sunday at a small doll and bear show in Omaha, NE. Its an easy do - drive up in the morning, do the show and drive home ( antique-ing on the way) afterwards. The table fees are small and I don't expect huge sales. But I was surprised by the show this time... not that sales were huge but that the gate was pretty high and there was quite a lot of enthusiasm. People were interested in my needle felting... I was working on a pumpkin ... and came back several times to watch my progress. One watcher bought it! I brought wool rovings so they could see what I started with and certainly there were lots of finished items.
Last spring at the DesMoines Doll and Bear Show I had promised a 10 year old that I would show her how to needle felt if she came to the November show. Well, her grandmother stopped at my table yesterday to tell me that her grand daughter had been so enthusiastic about needle felting that she had bought a kit on eBay and managed to make a bear herself! The grandmother promises that the girl will bring it to the DesMoines show for me to see! I can't wait! I promised to post a picture of the bear and her maker!

Halloween is coming

I really have fun, this time of year, dying wool rovings orange and black ! Then the fun of felting lots of little pumpkins... each a different size and each different!
BearPile GlassDragonBearsEtc

The photographer from the Kansas City Star was roaming around the Jubilee last weekend taking pictures. Here's the one she took of me and my table of bears....a little more up-to-date than the one of me building sand castles above!

Lyle... the HOG wanna-be

We had company last week. While they were here we went and took the Harley Factory tour! Sad to say, since the factory just celebrated its 10th anniversary, we had not been there before. By the way, the tour is great. Harley does a great job.
After the tour Lyle wanted to be a HOG and since that's not going to happen he's had to be happy just trying to look like one! You can see him on BearPile, my website or on etsy.

KC's Bill Boyd Jubilee

It was great having the Jubilee back! The KCI Expo Center is a wonderful venue and GBW went way beyond the norm in getting publicity for the event. It seemed like everywhere I looked in the Kansas City Star there was a little reminder!
The banquet was fun, the auction for GBW had great donations and a great auctioneer ( Martha Burch). The auction raised over $6,000! Now GBW can buy loads of bears to give away!
The sale on Saturday was not as well attended as I hoped. I missed a lot of "old familiar" faces. But people had great bears to choose from and I saw bags being carried around! This was a new venue and the first show in three years... so maybe next year!
One of those "old familiar" faces that didn't come called me and asked how the show went! She didn't make it because her daughter ( her show attending partner) was ill.... she's thinking about next year!

Monday we spent the afternoon with our grand daughter, Lili, and when we asked her what she wanted to do.... she replied , "go fishing!" She's wanted to go ever since we met a local fisherman at the marina cleaning his catch. She doesn't want to eat the fish or even keep it.... she's a "catch and release" advocate! We couldn't believe how long she stuck it out, even though she caught only reeds and logs. And, she wants to go again! As if no one could tell, she's the apple of our eyes.

$1 off coupon for the Kansas City Bear show

I decided, since I had run out of postcards, to upload a $1 off coupon to my website.... with the permission of the promoters of course. If you need one, go to my website.

I think I have everything ready to pack up and I have chosen the bear for my auction donation. It has been several years since the last KC show and I am looking forward to seeing everybody!

setting up an "etsy" shop

After much prompting by my daughter I decided to go ahead and set-up an "etsy" shop. I went to the site and worked through registering etc. Then the problem of what to call it....GlassDragonBearsEtc is what I came up with. Not very original I'm afraid. But the actual setting up is quite easy... everything is just plugged it. I do have to add a banner and slick things up a bit, though.
I have listed one bear and several other items as a beginning . Now its time to wait and see.

Samples

Here are several altered composition books and a velvet bag. I use similar books to log in my bears as they are done, to write sweater patterns in, as a guest book at my sales tables etc. The bags are just big enough for the essentials - ID , credit cards, a little cash etc. The cord is long enough to go over your head and shoulder so that you can have your hands free for "bear shopping".

More fun with open mouths!

I'm still having fun with the new way to "do" open mouths.... I guess I want to get the process down pat.
Lyle is the first larger bear I've made using this method. I used Intercal's mohair with cotton strands. He is 13" tall.
I'll be adding him to my BearPile page.

With the Bill Boyd Original Jubilee coming up in Kansas City on September 8th I will have to start deciding which bears to take. I have been making altered composition books , velvet bags and bear accessories that I will bring along too.

New open mouth

I came across another way of making an open mouth bear( Monica's Attic treasures). Previously after sewing the two sides of the muzzle together I cut a slit and inserted an oval piece of Ultrasuede(tm). Then finished the head as usual. Sometimes I sewed in a tongue made from polymer resin when I was done... Buster is an example of this.

But the new way ( at least new to me ) adds a bottom jaw, needle sculpts for forming the inner mouth and uses copic markers for accenting. Bing is my first try at this. He's only 6.25" so this method allows me to make much smaller open mouth bears!

Beenie

Here is my newest little girl. She is 6 inches tall and will be on Bearpile ASAP!

Getting ready for the Jubilee

I have been working on several new ideas for the Kansas City(Bill Boyd) Jubilee coming up in September. The Jubilee has been around since the early 1990's but was cancelled two years ago. Now GBW ( Good Bears of the World) ... both the national group and the local dens have revived it! Hooray. I really missed having a local show where I could see and interact with artists and collectors alike.

The Jubilee sales event ( Saturday Sept. 8) will be held in the KC Expo Center which is near the aiport. The address is: 11730 N. Ambassador Dr., Kansas City, MO 64153 . The hours are 10 to 4pm.

Bill Boyd's Original Teddy Bear Jubilee

Maybe I'll see some of you there?

First posting!

Well... a bare bones blog is up and running and I have to decide what to blog about...

I have been working on a challenge bear for the "The Bag" group. We were given a pattern... the rest is up to us. There are no assembly directions and no hints as to anything. The deadline for sending a picture is in September. I finished the bear yesterday and now have to decide what's next. Since the challenge parameters say the bear is a "bare" bear it can only have a collar or bow, but nothing has been said about accenting the bear itself!

I've also been doing quite a bit of needle felting.... and having a lot of fun doing it. If you'd like to take a look at my work, here are two links.

Glass Dragon Bears' website

BearPile