Je Suis Lugly!

Making Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 16:12:00 +0000

I've had a lot of fun this weekend making my first tutorial!

Obviously it's not a full-on bear making tutorial. I did think about trying to perfect one of my patterns but the truth is my working patterns are incredibly rough and ready, lots of bits I know need to be longer but aren't and markings that don't exist, so it's more than a weekend job... so I thought I'd try out the format on something else first. I hope you think that the video works: I'm wondering if I'd be better off switching the camera view as my active left hand blocks some things, but other than that I'm pretty happy!

The little guy in the photo above is a weeny version of this guy- they're called Alpacasso and are an import from Japan. I first came across them a few years ago but they were really hard to get a hold of then. Now there's a bigger international market for them so I finally got my hands on my first two!

I treated myself to two after Mac found a new home (more on this later) but immediately had to hide them from Boris as he has a real fetish for synthetic plush (although not mohair thankfully!). There's an in-betweeny size too which I'd like to get at some point in the future but maybe not from the USA: I got charged £30.71 to release this parcel from customs! Grrr!

As I said earlier, Mac is the latest Lugly to find a new home. It's great when I sell one of my newer, dolly style bears because I know they are too big for many collectors homes, but what was even better about this was that two of the bidders (including the eventual winner) were past collectors, and one of them was the person who bought Pancake, my first dolly bear! That makes me really happy, because if you like one enough to want another despite their sizes, I must be doing something right :)

I have added a booklet to the tutorials page on my site too, which I used to run my beginner Bear Making Club at the school where I teach. I'm hoping that when I do produce a proper bear pattern I won't have to explain too much as that booklet will cover most things- fingers crossed!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

An Awarding Update :)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:15:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce that Pancake came First in his category in the 2015 Excellence in Bear Artistry Awards! You can read all about the winners here. I'm really excited as it's my first First Place in this award since it began, and doubly pleased because my good friend Tami Eveslage was also a winner and we were there together to collect our shiny trophies.

I have decided to take a bit of a break from doing shows in 2016 because of the fact that I'm still unable to drive (but learning!) and so shows are very expensive for me to do, plus time-consuming and badly placed for a secondary teacher (why are they always on a Sunday at a busy time of the year?). Hopefully when I can drive and don't have to lug a suitcase down the night before and stay in a hotel I can get back into doing shows :)

Just a short update, hope you like the pics!

Chloe and the Lugly's xx

Lots of Autumn News!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 15:01:00 +0000

Well it's been a while so I have a lot of news to promulgate :)

Firstly, woo hoo! Pancake the Bear has won Judges Choice at the Excellence in Bear Artistry Awards!

This is the second Judges Choice in my career so I'm very pleased, click here to vote before 31st of October!

Secondly, I'm now getting ready for my second trip to Sheffield for the Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event. I'm very excited as it will also be a reunion with my good friend Tami Eveslage in her first bear show outside of the US, can't wait. I'm going to try and make some Christmassy creatures this year as my Hugglets dates have always felt too early to go festive.

Thirdly, I've joined Bearpile for a month, to see how it goes... the link's here if you'd like to check it out! Jack is listed, amongst others...

Last but not least, if you've not seen him already I welcomed Boris into my life in July! Life is much better with a dog but I've got to be honest, he's getting too big to plonk in my lap while I sew... think some adjustments may have to be made!

Hope to have lots of photos for you soon, but in the meantime don't forget to follow us on Facebook where my posts are much more regular.

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

Getting ready to do my first ever Non-Hugglets Show!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 May 2015 07:06:00 +0000

Morning all,

Well it's the day before The Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event in Sheffield, and this will be the first time I've been to a show outside of London. I have been invited to others before but the lack of car has always put me off: travel via train means an inevitable stay on a hotel as shows are usually Sunday events, PLUS I generally need help from someone else so it becomes an event that needs much more careful planning.

ANYWAY, I took my one day off a year from teaching yesterday to get everything done (for September Hugglets I can usually rely on the holidays) and to take my photos. I'm a bit nervous this year as I'm taking a lot more creatures, having learnt at the last Hugglets that it's ok for faces to reappear more than once (especially as I'm a known emotional hoarder of my own work). I also have a few new styles and ideas coming too so I'm looking forward to hearing opinions on the more unusual designs in my collection.

We're off to get a good English Breakfast now before our train, then off to see family and friends in Sheffield before the show. Hope my suitcase is a bit lighter and easier to store on the train home!

Hope you like the photos,

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

What I'm (Slowly) Working On

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 20:45:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

It's been a while, but I thought I'd update you on what I'm doing at the moment. My work rate has to drop during the school terms, but I'm still designing and working on patterns in the hopes of taking on a new show in the North this year!

Anyway, my new design is one I need to hurry up with really, given the time of year, and that's a rabbit.

As usual, I started my design with a sketch and then my plasticene model which you can see to the left - I know some talented people can just draw out an idea, but pattern draping makes much more sense to me! Actually I kind of reinvented the wheel here and made the same shaped head as a previous bear, but ah well... The plan was to have a triangular head with lower set eyes which hopefully you'll agree was a success from the photos below! I left my prototype with little eyes but will make them bigger before he finds a home...

Now I had planned to make a bigger version of this guy so whacked his pattern into my scanner and printed it out on a larger scale... bigger than I thought actually, but percentages are deceptive when it comes to pattern sizes!

One of the reasons for increasing the size is because I've recently invested in a small airbrush to help with my shading, normally done with copic markers on very small areas; I love it! It's even shaped like an elephant... hope you like the results of the first coat on my bun.

Well, he's still just a head resting on an egg cup in my living room, but hopefully this weekend will give me a bit of time to work on his body, or he'll be a very out of season rabbit... speak soon!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Post Hugglets Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 12:07:00 +0000

Hi All!

Well it's a week since Hugglets 2014 and about time I updated you all on what happened I think! I've added my preview photo above in which you can see the bulk of my tweedy gang, inspired by my holiday in the Lake District earlier this year... From the left they are Grizz the titchy sloth, Rigby Bear (who has found a new home with a gang of other Luglys), Montgomery bear and Sapwood the Rabbit. I still have some tweed left and did enjoy working with it so I'm sure I'll be using it again in the future.

I was pretty nervous as usual as I only do one fair a year at the moment so I know I'm a new face to many, but I was pleasantly surprised as three of my creations found their new homes within the first hour or so! I was very pleased to see my bears picked up as I've worked hard on unifying the different patterns I make so they all look like Lugly bears. In addition it was nice that no one thought my sloths were hideously deformed bear this year: I think I have a certain BBC documentary and Neil the sofa advert sloth to thank for that!

The last creature to find a home was Boris the sloth, the only big sloth on my table this year. I did have two little ones, and all three are trialling my latest addition: hand cast resin claws. Boris was so new that I didn't have any official photos of him, so I hope you like this one taken by his new owner of him wearing a lovely scarf: doesn't it suit him?

All in all I think it was the best show yet, although better footwear is going to be my priority next year... thanks for coming to say Hi if you did, and hopefully I will be at a few more fairs in the coming years, especially if I can finally learn to drive! I think having the Paypal Here machine was a big help this year, although it's a pain having to log the wi-fi on every single time, but people were very patient and waited for me to sort my codes out.

I will be listing the remaining faces on my shop, as well as on Facebook and probably Bear Artists International as well but it might take me a few days, so if you saw anyone you loved on the day, let me know :)

Since the show I've the feeling of being in the lap of luxury: what do you mean I get two whole days where I can choose what to do?? I have so far filled that time with a few new PlayStation games, reading a growing pile of books and also trying once again to learn to knit. I am already ok at crochet and working on a mega rainbow granny square blanket, but knitting foxes me because I learned left handed and now want to convert to right... You can see my first attempt below with the cast on stitches carefully hidden as they were the more tense loops of yarn I have ever had the misfortune to work with ;) The woman in the book is definitely too happy in my opinion! I keep getting massively baggy edges (anyone know why?) but otherwise it's not too bad... don't think I'll be cable-ing any time soon though!

I think my next project will be a revamp of the website, with the mobile market in mind, but I've fallen behind in my understanding of web coding so may have to enlist the help of a professional... if anyone knows a good place to start, that'd be great! I'm also in the mood to work on foxes, more sloths and possibly a few more British critters; got to use up that tweed somehow!

Anyhoo, speak soon,

Chloe and the Lugly's.

Rigby Bear and a Question About Accessorizing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 May 2014 18:27:00 +0000

Hi all!

Well it's been a while since I last did a proper update on the blog... too long really! I've been a little more consistent on Facebook because it's easier to add work in progress photos via my phone, but no excuse really! I finally finished a little bear that I'm really proud of so I thought I'd make a show of him.

His name (after much discussion) is Rigby Bear: I want to keep with old fashioned names for this style of bear I think. He's the second finished bear of this style, but the first started as I had to order more fur from America in order to finish his left leg, oops!I really think he was worth the wait, he looks very different to his twin who was made in matching blonde fur and has definitely highlighted how important the finish is to the look of the bear over the pattern itself!

He's about the same size as one of my big sloths albeit skinnier so I will have to take some photos of him with one as I think that'd be a cute couple. His fur is fancy kid mohair and a gorgeous chocolate brown, the same shade as Bombardier my first Bomb style bear. The facial pattern is very similar to his as well, but as you can see he has a more traditional neck joint as well as cotter pin limb jointing.

I often concentrate on entries for the years competitions around this time as I have the Easter holidays to get my act together, and I definitely think Rigby is a good contender! Now it's just the eternal question "to ribbon or not to ribbon" to answer. I do admire those people who conjure up elaborate costumes for their bears but I can't see mine in them (beyond a hat, bow or waistcoat perhaps?), which puts me generally in the Bare Bear categories.

For me this presents a bit of a challenge as I have entered the same competitions with bears from similar patterns (such as Seymour the Sailor Bear and Bruce the Bomb, shown below) and the accessorized bear has gotten nominated, even when I have preferred the totally bare one... it makes me wonder if it's important to think up something that gives my bear that little extra character before I submit his photos... what do you think?

Anyway, I hope you like seeing Rigby after a long absence. I hope I can finish a small scale sloth I've been working on with help from my first ever resin cast claws (exciting!) before long, as he's looking pretty cute so far too! At the last Hugglets I went to (by the way I'm there again in September!) quite a few people said they wished my creatures were smaller and whilst I think some of the designs (Bomb bears especially) need that large footprint, I'm happy to have a go at a little sloth shrinking!

Let me know if you have a "to ribbon or not to ribbon" opinion :)

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Have a Good Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 15:33:00 +0000

Nearly Christmas everyone!

I'm hoping to get in a little design time after Christmas or possibly just work on smoothing out the Baby Bomb Bear design, but I'm having a lazy week right now... Hope you like the Christmas hats on my sloths above! (I'm shipping them with any adopted sloth, squirrel or rabbit from the main shop site, accessible here: http://www.je-suis-lugly.com/Gallery.htm).

I will update my creation of Baby Bomb story when I'm on my own computer, but until then here's the finished chappy: I just realised I have no direct link on my website to my Facebook page so that's something I need to update, as most of my spontaneous updates happen there these days...

Anyway, hope you have an excellent holiday, and see you in the New Year!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Starting to Make a Bear (Bear Club 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 14:23:00 +0000

Hi All!

Well Half Term is finally upon us, which means I have a bit of bear making time. Just before school broke up myself and six interested students came together to begin Bear Making Club: it's the first time I'll be teaching people of their age (although I did show three girls at my American University, but that was a bit more informal!).

For us, the process has begun with DYEING FABRIC (always dramatic, generally coupled with witch-like cackling and stirring of suspicious looking pots of bubbling liquid). All of my students have chosen their colours, but I was trying to match a paint chip for a commission: hopefully you think I was successful? Student selections were mostly brown with some lilac and green thrown in. Next fortnight we'll start drawing out and cutting patterns, before the real fun begins.

Meanwhile (because I won't have a club update this week due to the holidays) I thought I'd chronicle the real first step for me as a bear maker: pattern design. I've done this for my hare before, but thought it might be useful to have a bear reference in time for the inevitable club assembly at the end of the year.

I always start with a simplified sketch and plasticene model of my creature, generally made piece by piece rather than whole model at once, hence the disembodied head.... I'm aiming to make a baby version of my big Bomb bears: they'll have a traditionally positioned neck but I want them to have the head dimples I like in my Gem style bear and the tendency towards obesity of the Bombs. The aim is to have a 'one day' bear which would be more affordable but have the look of a chunky bear.

So, once I have my model I will lay plastic from plastic wallets onto the model and pinning it in place: this helps me to work out my darts as you can see from the top of the head here. It takes a while to work out the best layout but I prioritise the front of the face and try to avoid too many seams there. Once I have the whole of the head covered, I will peel off the layers, draw them out on paper and try to make a mock up. I make my trial bear heads in mohair now, having learnt too late that the difference in stretch is difficult to compensate for. If it's a massive body (like a Bomb or Sloth size) I will make a canvas version first, but I often ruin good mohair because I can't wait: bad habits die hard!

I'm now at the stage where I have something like the head I'd planned! As you can see it is MUCH BIGGER than planned: I always forget to take pile length and type into account... this is a hand dyed alpaca from Intercal so it's very fluffy. What was hopefully going to me a 'minimal adjustment head' has become a 'mega needle sculpting head' but ah well, I like the look so far. Sadly this is my last 4mm eye so I have to wait for an order to arrive before I can finish his face off!

Going to work on the body next: planning a fairly chunky one similar to Gems, but the arms and legs will hopefully be stubbier so I need to take that into account... might need to make a set of limbs at the same time to balance him out...

'Till next time!

Chloe and the disembodied heads xxx

Post Hugglets Shop News!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 19:22:00 +0000

Hi All!

Well, it's hard to believe that this time last week I was already in London, praying that my bag of lugly's had made it through the journey ok and thinking ahead to my first show since 2010...

Hugglets was a great day for me as I was very nervous about dipping my toe back into show land after a couple of years of limited time for sewing and design work. I met loads of lovely new people including the lady and gent from Heirloom Bears who were on the stall next to me. There was a lot of interest in my new rabbit and squirrel which was very satisfying as this was the first time they'd been seen in full (as I still don't have decent photos of them!).

Anyway, the reason I'm updating is that I've just opened a shop on my website: finally! I figure now I'm teaching full time I should be making the effort to have creatures listed on my site at all times, as I won't always be able to post direct to Facebook or mailing list... I hope you'll have a look: the shop is here but you can also find it by clicking the new 'Gallery + Shop' tab to the left on my website. I will be adding more faces as soon as I've photographed them, and will be refunding any excess shipping costs until I've worked out how to set them fairly on the site: I think they're pretty good right now.

Unfortunately I didn't have much success with operation 'try and use Paypal via phone' at the show, in fact I think the technical issues may have cost Bruce a new home... if anyone has any ideas or experience with card readers I'd love to hear from you?

Thanks a lot,

Chleo and the Lugly's xx

Sneaky Hugglets Preview and a Payments Question

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 11:53:00 +0000

Morning all!

Well, it's getting close to that time again for me; hectic Hugglets time! I had thought I was doing pretty well as I started on the newbies way back at the beginning of July but of course I have under estimated accessorizing and photographing time... Ah well. At least I can show you a couple of new faces today. These are two of the faces in this years flyers (I'll leave them in the entrance hall) so they are pretty much done, thank goodness!

Robin is one of three sloths coming to Hugglets this year: I've modelled his face on my older style of sloth to keep with my general whimsical seaside theme. He's the biggest of the bunch, around 11" sitting, and currently has a little felt lolly (although I may have added to him by September 8th!).

Sammy has been in the works for some time but I only just finished his hand crocheted hat. Crochet is something I taught myself in America to distract from the fact that I still can't knit, and I do like working on little projects like this one! In addition to his hat, Sammy will be bringing his hand made felt ice cream cone.

I do have a question for people planning to come to Hugglets, and it's about payments. I was planning to offer Paypal payments via my smart phone on the day, but appreciate that not everyone has a smart phone or is comfortable using Paypal. I can buy a card reader that feeds off of my iPhone, but wonder how people would feel about that? They're set up by HSBC bank. I'd love to be able to offer a more immediate form of payment as I know a few people reserved critters the last time I was at Hugglets but didn't make the journey back from the cash machine in one piece...

Well, that's it for now! If you're not there already, please join me on Facebook where you'll get more frequent updates, snap shots and random queries!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

School

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:02:00 +0000

Hiya all!

So, I'm at what seems to be a natural pause in a British teachers' year; just before May half term with the majority of my exam classes out on study leave. At this point having so much less to do whilst everyone else revises for their end of year tests is really, really strange. I mean... what do I do?

Well naturally for me, thoughts turn back to bear making.

I would never have revealed my 'weird' hobby to the students at my training schools as I think there'd have been enough kids in each class to turn everyones opinion against it. In a way that's the beauty of my school: most of the students are very open minded about skills and hobbies because they all have A LOT of them. We've got champion golfers, riders and actors as well as talented musicians and singers. I'm sure there's some fabulous artists in there because there's plenty of art hanging around the place too!

I first told the current year 7's about my hobby early on when warming them up to the idea of a cross-curricular, science and art project, in an attempt to show them that they're not always seperate things. This week in a fit of madness I have proposed to a wider audience that I will run a bear making club next year and have asked for interested parties to let me know they'd like to join me... and I'm pleased to say I have about 12 interested people so far!

Now don't get me wrong, there's been the odd 'put down' (or attempt) from some students: the old 'sign up older male student for the lolz' has been applied, but really the response has been good, especially after taking a few creatures in. Mentioning money seemed to have the biggest impact on the boys: once they learn that something's sold for $17,000 in the past, ears perk up! Trouble is, most want to go straight in at the sloth stage, and I am sticking firmly to my 'bear first' guns as I think that's the best way to learn the skills before turning to your own patterns.

Anyhoo, thought I'd update you all on how my life is going. The squirrel is a new design for me: might offer her for sale in a few weeks if you're interested, but I'm still enjoying playing with her locline neck and tail right now...

Hope you're all well,

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Amouretto the 2013 Sloth of Love!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:48:00 +0000

Phew, finally got some glamour shots of my first sloth of 2013, now named Amouretto!

I wanted a name that was linked to almonds (like his lovely creamy brown tipped fur) and love as he's ready just in time for Valentines Day and my usual 'Sloth of Love' release time, and I'm afraid Amouretto won't become unstuck from my head despite the fact that I was given a few more sensible options! I found my camera's SD card firmly wedged under my sofa cushions (hanging out with a lovely collection of hair pins, red marking pens and crumbs) and managed to get it working (phew!) so I have some nice pics to show off today.

As you can see, he's a smiley little guy. I shaded his face and eyes to match his lovely curly Schulte fur: an off cut from a much bigger sloth that just managed to fit all the pattern pieces! It's so dense that his seams are virtually invisible which adds to his realism and also helps around his claws. The claws themselves are old-style claws made from a transparent clay: I wanted to give this clay another go, despite it being slightly weaker than epoxy, because it does have a more natural look and feel to it. To balance the costs of the clay I've removed my usual package of steel shot from him so he's very light and should cause no problems when hanging from his claws.

He does have armature in all four limbs and a double jointed neck that gives a nice range of movement: he has some particularly quizzical poses! As always, he has a secret rose quartz heart sewn securely into his chest which you can just feel through his chest: rose quartz is meant to absorb and reflect love.

At 10" tall (depending on neck position), Amouretto is a great buddy for teddies and dolls and is currently chillaxing on my book case waiting for his new home to appear. If you would like to adopt him please contact me at je-suis-lugly @hotmail.com (just take out the space). His adoption fee is £165 and I will happily send him free Special Delivery in the UK and pay the recorded costs myself for abroad if he is bought before St Valentines Day is over.

Here's hoping he finds his home soon!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

A New Face!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:53:00 +0000

Hurrah, first new face of 2013!

Phew, it's tough work being a teacher but finally I've devoted enough time around the edges to finish of a sloth who's been in the works for some time... Meet "Insert Name here!"

Sorry, I haven't named him: to be honest I'm not sure if I'm accessorising him or anything right now but I can confirm he has all his limbs and his quartz heart so he's almost ready to go: just got to finish those last details. I'm thinking he may need an almond-y name for some reason? He's a little sloth at just 9" sitting but totally cute: I have reverted back to the old style claws with him for a bit of variety so they;re a little weaker but with a much more natural appearance: I've lightened his stuffing to minimise the risk of any claw based damage. His eyes are hand painted to match his sweet shaded face and his lovely tipped Schulte mohair fur.

Anyway, as soon as he's finished I'll be putting him us on eBay, but if you'd like to stake a claim on this sweet little boy sloth please get in touch! As always, my e-mail is je-suis-lugly @hotmail.com (just take out the anti-spammage space!).

Thanks a lot!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Guess Who I Found?!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:35:00 +0000

Well, you know it's a bad sign when you forget about a sloth you've made!

Rooting around in my Mums' cupboard at home looking for Bert we found Scraps: a contemporary of Berts from the olden days. It's pretty clear: she also needs a home! I really don't want to have to make her over, so once again I will offer her at a reduced price.

Scraps is a small sloth, about 11" sitting (I've added a photo with Leo who's a standard size, so you can see the difference). She has a darker hand needlefelted face to compliment her tipped fur made from two different length tipped Schulte mohairs, and expressive dark brown glass eyes. Her eyes are lidded in ultrasuede and her face has been sculpted and tinted to give her a mischevious smile. I think she has a sweet tortoise-y smiley face!

Scraps has strong epoxy claws and a bendable armature inside all four nut and bolt jointed limbs. As with all lugly's, she has a rose quartz heart secure inside her chest: she clearly needs someone better than me who will actually return her love!

She was originally for sale at around £170 ($275) but (due to my negligence) I would love to find her a home as she is at £130 ($210). There's loads of photos of her on Flickr here and at my website. If you think Scraps could fit into your family, please contact me at je-suis-lugly@hotmail.com, or via Facebook.

Hope you had a great New Years Day!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxxx

Please Save Bert!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:41:00 +0000

Hope you've had a fab Christmas, everyone! I've just had a trip to Liverpool for the first time and spent a couple of days exploring the city,shopping and visiting the Beatles exhibits. Sadly, only a week before I'm back at work and have less time to spend sewing! I do, however, have two sloths in the works!

Poor Bert here was made a little while ago, and has been hanging around in my cupboards at home because I didn't want to relist him...

I made him to try and push my sloth design on a little as the pattern for my sloths is actually pretty simple (most of the detail comes in the face and claws and any back detailing that's added in) whereas Bert here has a tail, ultra suede paw pads and down-turned paws like a real sloth. His tail even rotates so he looks natural hanging or sitting, and his arms are designed so there's no seam at all on the facing sides, so his fur falls more naturally.

Moving from his design, Bert has a sweet hand needlefelted face with expressive golden eyes which were also hand tinted and lidded with suede. His face began as a blank creamy canvas and was shaded to emphasise his expression.

I would love to find him a home before he is doomed to that uncertain fate of the Lugly Makeover Studio... No sloth should have to experience the pain!

He was originally for sale at around £260 ($420) but as a Christmassy treat (and to help him avoid a horrible fate!) I would love to find him a home as he is at £180 ($290). There's loads of photos of him on Flickr here and at my website. If you think Bert may be the sloth for you, please contact me at je-suis-lugly@hotmail.com, or via Facebook.

Here's to a great New Year!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxxx

A Christmas Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:59:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Well, I'm finally on holiday, hurrah! It's been a long and busy term: I am exhausted but enjoying teaching a lot so it's worth it :) The only upset is that I've had no time to sew at all, even though I've had lots of commission inquiries... I'm going to try and make up for that this holiday. I've also decided to join the textiles club at my school so I can work on my beasties for at least one hour a week: better than nothing!

I hope you like the photo of Leo with my first Christmas tree: I have four big sized Lugly's scattered around my flat, but it's only just occured to me to take a photo of one?

I thought I'd publish a picture of Seymour and his lovely Bear Artistry award: easily the best one I've recieved, despite the fact that it says 'Seymoura' on the crystal: oops! I definitely have to work on a few faces this year as I really enjoy entering a local competition that doesn't cost a fortune and that actually gives feedback too, unlike some of the big international ones (sometimes entering them feels a bit like chucking money on a fire: you've no idea what's not good enough about your entry!).

Anyhoo, have a fab Christmas, sorry for the lack of updates but hopefully I can make up for it and have a couple of sloths available in the New Year :)

Chleo and the Lugly's xxx

Seymour Needs Your Votes!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:12:00 +0000

Such exciting news: Seymour's one of three Judge's Choices in the first ever Bear Artistry Awards!

The competition is slightly different to most: the first round is judged from photographs by professionals in the industry agains a series of checklists. The three with the most points overall in each catagory are given Judges' Choice awards, so Seymour's already won a lovely trophy, but I'd love to win a public choice award too... fancy voting?

All you have to do is go to http://www.bearartistry.com/entries and mark which bears you think deserve to win in each category.

Thanks so much!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Seymour the Bombastic Sailor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:06:00 +0000

Seymour the Bombastic Sailor Bare Head, a photo by Je Suis Lugly! on Flickr.

Seymour the Sailor is finally finished! Phew! Just in time for competition entries :P

I hope you like him and will click on his photo to see pictures of him in his sailor gear... he's looking snazzy if I do say so myself!

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

I really want a dog....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Argh, I really want a dog! I really, really want a pug called Captain Pugwash or Frank and I don't care who knows it! I know this is a bit random, but here's the reasons why.

This is Einstein (posing fetchingly on the first ever quilt I finished, hurrah! Only took a year too :P). He's a Mini Schnauzer and a lovely old gent: we baby sit him when his dad's away on business.

On top of that my mum recently adopted a Staffie, a breed of dog that has a bad rep here in the UK but there's only bad owners of course, so Reuben is just a massive puppy: he does steal my teddies and carry them off however!

Sadly, everyone says it would be cruel to get a dog in my first year of teaching when I'll be pretty busy, even though I'll only be living ten minutes away from school....

I'd be happy if I could take the infamous Mr. Poo with me, but mum thinks he's too old... I would get a cat but I would feel like I was cheating on him: is that a bit sad?

Someone needs to convince me either way as I'm wasting way too much time looking a pics of pugs online :P I should be looking at furniture for the new flat but pics of dogs are so much less depressing... someone should buy me one so I can concentrate on getting my bear finished for the new Bear competition here in the UK this week: you can see the new guy (work in progress!) at the bottom of this post, because I just have pets on my mind right now!

More bear news next week! (once the obsession has passed!)

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Bear Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:41:00 +0000

Bear Winner, a photo by Je Suis Lugly! on Flickr.

Milkyrobot, you just won yourself a bear!

As you can see, the random number was 58 as selected by random.org. Here I'm on page three (51-75) and so the person highlighted is 58 :) They are a new subscriber so that's exciting!

I will be emailing the lucky winner tomorrow, unless they get to me first :)

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

Giveaway to Celebrate Five years of Luglys!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

It's time to celebrate five years of Je Suis Lugly!

A lot has changed in those five years, but I hope you'll agree that the majority of changes have been in the right direction. I really want to mark the occassion by hosting a big giveaway. The rules are pretty simple and you could win sweet Earl shown on the left here: he's one of my little bears from the Teddies Worldwide Tea Party, and he needs a new home.

All you have to do to have a chance at winning is be a member of my mailing list. Simple, right? I only use my mailing list to let people know about new pieces or really exciting news and you can unsubscribe any time after the competition closes, I won't be offended... people who're already members are already entered.

To sign up just put your email address in the box below or on my blog.

Competition closes in two weeks (May 6th) and I will pick a winner using an online random number generator: good luck!

Chloe and the Luglys xxx

Cassie: a Commission

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:49:00 +0000

Cassie, a photo by Je Suis Lugly! on Flickr.

I really like accepting commission work when I can as it means I'm definitely fulfilling a dream when everything works out. Cassie is a bear recently commissioned by a friend and collector names Felicity, who already has a sad little sloth of mine in her collection. We first met at my very first Hugglets and have been in touch pretty much since then.

For Cassie I was asked to make a purple bear similar to my recent collection for the Teddies Worldwide show. The colour was quite specific and hard to achieve on alpaca as alpaca is slightly shiny so it doesn't look as dark as it is (does that make sense?) It took two or three goes in the dye bath with a mix of blue and purple dyes, but I think (hope!) we got there in the end.

Cassie also has sweet black glass eyes, a hand stitched and waxed nose, purple felt paw pads and hand stitched claw marks. Wish her luck for her journey to her new home!

Chloe and the Lugly's xx

PS I haven't forgotten about the giveaway: more news on Sunday I think!

The Dust Clears... GIVEAWAY NEWS!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Hi All,

Guess what?

Today is my last day in school before the Easter Holidays, hurrah! As it happens the last week was possibly the busiest week of my life (if you ignore the week when I left my volunteering post in South Africa, flew to the UK via Dubai, unpacked, slept, repacked and flew out to America to study all in four days :P). I had my bears to finish, my show page to design, my paypal buttons to code, AND I had normal lessons to plan AND my final teaching observation all in one week! It was dreadful, but I got a good review of my lesson even though two boys started scrapping halfway through it *rolls eyes*.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say thanks to all the people who came and looked at my page and maybe took a bear home... a few didn't find homes and I am considering running a giveaway to celebrate my fifth anniversary. I am planning to offer Earl the Table Top bear (in yellow) as a prize. All you have to do to win Earl is sign up to my Mailing List: the link is on my Blog to the right and on my website under 'Links' to the left.

Not sure when I will end the competition, but here's an advanced warning for those of you who might be interested! I'll add another post during the holidays after I have regrown a brain :P

Cheers,

Chloe and the Lugly's xxx

PS someone called Debbie has been emailing me, but my replies don't seem to get through: if you see this please comment on my blog so I can get in touch with you!

The Tea Party Has Begun!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:23:00 +0000

I hope you like my little preview photo :) Please visit my page at www.teddiesworldwide.com. Good luck to all people taking part and everyone hunting for that perfect bear!

Chloe and the Luglys xxx