Bearly collecting

I don't collect bears. I enjoy other people's collections, but I've never really been a teddy bear person. However, hanging around EBAY trying to pick up patterns and learning about needle felting, I may just start collecting bear artists.

Dolls, that's a world I'm much more familiar with. When I create a doll, it takes on it's own life. Saved that beautiful ombre blue ribbon for her hair? Too bad, she doesn't like blue, she wants ORANGE! OK, "she" is inanimate materials, but that doesn't seem to have much to do with it. It's the same way when I write, my characters often want to complicate the plot. Like the time I wanted Mary to get up early to go painting in the meadow with Jo, but she insisted on making love to her husband first. C'mon, I'm thinking, lets get to the meadow and find the necklace! But no, Mary was too busy smooching. I just could not write the next scene without doing a discrete fade to black. Jo was really pissed that Mary was so late too!

So, my creations have their own lives. I've come to terms with that, as my artwork benefits from it, if my sanity doesn't. Doll artists are great because a lot of them have the same skewed inner life. But then you get to bear artists.

Dolls can be fantasy, but most look like people. Not so much any more, but it started that way and really has only been evolving much since my lifetime. Bear artists, they don't seem to have that problem. Their inner lives are even wilder and less restricted. Their creations may or may not look like an animal, but they can give you it's personality benefits and defects. How they started out making a little fox to steal an egg from the hen house, but she was too innocent, so she ended up with a jump rope instead. How the tiny Yorkie was supposed to be a shy, timid little girl, but turned out to be The Queen of Everything (just like a real Yorkie). What's more, they will share their inner worlds on their web sites, in detailed pictures. Worlds in which I feel right at home, especially the needle felters.

And when you talk to these people, they are NICE. They are happy to share their world with you. You don't buy their creations, you adopt them. I'm still mostly lusting after non-bears, but there are some I've seen that I would love to have. And I'm getting a Yorkie finally. I'll make her myself, but I will have one. I have a few photos of Whimsy around here somewhere, and she shall rise again in mohair and glass. At least this time, she'll be housebroken.

Tomorrow, the great needle hunt begins. After that, no sheep, long haired goat, rabbit or camelid is safe from me.