Bank Holiday Walk

I just wanted to share some photos of a visit to Polesden Lacey, a favourite National Trust Estate, not too far from home and one which allows dogs in much of its parkland and countryside.

The Newfies prefer to stay cool so on a sunny day the only thing to do is get up very early and we were there long before the house opens but access to the grounds is allowed and it was a bright, fresh morning with plenty of shaded places to rest under the trees.

When I say "walk" the reality is more of a gentle stroll and lots of sitting admiring the scenery.  This was Buster's first visit to Polesden, I am sure he has already picked out his favourite bench from which to enjoy the view and country air, I can't think of anything more delightful to do than share it with him....

Waistcoats

I am not sure that I will ever get around to clothing my bears.  My mum's supply of sweaters is running low so I thought I should re-visit the clothing department.

So, recently I have been making waistcoats for some of the bears.

Not satisfied with basics I was determined that they would be lined, including the tricky "hump" area and that they would have working buttonholes.

The sewing machine needs a certain amount of gentle persuasion to get everything just right to make neat buttoholes but many, many experiments later I think I won.

I was lucky enough to be given a large number of nice old buttons in suitably small sizes.  I find it satisfying but very time consuming to make the little waistcoats but it seems to be the sort of clothing that a bear might like to wear.  Nicholas didn't mind taking his off to demonstrate the nice stripey lining going right into the hump, and the fully functioning buttonholes.

For ultimate perfection the buttonholes should be hand sewn but for the moment that is work in progress and I am not sure I would want to make 5 of them and try to get them all the same.

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Vann House & Garden

My Bank holiday expedition was a visit to the garden of Vann near Godalming in Surrey.

The house was built in the 16th Century and in almost every century since has been extended and altered, the latest additions made in the early 20th Century by W D Caroe the Architect who owned the house.  It is still owned and now occupied full time by his family.  The garden is open to the public occasionally but unfortunately the house can only be admired from the outside. Rather charmingly Mrs Caroe and family friends are on hand to help out during open days which seems to complete the picture that this is a much loved and happily lived in home.

The garden is quite modest in size and the present layout has elements inspired by Gertrude Jekyll.

However I have to confess that it is the house which fascinates me most.  It seems almost the ideal Surrey Country House,  not too large to manage but large enough to wander about in without being quite sure what you might find.

The additions of different periods are obvious when you look at the house but they blend beautifully into a building which seems to be a quite natural addition to the surroundings, resting contentedly in slightly untidy but natural and enjoyable gardens.

I could quite happily spend summer afternoons in the shade of the loggia with the dogs for company, I am sure they would enjoy all the carefully laid out water, I don't think Gertrude Jekyll could object too much to a Newfie refreshing istself in the ornamental pond.  I am not sure how Mrs Caroe would react to a request to visit for the afternoon with dogs.

Tea and cakes were served indoors which did provide the opportunity for a sneaky peek into the interior,  and it looked absolutely perfect, and there are lots of lovely shaded spots to sit outside and make bears.

Vann is opened under the National Gardens Scheme

the website is http://www.ngs.org.uk/

and it provides links to, and dates of opening, for gardens open to the public under the scheme.

Peregrine the Panda

This bear has been a long time coming.  Over the years I have made a few Panda like Teds, I enjoyed using different colours but I thought it was time to visit the Panda again.

I wanted to slightly modify the face shape without losing touch with my own look and I wanted to just give my own little twist to the design and get away from the usual approach to the black chest band.

I was insistant that all the colour contrast was done just with different fabric, so his eye patches are sewn into the pattern ( other bear artists always ask ! ) 

He is made from two shades of dense short Alpaca, and my first departure from "real" was the decision to make his contrast colour the rather nice custard yellow. His proportions are not strictly realistic Panda, that was not my intention, but I have moved his face shape a little more in the Panda direction and altered the design of the nose embroidery a little.  His eyes are inset on small discs of black felt to bring them out against the black of his eye patches.

I very much enjoyed making him, but he took far longer than I expected, and as ever the work on the black fur proved very difficult, I had to do most of the hand finishing under a magnifying lamp to see what was gong on.

Pandas' shoulder colour is rarely regular and the idea of making it assymmetrical appealed but in the end I settled on breaking it at the back which involved sewing more circles into the pattern, tricky but very satisfying once finished.  He has a double neck joint and I didn't want the colour change to be in the same place as a neck joint which again created extra pieces to fit in.

For his feet I have kept to my preferred wool felt, the pattern has some of the shape built in which is then enhanced by sculpting, or pulling the toes.

His eyes are my preferred vintage boot buttons and his nose is embroidered over a base to give a more three dimensional shape then set and wax polished, the remaining facial feature scissor scuplted over the snout and around the mouth.

So all in all he is not a wild departure from my usual work but he has a few very small quirks which are there just to please me, I made him as a very personal special and I suspect he will be the only one for some time, I can't spend a whole week on one bear for a long while yet.

And finally there is his name, Peregrine, I didn't want to give him one of those pseudo chinese double barrel names and Peregrine Panda has a nice ring to it so that's his name.

Customers on my mailing list had a priority look at Peregrine so he already has a good home.

Harold - New Pattern February

I think the new year  brought a desire to freshen up many of my designs;  Harold is the result of the latest review, an 18" Standing Bear with a double joint at the neck.

I have also gone ahead and given him the later face which I introduced this year, higher set small eyes and a more pronounced button of a nose.

I have also attended to the overall balance of the bear so he stands very securely even though the stuffing is quite soft.

I wanted to sharpen up the whole shape and design of the bear and I will usually be using shorter pile fur so that the actual pattern shape of the bear is more significant in the appearance.

This bear is already sold but I will be using this new version of an old favourite to make more bears in the near future; I will also incorporate these changes into other sizes in this type of bear.

If you would like more information, or to be added to mailing list please e.mail me at gregory@hugoshouse.com

Buster's first proper snow

Buster is now 5 1/2 months old and the recent snowfalls reached us in the South East

Not a great deal fell here but enough to give Buster plenty to amuse himself with. His registered name is Tallisbay Turbo Boost and he certainly lived up to that charging round ploughing the snow.

My attempts to dry him off with towels were pretty futile as he rapidly churned the pristine white layer into a nice slushy mess, stirred some mud into it then dragged the towels around leaving them to freeze on the ground.

Even Posh joined in and shed her 12 years for a frisky game with Buster.

On Saturday night more snow fell so the doggies had early walks around the village we found this charming Snowman and Snowdog on the Green and couldn't resist a shot of Angus and Buster with them.  Posh is missing from the shot, she had an earlier very short walk with Angus but she is too old now and can't manage to walk as far as the Back Green.   Buster is only allowed moderate walks while he is growing so Angus ends up going out twice

First Bear of the New Year

Jason the first Bear of the New Year

It seemed a good idea to begin the New Year with another bear made just according to my own personal preference and I felt very much in the mood to stick with the simple charms of a happy friendly classic Ted, gently aged just the way I like them.

I have made a few changes to a favourite classic bear pattern; Depending on the fabric he still stands around 16.5 to 17" tall.

Jason is made from a very traditional Yellow Gold Colour mohair.  When I decide how much to "age" a bear I am often inspired by bears I have owned or seen over the years in terms of just how age has affected them.  Jason is a reminder for me of a vintage bear I used to own.  He was made of the same rather bright yellow gold cloth, when I found him he was in pretty good condition, Lightly thinned and matted in places and rather dusty. I have just developed a new way of adding a "dust" effect which I have used on Jason. His stuffing had become looser so that he was slightly crunchy but not really sagging or floppy.  Time had softened the rather harsh colour.  So on this occasion Jason's fatiguing is to reflect the older bear which I sadly no longer own.

And.... just to show that he can... Jason standing up by himself, although I suspect he would find this for long periods unattended.

I have given Jason another of the sweaters knitted by my late mum.   I used to have quite a few of them but the supply of suitable ones in this size is running out, I guess I will have to make a new pattern to fit the smaller sweaters.

For more information about availability or to be added to my mailing list please visit my website at  www.hugoshouse.com  or e.mail me at gregory@hugoshouse.com