Once Upon a Needle

Hello, my name is Joel and I am an over-achiever.   Terri and Peggy were recently at our house in Kansas City for the weekend.  Terri had an idea for a “not a bear, but bear related” project.  It would be made of felted wools, and each of us would use a common design element.  When complete it could be a pillow, or wall hanging…something like that.  Great idea!  Peggy drew a leaping bear for us, and we were off to Quilter’s Station for supplies.  (Quilter’s Station is a wonderful quilt supply store in Lee’s Summit, a KC suburb)  We worked on them while Terri and Peggy were here and vowed to finish them at home.  I put mine down and didn’t play with it for at least a week.  The more I thought and planned, I decided I would like to do something different with it when it was complete.  I decided to cover a box lid.  After work one day I stopped by a local big-box craft store.  I found an oval paper mache box that I decided would do.  Not my favorite…but it would work.  Walking up to check-out, I noticed baskets were 50% off.  Truly…when are baskets not 50% off?  Any way…I wandered down the basket isles.  There they were.  Several different sizes of unfinished picnic baskety kinds of things, looking right at me.  That was it!  I knew the over-achiever label would be used, but I decided to own it.  I went back to look at spray paints, knowing I would find the perfect color.  Did you know craft stores have drastically reduced the spray paints they carry?  Neither did I.  I found a color of red that I thought might work.  I ended up spraying the basket with the red then watering down some burnt umber and brushing that over.  I put a couple layers of flat cotton batting on top of the lid and covered it with a nice cotton print.  After finishing my wool piece, I stitched it in place on the lid.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with the basket…perhaps a pillow was the way to go after all!

The Pleasant Ridge Collection blog is welcoming Terri Larson and Joel Hoy and morphing into “Once Upon a Needle”.  The three of us have remained close friends despite the fact that we are no longer full-time teddy bear artists and travelling to shows together.  We each live in a different state, at least a three-hour drive from one another, yet we go out of our way to make sure we see eachother on a regular basis, support eachother in times of trouble or triumph, care about our families, and all the other things close friends do. 

This blog will share some of the interests that connect us.  Of course, there is our love of collectible teddy bears that brought us together in the first place and our love of fabric and sewing.  We love antiquing and finding treasures on our shopping trips - primitives, old lace, vintage children’s furniture, old hats, vintage postcards and graphics…you get the idea.  So welcome to our world!

Three friends, Joel Hoy, Terri Larson, and Peggy Fleming, assisted by Daniel Epley, met this weekend to decide on the name of our Internet gallery show.  After two days of deliberations, we can announce our new website, OnceUponaNeedle.com!  It’s under construction right now, but it will be ready for the March 11 show.  We each have some great ideas for special pieces and hope March 11 will be the first of many offerings. 

The Three Friends Internet Gallery Show is scheduled for Wednesday evening, March 11, 2009.  We’ll open the show at 7:00 p.m.

Our theme is candy containers!  We already have oodles of ideas.  Daniel Epley gave us each a vintage post card as inspiration for our springtime creations after a recent antiquing adventure.   It will be fun to see what we all come up with, so be sure to tune into my website for the show! 

Not long ago I had a conversation with a collector who was surprised to learn that some of her favorite teddy bear artists also hold down a full-time job.  She said to me “I thought all you artists did was just make wonderful !” 

I wish I could make wonderful all the time!  But, a lot of us have decided we need the security of a regular income and benefits that a full time job provides.  For me, it was fine to supplement our income with my teddy bear sales when my kids were young and I wanted to be home with them, but when it came time for college, it was time for Mom to go back to the office.

Now, I do happen to know a bunch of teddy bear artists who have been able to support themselves and sometimes even a family, with their teddy bear businesses.  It was a lot easier to make money 10-15 years ago when the industry was at its height.  There were lots of collectors who would come to a show and buy from several artists.  The economy was doing well and there were lots of shows and conventions to attend.  Classes and seminars on making and collecting were filled.  Ah, for the good old days!

In these economic times, though, fewer people are spending a lot of money on collectibles.  Shops have closed, shows have disappeared.  A lot of the collectors who used to buy lots of bears have just gotten older, downsized their collections, and, in some cases, have died.  And the Internet has changed the way people sell and shop for bears.

I think it would be really hard to start a full-time teddy bear business right now. 

What do you think?

I’m not one to go out and party on New Year’s Eve, but I do like the idea of a fresh new year to get organized, set some new goals, and plan what I’m going to do in the next 12 months.

Yesterday, I was at the office all day, and between helping other people finish year-end projects, I managed to do some cleaning and rearranging in my workspace.  There is now better traffic flow and a place for a visitor to sit comfortably while explaining the problem at hand and listening to how I can solve it.  It feels good.

Today, I plan to organize my studio space here at home.  Like many artists, my studio space shares a room with other activities and much miscellaneous stuff is crammed into it.  I won’t finish today, but at least I can get a start and maybe clear a spot where I can work on some bears!

Internet Gallery Show

I must get started on some new bears because two other artists who are my BFF’s are joining me in March for an Internet gallery show.  Terri Larson of Plum Street, Joel Hoy of Joel’s Bears, and I have done several Internet gallery shows over the years.  All three of us have have left the full-time bear-making circuit.  Joel and I are working at full time jobs  and Terri is busy raising her two precious little girls.  We still like to make bears and other animals and need a place to showcase them.

I’ll have more to post in the coming days of this fresh new year.