Eclectic Echoes » Art-&-Craft

The Teddy Bear That Kept Getting Lost

Tammy — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:12:20 +0000

I just finished making two more teddy bears for a woman whose daughter lost her teddy bear. The first time I met this woman was when I was visiting my parents in Virginia about 11 years ago. The little girl was six at that time and extremely despondent. Her beloved teddy bear had fallen apart from the necessity of being washed so many times. She needed that bear then, because it was what had helped her through all the brain surgeries and hospital stays she had already endured. I asked the little girl if she wanted her new bear to have an embroidered face, since the old one didn’t. She said yes and told me exactly what she wanted. I made it and gave it to her. She was ecstatic. The mother sent me a picture of a very happy little girl holding her new teddy bear. I never expected to hear from them again, but I was happy in the knowledge that I had helped the little girl.

About 4 years ago, the same woman contacted me again. We had moved since then and so had the little girl’s family. I was surprised she had found me. She asked me if I could make another bear for her daughter. The one I made had been lost in a move. Thankfully, I had made a pattern of the bear when I made the first one, so I told the woman it would be no problem. I made another copy and sent it off to her. Again, I thought that would be the last time I would hear from them.

About a month ago the same mother called me on the phone. Now the little girl has graduated from high school and is getting ready to go off to college. The bear has been lost again. Now the young lady doesn’t care so much about it, at least she said she didn’t. She doesn’t need the bear like she used to, but mom does. So the mother asked me to make yet another bear for her daughter to take with her to college.

Just a week before the phone call, I was clearing out some old stuff and came across the teddy bear pattern. I held it in my hand for some time trying to decide whether or not to toss it. Something told me I should keep it. I’m glad I did! When the mother mailed me the payment for the order, she enclosed a note requesting two bears this time. I called her yesterday to confirm that she received the package with the two bears in it. She had and she loves them. Her daughter’s birthday is this weekend and she plans to give her one of the bears then. I still have the first picture and asked for a new picture of her daughter with the new teddy bear.

One of my friends here was joking about how the mother is probably going to contact me again in a few years to order another bear for her new grandchild. I’ve already decided to permanently keep this teddy bear pattern. So I had to laugh when the mother told me on the phone that she thought she’d put the second teddy bear away for when she gets her first grandchild.

A pair of no longer lost teddies.

Marzipan Mania

Tammy — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:49:13 +0000

Since this is the first year we could throw Johann a birthday party, we wanted to make it special. Up until now we didn’t know enough people and we don’t know where we’ll be this time next year, so this is our chance! Because of space limitations, I started looking for places around town where we could have the party.

Making of an Ocean Birthday creature gluing the gill rosette on a white spotted sea goddess rendered in marzipan.
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Johann decided on Project Oceanology and an ocean theme. Since Project O is all about hands-on ocean education, it’s perfect for us! I thought cupcakes would be easier to serve than worrying about a cake and inevitably forgetting to bring a knife to cut it. While surfing the web looking for ideas, we found a business that uses fondant to decorate cakes and cupcakes. The owner did some cupcakes for a party with sea creatures on it that looked wonderful. I didn’t feel I knew enough about fondant to make decorations for this party using it, but I could do something similar in marzipan.

When I was 10, my family was stationed in Germany and I was taking art lessons from Heidi Herzfeld. She was a kind, gentle person. She only taught children how to draw and paint in watercolors, I think because she knew children wouldn’t get hung up on her handicap or have a problem with her being in a wheel chair. A childhood case of polio had left her paralyzed. She was one of the very few people in my life who saw my talent and nurtured it. In fact, I loved her so much that when the time came for us to move, I asked to stay in Germany with Heidi so that I could continue to study with her.

Tammy hard at work on a marzipan rendition of the Giant Pacific Octopus
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

One day, when I was the only child that had come for lessons, she took me into her back room and showed me the new project she had been working on. She smiled and her eyes shone when she saw my amazed reaction. She had a 4–foot–long table covered in marzipan creations, all various fruits and vegetables. They were so perfect, I had to keep reminding myself that these didn’t come from miniature trees and plants, but they were marzipan that she had molded and painted with food coloring. She explained to me how she did it and then demonstrated how she made a green apple, even how she painted on the blush highlights so it looked like it had been kissed by the sun.

Although my tutorial had been excellent, I had never done it before, so I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. Now was my time to try. If it didn’t work, I would just serve plain cupcakes. We went out to buy new paint brushes yesterday, since I couldn’t find any in the house that hadn’t already touched paint. When we got home, I got to work. Eric and Johann helped me choose creatures and provided pictures and toy animals as models. It took me all day, but it was worth it! I had so much fun making the critters and they will add a special touch to Johann’s party.

Fabulous Photography Show

Tammy — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:08:28 +0000

Today we were able to see a wonderful photography show without having to leave the house! Grandpa has an ongoing show of some of his pictures from his trip to Africa at the Photography 414 gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas. We also saw a picture of Grandpa and Arthur Morris at the gallery, care of Artie’s new blog. Grandpa has been on many photo trips with Artie and helped lead a couple of them as well. We got the royal tour of the entire gallery from the artist via video iChat, got to see Great Aunt Sharlene, and catch up with both of them a little bit before it was time to sign off.

One of Grandpa’s pictures of zebras sold and will be on its way to Germany once the show is over! If you’re in the vicinity, please go and take a look. This set of photographs is amazing (no bias there at all!) and you’ll be glad you went! If you can’t make it, we’ll be posting another entry when his new website goes live, and watch here for a few more samples of his work from Antarctica.

New Wallpaper

Eric — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:23:13 +0000

I think I shall wallpaper the house to both celebrate my new stone free state, and to remind myself to drink 1 litre of cranberry juice and 2.5 litres of water every day.

Urinary Tract Wallpaper by Shannon Wright

Hat tip to Miriam at The Oyster’s Garter

New Real Estate

Eric — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:16:32 +0000

It looks like both Dad and I have some new digital real estate.

My father is a professional photographer and now has a web site to show some of his works. I love his bear series of photographs and hope you will too. The cool thing is that he is also providing some facts and conservation information about some of these magnificent animals. I often have to wonder if the work he will do as a photographer will have more impact in informing people’s opinion about nature and conservation than my plans as a scientist or science communicator.

My own photography has taken a back seat to school and I do miss it. I especially love doing underwater video and photo work. If I could make an impact by producing a book or being on the team that produces a book on the beauty of underwater life similar to the magnificent and inspirational books Reef by Scubazoo or The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, I would jump at the chance. I love underwater photography even more than doing nature photography above water.

Speaking of science communication, I will now be participating in a multi-author blog called The Other 95% (TO95% for short). It is a site mostly dedicated to talking about invertebrates and the latest news, science publications, jokes, videos, etc. related to inverts.

I just put up my first posting there, about recent discoveries of social and complex mating rituals in a species of octopus. I hope you will look at it and enjoy. I took this on in part to help myself become a better writer and in part to help spread the beauty of inverts, especially cephalopods.

Traveling Mint Paints

Eric — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:11:34 +0000

Debby’s cool mint tin traveling watercolor paint set.

I stumbled across an excellent idea at Drawing the Motmot and thought that it would appeal to many in my family besides my wife and I.

My folks find themselves traveling often with my father being a professional photographer and my mother an artist. My mother, who has traveled quite literally since her birth, loves to spend hours enjoying nature, sketching, and painting scenes, while my father does his photography. Unfortunately, like Debby, by the time her gear allowance comes up, there is often very little room for paint sets and easels, especially if there is an airplane involved. Debby came up with a great little portable paint-in-miniature watercolor kit that fits in a purse or cargo pocket!

Tammy and I will be making a few of these for trips in our local area. Tammy loves to do watercolors and is excellent at it. Although I am nowhere near as talented as she is, I enjoy painting if I have the time. Johann loves painting and is very keen to paint during our nature walks now that spring has come.

I could spend hours going through some of Debby’s posts, especially with her beautiful sketches and travel tales… but, unfortunately, I must focus on school projects right now!

Fun With Yarn

Tammy — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:34:20 +0000

Johann needed a new sweater. Eric needed a new hat. I needed to reduce my stash. At Eric’s request, I made him a jester hat like Johann’s. As I was doing the finishing work on that, I threw in the left over yarn with extra yarn from 8 other completed projects for Johann’s sweater. I measured Johann twice. I deliberately went up a few sizes, figuring it might be a little too long for this winter, but would fit perfectly next winter. I knit the pieces for the sweater in 4 days. That garter stitch sweater went so fast, my knitting needles were smoking! At the same time, I had so much fun with all the colors. I kept thinking about sunset in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, near where we used to live. Then began the weaving in of loose ends, a task I like only slightly more than scrubbing the toilet. Nevertheless, I managed to finish the whole thing in a week. Alas, my plans were foiled. Johann grew enough in that time that the sweater looks great now, but more likely than not, I will be knitting another one for next winter. I wonder if Eric will buy the story that I now need to buy yarn for 9 more projects, so I can knit Johann another sweater just like this one…

Johann in his wacky fun scraps sweater.

Jocular jesters…

Spring Haiku

Tammy — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:20:28 +0000

I’ve been watching my phalaenopsis orchid sending up a new stem and growing new buds over the past several weeks. I was very excited to see the new growth. The cold snap we had a couple of months ago finally overcame the heat created by the sunlight constantly hitting our side of the building. Up until then, the apartment had not gotten cold enough to encourage another blooming of my orchid, and I was starting to wonder if it ever would! Haiku as a beautiful, unique form of poetry had come up in conversation a few nights ago. Yesterday morning while I was looking at my orchid before Johann woke up, I thought about my observations and was inspired to write my first haiku:

Budded orchid stem,
Like a dancing king cobra,
Follows the sunlight.

I read it to Johann. He liked it a lot and decided to write his own informal haiku based on one of his favorite Zoboomafoo shows:

Kinkajou-
Peek-a-boo,
Power-climbing mammal!

Both of our poems have a lot of spring to them!

Can You See What I See?

Tammy — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:42:53 +0000

Miss Suzanne told us about the Walter Wick exhibit at the New Britain Museum of Art, which ran from September to November. We finally made the time to go on Veterans Day. Trying to find the place was challenging, since so many roads in CT are simply not labeled. Quite often you will be on a road for several miles and go through many major intersections without seeing one street sign (a major pet peeve of Eric’s). Just when I was wondering if we were going to run out of gas before we found the place, we found it. Eric was worried about an entrance fee, but, thankfully, there wasn’t one. We took the museum map and the Walter Wick pamphlet and went inside.

What we found was a very unique museum that boasts being the first art museum in America dedicated to American art. Miss Suzanne had also given Johann an activity booklet the museum gives out to children, which we brought with us. They have a very nice collection and as we found the items on the pieces featured, we crossed them off the list. It was a fun treasure hunt. Then we came to the Walter Wick room.

We were drawn to the room like magnets to a refrigerator. All three of us were so taken with the colors, puzzles, and artistry of the photographs that we could not contain our excitement. Johann recognized the pictures from Walter Wick’s book Optical Tricks, which we had inadvertently checked out from the library the week before. The original set-up from one of the book’s photographs was there for people to view. Johann was so excited to see the original set-up, he went back to it many times and one last time before we left that part of the museum. We could not have planned it any better. The photo puzzles that were new to us could not be passed by until we had solved each one.

One of the guests watched us. Eric noticed her oscillating near to where we were several times during the time we were there, so that she was close enough to eavesdrop. She smiled when I enthusiastically told Eric and Johann how I had solved part of the mirror puzzle and asked them to come look and work the rest of the puzzle with me. Another time Johann noticed Walter Wick used a Schleich toy fox just like his in the Puss in Boots setting for the Do You See What I See? book covering fairy tales. She was visibly surprised when Eric not only shared Johann’s interest, but agreed to help him create his own photos like Walter Wick. I laughed when we realized we spent over 3 hours at the museum, the majority of which was spent in that exhibit. As we set out for the day, we figured we’d only be there a maximum of 1 hour. Our next stop was the museum bookstore. The next time we went to the library we looked for another Walter Wick book. Our next physics project will be a balloon popping gizmo based on Walter Wick’s contraption, with a deliberate focus on all the simple machines that go into making it. I’m not sure who’s more excited about the project: me, Eric or Johann.

When we had started out that day, Eric and I were tired and weighed down by all the work we had before us, but that was the only day we could go, and there was a promise to be kept. I’m so glad we didn’t decide we were too tired or give up when it took longer than it should have to find the museum. It was definitely worth it!

Butterfly Kisses Hand-knit Booties

Eric — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:55:19 +0000

Hand-knit, 100% wool, newborn Lamb Booties

Edit: (10/2008) Since this was originally written in August of 2006, Tammy has begun to list these booties on ETSY, and we have a gallery of designs she has completed available as well. Please use our contact form if you have any questions…

Tammy has been selling hand-knit baby socks & booties and womens wrist-warmers for the past couple of years and selling them exclusively through a local childrens clothing store in Mystic. As an expirement we have put up a pair of the booties on eBay to see how well they will do in that venue. While Tammy also makes frog, horse, duck, bear, bunny and fish themed booties the lamb style is most popular in the local market so we started with that one.

Take a look, and wish us luck! (Looking at eBay these days I think we’ll need it!)

Edit (10/2006): A Gallery of some of Tammy’s creations is now up. I’ll have to refine it as time goes on…but the link will remain the same, and it’s also in the side bar. Visit the gallery at butterfly-kisses.heupel.com/gallery…

Edit 2 (10/2008): Tammy now has a store on ETSY through which she sells baby booties and wrist warmers. The Gallery is available with samples of all designs she has created, so you can request a specific design. Please use our contact form if you have any questions…