Q & A

my habits of collecting and using alpaca still keeps on. but there is a design decision query over my recent making.
i try to look for some alternatives instead of using dense pile smooth alpaca, here you will see the sand beige alpaca, it looks coarse and dense, but it feel soft. It's a kind of alpaca & mohair mixed with ratinee finish.



as i want to make a bear friend with the blue mohair bear, i try to use the same kind of method to sew the nose, but under many times of trial & error, i still cannot get what i proposed, so i throw this method.





I find without any even supportive later of suede, the embroidery thread over the sand beige alpaca will bounce back, no matter how i pull the thread...and look a bit full instead of thin and flat. so i look up for another way,
guess what, i try to make a paper mache nose again, i love using this kind of making because it stands very well no matter on alpaca or mohair, it got good qualities to manipulate through each step of layering paper, adding white glue and coloring on top, i got lots of fun through the exploration.



i am going to finish these bears for Christmas, it will be a hot Christmas for them... stay tuned.

the great advisor

Yesterday nite, i read a post from a friend, it's a clip of news in Chinese about a well known label Zara.
To certain people, those items may not their cup of tea, but i was moved by the story of the man behind this label.

Mr. Amancio Ortega Gaona. He was born in a poor family and went to work in a very young age, his success not only built from technical experience or you can say exposure in the industry. But i am sure, instead of working very hard and loyal to one's job, it's important to have a vision in the industry.
Although, the Chinese version news stated that his force of motivation is drawn from the snobbish attitude from the wealthy people, However, i see his positive attitude towards his career path: he observes only rich people could afford good clothing at that time. Why? So, he had a strong intention to make fine clothing available and reachable to most people. Then he look for some other alternatives, saving the transaction cost from the middleman, finding some cheap but good qualities material. It seems a clever act to run a business.
There are experienced bear makers marked high price while on the other hand i notice that there are some well known makers who mark their good qualities critters low... instead of looking up reason for why, or why not. It can be
a personal thing, one can be already self sufficient, no worries about to put the food on the table. Or one maybe looking up for challenge in their life.
It matters about how to keep our material cost low! In our living space, we are suffer from the high rent cost and the cost of living too. Most of the bear making 'material' have to ordered from overseas, we incur a lot on shipping and handling fee. It's competitive for pricing our making.
Recently, i am thinking about the fabrication of materials. It can be an interesting starting point on how to design the cut and how to bring different materials together. I am so excited to see there are some bear maker sharing their fun on exploration in colors and how the material behaves.

Here are the links to the news clipping:
The Chinese version. http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E4%B8%8D%E5%A0%AA%E6%AF%8D%E5%8F%97%E8%BE%B1-%E7%AA%AE%E5%AD%90%E5%BE%A9%E4%BB%87%E7%BF%BB%E8%BA%AB%E5%85%A8%E7%90%83%E7%AC%AC7%E5%AF%8C.html
The English version. http://www.theoriginof.com/amancio-ortega.html