Die Post (oder besser DHL) war da...

... und jetzt schaut mal, was mir der nette Mann gebracht hat: 

Zwei TOBY Industry Choice Awards für meine TOBY-Nominierungen. 

Für die, die es nicht wissen, muss ich mal kurz erklären: Der amerikanische TOBY-Award ist der mit Abstand größte und wichtigste Preis in der internationalen Teddybärenwelt, sozusagen der Oscar für Teddybären.

In diesem Jahr ist das Niveau der  nominierten Beiträge extrem hoch, mir ist fast die Spucke weggeblieben, als ich die zugehörige Diashow auf der Website des Veranstalters gesehen habe. Das ganze kann man nur noch vergleichen mit einem Championsleague-Endspiel Bayern gegen Barca, beide mit der besten Mannschaft in absoluter Topform. 

Dementsprechend ist es natürlich auch eine riesengroße Ehre, dass ich  nicht nur mit einer, sondern gleich mit zwei Nominierungen dabei sein darf.

Passenderweise wurde dann auch noch mein Dodge von George Clooney inspiriert, der ja gerade seinen zweiten Oscar gewonnen hat. 

Hier noch mal Dodge mit seinen drei Pokalen aus Taiwan, Großbritannien und den USA.

Die Preisrichter, die dabei beteiligt waren, stammen aus allen fünf Erdteilen und das macht mich schon irgendwo stolz....

The best way to start the new year.....

... with two (!!!) TOBY Industry's Choice Awards!!!!!
Yes, it's really true, I just found out that I won two TOBY Industry's Choice Awards for Dodge and The sloth bear taxi.
While I' m still doing the happy dance, you can go to http://www.teddybearandfriends.com to view the full list of winners. 

PS: Once again I have to send a very special thank you to George Clooney for being such a great model .

Ganz großer Jubel!!!!

Ich kann es immer noch nicht fassen: Mein kleiner Dodge hat eine Nominierung für den Excellence in Bear Artistry Award, den neuen brititschen Teddy-Oscar!!!!!! Ich freue mich riesig und bin so richtig stolz auf mich , denn die Konkurrenz war wirklich enorm. Da ich regelmäßig auf der Hugglets ausstelle, kenne ich ja die genialen Arbeiten der britischen Kolleginnen, und bei nur drei Nominierungen pro Kategorie konnte ich mir beim besten Willen nicht vorstellen, dass ich da eine Chance haben würde. Zu allem Überfluß ging dann die Minikategorie auch nur bis 3.5", ,meine bekleideten Bärchen waren aber bisher immer um die 4", ich musste also kleiner arbeiten und dann zusehen, dass ich trotzdem alle Details so hinbekomme wie bei den "Großen" - und es hat geklappt!!!!!! Als klein Dodge fertig vor mir stand, gerade mal 3.2" (8cm) klein, war ich so was von begeistert von ihm und habe beschlossen, auch wenn er keine Nominierung bekommt, finde ich ihn richtig klasse. Schliesslich sagt ja auch keiner, Johnny Depp wäre ein schlechter Schauspieler, nur weil er keinen Oscar hat...
Als am Freitag der Anruf kam, dass Dodge nominiert ist,war ich mächtig stolz,  denn bei der Konkurrenz  muss er schon richtig genial gut sein, dass er  die Nominierung geschafft hat.
Zumal auch Leute in der Jury sitzen, die wirklich eine Ahnung haben: drei der besten Teddykünstler der Welt und die Veranstalterin der Hugglets. Dass die Nominierung von solchen Experten kommt, macht sie in meinen Augen noch ein Stück wertvoller.
Ich feiere jetzt noch ein klein wenig meinen Erfolg, mache die letzten Bärchen und Drachen für die Hugglets fertig und am Sonntag auf der Messe darf ich mir dann meinen Pokal abholen, im "Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea", was das ganze noch besser macht.

Falls Ihr Euch ein klein wenig Zeit nehmen könntet, meinen Dodge beim Online-Voting zu unterstützen würde mich das rieisg freuen, hier ist der Link: http://www.bearartistry.com/entries
Inspiriert wurde klein Dodge übrigens von George Clooney in dem Film "Ein verlockendes Spiel" (Leatherheads)

Taiwan Teddy Bear Creative Award vol.2

A little bit more than three weeks ago the results have been posted on the webiste of the Taiwan Teddy Bear Association. I could hardly believe it when I read that my little George won the 1st place award, because the other nomianted bears were truly outstanding. Countless times I went  back to their website to check if it was really true that I won, but since Monday I can be sure:

George finally returned from his trip to Taiwan toghether with a beautiful award and a certificate that clearly states that he won the 1st place in his category. In the package, there was also a lovely calendar.
I would like to thank the Taiwan Teddy Bear Association for this wonderful early Christmas present, for organising this great competition and for taking such good care of little George.
I would also like to thank the judges and all the collectors and bear enthusiasts who voted for George.
I would like to send a very special thank you to George Clooney for being such a great model for teddy bears and for being such an inspiration. 

Taiwan Teddy Bear Creative Awards

This morning I found out that my George won 1st prize award in the Taiwan Teddy Bear Creative  Awards!!!!!
I'm still doing the Happy Dance and as soon as my little vagabound is back here again, I will post a picture of him with his award. 

Taiwan Teddy Bear Creative Awards

I'm extremely delighted to inform you that my little tramp George, who already won 2nd place in the Euro-Teddy Award also received a nomination in the 2011 Taiwan Teddy Bear Creative Awards.
Currently, he is on his way to Taiwan ( I wish I could go) for the final judging.
There is also an Online-Voting and I would be very pleased if you could support him with your vote:
Taiwan Teddy Bear Creative Awards

By the way, little George was inspired by George Clooney in " O Brother Where Art Thou"

URSA-voting has started

http://www.bearsandbuds.com/URSA-2011/URSAAwardsbyPopularVote2011BearsandBudsTeddyBearMagazine.asp

 The voting for this year's URSA-award has just started and I was so brave to enter four pieces. And here they are:
In category 1 Baby Hope, I guess I don't have to tell you about her anymore, but if you want to learn more about the real Hope and her family you can go to http://www.bearstudy.org.    -> after you have done your voting for the URSA.

In category 2 you find my second entry "Up in the Air". He was inspired by the film with George Clooney and not easy to make, so I would really appreciate if you could vote for him.










In category 11 you find my third entry "Meet me in heaven". This little polar bear was inspired by cutr Knut who recently passed away. For this bear, I re-used the pattern that I made four years back for Knut, with some improvements and a different fur.
I wanted to give Knut a happy face because now he is with his Daddy Thomas again.
 My last entry for this year is Kgalagadi in category 14. She was inspired by a little cheetah I met last year in Namibia.
And now, it's time to vote:
http://www.bearsandbuds.com/URSA-2011/URSAAwardsbyPopularVote2011BearsandBudsTeddyBearMagazine.asp





                                                           

Euro-Teddy Award 2010

 I just had an amazing weekend in Essen at the Euro-Teddy.
Baby Hope, my little black bear, won 2nd place in the miniature undressed category. That's a great success for such a small bear, only 9cm/3.6inches, but that's not all:
Baby Hope also received a nomination for the British Bear Artist Award in the International Artist- category, and that is really a great success:
Like the Euro-Teddy, the BBAAs have several different categories, for small bears, large bears, dressed and undressed. Unfortunately, only British Artists can enter those categories. Everybody else, who is not British, has to enter the International Artist categoy, no matter what kind of bears they make. So, you can imagine what it means to be among the top six in that category, and I'm really, really proud on little Hope.
For the complete list of nominations just go to http://www.britishbearfair.co.uk/

And now: Here are the champions: "You are my sunshine", winners in the miniature dressed category.
Once again, they were inspired by George Clooney's wonderful film "Leatherheads".
Of course, educated fans will know that "You are my sunshine" is from a different film, so I guess I have to explain something: In spring 2008 I discovered an old crafts book from the 1930s on a little flea market. I bought it just out of couriosity to see what kind of crafts people were doing back then. Then, it turned out that the book was a collection of beautiful patterns for different crafts like knitting, stitching and crochet and I decided that I wanted to work with them by dressing my bears in the style of that time.

Then, a few weeks after  I bought that book, "Leatherheads" was in the cinema and it was the perfect inspiration for my bears.

I love to come back to both the film and book if I need some more inspiration, exspecially for competitons.

This time, I alsi had this beautiful silk fur. Originally, I ordered it for my cats, but when it finally arrived, it was just a little bit too yellow, so I decided to use it for my Leatherheads-bears instead. For their clothes, I naturally chose fabrics that match the fur and when thinking about a name for the competition, the first thing that came to my mind was "You are my sunshine" and I thought it was perfect and I could be sure that the judges would understand it without any further explanations and as you can see, it worked.
For me, these little bears are still my Leatherheads bears and who knows,  the director  might be pleased to hear that his film won one more award.
I would like to use this post to send a very, very special thank you to George Clooney for making such a beautiful and inspiring film and helping me to become the artist that I am now.