ArtFire

Well, I've just joined yet another new venue for selling my bears and I must say I think it's fab!! It's called ArtFire and it's along similar sort of lines as Etsy, but with people behind the scenes who listen to you.........which can only be a good thing :o)

They're running a special promotion just now and the first 5,000 people who sign up for an account get it at the special rate of $7 a month compared to $20 when all these slots are taken. There's also a chance to 'earn' a free ride which means you get it free for life!!!!

Why not take a look for yourself, it looks to be quite a promising site and one which is going to be very well promoted.

Register on ArtFire-Jigpaws.com

Hugs
Janice

Christmas Parade now open!!!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know Ellen Borggreve's Christmas Parade is now OPEN :o)

Ellen is running a lovely parade on her blog site which features bear artists' favourite bears. Why not pop along and pay her blog a visit!!!

Hope you all have a fantastic christmas and a wonderful new year :o)

Hugs
Janice

I've just listed my last 2 bears of 2008 on ebay :o)

There's one of my usual style of bears called Rusty who's made from a lovely deluxe faux fur and a more traditional style bear called William who's made from a delicious brown dense mohair.














I know they'd be thrilled if you stopped by to pay them a visit (just click on their photos) :o)

I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time :o)



Hugs
Janice x

New record!!

WOW.......2 posts in one week :o)

I've just listed another bear for sale but this time on ebay. He's called Crispin and he's a lovely little 10" mohair bear with the loveliest hand painted glass eyes. I hope you can pop by to pay him a little visit :o)

Hugs
Janice

Benjamin on Bid4Bears

I've just listed a lovely little 4.5" bear called Benjamin on Bid4Bears. If you would like to pop in and pay him a visit just click on the Bid4Bears logo on the right hand side :o)

I've also signed up for the Holly Jolly Holiday campaign on Bid4Bears which looks to be quite exciting!! It runs from 20th November to 20th December and artists from all over the world are participating. What makes it extra exciting is santa will be popping buy every so often to give random shoppers and browsers gifts.......you don't even need to buy anything :o)

There's some very exciting bear artists signed up for the event so I hope you can pop by and pay the bears a visit.......you never know, you might even win a prize!!!

Just click on the link on the right hand side if you fancy taking a look :o)

Take care all and speak to you all soon.

Hugs
Janice

New Jigpaws LolliShop coming soon!!

I'm sooo excited to be part of a brand new shopping site coming soon. It's called LolliShops and is a juried site where artists sell their hand crafted creations. I'm really looking forward to this site being up and running as there's some fantastically talented artists on it. It's due to open to the public at the end of November and I'm sure it's going to be fab!!!



On another exciting note I've been invited to attend 2 bear events next year. The first event I'll be attending is the Teddy Bear Artist Event in June which is organised by Samantha Potter of Mary Myrtle Miniatures. It's only the second year this event has been run but last year it had rave reviews by so many people so I'm really looking forward to attending.


The second event I'll be attending is the Hugglets festival in September. I'm sure this event needs no introduction to all you bear collectors out there but to those of you who don't collect bears it is the biggest teddy bear fair in the UK which is attended by around 150 bear artists, so it's very exciting (and quite daunting) to be invited to attend.





Hopefully I'll get the chance to meet one or two of you at one of these events :o)

Hugs
Janice

New bear on ebay!!!

Hi all,

I've just added a new bear to ebay. He's a 14" halloween bear made from the most deliciously soft deluxe faux fur :o)

He'd love it if you popped along for a visit :o)

Don't you just love halloween :o) It's not as big a thing here in the UK as it is in other parts of the world. Our kids go out 'guising' (trick or treating) but they just don't go all out like they do in the US for example. I suppose it doesn't help that it's usually raining here and sooooo cold...kind of puts a bit of a dampener on things!!!

Anyway.....hope you like Spookie :o)

Hugs
Janice

The best laid plans

Well.......so much for listing a couple of new bears on ebay soon after my last posting!!! Two days after my last post I was admitted to hospital and had to have emergency surgery to have my gall bladder removed so, needless to say I didn't get round to finishing my bears!!!

I finally got round to listing 2 of them today and I'll hopefully get the other one put on tomorrow. The first one is called Willow and he's a 10" panda made from the most scrumptious new deluxe faux fur.........incredibly soft and fluffy!!

The second one is a new design I've been trying out and is an 8 way jointed polar bear called Flake. He's quite a big boy (for me anyway) at 14" tall when standing and quite heavy. He's made from a lovely white straight pile mohair. He's got such a lovely feel about him, I could just sit and hug him all day :o)

I've also finished off a very cute little miniature bear who stands just 4" tall. I just need to finish off a couple of little things before I post him on ebay!!

I'm really enjoying playing about with new designs and fabrics just now.....hence the 3 different styles of bear being listed on ebay!!! I think that's one of the things I really enjoy about bear making......there's so many new things to try and so many wonderful fabrics to choose from that I can't imagine ever getting bored of creating new bears :o)

Speak to you again soon!!!

Oh dear......yet another 2 months!!!!!!!

Well......what can I say????? I've no reasonable excuse for leaving it yet another 2 months to update my blog, so I'm not even going to try......lol :o)

I'd like to say a very warm welcome to all my visitors :o) I've been having a look at my little Feedjit thingy at the bottom of my blog page and am amazed at the people who have visited :o) It's very nice to see visitors coming from all over the world.........thank you :o)

Well, that's my holiday well and truly over for this year and I must say what a fantastic (but exhausting!!!!) holiday it was. I LOVED America and most definitely want to go back there!!! I won't bore you with all my holiday photos (WAY too many!!!!) but I thought I'd share a couple with you :o)

You can't go to Disney without taking a photo of Cinderella's castle........so here it is!!!

One of the floats at the Disney night time parade

The FANTASTIC Shamu at Seaworld....what a show!!!!

My son enjoying the cool water mist coming off the water under the Universal globe.

The African Queen boat from the movie starring
Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn which was outside our hotel at the Florida Keys.

WOW........bush sculpture in Busch Gardens!!!!

And, for me, the highlight of our holiday.................

.........my son and I swimming with the dolphins at the Florida Keys
FANTASTIC!!!!!

Well holiday pics posted......now lets talk bears :o) I've got a couple of bears almost finished (hopefully I'll get them finished over the weekend) which I'll hopefully get put onto Bearpile and possibly ebay over the next few days. I've just bought a stash of GORGEOUS deluxe faux fur which I'm looking forward to making some bears from. I've almost finished a panda I'm making from this stash and it's sooooo soft. I've also got a little miniature bear, an open mouthed polar bear and a golden mohair bear in the process of being made so fingers crossed I should be finished them soon :o)

Speak to all again soon(ish!!!!)

Hugs
Janice

Where does the time go???

Oh my goodness..............has it really been almost 2 months since I last updated my blog!!!!! Where does the time go??????

I've been busy, busy, busy making bears for a craft fair I attended on Saturday. The weather was fantastic (for a change!!!) and I was stuck indoors!!! It was VERY quiet at the fair as the hall used is near a local beach and everyone (very wisely) was spending their time at the beach in the glorious weather we had. Anyhoo.....since it was so quiet I didn't sell many bears so I'll be listing quite a few on ebay over the next couple of weeks.

I've got 2 bears on just now which are finishing tomorrow night. There's a pink and white deluxe fur panda called Candyfloss and a mint and chocolate mohair panda called Mintola.










It's only 2 weeks now until I go to Florida and I'm REALLY looking forward to it!!! I'm not looking forward to the flight.........9 hrs!!!.......but it'll be worth it when we get there. If anyone has any useful tips to share about holidaying in Florida I'd love to hear them :o) We're planning to do a park every other day and sightsee in between. We're also going on a trip halfway through to the Florida Keys and Miami which I'm very excited about!!! We're doing an airboat ride at the Everglades and swimming with the dolphins at the Keys...................something I've wanted to do for years!!!

New style bears!!!

Okay so I'm not very good at this blogging business.......I was never any good at keeping a diary when I was a child either (despite numerous attempts at trying!!). I'll try to make more of an effort to update more often :o)

So....what have I been up to???? Well, I've been busy making bears for a couple of local fairs I'm attending in May. I've posted photos of a couple of new bears I've made!! The one at the top is called Bobby and he's the first bear I've made with a muzzle insert. I know muzzle inserts are done by many many bear artists but it took me quite a few attempts at getting the look I wanted. The other bear is called Bonnie and she's made from such a lovely colour of mohair!! Hmm......I think I like the different coloured muzzle look, I'd love to know what you think of it :o)

I also had a letter from Teddy Bear Club International magazine saying they would put photos of a couple of my bears in their magazine so I can't wait to see them!!!

Teddy bear stuff aside....I've been on holiday from my work for the past week and a half and it's been absolutely fab!!!! I've not been doing anything very interesting (saving my pennies for Florida :o)) but it's just been very nice having the luxury of having time to do what I want :o)

I will try to not leave it so long to update my blog the next time.....promise!!!!!

Finally!!!!!

Well, I finally did it......I managed to post a photo on my website :o)


I've just spent the last 3-4 hours trying to put a small picture on my website. I never thought a small 12cm photo could cause me so much hair pulling :o) As you've probably realised, I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world. Of course it doesn't help when my computer keeps freezing! Thank goodness for the saviour at the other end of my computer (Penny, my web designer)! I know I'll eventually get the hang of updating my website, it's just so new to me just now and everything seems really difficult and time consuming.




I've just listed a new miniature bear on ebay called Topsy (which was infinitely easier to do!). He's only 5" tall and made of beautifully soft deluxe fur. I quite enjoy making miniature bears, I like the fiddlyness (if that's even a word!) of them. One of my favourite jobs when I was a florist was doing wedding flowers, I loved making the delicate corsages and wired bouquets.


Hope you like Topsy :o)

It's all happening!!!

Hi to all :o)
My name is Janice and I'm a 38 year old from Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm a single parent with two sons aged 19 (okay now nearly 20!) and 14 and a Bengal cat called Kayla.
I recently decided I'd like to have a go at making teddy bears after collecting them for many years. So in July 2007 my first 'bear' was made and Jigpaws was born! My first bear (if you can call it that) left a lot to be desired but quite a few bears later and I'm a lot happier with the bears I make now.
In the last week or so it's all been happening......I now have a website set up to sell my bears (huge thanks to Penny of Gotobedbears for being wonderfully patient with me) and the owner of a wonderful little boutique in Gullane, East Lothian agreed to show (and hopefully sell) a couple of my bears in her shop. I've also just found out that the Teddy Bear Scene magazine is going to feature a couple of my bears in a future edition...........it's all very exciting :o)