Wayneston Bears is featured on The Business Times 26 Jan 2013

Hi everyone! We are excited to share that Wayneston Bears are featured on last Saturday Newspaper - The Business Times!

This is the 3rd time that Wayneston Bears are featured in Singapore's media. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you Ms Tay Suan Chiang for featuring us on The Business Times.

We are pleased to be one of the few artists selected in this article "Handmade Attraction". This article highlights several local artist that does handmade crafts as a hobby/passion and how they start their craft business. Through this article, I get to know about what other wonderful crafts others are making and this inspires me as well.

You can click on the images below to enlarge. We hope you will enjoy reading.
Have a wonderful day!

Hugs, Wayne

Fun at Sentosa Adventure Cove

Last Sunday, I went with a group of friends to the Sentosa Adventure Cove. It's a new water theme park.

I have never been to any water theme parks like Fantasy Island or Wild Wild Wet in Singapore and it's a brand new experience with me.

It was a bright and sunny day, the weather is good! The first stop we went was a slide called "Whirl Pool Washout" My best friend told me that it's the easliest ride for beginners like me who has height phobia. Been a trust worthy friend, I agreed and took the challenge with him. On our way down the slide, I screamed and almost couldn't feel my heart beating anymore. I almost died... LOL

My best friend asked: "It's it fun?" I replied... this is sick...
Me: I am really scared...
Best Friend asked again: More fun then thrilling right?

Then i got kinda mad because he told me that isn't scary at all.

After the slide, they pulled me by force to take another ride on the other lane... They said that we should take all the rides/slides to enjoy the thrill since we have paid $29 for the entry...

In the end, I ended up taking 4 adventure rides with them... due to that, I had nightmares for 2 nights LOL...

My favourite part of the event is Snorkelling! Wow... I love it even thought I can't see without my spectacles. I hate the fact that I can't see a single thing in the deep aquarium. I can only see colours and the blurry shapes of the fishes. The difficulty in this sport is to learn the ability to breathe throught the mouth and NOT THE NOSE! Having the first time trying this activity, we drank lots of saltish water... (fishes fertiliser?) Yucks! I would love to go snorkelling again! Perphaps getting my own goggles with degree?

One of the my favourite activity was the easilest rides of all, the Adventure River. It's a underwater tunnel experience which brings you around the park. The depth of the river is only 0.9meters, you can wear a life jacket or sit on a float and follow the currents bringing you to diffierent check points.

The Bluwater Bay was very fun as well! We called it the Tsunami wave. You can see many move towards the start point at the end before the wave starts. When the horn blows, strong waves will push the floats to the shore. It's very thrilling... I lost my spectacles while playing this and almost drown! Luckily the lifeguard was holding on to my spectacles when it's pushed to the shore.

If you are here in Singapore, I would strongly recommend this wonderful place. 3 of the attractions are not yet ready. There should be a new cafe, shark and dolphin attraction coming up soon maybe by end of the year.

Thank you for reading on our little adventure today, have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs, Wayne

WIP ~ Building a New Website

Lots of my friends have been asking me what am I making next... the reply is no... I am currently on my new website.

I need to focus on one task at a time! Everytime when I start to make a new bear, I just couldn't stop and leave him on my table even for a day, I just have to complete him before proceeding to do other task.

This is a difficult project for me because I am not a trained web designer. I have been working on my website since last year, I have purchased a domain and a server, if I am not going to utilise them then it will be a waste of my money.

To kick off, I attended a 2-day workshop on Adobe Dreamweaver. It's a very short course to learn basic website building. After the course I have not practised and fimiliarise with the program and it was half a year later when I decided to go back to use the software. Building a website is not easy, it's a pain. Before you build a website, always plan and draw the different page layouts before proceeding. If not, you will be wasting your time and getting no where.

I refer to several websites for inspiration and bookmarked them for reference. I wanted a website that is simple, clean and easy to navigate. After brainstorming, when I am ready..... I have no idea how to start because I have already forgotten how to use the software! Luckily, one of my cousin who is trained in website building came to my rescue.

My cousin, Si Hao is very good, he knows all his stuff well. I am impressed because he is able to memorise and type in codes (they are so alien to me) with any hesitation. Thanks to his help I am able to execute and build my website with my minimal knowledge.

I used to pay $100 plus on a Free online hosting company named Wix. I paid money to upgrade the service to remove the advertisment on the sidebars and maximise the loading speed. After paying, my friend told me that it's expensive, hence I looked for an alternative way to save money and build my website from scratch. Wix a good and free website to kick off your online business, however as time goes when you have more items / images in your online shop, the speeds decreases and the page always hangs and laggy.

I am currently still building the website pages, there are tons to do :( I plan on getting the basic pages ready and starts to upload more information and details a little at a time.

My first New Year Resolution for 2013 is to learn to build a website. I hope my efforts paid off.
Here's some of the few preview pages.

 

 

Next year is the next of Snake... many asked if I will be making a snake? What do you think?

Hugs, Wayne

First Basic Bear Making Workshop in 2013!

 

Hi to all my Beary Friends!

Here are the details of the next upcoming Make a Bear Workshop!

 

The 2-day workshop falls on 27 Jan & 3 Feb (Sundays)

 

Seats are limited, so sign up now!

For enquiries, send an email to Wayne:

waynestonbears@yahoo.com.sg

Happy New Year! ~ My Swaps in 2012

My last swap of year 2012 arrives last Thursday, from a very good friend - Janice Woodard from USA. I have many swaps last year, more than any years in my bear making journey. Maybe more swaps than the number of bears I sold! LOL

Swaps are very fun especially when it's with someone that you admire and wanted to have a piece of their wonderful creation in your collection - you can show them off to your friends! It's also a platform to build trust and friendships over the globe. If someone wants to swap a bear with you that's a compliment because he/she likes your work!

I don't always ask for swaps, but only to friends (mostly from facebook) that wants a trade/swap. I did get rejects or no replies from some of them, but it's prefectly fine... because at the same time I did received offers from friends to have a swap too. On some occasions, it's not just ONE but TWO! =) I can never complain on having too many furry friends!

Below are the recaps of my Swaps in 2012!

SWAP WITH JANICE WOODARD

This is my first time swapping with Janice. I send her a squirrel named Wintersnow in exchange for her bunny Meeko. Meeko is 12 inches tall, made from beautiful faux fur and has a needle felted face! I am so in love with her when I received her, it's a prefect companion for the 2 little mice which I adopted from her last year.

Photos contributed by the courtesy of Janice Woodard

Wintersnow, specially made for Janice Woodard

Here's the first swap for year 2012! I have decided to start off the new year with a post recap of my 2012 swap! Isn't this exciting? So let's get started....

  

 SWAP WITH LISA HEILAND

Lisa is a lovely friend I met on facebook. She is a humourous lady and I enjoy chatting with her. She makes realistic bears and her craftmanship is excellent. I am a proud owner of her 2 bears namely Herbert and Rose, in return I exchanged my bunny which she named Herbert as well and Chappy the monkey. It's a wonderful swap and we have plans to exchange again later this year.

MY BIRTHDAY SWAP WITH KATIE FULFORD

Katie is my very first collector and is my very best friend. She is an artist as well, she makes intricate miniature needle felted animals and is a painter as well. Last year was a special year for my birthday, we have agreed to have a swap. I swapped Baby Mocha for her paintings. Katie is generous, I asked for one and in return she gave me 4! It's my best birthday gift ever!

MY BIRTHDAY SWAP WITH NATALIA OELOFSE

I want to thank Natalia for proposing a birthday swap with me. I went to her blog and saw this adorable bear and wanted her badly. She is very kind and agreed to make a similar one specially for me. In return I drew a new panda pattern and made her Panday. I am very glad that she love my panda too.

MY BIRTHDAY SWAP WITH KELLY DAUTERMAN

Kelly is one of my most favourite bear artist. She makes traditional bears and I always called them "Timeless Beauty", no matter how many times or on any occasion I looked at them, they never fail to make me smile! They give a mysterious nostalgic feel to me as a collector. I am now a proud owner of 4 bears made by Kelly. I swapped James with Kelly's Panda named Jinan.

 SWAP WITH ANGELICA HOLM

I am proud to say that I have a swap with famous artist - Angelica Holm! Angelica makes mostly realistic monkeys and I can say that she makes the best monkey! I love every single piece of her works, they never fail to melt my heart. One day I am going to adopt another one of her creation again. The dragon I sent her is named Amaryllis.

 SWAP WITH NIKKI BRITT

This is my first time swapping for an artist doll! Nikki Britt is also a famous doll artist based in US. We get to know each other through Facebook and Instagram. She told me how much she loves my dragon and wanted a swap. I agreed and she sent me a Ball Jointed Doll, Felix designed by her. It was a limited edition, moulded from Resin. She wanted a similar coloured dragon which I swapped with Angelica, so I made her Artemis. I am thrilled! I have always wanted to collect dolls but they are too expensive for me to afford them. I am glad to have another doll added into my collection.

I want thank all the artist above for the wonderful swap and I will treasure them forever. We hope you enjoy reading about our swap recap in 2012. Wishing all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P.S look out for our next birthday swap in Feb/March.

Hugs, Wayne