New material - Green Cord Bear

Ever the experimenter, this bear has been made with forest green coloured corduroy with woollen bronze paws. I did try a similar light shade for the nose, but black works best! (As it generally does...)

Bow-tie or ribbon? I think bow-tie...

I quite like working in non-fluffy materials, as you can really see the shape of the bear. This fabric has added lycra, so the stuffing can help to shape the limbs too.

Tiny Tatty Dalmation with a Smile

I made this bear for a friend who needs a little Bear-Loving. He's off to see her tomorrow, but thankfully he posed for a few pictures before he leaves me [sob!]

But can he stand?

Nope, but he's pretty damn good at the splits!

Bear Making Demo at Melton Country Fair!

I've just being asked if I would be happy to demonstrate bear-making at Melton Country Fair on 1st July, by the lovely ladies at Foxy Lots!

If you fancy popping along to a proper Country Show (like those Kirstie Allsop competes at), then do come along. If you're lucky, you might even spot me trying not to prick my fingers with a sharp needle whilst talking about the benefits of wood-wool stuffing for creating characterful faces!

Click HERE for their website and all the details of the variety of events and exhibits. I haven't spotted any details about the competitions for animals yet, but fingers crossed, prettiest sheep will be one!

Bears on Show - Caged at Foxy Lots!

All the bears are now on show at Foxy Lots at Melton Mowbray, and they're all beautifully displayed amongst the other delicious goodies for sale! They are in great company as the shop has a fabulous range of locally made arts and crafts goods.

If you fancy paying them a visit, click the 'In Person' tab above to go to the Foxy Lots site and get directions, or click the 'Online Shop' link to buy them over the internet. 

First Fully Child Friendly Bear in Dalmation!

I've tried a couple of times to make a child friendly bear, using plastic joints and safety eyes. It's been tricky, but I think I've got the hang of it. This Dalmation bear is washable and made of synthetic fur; so should be allergy resistant. He's also filled with polyester padding, so no wood-wool to ruin in the wash!

I've tried to make him as quirky as possible, and my nephew already loves him and made me promise to make him one similar.

You can see his lovely blue eyes better in this picture:

Golden Brown Tatty

Another little Tatty one (I love making these little guys!) He can just about stand up without tipping forwards, but he definitely prefers sitting down.

 And he's got a lovely big nose!

Bears on Show!

This really is a hobby for me, but ideally it needs to be self-financing as the materials I love to use are quite pricey and I can make anything up to three bears a week, so the house is getting fuller!

Until this point I've been using Folksy as a route to customers, but it occurred to me that a local outlet for the small number of bears that I produce would be a good idea. So, I've been chatting with the great and the good in my locality, and I've found a wonderful place to showcase the bears at a gallery/shop that specialises in local hand-made goods. It's called Foxy Lots and I've been dealing with the lovely Kim. They're fairly new and busy building up their online presence at the moment, but it's wonderful for me to share the bears in real life and give people an opportunity to see them in all their cuddly glory! Do go along to the shop if you're in Melton Mowbray - it's an absolute treasure trove of art and handmade lusciousness.

They'll be displayed next week in their own cabinet, and then the pictures will go onto their website and be available to buy there. I'll probably pop into the shop and take my own pictures before they go online, as I'm fascinated in how they are going to dress the display. This is a new experience for me, so I'm really quite excited, and I'll post the pictures here for you to see.

The bears will still be for sale on Folksy, and for the same prices, so if you want one, it's your choice of where to buy them.

And a big 'thanks' to James Colclough at Melton Toys and Trevor Neale at Bright Ideas for all their advice on the local trade and their invaluable experience in merchandising and selling in the current climate - which is   pretty ruddy flat in the gift market! However, it's been a real pleasure to take a product I've made by hand and experience trying to sell it. Not as much fun as making the bears, but the feedback and support I've received has been fabulous.

Dalmation Bears?

As so many people have enjoyed the 'cow' material I used for a couple of bears, I've ordered another interesting 'fun fur' to make a child friendly bear or two. Should be fascinating to see how they turn out!

Tiny 'Cow' Bear

This little chap would be about 5" tall, if his belly wasn't so big that he can't stand on his own feet!

He's made of fun fur in a cow print, with pale stone coloured paw pads. I've stuffed him with soft poly, so he's seriously cuddly.

Silver Dog Bear! Experimenting again...

I think the 'dog' effect may be because of the ears being sewn forwards like flaps? Also, I've sewn in a little of the material used for his paws and inside of his ears as a nose. When I tried doing the traditional upside-down-T-shape mouth, it looked totally wrong. I almost gave up and remade the head, but decided to try a straight black line instead, which seems to have worked. He's very different to others I've made using the same pattern - it's amazing how a couple of small changes can make it look so canine!

He's up for sale at my Folksy shop. You can see him here.

Brahms the Bear - Finished!

He's the same pattern as Vincent, the grey bear, but looks totally different in his curly blonde mohair! And he's cute as hell.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to let this one go. He's cute and cuddly, despite having a plastic box in his belly. It's rested on plastic pellets and surrounded by polyester filling, and you can just about see the key at the back. I was concerned that it would stick out a lot, but it's worked out just fine. He's so fluffy you can barely even see the brand tag!

Brahms the Bear - Work in Progress

Poor Brahms. He's armless, but damn cute anyway. He's named after the Brahms Lullaby song built into the Sankyo Musical Box that I'm using. You can see it in the second picture. It's going to be surgically inserted into his back.

It's the first time I've tried using one of these, so a bit of an experiment. Thankfully the unit isn't too big and just needs to be placed within the filling, with the key sticking out of the back seam. It only needs a couple of turns and then goes on and on and on.... [I know they're supposed to do that, but it really does need an 'Off' switch!]

I am loving this fabric. It's 20mm curly mohair in cream with a brown backing, and it's incredibly soft. It feels great to work with. The cashmere plush paw pad material is pretty soft too - it's dense, straight and woven into a backing fabric, as opposed to the usual wool felt that we all used to use at school! It's nicer to hand-sew and I will use it more in the future. Basically, this bear is LUSH.

And the next bear is...

Going to be made with the same pattern as Vincent (which amazingly is this one - I know, it looks nothing like him in this picture!

 This is the fabric, although the backing cloth is more like the dark brown paw pad colour I've picked below it.

And for the first time I will be adding in a Sankyo Music Box, operated by a key. The tune I have chosen is Brahms 'Lullaby'. This is going to be one luxurious bear!

Getting experimental...

This black mohair is the blackest black I have ever seen. It barely even reflects the flash from the camera, so the pictures don't do it justice. I finished this bear only a couple of hours ago. I've used all the traditional usual materials (wood-wool, cotter pin joints, pellets, glass eyes), but the paw pad material is some leftover from another needlecraft project and I also used it as the top panel of the head. The lighter bronze coloured nose and claws really lift the colour, which it needed. It was VERY scary looking as all black!

And from the side...

Branding the Bears - Ouch!

I love stationery. And doing things properly. So I just could not stop myself from getting sew-in labels for the bears, and I've just ordered some swing tags to match. :)

Four Bear Family

I made another brown bear with the same pattern used for 'Ben', and a leftover tiny bear too. This is the full set of bears as a little family. Cute!

Getting smaller...

With the leftover material from making Ben the Bear, I managed to squeeze out a little 5" bear that has a massive little belly. He can't stand unassisted, but he's adorable. I'll be making many more of these with leftovers.

I think he works better in a 'tatty' mohair material, as this was made from the leftover from another bear, and I prefer the Tatty version!

And the full, sitting down in a squishy position (the only natural way they can sit with the massive tums!)

Getting bigger! Vincent the Bear

I really wanted to put a 'growler' into a bear, but they are quite large so I had to find a larger pattern to accommodate the size of the growler mechanism. This is the result - and he's my favourite to date. This is a 'Bear Perspective' I took to show Vincent (grey), Ben (middle) and my original and very knackered Steiff.

The wood-wool filling in the head really makes it look angular. I love it!

Ben the Bear

After getting a little bored with the original pattern, I picked an absolute beauty to make next. I also went all out on the traditional materials and have started stuffing the heads with wood-wool and filling the bottom of the bodies with plastic or glass pellets. I was over the moon with this design and have made a few more using this since.

Black distressed Bear

He's not actually upset, but I did shave his face and various areas of his body to get a different effect! Ruddy mohair got EVERYWHERE. You need a hoover on standby when shaving dense plush mohair... I also went for a different idea with the nose after looking at some Artisan bears from Australia. He's still black and white, but a bit more 'manly'? And instead of using paw pad material, I reversed the fabric to show the grey as on the shaved face.

Lady Crank's Bear

A friend of mine is pregnant and, as I'd offered to make something 'crafty' for her nursery, she was delighted to have a bear made. She chose the fabric and paw colour; but the bear had a few incarnations before I was happy enough to send it off. It was the safety eyes - they've got a hard disk at the back that keeps them secure, but it means that you can't put them too close together. I just felt the eyes were too far apart!

So then I tried to make the face a bit more expressive by reducing the gap between the eyes with some tricky needlework and putting eyelids on! I'm still not sure it works, but they do match the claws.