Bear Making Update

I was ill over the festive period and I retreated to my bed for a few days.  To pass some of the time I was surfing the Internet.  I stumbled across the blog of a lady who made both cards and 'artist bears'.  

I was intrigued and I loved her cards, they were stunning but her bears were out of this world.  WOW!

I'd never heard the term 'artist bears'.  I explored her blog list and found myself hopping from bear blog to bear blog and well I think I'm hooked, oh dear, not another obsession.

So I've started on my own bear making adventure . . . I spent approximately £100 on eBay equipping myself and for the last two weeks I've been almost permanently covered in bear fluff and I'm loving every minute of it [big silly grin on my face].

I've loved teddy bears all of my life and have lots which I've collected sporadically over my adult life [I'm a child in an adults body, lol] but I never considered that I could actually make one for myself.

This is actually bear number two . . . after doing a lot of Internet research most bear artists advise having more than one project on the go.

This is a 12" bear in tan ombre faux fur.  The body piece has been darted and sown and is ready to go and as you can see one arm is finished with another ready to sew.

Here is my very first bear . . . by no means finished but its something I can post here as I make progress with him/her, not sure which yet . . . I guess the face will decide this when finished.

This is a 12" pattern too and this time I've used a cinnamon 25mm faux fur (from eBay); its super soft and I can't stop myself from stroking it.

I've hand stitched it, I did start to use my sewing machine but I didn't feel I had enough control over the result so I reverted back to hand stitching . . . slower, yes but much more accurate.

Only one leg, head and body is stuffed at this stage . . . all the detailing is yet to come, how exciting.

All stuffed and sewn now but still no face or ears, poor thing.
The bears paws and footpads are made from latte ultrasuede; they give a nice contrast.

It's been remarkably straightforward up to this stage but all my information states that the hard bit is the face and ears etc . . . I'm a bit worried about wrecking my bear but I know I can't leave it like this so . . . will have to take the plunge.

I've been busy with cardmaking today [ I don't intend to give cards up, I want to do both, greedy guts that I am, lol] but have a day off from work on Tuesday and so I intend to finish my first bear then . . . will post some more photos soon.

Thanks for visiting