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Dilu I ADORE that rabbit! Proves the old saying 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'!
Well, the bear (she's called Kerfuffle because she caused one) is finished - as far as they ever are. Will get my teenager to take a digital pic later as I can't figure out the camera... I forgive her everything she put me through!
I swear this current bear I'm making is cursed... I'm a beginner and I get something 'new' wrong on each bear I make... When I've figured out a problem, lo and behold - a new one crops up! Fine! I can cope with it!
But this bear... I've had to do several things over. Worst of all, today I realised I had an air pocket in the nose stuffing, once the thing was finally together and I'd started stitching the nose... This was the first time I experimented with excelsior, just for the head. Apparently it makes it firmer than polystuffing, so easier to embroider the nose. Hmm. Well, it looked firm enough to me... But it wasn't, apparently. So, I had to find the ladder stitching in his back (no mean feat now I've perfected that one!); unpick it; behead him; re-stuff the head; rejoint the head; re-stuff the body; sew up the body; re-sew the nose.... Oh and in the process had to pull out his eyes, so I could unstuff the head properly....
It's about the third thing I've had to totally re-do. Blimey. Starting to feel the bear is cursed.
Now, he's eye-less, has half a nose, and no mouth yet.
Wonder what he's going to do to me next!
Thing is, he's a beautiful bear, one of the nicest I've made yet. I just keep wondering if every time I look at him I'll remember the way he didn't seem to want to be made! 
Anyone else ever made a cursed bear?
We live near a book clearance outlet and they have quite a few teddy making books for around £6 or £7, including the 101 one. I started off with a couple of books, but recently got Ted Menten's book, from Amazon. It's brilliant. Can't recommend it highly enough. (I've only been making bears since October).
DH just got me 2 Merrythoughts for xmas... including a small Cheeky. There were only 4 left on the shop's shelves, already when I got my one earlier this week.
I'd only let them pay by Paypal and plaster that all over your items, when up for sale.
I generally only buy from sellers who have Paypal too, as cheques are just too much kerfuffle.... It might deter them. I read about the scam somewhere else, apparently it's a money laundering thing.
It's very sad. I grew up in Leeds during the time of 'the Yorkshire Ripper' - and he started with prostitutes, but didn't end there. I always felt very uncomfortable about the way it was reported differently once the women were seen as 'innocent' victims, as opposed to prostitutes. But that was a long time ago and things do seem to have changed as the TV news anyway has been very sympathetic, I think. I'll never forget the climate of fear I grew up in though (carried a knife everywhere for years as did all my young friends), and I was walking alone, only a couple of weeks before the last murder, in the very place where Sutcliffe killed his final victim (which to anyone local, was absolutely on the university campus so no question he 'mistook' her for a prostiture, although that was implied, later). I hate it that other young women have to live in fear. As we said at the time, 20 odd years ago - maybe it's time to curfew men. Or provide safe environments for the girls to work.
Kerren I did venture onto the stage there - it was pretty busy when I was there, so I didn't get to chat to many stallholders! All the bears I saw there were wonderful. I was getting bear making supplies, and I'd only been making bears a few weeks so it was all a bit overwhelming! Hope to go to the next one, too. I live near York so I think the Leeds Fair has to be the nearest for us all year, eh?
Was up that way again recently, as we're re-enactors and get cloth at the Hainsworth's Mill Shop and whilst there, went across to bonds the wholesale haberdashery! Got some odds and ends for my bear making there, too!
Worser Half just got me two small Merrythought limited edition bears today for xmas - a little Cheeky (my first) and a little white bear with a ruff. When my brother was born in the 1950s, he was bought a white Merrythought teddy and I was bought a London Gold one when I was born in the early 60s. (I still have my bro's and my own bears).
We bought the Cheeky in the teddy shop in Stonegate, York and there were only 4 left. The lady said they've been flying off the shelves this week as the news got round. I got the second in Christmas Angels on Petergate, and they only had half a dozen Merrythoughts there (Their's looked more like artist bears - beautifully made). I reckon there won't be any left on the shelves in a month or two. 
Yes Pumpkin - I saw them at the Leeds Fair. They really are gorgeous, eh? The dragons, too. My kids loved them!
I'm a beginning bear maker, and have only made 'traditional' shaped bears up to now, so it's going to be a great experience and learning curve for me, to try this! Just cut it out this afternoon... Some lovely pink and grey curly mohair from Barbara Ann's stall, and a little creamy schulte for the tummy... This is also Bear No 10 for me, and the first one I'm making for myself! (All the other 9 for my 5 sons and my neice!) So I can't wait to get sewing!
I just read in the paper on Friday that Merrythought have ceased trading.
Apparently, they can't compete with the junk being made in sweat shops, abroad, as they'd tried to keep their local workers, and continued making bears the old fashioned way.
Just thought I'd post this in case any Merrythought fans abroad haven't heard the news, yet... They'll be selling like hotcakes, now, the last ones, I bet.:(
I was about to hint for a Barbara Ann bear kit for Xmas, but then I got this month's 'Teddy Bear Club International' - and there it is! A Barbara Ann pattern! I already bought some hand dyed mohair from her (lovely lady she is, too) at my first Teddy Bear Fair, in Sept. So I'm set to make that bear now!
Anyone else seen/making/has made in the past a Barbara Ann bear?
For those of you who haven't seen her work:
Sent mine today! Also didn't make them as I'm rubbish at that kind of thing! Hope they reach everyone in time!
Where are you, Sheri? For the UK, try:
With wool, what you're looking for as a beginning spinner is something that is neither too short or too long (the locks of wool are called 'staples' and the clue there is 'staple length'. A staple length of around 4" would be ideal, for you. Longwool is harder to spin and needs a different technique - that can be anything upto 16" - eg: Leicester, Cotswold, Wensleydale.... anything above around 4" is going to be harder to work with. Ditto, anything with a short staple length - so some of the shortwools are best avoided. Shorter breeds include Merino, Dorset Down, Southdown.
The other thing you need to know about is [/b]count[b]. Count tells you the thickness of the individual fibres. A fine, brilliant quality wool like Merino will have counts from 65-100. That's fantastic quality wool but again, tricky to learn on. Poorer wools have counts in the 30s- 40s. 30s and low 40s are also harder to learn on (coarser). Jacob's has a count of 44-56. Cheviot 50-56 - anything round about that is easier to learn on!
Hope I haven't confused you. Basically all you need is a wool with an average staple length and an average count.
I'd learn with wool then start adding in the dog hair when you have the process. A nice wool to start with is anything of a medium grade - something fine like Merino can be harder to learn with. Something like Jacob's, or Corriedale is nice. My first ever wool was Cheviot. Dog hair is slippery so harder to spin. Maybe you could try blending it in when you've got used to the whole spinning process.
Fibrecrafts and Wingham sell wool that has been washed, and is usually combed into slivers, so you don't need to do any preparation at all, just tear into strips about the width of a pencil - and spin!
You know what's worrying me is I like the beautiful Russian black bear picture MORE than I like George's pic... How sad is that!
Aw Wendy thank you! Heading straight there now... And I'm sure they're perfectly clear!
P.S: Just been and I think I get it! I'm going to try it on my first little 6" bear and if I can get it right, will then have a go on my neice's 7"
Occurs me me - making the wings is one thing. But how do you all attach them? Sew/attach some other way direct to bare bear? Or attach to a little dress?
Also occurs to me that silk papermaking has great potential. You need raw silk fibres and museum-grade silk paper-making adhesive (kind of live PVA, only it isn't...) and some plastic mesh to press the paper sheets between... 'Paper' is misleading as it has a different texture to paper - it's more like fabric.
You can embed leaves, glitter, other fibres... whatever you like in the layers. If you use museum grade adhesive, it won't degrade over time which is handy if making bears for other folk!
Here's a good source of materials/info (paper-making section):
P.S: I'm trying the angelina tomorrow! Have threaded a copper wire with tiny glass seed beads - not sure how the 2 will go together yet, though!
Normally not got round to it yet but this year have 3 'main' presents already (I have 5 lttle boys ages 4-17). And already got about half the stocking presents. For me, that's efficient! Also, got into bear-making to make them xmas bears - they all have one each but I've gone back and made the 2 youngest an 'extra' bear each as I made their's first and they were rubbish!
I bought some mohair from a bear artist recently and just last night went to look at her bears online. They were lovely bears - but I couldn't believe that she had 0 bids or just 1 bid on them, and such low starting prices. It's quite disheartening to someone like me who's just starting out bear making but has a little hope that maybe in a year or two, I might make bears of saleable quality! Could be my imagination but I think the sales on vintage teddies look much healthier.
P.S: Just occured to me... I had a bad experience last month, being outbid in the final second - and in the last 30 seconds, bids going so fast I realised someone had an automated system. My son since told me there's pirate software people are getting that bids for them in the final seconds of an auction. Put me off using ebay - and I've been on for years. Now I've read in a UK teddy magazine about the same thing happening to someone else. If other folk are having these negative experiences being outbid by folk with illegal software they too will be put off bidding. I watch far more auctions than I bid on, and currently I'm only bidding in the final few minutes, when I do, because otherwise you're racking up the cost pointlessly. Maybe that's why less folk are bidding right now?
I dunno about alpaca fabric, but as a handspinner who's worked with it, I know alpaca fibres tend to shed - as babies put everything in their mouths, might not be wise... Mohair on the other hand, if it was good quality why not? I have my old mohair bear from the 1960s and my brother's from the 50s, and the fur on them is still immaculate. (Never been washed, though!)
I'm new at bear making but understand Schulte make very high quality woven backed synthetics which presumably would be washable? Maybe wise to pre-wash the fabric before you cut it out, to make sure? Also you'd pre-empt any possible shrinkage then?
Gaby - what you said reminded me of something else. At university, I did English and chose to do most of my courses in Old English, Old Norse and Middle English. I was really lucky to learn Old Norse (the language of the vikings) for the whole 3 years. Once, our professor (who was Scots) told us we were actually speaking Old Icelandic with an 'American' accent - so we were English people, learning Old Norse with a Scots burr and an American accent!
OK In the interests of Bear Science, I did an experiment this afternoon. Dug out of the stash a tiny 10g sample size bag of angelina - and fused it as per instructions on above website. It worked!
I havent time to actually make the wings, until the weekend then will post pics - but it was easy to do (took seconds!) And the resultant 'fabric' looks like it will cut into whatever shape, and looks like it won't fray... You can also control the thickness, adding more or less. One thing worth knowing - a tiny 10g (£2/$4US) bag would be enough to do loads of wings for 10" or smaller bears...
PS: Those of you in Aus/NZ, any large fibrecraft supplier should carry angelina as you're usually ahead of the game in all things fibre! If anyone has trouble sourcing, then try the Wingham Woolworks (UK) link above as they ship all over the world. This stuff is so light, I'd guess the postage can't be too horrendous...
LOL Wendy You should see the size of my fibre stash! Worser Half can't believe I've got this new hobby with the beginnings of stash, already...
Aw thank you!
I do have needle felting supplies as I'm a handspinner. I've never got on with needle felting much, but it wouldn't be too hard to do something small. Thanks! I wouldn't have remembered I had the needles, use them so rarely!
It comes as a mass of fibres. You don't need to use glues, or anything complicated - just iron it between baking paper, and it will bond to itself. Check before you buy it's head bondable angelina, because there is heat bondable and non!
Before:
bountifulspinweave.com/angelina.htm
:lol:
And after (check out the fairy's wings!) The instructions here tell you all you need to know about using angelina. I have to say I think these wings are the prettiest I've seen:
dollmakersjourney.com/fibers.html
US people, I'd recommend Lois at Bountiful (1st link above). UK folk, I'd recommend:
