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lostbears Aug 17, 2009

What do inspire you? May be for some one it's mother nature? or masterpieces of famous artists?
As for me it's old photos, post cards. Some times comments of my customs  make me work hard and give me second wind

dangerbears Aug 17, 2009

Great question!

One thing that inspires me is my stash of beautiful fabric. I see my pieces of mohair and faux fur and they look like bears waiting to be born:)

Becky

Plum Cottage Bears Cute Animal AmbassadorAug 17, 2009

I am also inspired by my stash of mohair and synthetic.  Sometimes I "see" the bear or critter in the fur, and a design evolves.

Daphne Aug 18, 2009

Sometimes the tiniest wee little things inspire me! For example, I was digging through my grandmother's buttons the other day and found a 10mm button that had a pretty design on it and I immediately thought of a mohair I have that matches the color perfectly.... and that brought to mind the image of a wee little bear wearing something I can attach that button to!!! And so it goes...........

Melisa Nichols Aug 18, 2009

For me it's nature.... when I see an adorable baby animal in a photo or in real life, I get an irresistible urge to create it.  For the last kitten I did, my inspiration was our own kittens - our Siamese queen had a new batch and they were to sweet not to try to recreate!    Occassionally, I'm also inspired to create a more whimsical bear - that's usually inspired by seeing a faux fur, etc, that I just love.

clare14 Aug 18, 2009

For me it's anything tatty, old and dusty, a bit like me!!   :crackup:  :crackup:    I too get it with fabric, you can just see the bear come to life right off that fat quarter!   Oh and old bits of lace and trimmings too....   gosh you'll have me thinking about this for hours now..... 

lostbears Aug 18, 2009

Oh Clare you made me laugh  :crackup: !
I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes grazy about old and dusty things :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

Laurie Brady Aug 21, 2009

For me it's vintage fabrics and notions, as well as colours and textures.  I love, love,love texture - fine, soft and smooth.  Can't keep my fingers off.

Laurie

Michelle Helen Aug 23, 2009

Like Laurie, anything vintage inspires me but my bears don't turn out like I see them in my minds eye. Hopefully that will change as I evolve...

donatel Aug 23, 2009

The ideas come frequently from this that surrounds me, the interesting person, the remembered book hero, cartoon films and especially illustrations to children's books. Also I make scrapbooking and the inspirations come from nice heritage-vitage paper and fabrics.

baildon bears Oct 16, 2009

My inspiration comes from all sorts of things, but mainly my large stash of trims and fabrics, each bear inspires the next. I remember at art collage having a creative block, but finding something you completely love creating like bear making for me, I don't think I will ever run out of ideas and inspiration. I think I might explode with ideas sometimes.  Hannah

rowarrior Oct 20, 2009

For 4 of the 5 members of the 'family' I'm currently making, they were inspired by the people they're for.  My friend described the personalities of her 4 kids, and these bears will, hopefully, reflect them.  Thus I have a 'boy' bear, an emo girl, a fashionable girl, and a girly girl in the works right now.  For all of them I kind of let the fur dictate some of it, and then I slightly ran away with myself in the fabric shop for their clothes and accessories 

Pat Klein Oct 25, 2009

Hi Ladies (and lads),

I'm so glad someone picked up this thread because it has been so much on my mind lately and I have been full of what has inspired me and how inspiration EVOLVES. 

In my case, I started bear making about six months ago as a creative outlet visited upon a favorite longtime object of my interest and affection.  This evolved into a desire to perfect my craft which evolved into a desire to design my own bear which evolved into the question "what is my bear?"

That question sent me on a philosophical search for some reason because I had come to see these wonderful little faces taking form under my fingers as visible expressions of me.  I couldn't control what they looked like...they just seemed to happen.  As the venerable Spock would say, "Fascinating."

The search for "my bear" lead me through six weeks of arduous 'design' struggle.  Funny how that FIRST bear pattern is sooo hard but the subsequent patterns just won't stop. 

I turned to every fine artists' bears I could find on the web for inspiration...making special note of what I might want to build rather then what I found drop dead gorgeous....and I compiled a library of these artists.

I built my first bears....I was pleased with the prototypes.  Beginner bears.  But I couldn't move beyond them and I knew that was not where I wanted to be.  I lacked 'inspiration.'

Then an artist friend was kind enough to critique them for me and mention the anatomy of the real thing.  That triggered the next phase and the next inspiration:  Nature.  I spent a solid week studying bears.  That is what I do now...I build a bear...and it gets closer to A BEAR...and then another bear....and it is a little closer. 

I am now busily learning how to build what I call "Bear Teddies"... . 

When I studied the bears I learned so much about them, how the grizzly is endangered, the sad plight of the relocated bear, the strong and long maternal bond of bears, the amazing and unusual physiology of hibernation, and yes, color genetics (I am after all building bear suits)

I am now building what I call "Bear Teddies".  And I guess finally those two words sum up my two inspirations.

Pat, in search of the perfect bear