Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Beautiful girls!!! Their outfits suit them well, especially Matilda with her little sea horse   

Thank you Pauline I appreciate your kind words!  :hug:

Thank you Susana for the kind comments    they mean a lot to me!!

Thank you Becky!! I am glad that you like him  one of them will be traveling to Wisconsin on Monday  :dance: !

:d

Hello everyone!!! Please meet my newest teddy, a golden bear made of imported 3/8" synthetic! This little guy is a tad under 5 inches sitting, and he is filled with polyfill and weights to give him that big grizzly feel! I took a lot of time to scissor sculpt the details on his face, as well as craft him a shiny black nose made of clay. He is 5 way jointed and has black leather paw pads that were then pulled to make little toes. Its been so much fun creating this guy, and he will be the last bear of the summer for me, it's time to get back and focus again on school work. Him and his little brother "Beddy Teddy" will be heading off to their new homes this week; I will miss having all of the bears I made around but each one has been a great learning experience I will never let go of. I hope you enjoy him as much as I have! There are more pictures on my blog http://heidisbears.blogspot.com/ if you are interested  .
      Best wishes!

I love your pandas!!! You put so much detail into them! He is absolutely adorable    :clap:

Very cute!!!   

He looks so sweet!     

Great bear!! I love his colors, and his name fits him perfectly! :dance:

Happiness is when you find the eye that rolled off the desk. 

Very cute!! I love his eyes!   

Very pretty kitty!!       

Very cute little bear!!     

Lovely bear!!    the long fur and paw pads were definitely an excellent touch! He looks just like a real bear yet still so soft and cuddly too  .

Wow!! So much personality in this bear!!!  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

very cute! and the muzzle looks great by the way!    

WOW what a beautiful creation... I love the mane and tail, and the coloring on the hooves!

such an impressive cub! she looks so alive    , love her sweet little face ... you have done an amazing job!! :clap:  :dance:

So sweet !!!  i love all of the little details!!!!   

Thank you for the wonderful insight 

I agree with you Lenora that teddy bears have come a long way... but I think there might be several factors contributing to their change in appearance. The first I think being that we now have more resources available to us, back then when Margarete Steiff was making them she was probably was the only teddy bear maker of her time with perhaps a handful of other artists. This leads to the next thing which caused change which would be the internet... imagine with no teddy talk, no one organizing shows, no contact with other bear makers, peoples skills would have probably not developed nearly as much... or changed so drastically. Skills like pulled toes, sculpting noses, needle sculpting, shading, and probably many more I am missing do not seem to be apparent in the earlier bears.. I think that there ARE still quality bears out there though. When I compare my bears to this Steiff I notice similar shapes, the arm and leg shape looks nearly identical to my own, just that she did not put in paw pads but just sewed the feet up which gave the elf looking feet perhaps... and the embroidered mouth looks all to familiar as well. I think that many artists have taken time to learn their craft, and are dedicated to making good quality bears that will last generations... we just have not seen them age so beautifully as the Steiffs and Deans because we have not given them the time. Most likely too certain techniques have become "fads" but these details may be just what marks our generations.. the internet has probably helped there too, if one artist sees a bear online that they like or detail they may try to mimic it in their own work.

I was looking at the dog carefully and noticed a small hole , i can see that hes filled with what looks like wood shavings. If hes not a Steiff I wonder what he could be. The rabbit also has a bell inside it , he jingles when you move him.

Thanks Becky for the information! I found a similar looking bear on an ebay auction and indeed it says he is from the 1950's!

http://compare.ebay.com/like/3207076410 … r&_lwgsi=y

The tag is so faded... I think it says 432 but I can't really be certain, my eyes might just be playing tricks on me. The button definitely says Steiff though. I wonder what the numbers mean?

Here are two other animals which my great grandmother gave me, she says they are steiff but they do not have the button in the ears which makes me wonder. they have the same feel though and im pretty sure are made of the same exact material as the bear.