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Back Road BearsI know I'm the Schulte Mohair Queen BUT.....
I've had this urge recently to try some really fun synthetics. Some of you here have had a huge influence as your synthetic bears are so gorgeous!!!
So, I'm wondering if any of you have a favorite type, source/supplier, color.......
???
Apple Dumpling DesignsOooh...I love this question, Daphne. I too have wondered that same thing. I absolutely and GREEN with envy at some of the wonderful scissor sculpting that goes on around here and I've got itchy fingers to try it myself.
JeannieB BearsHi Daphne,
I'm not the most experienced....as in I have made two faux fur bears...but, I got the fur from our very own Bear Bottoms Originals. Kimberly has several types available on e-bay. Both of my bears;Raisin and Prune, are on the TT showcase section. One is ginger teddy bear fur,the other is red fox faux fur. It has a suede type backing and stood up to all the abuse a first time bear maker can dish out! Not a drop of fray stop was needed!!
JeannieB 
I really like the synthetics Kimberly has as well...just note with the thicker back it is a different experience than mohair, I found using leather hand sewing needles made it seem like butter though!!!
Kimberly has a great selection, and the longer the pile, the more you have to work with to scissor sculpt those puffy cheeks....watch out if you go other places and buy synthetics though keep away from the loosley wovem knit backs or you will pull your hair out with frustration...although with a bit of fray check before you cut out it does get rid of some of the fraying, although with the cheap synthetic you do get stretching and distortion....
I would say order a piece from Kimberly and give it a go...she is very affordable and you don't need to buy a bunch, just get a 1/4 and try your hand with it!!! You can find her in the vendors section, or click her eBay link in her profile she has a store up and running.
Hope this helps
Hugs,
Krista
Back Road BearsThanks, Krista, it helps heaps!
I've used some of the cheap stuff and got rather fustrated with the whole process!
I'm off to see what Kimberly has!
Stephanie at sassy's has Beeeeeeeautiful fur and not just for minis either. check out the imported fur section of her site - some of it is half an inch long and thick and lovely. The colours are simply scrumptious
oh and if you do have fur that stretches, she has the magic fabric fixer stuff that you paint on the back to stop it stretching. It totally works, I used it on some mini fabric that was super stretchy and the whole thing firmed right up.
Canna Bear PaintUhhhhhh. Schulte. Yup. Schulte synthetics. Lovely stuff. I'm working on a bear right now that is made out of their 1" velveteen, and it's dreamy soft, thick and glossy. Someone will need to use a crowbar to get this bear out of my arms and onto a sales table in the fall <sigh>. Some of my favorite bears of all times have been made with their synthetics, including one of my own that I kept (gave him to myself for Christmas last year!) and one that I swiped from my mother as she was putting the finishing touches on. Yup, it's going to be hard to give up this new one and all I have sewn together so far is the head and ears!!!!
Cheers,
Kelly
Jellybelly BearsI love the Kogee stuff from beary cheap...am I allowed to say that 
The razzle and moccasin and all the other oh so soft furs...beautiful!!!!!! and they keep bringing in more. I think when you go with synthetic you need to make sure its quality stuff. Never tried schulte before as the range here in aus isn't as big from our schulte supplier.
I think I will try out Stephanie's for that backing stuff!!! thank you Melissa for posting that, I as well have some razzle and plush from Beary Cheap, I love the look and feel of it, but when you try to use it, It frays all to bits and stretches even as you draw your pattern on it....I used fray check on the seams before cutting out, but that only helped the fraying not the stretching....
If you are looking for something to sculpt Daphne, depending on the size of your bear, I would get at least an inch long dense synthetic. works great for sculpting, and plenty of room to start long and gradually go shorter, as opposed to having a shorter pile and only really having one option for cheek puffiness!!!
Hugs,
Krista
Daphne, I have limited experience with synthetics but have made maybe ten bears with them, in my earlier days. I love the denseness of the higher quality ones but be cautious about buying anything, even something gorgeous with really dense, shiny fur, that has a thick faux-suede or faux-leather backing. It doesn't stretch (perfect!) and it looks great inside out and can be used for paws (perfect!) but it's an absolute BUGGER to sew... maybe worse than thick leather or real fur pelts.
I have a short stack of synthetics I'm waiting for "just the right inspiration" to use. One in particular, a kinda wavy yellow/cream one, I bought at BRITEX in San Francisco. No brand name, but it's just dying to be put onto a huge bear.
See, now you've got me all excited!
I do admit that I'm a total mohair addict. I love the look and feel of it, and the way it harkens back to traditional bears (which mine are NOT.) And I love how it produces a product that just screams "high quality" simply due to use of materials. Who doesn't love what is basically a cashmere teddy?
Terries BearsI buy most of my fur from either Discojoints http://www.discojoints.on.ca/ or Bears & Bedtime http://www.bearsandbedtime.com/ . I have been really pleased with everything that I have bought from both of these places. I also get some fur from a local fabric store but like everyone says be sure to watch the quality. It needs to be dense so that the backing doesn't show through and it needs to feel good. I find that the silky feeling fus are much nicer to work with. If I find a fabric has too mcuh stretch to it, I use iron on interfacing and then there is no stretch at all.
:doh:
Shelli,
This drives me crazy, synthetic can be VERY high quality! I use synthetic because it sculptures very well and it has the softness I require for my cats and kittens. Mohair just can't duplicate this softness, it's after all, goat hair! Mohair was the only material available when teddy bears were first invented. I imagine if designers had had other furs available to them they would have jumped at the chance?! Anyway, I use very high quality synthetic and it's easily as expensive as mohair and getting even more rare as the major high quality producer of Belgium Plush has closed it's factory
Karen
KJ Lyons Design
Oh, gosh... please don't misread me, Karen. I think you misunderstood me, or perhaps I spoke clumsily. Of course I know that synthetic can be incredibly high quality and lush, lush, lush! The good stuff is priced as high as, or sometimes higher than, even the densest mohairs! And it's just beautiful and of course bespeaks a quality product. I mentioned having a short stack of my own high-quality synthetic -- which, as you know, you can't just buy "anywhere" -- waiting to be put to good use when the right project comes along. I think it's wonderful stuff!
I was more talking about me and MY work with MY bears specifically ... about how, since my own teddies tend toward the contemporary, it's nice for me, psychologically, to connect my work to the more traditional, foundational aspects of bearmaking.
And I was musing further that it's just nice to imagine cuddling a "cashmere" stuffie.
I adore your work and believe that synthetics can very MUCH be put to fantastic use in soft sculpting. Your cats are but one example of that. Jenny Johnson makes supremely gorgeous bears that, because of their extensive scissor sculpting, scream out for synthetic plush. And some of Michelle Lamb's sweetest work has been executed on synthetics.
Please forgive me if I somehow communicated a bias AGAINST synthetic. I was trying to communicate a personal inclination TOWARD mohair... and not the opposite.
My apologies.
:hug:
Shelli,
No offense, I know you would never start a mohair/synthetic war. I just wanted to let everyone know that synthetic does not mean a piece is of a lower quality.
Karen
Canna Bear PaintI do admit that I'm a total mohair addict. ...
And I love how it produces a product that just screams "high quality" simply due to use of materials.
Uh, Shelli. I'm thinking perhaps your statement above might not have come out quite as intended, you don't normally shoot people down like that. But, I must express my disagreement with it as written. Quality synthetics ARE high quality, as Karen points out above. They are in no way in the same class as inferior grade synthetics, but they ARE in line with quality mohair or alpaca. I could also point out that mohair comes in a WIDE range of quality as well, I think we all know that. Yes, there's really bad mohair out there.
If I were given an option between using a high quality synthetic or a mohair, my decision would be based upon what attributes I wanted for that particular creation, NOT by what the material itself was made out of.
I could also point out that Michelle Lamb, whom I know you think very highly of, makes A LOT of synthetic bears. Would you tell her that these are inherently inferior to her mohair bears?
Best wishes,
Kelly
Canna Bear PaintOK, I must be typing slow today. Two other posts were made while I was typing that last one 
Cheers,
Kelly
I know you would never start a mohair/synthetic war. I just wanted to let everyone know that synthetic does not mean a piece is of a lower quality.
Of course it doesn't!!!
And thank you for allowing me to clarify my position and hopefully at the same time, solidify and validate and back up yours.
Your cats are to die for and about as quality a product as one could find in this soft-sculpture niche of ours.
:hug: right back atcha, girly.
Tissavel synthetics are fabulous. They have a really strong woven back and are a dream to work with. There is no stretch and you don't have to line them with interfacng.
They are a little pricey but well worth the money.
Jane
Wow, did I apparently push a hot button, entirely inadvertently, simply by typing too few words of explanation... or what???
I'm not trying to start a synthetic/mohair war!!!!
I love them both, which I thought I said in my first post.
I tried to say that. Thought I did, cause I mentioned having a stack of synthetic I was waiting to use, myself.
Of course I wouldn't shoot anyone down for their choice of materials, or any other choice for that matter. Thanks for knowing that about me, Kelly. You're right -- That's not me! That's not how I think and not how I act! Especially about something creative, where original thought is so important and trying different approaches is so critical to advancing the "art" of what it is we do.
Sorry again, to Kelly this time, for clumsy wording and/or too few words of explanation.
As we've seen so many times on this forum, the message intended is not always the message received. That outcome can be entirely the fault of the message sender. In this case, obviously I spoke not what I meant, but like a stoned waterbuffalo. Or something like that!
Keep in mind, though, that the message RECEIVER also sometimes plays a part in how things are interpreted.
Case in point ...
If I said, "I really love PLATINUM jewelry; to me, the material alone suggests high quality" what that might mean is that, "I really love PLATINUM jewelry; to me, the material alone reflects high quality."
It would NOT be accurate to interpret that statement as, "I really love PLATINUM jewelry, because obviously, every other material is total crap."
Just food for thought...
Oh PLEASE!! 
Let it be PEACE!!
Bear hugs and Golly smiles.
Gladys
Shelli,
Don't feel bad!! You've got the forum active again :clap:
Karen
Ha! True, true...
You know, sometimes I wish we could just sit down together, coffee-klatch style, and you know... shoot the sh*t about bears and life and schtuff, over mochas. I think we'd all see one another so much more clearly. Maybe some, we'd like BETTER in person... and some, less so. But at least we'd have those clues and hints about tone and intent and MEANING that are so lacking in the internet environment, where it all falls to INTERPRETATION instead.
In this case I see how something I typed, totally without a thought in the world that it would be taken the way it was, started igniting people into furious-fingered typing action! I'm just glad I could explain myself and nip it in the bud. NO SYNTHETIC/MOHAIR WARS!!! They're both just fantastic materials for bearmaking.
And now, because of all of this, I will have to just go and make my next project out of that synthetic I was talking about, just to get ENTIRELY and DIRECTLY on board with my synthetic sisters on this subject!!!
So there!!!
Posts: 1,836I have a short stack of synthetics I'm waiting for "just the right inspiration" to use.
See, now you've got me all excited!
Gotcha totally
All the talk of plush made me pull out a piece I got a long time ago...I started working with it last night..all excited to try something different from my "norm". :dance:
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:hug:
~Chrissi
Shelli,
I know EVERYTHING about synthetic. I have been working with it for 20 years. If you come up against any problems with your experiment, please call me ;-)
Karen
HURRAY!!!! :clap: [size=0][/size]
Peace!! 
Hugs and smiles
Gladys
