Farewell to 2014

The end of last year was super busy for me! So many awesome things such as new contacts made and bears sold. Even a wonderful challenge to start my new year. I have never made a Red Panda and the challenge from a really awesome seller on Etsy has made the start of my year wonderful, interesting and is changing the whole direction I was planning to start my year in, I am so grateful to her! I also bought a pair of her finger less gloves. She does the most amazing quality work with such fabulous attention to detail!
Check her out at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheCozyQ

I also had quite an emotional lead up to Christmas. For the last year my neighbor has been talking to me about making a bunny for his wife for Christmas. This November he passed away unexpectedly. I felt such an urge to make her this bunny. I am pleased at how she turned out, but I did have to ask another neighbor to come deliver it with me as I knew I was going to cry.

As we delivered the Bunny to her, we heard her grandson was in hospital and expected to be there possibly for Christmas. Again I felt I had to do something for this wonderful family. This is the bear I made him so he would have company while he could not be with his family.

Here is a gift/project I have been working on that has no fur- yup- no fur! E's teacher at school is expecting her first bundle of joy in March. I decided, along with E that we needed to make her something and we decided on a new item just for the baby. Since I am practical, I made a change mat and I am planning in time to make a matching diaper bag. We loved the hot air balloons and since it is a boy- blue seemed appropriate. Very colorful!

More sculpting in Polymer Clay

E and I have been working hard together to do some sculpting. We started with a wooden spoon as a base to the head, Sculpey clay and polyglass eyes. We followed along the instructions provided by sculpt university to make a witch.

http://www.makingfairies.com/collections/tutorials

I love this lady's work and her tutorials are so much fun!

Spoon head doll

You can see the base of the wooden spoon sticking out the bottom. Yes these heads are large! We still have to paint the face with heat set genesis paint and add ears. The back of the head will be built up from padding and fabric. Then onto hands, feet and armature. I was really impressed with E's one. She has done a fabulous job in creating the head. Mine is on the right. Not bad for a kid!

We are also planning her next birthday party. This year we will be doing an "Ever After High" theme. This is so new that there is not a lot out there. Thank goodness for Pinterest. We decided to play on the fairytale theme. Our craft is going to be a small terrarium with a mushroom house. The ladies will add sand, rock, moss and a few mushrooms (Polymer clay) and a mushroom house.

We will have a sit down dinner, so we have kept the number invited very small. A game of freeze tag- red riding hood and wolf style, some smores and a great movie... The sleepover has all been planned out by E and she is very excited: )

Sculpting another tooth fairy

The last couple of weeks saw me sculpting again : ) I was asked to make 2 tooth fairies and I finally have one done. The other will be a girl tooth fairy. Again the idea is an old grizzled fairy that has seen everything in his life, but now has found a dental crown under the pillow and he is not sure what to make of it - as it looks so real.

I get my "teeth" from a dental company that produces a laser CAD CAM system and these are the try out crowns to test the system. Some look so perfect!!

He has been sculpted over an aluminum wire frame. The hands, feet and face are Sculpey Polymer Clay and his eyes are black glass beads. The hair is a scrap of faux fur in arctic white.

I love to wrap the body in dyed cheesecloth and then build layers over that in felt. I use cotton embroidery thread to add my stitching and finishing details. Hot glue is fabulous for holding things in place so I can stitch better. His wings are Angelina Fiber that has been ironed over a wire frame. I used a incense stick to make the holes.

He has gone on to his new home and has been well received.

Taking a break from Bears

I love making bears but every now and then it is good to take a break. This last week I have started an online class in wire wrapping! Something I have always wanted to try. Craftsy has some really wonderful classes and I am finding it easy to follow and the user interface suits me just fine.

I have almost made one pair of earrings : ) I want to wrap more pearls on. If you want to take an online craft class in sewing, jewelry, knitting or embroidery have a look at what they offer. I am also starting to list my patterns for sale on their site. Have a look at www.craftsy.com. I get no kick back for that- I just think this is awesome and wondering if there needs to be a bear making class....

Of course I cannot take a full break from the sewing machine ; )  I made some small dogs and there are two needle felted faced bears happening. I also listed a new pattern on both Etsy and Caftsy. My Little Deer:

Little Deer Softie Pattern

Chihuahua

Jack Russell Terrier

Bull Terrier

My small dogs are about 4 inches high and while some sewing is done on the machine most is done by hand. I enjoy making these small guys and I think the Bull terrier is my best seller ; )

Washing faux fur

Polyester faux fur has a great advantage. It can be machine washed! I make a lot of bears out of high quality faux fur that is polyester rather than acrylic. I look for North American polyester faux fur with a good quality and with a tight knitted back. I decided to take four samples and test them out.

 

Polyester and acrylic fur before wash

I chose four of the most used of my furs. From the top left going clockwise I have: a Wolf: black base with white guard hair, Desert Fox Gold: dark brown base with gold fur tips, chocolate luxury shag fur and Spotted wolf: brown with tan spots. I bought all of them from Fabric.com

https://www.fabric.com/buy/0317412/faux-fur-wolf-brown-black
https://www.fabric.com/buy/0260757/faux-fur-desert-fox-gold
https://www.fabric.com/buy/dt-030/faux-fur-spotted-wolf-brown-beige?cm_vc=756b1813-cbc1-43b3-84bd-29889bf8fb7b
https://www.fabric.com/buy/bu-292/faux-fur-luxury-shag-brown?cm_vc=756b1813-cbc1-43b3-84bd-29889bf8fb7b

The samples were placed into an old pillow slip that I could seal shut. More to protect my washer from loose fur than to protect the fur. I think it is a great idea that if you want to wash a teddy, that you place him in an old pillow case and seal him in it to help protect him.

Old pillow case to wash fur in.

I placed the pillow slip straight into the washing machine. I have a front loader so it is more gentle on the washing cycle than a top loader with an agitator. I set the machine to normal wash, cold wash and cold rinse and added the HE cold wash type of washing detergent. HE means basically High Efficiency so you do not need much. The cold wash and cold rinse I felt to be important as faux fur does not like heat. The machine went through the normal wash and rinse cycle of about 58 minutes.

Faux fur straight from washing machine

As soon as the wash was done I removed my pillow case and had a look at the fur. Very bedraggled but still intact. I shook them out and placed them in a sunny spot to dry. Just look how bedraggled the chocolate fur was !

After a couple of hours I checked them. They were dry so I brushed them and voila:

Dry and brushed faux fur

They washed beautifully and were not damaged in the process. You cannot tumble dry faux fur! It will melt at that temperature. Just remember a beloved bear may need more than a couple of hours for the stuffing and fur to dry. That is my next challenge- wash a full bear. I do believe that if he is placed on a towel, in the sun, to soak up the rays for a while (turning over of course) that he will be fine. Just remember though- safety joints can be washed, Hardboard and cotter pin joints cannot be washed as the wood will swell and deteriorate. If you are not sure how your bear was assembled then do not risk loosing a loved creation. Just surface wash. I found Build-a-Bear has a great solution you can spray on and wipe off to clean a faux fur friend.

I also finally listed my mohair bear:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/208026595/mohair-artist-bear-cream-s-finish-fully?

Have a look and tell me what you think!

Mohair bear almost finished

The mohair bear is shaping up nicely. There have been some design changes along the way but I am happy with that. Sometimes what we start out to do, is not quite what we have when we finish, but that is okay. I still struggle a bit with the fear of maybe I should have done something else, or fear of trying something new.

I started with a honey colored glass eye- solid eye color and not painted on. I added a wool felt disc behind the eye to keep it's color from being changed. I added the usual waxed linen to the loop on the back.


Eye with white felt backing



Thread on back of eye

I now make a hole with my awl for the eye, in the head in the preselected places- where the test eyes are. Remove that test eye carefully so you do not loose the place! Otherwise you are starting over with the eyes placement.

Making a hole for eye loops to fit in

Eye in place

My problem here was that the eye was so close in color to the bear, that what I thought might be a elegant look actually was kind of scary. I decided good old black glass eyes would be better.

 

I have now added plain black eyes and a Sculpey polymer clay nose. The nose was sculpted from black sculpey and baked. Once cool I fitted it to the bears head. I could see it was not perfect so I sanded it a bit. That is why it looks gray. Oh- I add a copper wire loop to the back of the nose before I bake it. The waxed linen is threaded through the back of the nose just like the eyes. This loop was so set into the curve of the nose that I did not need to make a hole in the nose area for the loop.

Nose being sanded to perfect shape.

After the nose has been sanded to my happiness (never a perfect shape by the way). I will wipe it down with a wet baby wipe to remove dust. And add a spot of glue behind it to keep it in place.
Since the glue is out I add my eyelids. I have used strips of suede leather that are cut to length- just a bit longer that the eye is wide. I use the awl to make a hole just big enough to fit the leather through, at each point of the eye I want the eyelid bottom to sit at. I add a drop of glue to the hole and push the eyelid in- a pair of tweezers really helps. I let that dry. I now make another hole on the other side of the eye for the other end of the suede strip. I add glue to the hole and to the very top of the eye. I push the leather strip into the hole and when it is about the right length I carefully fold it up to touch the top of the eye. I use glass head pins to help hold it in place until the glue is dry. Make sure you do not get a pin in the glue as it will glue in place!

Eyelid in place, still using white wool discs as they are great eye whites

 Once the glue for the nose is dry we glaze the nose. Sometimes the sanded, rough looking nose is just perfect and I will leave it, but this guy needed a wet nose. A good paintbrush and Satin finish glaze is my preference here. You can get glossy finish or matt finish.

Satin glaze for polymer clay

Glaze on nose- it will dry Satin

I now walk away from the bear to make sure everything dries properly. If I am going to cut another bear I will move him away from the work area so no fur gets stuck to his wet nose. I decided to make him a school boy bear. He will have navy shorts and peak hat, a red tie and a white cotton shirt. I now draw up those patterns and get sewing...

Foot done with puffy toes. Still my favorite way to do feet.

The toes were done just before I glazed his nose. That can be done at any time really. Even before the leg is in place if that is easier to sew.














Making a Mohair Bear part -whatever is next

I think I said in the last post that this bear was shaping up to be a girl. I am not so sure anymore! As the bear progresses a life of its own is taking shape. He is starting to behave like a scruffy school boy!!

I have now turned all the parts and started to carefully stuff the bear. I am using a silky Polyfil Premium blend. Small bits at a time is the secret to a great and even stuffing. Large wads are hard to control and you could end up with a lumpy bear. Unless you want one of course...

Arm wood disc and cotter pin- the one that came out- read on....

As I fill the arm at some point I need to stop and place in a joint for the bear. I decided since I was using mohair which is kind of traditional for bears, that I would use hardwood discs, washers and split pin/cotter pins as they strike me as being kind of traditional too. I did not go so far as to stuff the bear with wood shavings though. I use my awl to make a small hole at the location I marked in the arm and cover that hole with a drop of fray check. I do not want it getting larger. First I place the split pin/cotter pin through the metal washer and then through the wood disc. I now insert that whole lot into the bears limb with the cotter pin poking out of the hole I made. I finish stuffing the limb to how I want it to feel. I went for a softer feel on this one. My next step is to then carefully sew the limb shut using ladder stitch.  Once I have all the arms and legs done, I stuff the head. I stuffed the head to a really firm finish. Again using small amounts of Polyfil and working from the nose to the back of the head. After the head is stuffed, I put in the joint system and sew the neck opening shut. When I joint the limbs and head to the body, I will put the ends of the cotter pin through a wood disc and metal washer on the inside of the body. I fold the ends of the cotter pin into a loop to keep the limb attached to the body.

I had an interesting challenge on the jointing the limbs to the body. I followed my usual order of assembly: Head, Legs and then the Arms. I was putting the final arm joint in place and as I went to fold the split pin over- the other arm fell off!!! I have never had that happen before and had to put the bear down and walk away for a bit. I was not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. I had obviously over tightened the split pin/ cotter pin and the round head shape of the pin collapsed, allowing the whole cotter pin to pull through the washer and come put of the arm. The only remedy here is to find your seam that you hand stitched shut, open it and replace the cotter pin. Once the arm is ready we try to assemble it again. Maybe next time I will leave the seams open and only sew them shut after I have assembled the arms and legs to the body?

I finally have a head and limbs attached so now I can stuff the body...

Body finished and now to the face...

He is now stuffed and sewn shut. Once my bear is at this stage I start to get a feel for how I want it to look. Another challenge I have found that I am not used to is that I can see the seams. With my normal plushy faux fur- I am hunting for seams by feel. I think this makes sewing with mohair one fabric where you must sew totally accurately. I also used a small stitch length so that if I did a hard feeling stuffed body the stitches would not be obvious. Glad I did that.

Seams are visible under the mohair

I normally do the eyes totally finished and in place before I add ears, but this time I chose an eye placement and sewed on the ears. I use a soft chalk pastel, well ground up and applied with a make up brush to add a touch of color to the ultra suede. Then ladder stitch the base of the ear closed.

Ear ladder stitched shut and pastel color added

I pinned the ears in several places before deciding on where they would end up. I also used my test eyes to see the size and placement I wanted. 

Ears sewn in place and test eyes to show size and placement

I have the ears in place and eye size chosen. I am looking at a cheeky boy here now. Not a girl which I first thought. I want to use a colored glass eye- a pale yellow topaz so I am going to create a whites of the eyes look with leather eyelids. Well- that is the plan right now- he may disagree : )