Designing

Today I finished designing a new pattern for a bear. The bears that I have made so far have ranged from 13 inches-15 inches and after realising this, I decided to challenge myself. So I have designed a smaller bear...and blimey - it is small! Not in the minbi-bear category at all, I imagine he/she will be around 10 inches from head to tippy toes but it will still be an interesting bear to create.

Now that I have finished designing I can get on with making the bear...oh wait, no I cant...I don't have any fur :(. However, I am not at a loss as Hugglets is fast approach (T-3 days!) and I intend to spend all of my saved money on furs, joints, eyes, filling etc. to last me at least a month. With this bear being quite small, I expect to use a smaller amount of material as well, so I may have some money left over for a small bear :)

3 days is a long time when you are itching to make a bear. So if I have the time, I will start to design my next idea so it is ready when I need it - an easter bunny. I had no idea on how to start designing a bunny, so I have been studying various bear bunnies, patterns and pictures of real bunnies to get an idea of the shape of the head. I have ideas on the rest of the bunny as well (long, big feet and short little arms, how sweet!) so it is just a case of trying to get my ideas down on paper (took me about 20 attempts to draw a leg out last night!!!)

My eyes are getting tired, I will leave my blogging for another day - probably Sunday after Hugglets although I officially start my new job on Monday so I may need an early night!!
Kelly
xxx

Edward

Hello all,

This is my new bear Edward :) Edward is a very handsome and regal chap. He is made from two types of mohair including a swirly beige and a chocolate brown. His nose is hand emrboidered and his eyes are black glass complete with white eye felting and a black outline giving him that adorable 'who, me?' look. He is sporting a ribbon made from yellow and green giving him a somewhat spring/easter theme to his overall look. He is a very proud and handsome bear and would love a forever home.

He is up on bearpile, the link is to the left of my blog so please feel free to take a look. Here are some piccies of him :)

Kelly
xxx

Bearpile!

Hello all,

I have finally jumped straight in the deep end and become a member of bearpile, so Romeo is on there for sale :)

http://www.bearpile.com/detail.cgi?id=1521&item=42646

I have just ordered some more mohair for my next bear.

Looking forwards to tomorrow night, Charlie bears are on QVC at midnight and I will hopefully be up watching the show. I will miss all other shows on Monday as I start my new job and then going out for V-day - but it saves me a bit of money I guess ;)

Kelly
xxx

Making the head

As promised, I am posting some pictures of how I created Romeo's head. Please note, the techniques will differ from artist to artist :)

 After sewing, the head needs to be firmly stuffed. And I mean firmly stuffed or the nose caves in (this happened to me once, poor bear is still unfinished :( )

 Here is the opening of the head at the bottom. I have stuffed it but left a little room for the joint.

 To close up the head, I use strong sailors twine. I stitch around the opening before I put the joint in.

 As you can see, the joint is in. I then pull very very firmly on the twine to close the seam (its hurts sometimes).

 After pulling on the twine, I use a sailors know where you simply tie the twine together twice and snip off the loose tails.

 After this, i position the ears using some pinms and use a measuring tape to ensure that they are in the right place. I use a long needle and a curved needle to sew the ears on using ladder stitch.

 Now here comes the tricky bit! I do an underlayer for the nose (it is a tad scruffy as you can see) and then create the mouth again using pins so I can experiment with the placement and expression.

 After creating the mouth, I spend time on the top layer of the nose, using the backing of the mohair to help create straight lines.

When the nose is complete, I use more pins to position the eyes. I then take the eye, use more whipping twine and attach the eyes using a long needle and brutal force! Only joking, just some force lol!!!With this bear, I used eye whites to create a cute but sad look and just put them on before attaching the eyes. And there you have it, Romeo's head was completed. It was then the simple case of jointing the head to the body, stuffing and closing up the back seam. He had a tidy up and his accessories were added and he was complete :)

Hope this gives you a little idea of how I create the heads. Sometimes, I leave the ears til last, I just wanted a change this time lol!

Kelly

xxx

Romeo

I would like to introduce you to the first ever Keli-B bear Romeo!

He was created from a swirly golden mohair and a shorter dark brown mohair to create his muzzle and ears. From ears to tippy toes he measures around 14.5 inches. He is stuffed with heavy polyester stuffing and has some steel shot in his belly for added weight. He has an embroidered nose, and glass eyes complete with eye felt and a little outlining. His paw pads and foot pads are created in ultrasuede material. He is themed around Valentines day which is less than a week away and I just hope he can become someone's valentine before then!!! He is a OOAK 1/1 bear and comes with his signed swing tag.

He is up for sale at £67.99. I charge £6.00 for p+p in the UK. That is for first class, recorded delivery. If you would like to adopt him, please let me know :)

Kelly
xxx

Tick Tock

My current bear is going slowly. I am sooooooo close to finishing but because I lack a revolving punch plier tool, I cant create the eye felting so I cant attach the eyes :( I dont have far to go, just sew the body up and joint the bear and once the tool arrives, the bear will be finished =D He (im sure he will be a boy...) will be themed around valentines day, I bought some ribbon and some buttons for him and I think they will suit him well :)

Lots of excitement today! The Charlie bear catalogue was released and although I haven't recieved mine yet, I was still able to see the pictures through somebody else. Now, I decided that I wouldnt buy any more plush bears. Well, that went out the window, as I now have three on order. There are two other bears that I ordered but I wanted them anyway as I collect the Charlie year bears and the William plush bears. The other three are rabbits and I LOVE rabbit bears so they are allowed too lol!!!

Current bear will be up on here asap and will be for sale!
Thanks for reading :)
Kelly
xxx