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For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
Stop complaining in warm pleasant England. Come to Sweden to know what's dark and cold. :twisted: I think all of Europe has daylight saving time in summer and will turn the clocks back on Sunday. I can't wait for that to happen, because I hate it when the mornings are dark. I liked it a lot better before, when they turned the clock at the end of September. Ah, well, soon it will be dark both mornings and evenings, in December 6 hours of light (or not if its cloudy). I'd swap with an English gal to get to go to a warmer climate 
:doh:
Sabine - getting out the down coat 
End of Feb is great for me. I will gladly ship internationally.
Oh, I'm so excited about this. Thank you Susan for organizing it. :thumbsup:
Good idea to start a new thread :clap:
Sabine
Matilda, I would love a bear from you and like you I would be honoured to have anyone's bear.:love:
Regarding time, I thought the original suggestion was February? I was just thinking that with Xmas mail volumes we may have to finish our bear in November if we want to make sure it arrives in time for Xmas. I am not sure I could make a bear that soon. My Xmas vacation would be ideal to be sewing.
:hug:
Sabine 
I would really love to be in this swap if I may, please. I'm not a professional artist, but I have my own patterns and would like to use one of them. If I have time until next year I'll be able to do it. My only request is that I don't want to make a really large bear. I am not sure what would be my limit, but I mostly make bears 3-10 inches. I have never weighed my bears, but I would like to keep it under 1kg including packing material, because the cheapest parcel postage from Sweden is about $30. Besides that, I'll ship anywhere. I like gollies, but I would prefer a bear, because this is my first swap and I don't have a single bear made by anyone else. I am not picky, no request on fabric quality or colour, panda, koala, regular bear, I'd be happy with whatever my swap partner decides to make.
I hope, someone here will accept getting a bear from me.
Hugs
Sabine
Musquash is the British term for muskrat. It's beautiful soft dense fur from a semi-aquatic mammal. Like mink, but longer and with fewer guardhairs.
Sabine
Winney, Nancy describes an applique method of glueing and sewing the eye patches on. In her book on real fur bears it is described in more detail, but she suggests this method also in her other book (101 bears) without reference to material, so I believe she uses it with all materials.
Helena I used rabbit fur, not mohair. Definitely not easier than mohair and time consuming, but oh soooo lovely :love:
Sabine
Thank so much you Helena. I forgot to mention that this is rabbit fur. Real fur hides the glued on pieces really well and the leather back was very thin in this case.
It is a prototype to test my new pattern before I cut my hard-won black and white mink furs. Arms and legs are bent, but I think I will change the arms somewhat. they are supposed to hold a bamboo stick, but don't really reach across the belly :D
Sabine
Heather, how is your panda coming along? Mine is finished. I tried to sew on eye patches with backing fabric, but my panda is only about 5 in sitting and the eye patches proved too small for that method. Also, the fur on the upper edge pointed upwards on my test piece and I didn't like that. I did Nancy's method of cutting the white fur where the patch is going and glueing the patch on. Worked nicely.
Sabine
Long pile upholstery has longer "hairs" than other pile types. Mini bear artists refer to long pile when they mean a certain type of fabric which was manufactured by Malden mills. It is no longer made (I think the factory burned down), but is often offered on ebay in pieces of 9x9 inches for quite high prices. One seller id that comes to mind is bearytail. She has some current auctions still running and has been offering pieces of vintage long pile for some time. Search for long pile upholstery or vintage long pile velvet. It has a white grid backing, which prevents it from fraying. With this fabric, bears of 2-3 inches look furry like a bigger bear. The shorter pile velvets don't give this effect, but are nice in themselves.
By the way, Emily Farmer has some nice cashmere type long pile fabric on ebay and Berta Hesen-Minten has some modern long pile upholstery and micro-fiber fabrics. Try http://www.threadteds.com/ under shop link and then fabrics and sale links.
Sabine
Carolyn, so sorry about your cat. I am allergic to cats and can't have any, but I still love them. I had to have a horse put down in '88 and I still think about him with joy and some sadness. 
Your memories will keep her alive.
Hugs
Sabine
I didn't even notice that your bears lack mouths. It works for them so why change a winning concept? Now I have to try one without mouth That way they can't talk back at you, hah :P
Sabine
Judi - so glad to hear it worked out so well. You must be so relieve. Funny story now in hindsight, thanks for sharing. Of course we always wait impatiently to hear how things like this work out in the end. :)
Marie - sounds like a lot of work. I hope it works out soon.
Hugs
Sabine
Jenn, if this is your first attempt at crocheting a bear, mohair may not be the best choice. Its fuzziness makes the stitches difficult to see. I have some experience with crochet bears. Just holler if you need help. There are also several Yahoo groups for thread animal making with lots of helpful people and some of the top artists of that branch of bear making.
Have fun!
Sabine
Hi Heather,
not to badger you, but because you asked for it. Here's my attempt at scaring you into staying quit 
and I had to gather my courage to do it.
Smoking causes cancer and high blood pressure.
Kissing a smoker is like kissing an ashtray.
A smoker has a bad sense of smell, but smells disgusting to anyone near.
Your skin ages faster, your teeth turn yellow.
Miscarriages are more common in smokers and babies are often born too soon and underweight.
But worse of all is that smokers harm everybody around them through the effects of second hand smoke. My grandmother died of lung cancer after a lifetime in the company of a cigar smoker. My father got severe breathing problems from smoking co-workers and has to medicate. That's similar to physical abuse.
I wish you the strength to beat this addiction. Good luck! 
Sabine
You just felt the pieces onto the mohair. I'm sure Judi can explain that better, but basically you poke your needle into the bear through wool and fabric until it sits as you want it.
I use string jointing for felted bears.
Cheers
Sabine
I just love this gorgeous bear! I hope he sells quickly. Can't afford to buy him myself :(. Thanks for sharing.
Sabine
Gina, sorry about your bad experience. Just a few tips from my personal experience. Always ask about odor before you bid. Buy furs meant for wearing. If you buy craft cutters ask lots of questions so that you can request a return if the fur turns out to be bad. Always read the feedback messages and buy from sellers who regularly sell fur. They know most likely at least a little bit about fur quality and won't try to deceive customers. I have bought lots of wonderful furs quite cheap on ebay, because I have no local source. I hope you dare try again, as real fur makes such incredible bears.
Sabine
I did almost the same thing with some whole pelt mink stoles, which smelled disgustingly moldy. Yikes! I was ready to throw them away, but decided to experiment. Removed the padding and examined the skin, no mold there. Then I washed one by hand with shampoo. Didn't do anything about the smell, the pelt shrunk and stiffened a bit, but would still be useable with soft fur. Tried rubbing them with different things, which have been suggested to clean furs, but nothing helped. In the end I hung them out on the balcony, out of the sun, but freely for the whole summer (maybe 3 months). After that the smell was gone, the furs are soft and nice.
Most furs smell a little perfumed, but I don't know if that's from the previous owner or from the furriers process. They shouldn't smell musty, which may indicate mold. Just my very limited personal experience.
Sabine
Hmm, I would guess rabbit if it is very soft or muskrat if it feels a little more "luxurious". Muskrat has glossy guardhairs, but not as many as mink and the fur is longer than mink in my limited experience. Might even be fox, but the picture isn't clear enough to tell. The size of the pelts may help. Would be easier if we had looked at the whole garment. Is Nancy Tillberg on this list? She might know.
Sabine
I use thin leather strips, which are sold in craft shops in the jewelry making department. I think, Shelli recommended this in the Edinburgh classroom. She makes holes left and right of the eye and glues the leather strips into the holes. That didn'tt work for me, because the glue made the leather so sticky that Icouldn'tt get itthrought the hole I just glued the ends onto the fabric then and that worked fine.
Sabine
Thank you so much Shelli! :)
Judi, I particularly love the toes. Have to give that a try some day.
Sabine
I haven't taken a picture of my first felted bear yet, but I did a punk penguin for a challenge on another group (non-bear silly critter) and I have felted a muzzle on another bear (not my pattern).
Sabine
