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Feather Heart CreationsSo I'm looking for new ways to display my bears at both shows and at home. How do you display your bears? Have and tips or better pictures? 
PennsylvaniaTry using cubes.
Build some wooden cubes out of 3/8" thick plywood. But only build them with 4 out of 6 sides. (Leave the front and back open.) Sand them and paint them any color you like. Now you have stackable "Bear condos."
Build a bunch of them and stack them up like building blocks. The Bears can go in the empty spaces in between. You can make pyramids and all sorts of arrangements. Whenever the Bears get tired of living in one arrangement you can restack them and build a whole new Bear condo.
(Click the picture!)
If you build them as 5-sided boxes instead of 4-sided boxes you can have crates for the Bears to ride in while they travel to shows. Cut holes in the sides of them for handles if you like.
I suppose you could use plastic milk crates and accomplish the same thing but it wouldn't be as stylish.
I am VERY late in updating this page.... but I have a teddy bear display idea page on my site: http://teddiesbylauralynn.com/collecting/display.html
Feather Heart CreationsGreat ideas! I'm having my husband make me some cubes this weekend I just bought this cute kids rocking chair at a garage sale, just need to fix it & paint it now. Can't wait unlit I have it ready for my big bears.
The Littlest ThistleOh, those cubes look like a great idea Randy, hmm, I think I feel a project coming on...
PennsylvaniaI used to work at FAO Schwarz for my college job. That's how they used to display Bears and animals. Only their cubes were made from Formica covered chipboard. They were quite sturdy but VERY heavy. Mine are a scaled down (might lighter) version of theirs.
The cubes in the store have to be made stronger and heavier because they need to withstand a lot of abuse. But Bears aren't really that heavy so they don't need to be big and heavy unless you are going to stack your cubes more than 3-high. My cubes are 18 inches. At 3-high, that would be 4-1/2 feet tall, PLUS BEARS. We're probably talking 5 or 6 feet by the time all the Bears climb in!
Just be careful how you stack. Leave space for them to overlap a bit so they don't slip and fall. Most Bears don't mind the occasional tumble but they don't like to end up in a pig-pile when their clubhouse caves in. They might get hurt!
Two sheets of plywood (48" x 96") should be able to make 5 large cubes 18" on a side, plus you will have some wood left over to make some smaller cubes.
If you make your cubes a bit smaller (do the math) you can get more cubes out of a sheet.
Depending on how you do your finite materials analysis, you can get 10 or 12 cubes out of two sheets.
3/8" plywood should cost around $15.00 per sheet. Two sheets for $30.00
Add for nails, glue and paint and you should be able to get away with the project for about $50.00.
