Thank you so much for your compliments, they make me so happy! 
Viking-Teddy is by far the most complicated and advanced bear I have made until now and I am so proud of how he turned out - and it is so funy how clothes can change the appearance of a bear lol

Michelle, thank you for this tip. I was wondering if I should buy me some leather cord, but thought about putting it onto the eye first and then inserting it (as I had done previousely). I might give it a try with your method the next time I make a mini

Hugs, Ariane

Thick pearl cotton thread....  That would be another option, I guess   Thank you, I hadn't thought about this before.
They are not necessarily meant to produce a sleepy effect (it was a coincidence that I hadn't planned for my viking bear), I would be glad to see how my bears look with outlined eyes. I'll see if I can find some thick thread somewhere (we don't have a shop with stuff like that here)

Thank you again, Ariane

Hi Susan,

I have never felted before, although I have a felting kit somewhere in my stash.... I should give it a go!

Hugs, Ariane

Kerrilyn,

I'm not too sure, but I think I get the point.... or most of it lol
I actually have very thin leather here and could try it out now that my order from glasseyesonline arrived (I ran out of eyes for my bears two weeks ago  ), have to pick one of my unfinished creations that'll look good with eyelids though

Thanks, Ariane

Hi Ariane,

I put eyelids onto some of my bears' eyes, most of which are 1mm onyx beads.  I cut out semicircular shapes from ultrasuede and then glue and stitch them on my bear's eyes.  The really thin ultrasuede is best for this so it is not too bulky, but I have used the regular ultrasuede too. (Sambrook bears sells a good selection of the really thin ultrasuede: http://www.sambrookbears.co.uk/acatalog/ultrasuede.html)

I fix the eyes into place first and then I put a small dab of glue towards the back of the eye/bead before placing the eyelid on.  I stitch the corners of the eyelids down first and then add a few tiny stitches around the back of the eyelids and into the head.

I use white ultrasuede circles for the eyewhites when I want to add this feature to my bears' eyes.  The bear in the pic below has eyewhites and eyelids.



I hope this helps

Hugs,

Fallenrose wrote:

Sarah,

thanks for the suggestion with the ultrasuede - and also for the picture, the bear is lovely!
I was planning to use this method on one of my bears, but the only eyes I had didn't match (cheap ones.. >.<') so I'm waiting for my order to arrive with new ones; the ultrasuede half-circles are already cut out, although they might be too big.  (and they aren't the really thin ones, I think..gah, I only have three colors of ultrasuede - need to buy more, but how to decide on the colors?  )

So, this technique also wos with onyx beads? I have a pack of black beads (wooden ones, I think) lying around here and was wondering if I could use them, too... I'll give it a go, there are several bears and critters awaiting their finishing touches

Thanks again, Ariane

Hi Ariane,

I think this technique would work for any type of bead you decide to use for your bear's eyes.  That's the beauty of creating bears - there's no right or wrong way so try whatever supplies you have.

If your half circles of ultrasuede are too big, just trim them down a bit.  I have to do this quite often.  The little blue bear in the picture has regular ultrasuede for the eyelids, so it doesn't have to be the thin kind.

Don't worry about not having a huge supply either, you will soon build up as you go along.  When I first started out I managed to get a selection of ultrasuede cut-offs from eBay, which was a good way of getting several colours at once without having to buy larger sheets of it.

Good luck with creating your bears' and critters' eyes and don't forget to post some pictures on here.   

Hugs,

Last edited by Sarah (Jul 27, 2010 09:51:06 AM)

Hi Ariane,

This is something I've only ever done once before too and I used the ultrasuede and glue method.

-Catherine