Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Another new BeauT Bear is Nescio, a 15" bear, made of lush curly hand-dyed mohair in a pale orange, with inset chest of longer white wavy mohair. Nescio has burgundy red cashmere velvet paw pads and a handstitched nose in the same colour; the nose is waxed and buffed. This bear has the most sparkling blue eyes you've ever seen.

Nescio is available through Bear Pile:  http://www.bearpile.com/item/55350

Meet Nescio:

Meet Bonheur, a 10" bear made from a dense curly 0.8" Schulte mohair, hand-dyed in autumnal browns and a dash of green. He has smoke-coloured glass pupil eyes and a black hand-stitched nose which is waxed and buffed. Furthermore Bonheur is wearing a pale orange ruff of organza.
Bonheur will soon be available on Bear Pile. For more details please PM me.
I hope you all like this little fellow.

Nose shine (or nose gloss) should also be available where you live but if you cannot find it you could order it at Joel Bears (bear making necessities) on this page: http://www.joelbears.eu/index.php?main_ … anguage=en   in the Netherlands. It doesn't cost a fortune 

Another stunning teddy Tami! As usual I'd say.

I don't know about Purple Patch Bears as a company, but then, I am Dutch and not English. I did find, however, this website of The Bear Shop in Totnes, offering a Deans bear called Purple Patch.

The text says:
Purple Patch is an excellent example of the fine Artist Showcase Bears that Deans produces each year. Designed by Linsey Miller this stunning purple Bear is in an edition of only 25 ! Needless to say, we only have one !
Size: 40 cms
Price: £160
Carriage: £8.50

If you want to have a look at this bear, go to:  http://www.bear-shop.co.uk/cgi-bin/bear … ans&order=
Scroll to bottom left bear, that's him.

I hope this is what you are looking for. If not, perhaps someone else can help you.

Good luck!

Hi, I make the bear head as I ususally do, so with muzzle, and then felt onto the fabric. When felting the snout I always stuff the snout with wool. This way the felting wool attaches to the stuffing wool through the fabric and as a result it doesn't move around the snout once finished. I don't felt the nose, I embroider them. I use a similar working method as Joanne.
Here's a pic of Fiona, one of my bears (alpaca) with needlefelted snout.

Hi Sheree,
See this link (scroll down a bit) for 2 cat patterns by Lisa Pay, Tom (seated) and Sassy (lying down) http://www.pedigreesroyal.com/patterns.php

Well Lenora, for me personally that's a colour scheme I'd never apply. But if this is what you like who am I to say you shouldn't  ? Isn't it experimenting with colours and fabrics just what attracts us to bearmaking? It's your idea, why not give it a try? But if you do, I would recommend you making the snout and inside ears of the lighter colour, in order to get a better balance. And browns or blues, they are both nice! Just pick the colours you feel best with   

Well, that all depends on what kind of bear you would like it to be. I know Gregory has made some of his bears in quite exotic colour schemes, he also made bears in black & white and brown looking as if they were wearing a tux (including a bow-tie) and others in classic browns and blondes. No matter the colour, they all looked just fab! It's up to you to decide whether you want your Walton to be a colourful creature or a decent looking bruin 
Good luck on making your choice!

Hi Lenora,
I haven't made this bear but what exactly is your problem with this pattern? What do you think is 'a bit different'  about it? Perhaps - I hope - I can help you. After all I've got the pattern here and to me there doesn't seem to be anything extremely different about it. If you want you can PM me.

I think the correct English translation is press stud but I don't know if this is also used in American English.

Hi Conni,

Nice interview and article.
After this kind of positive publicity I'm sure you will get lots of visitors at your table in Wiesbaden. They will just love your creations!

Hi Pat,

Guess what! I've undertaken a search through my TBS issues and found issue no. 99 of November 2005 with Walton (Gregory's bear) on the cover!
If you are still interested in having this pattern (BTW: Walton does NOT have a double neck joint) I could make you a copy and send it. Just send me a PM.

In the first decade after WWII many Steiff animals/toys were produced in Germany in the US Zone, at that time understandably lived in by many US military people. They sometimes bought (Steiff) toys for their family at home in the US. Your bear is definitely a Steiff original and I think the other animals as well, although I am not sure about the period they were made. If your bear is a US Zone made bear you might find (the remains of) a white label reading 'US Zone Germany' under one of his arms. If, however, he was hugged very much there is a chance that you cannot find this label anymore (sometimes people removed it because they thought it was not nice to look at). My mum took the scissors and cut this label from my '52 Steiff bear my father bought for me when he was in Germany, but I do remember my bear having this lable. O, and my younger brother had a Steiff lamb (at least I think it was a lamb) which had a bell inside, like your rabbit.
Just cherish your little gems, they are not only historic, they are part of your own family history!

By the way: sorry for this late reply. At the time you posted this item I was busy with quite other things.

My bears usually decide themselves what gender they turn out to be. I once made a pink bear, which I thought was going to be a girl, but eventually turned out to be a boy. Here's a picture of Madoc, my pink boy bear.  Oops, sorry, I hadn't realized the size of this pic. Madoc is only 25 cm / 10".

Gratuliere Natascha!    Du hasst es wirklich verdient! Geniesse es.

Baerige Gruesse,
Marianne

Hi Caryline,

What a sweet little character, your Nugat!
I am aware you did not ask for critiques, but to be honest I think this bear with her lovable face really deserves a nose that is stitched better and more precisely than the one she has now. But I am sure your noses will gradually improve. It is a matter of practice, lots of practice!

Please understand this is not meant as negative comment on your bear. I think your bears are lovely.

Cute! I think he's quite a Romeo.

Hallo Birgitte,

I don't know if you already worked out your needlefelting 'problem' with the help of Joanne's tutorial and the remarks by the others, but I know EbearZ University offers online needlefelting courses (against payment    , by Judy Paul.
Here's the link to their Felted Faces course:   http://www.kranbearys.com/Ebearz/Bears/FeltedFaces.htm

Good luck!

Hi Paula,

So everyone thinks rabbits ears have to point upwards! In that case have a look at this cuty (courtesy of Dutch Lop breeders association). There are a number of rabbit pedigrees that have hanging ears like this one. This one is a Dutch lop, with the fluffiest, dense and silky fur you can imagine. If you think this is a bit of a goofy character you're wrong because these creatures are vibrant and extremely active.

Anyway, if you'r making a rabbit of this type there's absolutely no need to have pipecleaners or whatever in your creatures ears  :dance:

Good luck with your rabbit!

Well, a rather big one      I'd say!

I'd really rather meet a man who sleeps with his teddy bear than one who is aiming an automatic rifle with the intention to kill innocent people (like in Norway this summer).

Hi Wubbie, a Grabbit magnetic pin cushion might be the solution for the gravity problem with your pins. Cheapest seller online I could find is this one :  http://www.save-on-crafts.com/grabmagpincu.html
I hope this helps!

Hi there,

You would probably would have known if you had read the Winnie the Pooh stories 

A Heffalump is a type of fictional elephant in the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne. Heffalumps are mentioned, but never appear, in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) and later featured in the animated The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988–1991) and Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). Physically, they resemble elephants; Shepard's illustration shows an Indian Elephant.

For more details on 'hephalump' or 'heffalump' look on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heffalump

O, and by the way, Honey the Heffalump is a gorgeous fluffy white and pink elephant.

Back to your initial question in this thread: I have always been using woven tags (12mm wide) which I sew in the back seam of my bears (not too low  ). I purchase my labels from a local supplier.
In your case I suggest a Google search on 'woven labels US'. One of the results I got for example is this one  http://www.nationalweavingusa.com/shop/ … 0fa9e6d2d0