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Past Time Bears - Artist bears designed and handcrafted by Sue Ann Holcomb
Shelli Makes - Teddy bears & other cheerful things by Shelli Quinn

shantell Apple Dumpling Designs
Willamette Valley Oregon
Posts: 3,128

I know you've posted this somewhere but I can't seem to find the exact posting....

How did you say you did the cording around your eyes...I remember reading it before but can't find it.  I guess I'm asking specifically how do your secure it inside the head....I love your bears eyes and would like to try it or come up with my own variation...

Sorry I'm not very original...but I can copy copy copy!!!  bear_original

Shelli SHELLI MAKES
Chico, California
Posts: 9,939
Website

Shelli Retired Help Advisor, Banner Sponsor

Everyone who makes bears is copying.  Copying the first teddy bear. 

I use an awl to poke a hole in the head at each end of the cording; fray check it; insert cording at one end into first hole; drape across eye; insert cording into other hole; glue down.

Voila!

kbonsall Kim-Bee Bears
Pennsylvania
Posts: 5,645

Shelli - another question, do you prefer the "flat" cording or the "round".  I have the round but can't seem to visualize how this will work in my head... if you dont mind answering that is bear_original

Shelli SHELLI MAKES
Chico, California
Posts: 9,939
Website

Shelli Retired Help Advisor, Banner Sponsor

I mind terribly; you're a skunk for asking.  Silly girl.

I use round cording.    Just... 'cause.  It was there on the day I first investigated this over a year ago.  Call me practical.

If you use superglue -- I use a gel type -- you can adhere this rather easily to either glass eye, or mohair/backing, or both.

kbonsall Kim-Bee Bears
Pennsylvania
Posts: 5,645

thank you... I was thining I need to glue somthing somewhere or it would roll around... I will have to try this on a test head bear_original  Thank you for the advice

Dilu Posts: 8,574

Kim-  you are such a cutie! ;)

Dilu

kbonsall Kim-Bee Bears
Pennsylvania
Posts: 5,645

I dont want to be pesty bear_original

shantell Apple Dumpling Designs
Willamette Valley Oregon
Posts: 3,128

Thanks...I knew it was something like that I just couldn't quite remember...

I didn't know superglue came in a gel form....hmmmm I guess I should pay more attention....nah!!!

kbonsall Kim-Bee Bears
Pennsylvania
Posts: 5,645

I like to learn new things and learn how to improve bear_original

kbonsall Kim-Bee Bears
Pennsylvania
Posts: 5,645

Be careful not to glue your fingers to eachother LMAO bear_grin

sandi Snowy Day Bears
St. Albans, VT
Posts: 263

I tried to use cording for the eye rims and could not get the cording to stick to the eye.  However, I did successfully glue the cording to my fingers. I haven't tried it since.

Sandi

SueAnn Past Time Bears
Double Oak, Texas
Posts: 21,925

SueAnn Help Advisor, Banner Sponsor

bear_grin bear_grin bear_grin bear_grin

Deb Upstate New York
Posts: 1,650

Sandi ~ Soo funny!  Your post reminds me of a picture my husband took of me in our kitchen.  I was heading out and a fingernail came off.  I tried to glue it back on but only succeeded in gluing my hand to the counter.

Seriously, the glue thing is what will kill me I'm sure if/when I try eyelids.  Maybe a little gel glue on the end of a pin or something would work.  Hmm ....

Thanks for the mental picture and the chuckle!

Deb

kbonsall Kim-Bee Bears
Pennsylvania
Posts: 5,645

LMAO - I knew I wasnt the only one!  it is scary when fingers get stuck together! i panic!:lol:

Jellybelly Bears Jellybelly Bears
Australia
Posts: 4,066

Everyone who makes bears is copying.  Copying the first teddy bear

Isn't that true lol.  My own feelings are that even if you are 'inspired' by someone elses technique, it always comes out with you in it.  Like if I see something I like it will jumble in my head for a while and pop out with my interpretation of it.  I think it is very hard to copy someone exactly even if you set out to do it.

love that you share Shelli...have you thought of writing a book.  Think you would sell millions :)

hugs sarah

Shana Hawaii
Posts: 62

Gosh I am affraid to ask...what kind of cording. I live here in Hawaii and we have one craft store...Ben Franklin..WOW!!
Shana

shantell Apple Dumpling Designs
Willamette Valley Oregon
Posts: 3,128

Shana, I was asking about the leather cording Shelli uses on her awesome eyes...I think in an earlier post which I still can't find...that she uses 1mm or 2mm leather cording.

If and when I finally locate the specific post I was looking for I'll attach a link.

Shantell

heartsez Hearts Ease Bears
Fairfax,Vermont
Posts: 660

Sandi you made me laugh also! in 25 yrs of working in manuf. i NEVER glued myself to anything..the first time i took someones advice and  glued my disks to their hardware was my downfall! i didnt take into acct when i was holding it waiting for the glue to dry that it would follow the threads of the screw down to my hand!  hubby wasnt home and i couldnt unstick my fingers!! no polish remover in the house at all!!:):):)  deb

sandi Snowy Day Bears
St. Albans, VT
Posts: 263

Deb,
How did you get unstuck.  Did you have to wait for hubby to come home?

Sandi

Judi Luxembears
Luxemburg, Wisconsin
Posts: 7,379

bear_laugh bear_laugh bear_laugh bear_laugh bear_laugh  I always have super glue remover gel on hand.

When I worked at a Urgent Care facility we had a patient come in with his hand wrapped in towel.  He was hiding his embarrassment of having glued his hand to a coffee cup he was trying to repair. bear_laugh bear_laugh bear_laugh bear_laugh bear_laugh oops..tee hee

gotobedbears Posts: 3,177

Blimey - i wondered what you were going to say then  :redface:

Penny  bear_flower

Dilu Posts: 8,574

did you guys know they use a form of super glue in surgery now?

And acetone or nail polish remover will save you----unstick you.....

Dilu

Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

LOL!!! I needed the chuckle!! Deb, how did you get unstuck?

I noticed in the craft store today that they make a gel superglue that doesn't stick your fingers to your project... instantly. (So I'm guessing you have 60 seconds to let go before it's too late??) I saw it at Jo Ann's for those of you with one near by. It's probably other places too.

Eileen Baird'sBears
Toronto
Posts: 3,873

bear_original Sandi,

I couldn't get the glue to stick to the eye on my first try either. I finally figured out that the eye was too grubby from being handled to take the bond. So I cleaned the eye with an alcohol swab, and the glue held! My only other problem was general clumsiness. It took a few tries to get the whole thing coordinated.

Our vet once mended a tortoise's broken shell with superglue!! It had broken when run over by a car.

Eileen

Shelli SHELLI MAKES
Chico, California
Posts: 9,939
Website

Shelli Retired Help Advisor, Banner Sponsor

You guys are cracking me up.

Actually, I never put two and two, together, on this one.

Before I set my eyes I clean them up with nail polish remover.  There's usually some gunk or fingerprints on them so I use a Q-tip saturated in remover and go over the exposed areas.  Perhaps that's part of why they take the glue so well. ???

Then... yes... I poke an awl hole; put a dab of glue on the tip of a piece of cording (if I'm using the cording method); insert that into the awl hole.  Then... poke another awl hole; trim cording to size, making sure to have enough to insert into head; put a dab of glue on the tip of the piece of cording; insert that into the second awl hole.

THEN... very gently pull the arc of cording, with ends inserted and glued, down and away from the eye, and run the tiniest bead of superglue gel across the glass eye itself, where the cording will be adhered.

Then... VERY carefully, without touching the glue (Sandi -- :)) , press the cording into place and hold for about five seconds.  Sometimes I use tweezers or a pin head to do this to avoid the glueing-the-cording-to-myself problem.

Hope this helps!

PS  You can also use elastic cording for eyelids, in one long continuous piece.  You still need to poke good sized awl holes, but it's psychologically reassuring to know the lids are stitched through the head.  However, I find the elastic method more challenging, personally, and like the leather look better (the elastic has little ribs and a certain sheen to it), so I usually use leather.

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