Herbert

Good morning!  Well, I finally got something finished!  I'm not sure whether I like him or not - he does look traditional to me, but he doesn't look the way I wanted him too.  I guess it's strange to see something which is in the style of an old bear but with no sign of ageing.  He looks a little too generic to me.  I had hoped the feet would make him stand out - since they are a bit different - but although they are very sweet, they don't really add much impact.

His price is problematic too.  I guess I have been making bears from my (rapidly diminishing) mohair stash for quite a long time, so when I had to order new mohair for him, I was surprised at how expensive it was.

It is really lovely mohair - incredibly silky, in a beautiful gold colour - so I kind of forgave it the price, but when I come to add everything up (which I rarely do - its far too scary), I've calculated that the materials, in total, cost £31.96.  I think he took about a day to make - although I inefficiently spread that over 2 days - and about 6 days on the pattern, looking at my previous blog posts.

You can see why I don't do this calculation very often(!)

He is not going to be a one-of-a-kind bear (at least, there will be other similar bears) so I don't need to factor all the six days into his price.  

I once read an article by another bear-maker which said that she charged, for her time, the same again as the cost of the materials.  That would put Herbert just under £64.   

That does seem rather steep - particularly in the current climate - so I'm inclined to knock it down a bit.  £54 maybe?