Dougal

This is hibernating bear no.2.

He is closer to what I was hoping to make - partly because of the sleepy look created by the eyelids, but also, weirdly, because his head isn't turned so far round as Otis's (see my last post).  He hasn't particularly turned to look at his audience, so he doesn't look so alert as Otis.

His body could be more tightly curled though, and I think I might bite the bullet and give the next one completely closed eyes.

Note that the fourth picture below is taken from the back of the wreath.

Otis

This really isn't what I had in mind when I started thinking about teddy bear wreaths!  Despite that, I do think Otis is rather sweet, so I am going to leave him be. 

I was hoping for a sleepier look though - even closed eyes.  The trouble with that is that the eyes are probably one of the key ways in which you can give personality to a teddy bear - eyelids are not half so appealing!  I could go for half closed lids, but I would have thought that could look rather malevolent.

Another problem with this design is that it's not quite sure what it wants to be, I think.  The bear's head and neck are jointed, but probably won't move far when he's inside the wreath (I haven't dared try it).  He is attached quite lightly to the wreath, and can be removed without any damage but then - as with Stanley below - he is sewn into a roughly circular shape, so he can't sit properly outside of the wreath.

So, only a partial success.  I have five more willow wreaths to play with though, so I'll see if I can get any closer to the original idea. 

Stanley

I'm sorry I haven't posted much recently.  At least when I have posted, I actually have something to show - quality (I hope) over quantity!

I think I might have mentioned wreaths in the past?  Teddy bear wreaths?  Well anyway, I had this idea for teddy bear wreaths and Stanley (as in, Stan Laurel), shown here, was supposed to be the bear that graced the first wreath.  Unfortunately he is slightly too big.  Even more unfortunately, being sewn in a circular shape (his limbs are unjointed) means he doesn't look very natural sans wreath.  Unless you're holding him, in which case he's all curly and puppy-like.  I think a bean bag is probably the best way to go for this one.

With these wreaths, I was hoping to make it look as if the bear was hibernating.  I bought some plain willow wreaths, and I was going to make one of my floppy unjointed bears to curl up inside each wreath.  I was looking at hibernating-type pictures though and I found this one, of a hibernating dormouse which I thought was a much better pose - particularly since the wreath will be upright, rather than lying flat.

Anyway, now I'm off to try out a smaller version of Stanley.  In the meantime, I have been creating a new Pinterest board, with my most favourite of the bears I've made in the past (it's not finished yet - I'm still going).  Do have a look.  I find it really strange to see.  On the one hand, it seems to me to be a good thing that there are so many different designs there.  On the other hand, the lack of any strong, recogniseable style is surely a weakness? 

Valentine's display

Well, I had more or less given up on the idea of a heart-shaped wreath for Valentine's Day. It seems that just about the only place you can get them is funeral parlours. I was making new (and slightly desperate) plans for a heart-shaped chair. However, I came down one morning (late again - although I was working hard the night before) and found that my mother had made the wreath!

It is made (I think) out of vines, with raffea strung in a sort of lattice-pattern across the inside, so the bears can be propped between the strings.

This is Byron, with his new jacket...

Shelley, sadly still stark naked...

Casanova and Valentino...

I linked up on Facebook with another lady who has a unit at the Art & Craft Centre. She sells jewellery - including gorgeous turquoise and silver jewellery from Israel, and some beautiful, colourful beaded pieces which she makes herself. Have a look at her website, here.

She is always fantastic with the marketing ideas, and she suggested that I make some labels with different Valentine's messages that people could choose to go with the bear they buy.

After scouring the Internet for Valentine's messages, I confess I'm feeling slightly sick, so I decided to go with the very simple ones (or perhaps just the uninspired ones).

They're actually a little more involved than they look there - the writing is printed onto a piece of transparent acetate, and then backed by a piece of thick, watercolour paper. It's the red satin ribbon which really makes them though.

And the final display...

With tags in a sweet little gingham basket...

It's a little rough round the edges, but I'm actually really pleased with this display. I have always been put off doing things like this - thinking, if the bears don't sell, I'm going to have to remove all the valentine's trappings. It's not a disaster if they sell after Valentine's Day though - bears and hearts go together quite well at any time of year.

And it's a good thing too, because I am actually getting into the spirit of it a bit now, and I'm working on another heart-themed item. For once, I am actually ahead of myself!

Casanova

A Valentine's Day bear!

I was wondering whether I would be able to make enough of these in the time I have left, to form a little Valentine's Display. I'll probably end up just sitting them all together on the shelf, but I do have some ideas - even if they don't often pan out!

With these bears, I was thinking perhaps I could use them to decorated a wreath. At garden centres, you can get the wooden frames that you decorate to make Christmas wreaths. Occasionally, you see different shaped frames. If I can find a heart-shaped frame (a largish one - sort of small-shop display size), then perhaps I could decorate it with leaves and roses (plastic roses?) and then attach the bears somehow. I'm not quite certain how they would be attached - maybe a short length of florist's wire wrapped around the stomach, although it could be quite tricky to detach them that way.

I'd need to figure out a way of making some really small bears (perhaps along the same lines as the teddy bear gift tags I made a while ago) to fill in the space, and I could make some little felt hearts as well.

Oh well, let's see if I can make this one work - off to search the web for heart-shaped wreath frames...