I really enjoy running the Guild of Master Bearcrafters; it's a fascinating job and with about five hundred creative heads under one roof, it never fails to inspire, as you can imagine!
To keep creativity levels buzzing, earlier this year I thought it would be a fun idea to set up a Guild challenge group and invite members to design pieces of work to set themes ... to think a little 'outside the box'. The challenges have been well received and our latest, 'A Teddy Bear World' challenge concludes on Friday.
The Challenge is as follows:
As the Guild celebrates the work of teddy bear artists around the globe, I thought it would be fun to hold a challenge which celebrates our international bear-crafting community!
Special materials required: white fabric (whatever type of fabric you would like to make your bear from) and dye!
Standard Challenge: Your challenge is to create a teddy bear in the colours of your national flag, using white fabric and dye. Your teddy bear may be created in any style.
Advanced Challenge: Your challenge is to create a teddy bear in the colours of your national flag, using white fabric and dye. Please read on further for the advanced element of this challenge!
Your bear is to be created in the traditional style of one of your national teddy bear manufacturers, from 1900's to 1960's.
For example:
Steiff/Bing: Germany,
Chiltern Hygenic Toy Co/Merrythought: UK,
Ideal Novelty & Toy Co: USA,
Fadap/Pintel: France,
Joy Toys: Australia ... etc.
Needless to say, with such a high calibre of group members from around the world laying down the creative Guild gauntlet, the least I can do is join in the fun. Trouble is, there are only three days until my own deadline .... and I haven't even started work on my submission yet.
So tomorrow I plan to be up to my eyeballs in red and blue dye - fingers crossed there are no calamities and that everything goes to plan first time!
I'll let you know how I get on!
Sounds as though you will get very interesting bears.
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