The centre seam design

 

The centre-seam design

I think I designed my very first centre-seam teddy bear under my 'Auntie Bears by Paula Carter' label, way back in 1996... a lovely white bear called 'Mischief'. Since then, I have continued to make these unique teddy bears, first inspired by Steiff, who were famous for creating one very special teddy bear in every seven made, with a two piece centre-seam head design, which in practical terms made maximum use of the precious mohair fabric yardage... and by chance, also created exceptional beautiful teddy bears!

My centre-seam design creates a lovely rounded teddy head shape and dare I say, sometimes slightly grumpy faces! The centre-seam teddy bears have their own endearing identity and are instantly recognisable. I usually lean towards traditional bear styling with this design but have occasionally tried it with more contemporary teds. These teddy bears are rarer for collectors to find, as like Steiff, I make them less frequently... 

Incidentally, my 23" centre-seam teddy bear clown 'Billy Buttons', was honoured with the prestigious International Industry's Choice TOBY Award, in 2008. One of my proudest achievements as a teddy bear designer.

This year I have introduced my centre-seam teddy in a smaller 16" size, perfect for hugs! If you would like to add one of these special teddy bears to your collection, please pop over to my shop page to meet 'Reggie'.

Autumnal Inspirations

I fell in love with this Harris Tweed the second I saw it and just knew it would make a stunning Tweedy Ted ...

 18" Mackenzie Tweedy

 Up until now, my previous Tweedy Teds have had classic three piece heads (not including their ears!) so I thought it would be fun to design a four piece centre-seam head for this particular fellow. I have designed centre seam mohair bears over the years as they provide scope for shaping - for example, if you design a gentle curve into the head gusset, it offers more depth and creates a wonderful dome shaped head. I thought it would be fun to translate that lovely dome into my Tweedy Ted and happily, this design worked really well.  If you would like to know more about Mackenzie Tweedy, please pop over to my website.

www.allbearbypaula.com

Update: Mackenzie Tweedy has now been adopted!

It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and I am loving the daily walks I take with Polly and Betty, my Golden Retrievers. The countryside is rich with berries and the leaves are beginning to turn beautiful shades of orange and gold. It is a time of year I have always found especially inspiring ... the dogs are loving it too as there are now lovely muddy puddles to splash through on their walks! They really are such a pair of muck magnets.

These are a few photos I snapped on our walk through Oaken Wood last weekend...

Needless to say I spent the rest of the afternoon armed with shampoo, towels and a hose!

Whatever the season where you live, I hope you too are enjoying all it has to offer!

:-)

Cheeky Chappy

After my series of Harris Tweed teddy bears, I decided to take a break and head back to my mohair stash this week. The weather has been so warm, my bear-making has been slow going, but I did manage to finish this cheeky little chappy. 

Scamp is 13"

Scamp is just 13" tall and what he lacks in height, he certainly makes up in personality! He is a traditional centre seam design teddy bear, which gives his head a lovely rounded shape.

I used vintage boot buttons forScamp's eyes as I think they really suit his laid back vintagey style ... and I gave him a lovely shiny waxed nose too.

If Scamp is your kinda bear, please pop over to my website to find out more about him. As I write, this lovely teddy bear is currently available for adoption.

www.allbearbypaula.com

Spring has almost sprung!

Spring has very almost sprung at Edwina's Friends and so I can now share a little peek of my latest two exclusive offerings for my friend Kathy's online bear shop! Both bears will be available from www.edwinasfriends.co.uk early next week.

14" Buttercup wears a beautiful hand dyed silk bow around her chest

20" Pansy, a centre seam bear, wears a beautiful vintage crochet lace collar

Recharging my batteries!

Sorry, but I was absolutely shattered yesterday and simply couldn't scrape the energy to tell you about Sunday's Winter Bearfest show. I also had loads of administrative jobs to deal with in the morning, so by the time I finally found my armchair in the afternoon, I was about ready to collapse!
The 'All Bear' show stand
The show pleasantly surprised me after all the negativity continually broadcast on television over the past few months ... despite the economic doom and gloom, bear collectors were out in force and there was a considerably long queue snaking around the building before the doors opened.

A glimpse into our Winter Bearfest!

Once again, the Hugglets team pulled off their side of the deal by getting bear collectors to visit and then it was over to us bear artists to do 'our thing'. My thing is always to chat - it's great to be able to catch up with friends and collectors in person after you have been tucked away in your workroom for months!
20" Misty is now available direct from my website ... fabulous photograph courtesy of Tina Allingham Photography!

As you know, this time I only took big bears, so was prepared for a little caution from the British collectors because things are definitely tougher here in the UK at present. All my bears were much admired throughout the day, which was such a pleasure for me! Several sold during the show and afterwards, but it wasn't a sellout for me this time and today pretty 'Misty' is wondering when her special someone will claim her. She had much interest on the day and prior to the show, so I have made her available on my website in the hope someone will love her enough to invite her home very soon!

My clumsy first attempt at drawing a face with watercolour pencils ... hopefully with lots more practise mine will eventually look more like Sherry's beautiful finished face, bottom right!

As for me, I've promised myself a week away from bearcrafting; I need a break to recharge my batteries and so this week, will catch up with admin and treat myself to some extra curricular activity. In fact, I can now confess to booking an online doll-making course - I can't wait to get started on this new project! I have never made a doll before and have no idea what the poor creature will look like when completed, so watch this space! I also spent a pleasant couple of hours yesterday, practising doll faces using Sherry Goshon's fantastic 'Creating Watercolour Faces' book ... I am under no illusions that I will adapt to this art and think I will need to practise for quite some time if I am to achieve anything truly worth sharing, but I'm happy to tell you I am enjoying the process of learning again. I might be able to make bears, but I'm a long way from having any artistic confidence when it comes to painting or drawing!
Misty update: I'm delighted to be able to tell you Misty found a lovely new owner today and will be moving to France to live! Ooh la la!

Hubble bubble!

As I couldn't make my mind up about which colour to use for my latest show bear's paw pads, I decided to create a little hocus pocus in my kitchen ... (bear with me, this post will come clear I promise!)

My plan was to colour match the yarn planned for my newest bear's outfit, so I kept the yarn to hand, while I hunted through my cupboards for some useful equipment ... a saucepan, a couple of bowls, a sieve, a spud masher and a leftover tub of blueberries ... !

First I boiled up the blueberries in a pan of water ...

As the mixture boiled, I gently mashed the fruit to release the rich natural colour.

After leaving my mashed blueberries to simmer for a while, I strained the hot blueberry juice into a bowl.

Then added table salt to the juice bowl to help set the colour.

Next I plunged my square of white wool felt into the bowl, stirring regularly to ensure even coverage. I covered the bowl with cling film and left it to stew for about an hour.

I read somewhere that plunging naturally dyed fabric into a bowl of iced water helps set the colour when stewing is complete, so I did that too! Lastly, I rinsed the fabric to remove any little fruit particles and left it to dry flat.

And these paw pads are the finished result - a very pretty shade of blueberry lilac!

Unfortunately, when they had dried I decided the lilac blueberry paws weren't the right shade for the bear I was working on (pic below) but I'm really pleased with the outcome of my hocus pocus session and will store these paws in my felt box for use another time. Natural dyeing with fruit has been great fun and now this curious witch is keen to discover what other magical colours she can conjure up!

Oops! Nearly forgot to mention my finished bear! Here she is ... this is 'Clover,' a lovely mauve Miss!


'Clover', a centre seam bear, will make her debut (complete with velvet paw pads!) at the 'Winter Bearfest' show on in London on 22nd February. For full details, please visit www.allbear.co.uk

Serious Stanley's significant seam.

Serious Stanley 23" 2007 centre seam teddy bear

Weary as I am on this Friday afternoon, I couldn't let today pass without telling you 'Serious Stanley' sold within no time at all yesterday and is now flying over the Atlantic Ocean to meet his new owner in the US!

I didn't really have time to tell you much about him yesterday before he was whisked away did I? So now for a mini history lesson! Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin ... (don't worry, I promise I'll be very brief!)

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Stanley was designed with my centre-seam head pattern. I like this pattern for two reasons, firstly it gives a distinctive rounded 'appley' shape to the bear's head and secondly, it gives the bear a cute centre parting in his mohair. Very stylish!

1908 centre seam Steiff teddy bear

Needless to say, centre-seam bears are not a new concept in the art of teddy bear making. They have been around for as long as teddy bears have been being created. In fact, the original centre seam Steiff bears were created with economy in mind, using a split gusset pattern to maximise use of the fabric, so only one in seven bears on the production line was created with a centre-seam head. Those fabulous vintage centre-seam Steiff bears are now extremely sought after and usually sell for thousands of pounds.

Now wouldn't it be wonderful if that were the case with dear Stanley in a hundred year's time?!

Getting stuffed.

This poor fellow had to wait a whole twenty four hours before he could sit up straight ... I ran very low on bear filler yesterday but fortunately my supplier is great at getting deliveries to me really fast, so today 'Serious Stanley' was stuffed and could finally sit up, rather than slump in an undignified heap on my work table. He's a big 'un at 23" and made in my traditional style simply because that's what was calling to me this week. I like to follow my own instincts with new designs, rather than follow whatever the current trends are and this week, 'completely classic' just kept whispering to me.

'Serious Stanley' is made from truly beautiful mohair. It's a Schulte fabric and is incredibly soft and silky to the touch. There's no doubt about it, that factory really knows how to produce fabulous fabrics, perfect for classy designer bears. 'Rustic wheat' captures the colour perfectly, and to complement it, I've used velvet for Stanley's paw pads and inner ears. It's been a good many years since I last used cotton velvet, seduced as I was for so long by Ultra Suede, but for my range of 'Timeless Teds' it makes perfect sense to return to it - I just love the nostalgic flavour it offers my classic teddies.

'Serious Stanley' 23"

So what's next on my bear making horizon? Right now I have several bears dancing around in my head crying out to be made. I'm dying to get back to my laughing bears, after all, I've had quite a long break from them and I have an absolutely stunning piece of silver leopard faux fur which would make the perfect laughing bear ... then there's a pink and white panda begging to be made and after that .... well, maybe you'll have to wait and see!
One thing's for sure, the bears still keep begging to be created!