A Spring posy

The Bearmaker and Primrose teddy bear

When I was a small girl, there was a low gate at the end of our garden and sometimes Dad would take us through that gate to play in the woods beyond. Even now I see the bluebells and primroses in my mind's eye, soft colour and delicate blooms spread like a dainty pastel carpet over muddy banks.  In those days of childhood innocence, my sister and I would pick posies of woodland flowers, clutching them proudly as we took them home muddy footed, for Mum to keep in a glass milk bottle on the kitchen windowsill. They were the happy days of childhood, days when the woods were full of magic and adventures.

Fast forward more than half a century and I don't mind telling you, one of my favourite walks of the year is still through the woods in Spring. A twisty stroll among nodding bluebells, shy primroses and tree branches bursting with tiny new green leaves, brings with it a beautiful peace ... one that can only be truly gifted by Mother Nature.

These days I preserve precious childhood memories through my creativity, weaving the beauty of those first spring flowers into my teddy bear designs to share with collectors, so that they too, can feel the gift of a timeless Spring, bursting with beauty and hope for the future.

Dilys and the Ellie-bears!

 

Dilys and the Ellie-bears

I have had a soft spot for elephants ever since I was a very little girl. My uncle made my first elephant many years ago and although his ears and eyes have long since been hugged away, I still have that little pink ellie. In fact, I borrowed the simple three piece design to create a replica ellie as a gift for my new niece when she was a baby.

The next elephant I made was a funny little chap called 'Abe', back in 2008. I took the vintage design a stage further by introducing a moveable, jointed head and that was when I decided I really wanted to tackle something a little more complex, so started work afresh, using one of my previous teddy bear designs, as a starting point.

I had to redesign the bear head entirely to incorporate a trunk and floppy ears and completely changed the shape of the feet and arms - in fact, now I come to think about it, the only part of the pattern that remained the same was the body! Delilah, a shell pink ellie with striped feet and ears, was my first jointed elephant, created in 2008 and the following year, I decided to return to my jointed elephant design to see how it would work in alternative fabrics ...

I was thrilled when my 2009 white ellie 'Starlight' was featured in 'Australian Bear Creations,' as that was the first time I had ever had anything other than a teddy bear published in a magazine. 2010 was a challenging year creatively speaking, as I spent the first two thirds of the year working hard to develop my 'Careworn Collection' of teddy bears and the remaining third of the year simply trying to find motivation to work at all, after saying a sad farewell to my Dad that Autumn. Sad to say, there were no ellies whatsoever in 2010 ...

However, the ellie bug bit again in 2011! I decided to develop my ellie's personality further; I wanted give him cute low slung ears and close set eyes, to lend his personality a endearing dimension. I was so pleased with my new whimsical blue ellie design, I named him Forget-me-not, in dedication to my Dad.

Also in 2011 came Ma Cherie, a pretty pale pink ellie. I decided to create a slightly smaller elephant called Butterfly in 2013 and it wasn't until 2021, that I developed my smaller jointed elephant design to create Buttercup, the sweetest little elephant, part of my 'Springtime Pals' trio, which also included a bunny and a bear, all wearing knitted jackets.

And that was it. The ellies really were almost as rare as hen's teeth! Until today. I found the very piece of mohair I needed to complete an ellie-bear I started this summer, then had to discard because frustratingly, I misremembered how much mohair to buy and ran out of the denim coloured fabric, as did my supplier. However, all was not lost, I finally finished my 2025 Dilys ellie-bear yesterday and can at last share her with you ... and add her name to my catalogue of elephant designs!  

The art of...

 

The art of...

The art of creating artist teddy bears follows a long road of trial, error, determination to improve and the gift of a creative soul.

An original handcrafted teddy bear flows from the maker's heart and hands, into a character woven with the warmth of childhood nostagia and a sense of comfort.

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'.

Memory Lane

 

Memory Lane

This morning it occurred to me, that I have forgotten to share my Facebook page here with you...

If you are a teddy bear collector who enjoys a trip along Memory Lane, my All Bear FB page is a great place to see the All Bear by Paula design journey over the past thirty years... I have compiled themed albums of my teddy bear creations for you to enjoy, drawing many bears together for the first time in collections such as 'The Rose Blooms', 'Spring', 'Summertime', 'Blue Bears', 'Traditional Bears', 'The Clowns', 'Laughing Bears'... the list is endless!

It is fun to find long forgotten friends among my dusty teddy bear archives and share them alongside recent designs in this way. So, if you would like to see them, please follow the link below. I look forward to seeing you there!

https://www.facebook.com/allbearbypaulacarter 

Peonies, an inspiration

 

Peonies, an inspiration

Over the years, I have often been asked by collectors and writers, what inspires me to create my own style of teddy bears and when I recall the many bears I have made, it becomes clear to me, that most were inspired by Mother Nature.

I have always found the changing of seasons, beautiful flora both wild and cultivated, our woodland trees, the changing colours of our landscape and the British weather, a rich pool of inspiration for creating teddy bears. I think perhaps nature kindly lends my bears a particularly English flavour, an insight into the world in which they first came to life...

I am fortunate to live near a small peony farm called 'Little Buds Peony Farm'. It is opens its gates to visitors during the height of peony season in June. It is a joy to walk among row after row of the most fabulous flowers, the air full of their heady perfume. Delicate showstoppers, nodding in the breeze, set in the heart of the beautiful Kentish countryside overlooking green hills... such a magical experience.

Peonies are fleeting at this time of year, so I hope I have captured a little of their magic in my latest teddy bear, 'Peony-Rose'!

If you would like to visit Little Buds Peony Farm, it is open until the 15th June this year. Details can be found here: https://www.littlebuddspeonyfarm.co.uk/ 

The Mists of Childhood

 

The original 'Ellie' wasn't made by me, it was in fact given to me by an uncle in 1963, the year of my birth. Back in those distant days, my little pink ellie had floppy ears and felt eyes, but as is the way of much loved childhood toys, they were worn away with many hugs, over the passage of time.

Ellie was one of a select group of soft toys gifted to me as a baby... Big Ted, my first Chiltern Hugmee teddy bear, given to me on my first birthday by my parents, Scotty, a handmade black dog made by my Nana's boarding house lodger, Sooty, a Chiltern mohair glove puppet given to me by an auntie, a knitted dolly wearing a striped skirt who came from a school jumble sale and my now earless ellie, who somehow managed to survive six long decades and although a little more careworn perhaps, is still much loved today. Which brings me to the other pink ellie in the photograph (left) created by me in 2007, in an attempt to replicate my childhood elephant toy.

I had the ideal piece of pink wool fabric which was tucked away in the bottom of my fabric box. Using memory to help me, I created new ears lined with beige velvet and rather than the felt eyes of my original elephant, I inserted tiny glass eyes, as this little elephant was to be given as a keepsake, rather than a child's toy and I preferred the look of the traditional glass eyes.

To achieve the simplistic style of the original design was a little more tricky than I initially anticipated - we live and learn don't we?! Despite my teddy bear design skills, it took several attempts to figure out the body gusset pattern so that my wee elephant could sit comfortably, maintaining the shape of the 1960's original and embodying all of its naive charm.

When I was a child, it wasn't unusual for special gifts to be handmade, so decades later, I was delighted to be able to continue this tradition for my sister and her new baby (who by the way, is now sixteen years of age!)

The next elephant I made was a funny little chap called 'Abe', created from vintage style mohair in 2008. I developed the original softie elephant pattern a tiny bit, to include a jointed head and a head gusset in what was a simple two piece head, to give the head more definition. I also took a little more artistic licence with his trunk shaping, but other than those minor adjustments, kept little 'Abe' ellie, pretty true to my original 1960's elephant.

After Abe, I wanted to tackle something a little more complex, so began work afresh in 2008, using one of my previous teddy bear designs as a starting point for a 16" jointed elephant, created in sparse vintage pink mohair. I was so thrilled with the result I sent a photograph of 'Delilah' to 'Australian Bear Creations' and they were kind enough to print it in their magazine.

I returned to my jointed elephant design in 2009, curious to see how it would work in alternative fabrics ... and in 2009, my white standing circus elephant 'Starlight', was also featured in 'Australian Bear Creations' magazine!  

2010 was a challenging year creatively speaking, as I spent the first two thirds of the year working hard to develop my 'Careworn Collection' of teddy bears and the remaining third of the year simply trying to find motivation to work at all, after saying a sad farewell to my Dad that Autumn. Sad to say, there were no elephants in 2010 ...

My Dad would never have wanted me to lose my creativity, he always enjoyed my work and was proud of me; so in 2011, I picked myself up and dusted myself down and set to work. I wanted to develop my elephants' personalities further, so this time, designed two lovely new elephants with cute low slung ears and close set eyes, giving the ellies more character than ever before. 'Ma Cherie' and 'Forget-me-not' elephant worked their magic and soon had me smiling, inspired again, just as Dad would have wanted.

In 2013, I decided to make a Summer themed collection and came up with 'The Picnic Gang', a five piece group of friends including two bears, one rabbit, a clown and ... an elephant. This smaller design bridged the sweet naivety of my very first vintage style ellie design and the more sophisticated styling and personality of my later jointed elephants. 'Butterfly' elephant had a fun downturned trunk and nostalgic look, thanks to the vintage cotton print lining her ears and paws I used, together with her straw hat. I thought she was lovely, so in 2013, decided to take the design and use it to create Bluebell Ellie-Bear, part of my pastel 'Springtime Pals' trio, along with pals Hyacinth Bunny and Buttercup Bear. I knitted this pretty trio of friends sweet little jackets to complement their colouring.

It was ten years before another elephant came to life in my workroom. Last year, I made 'Jellybean' in the style of Ma Cherie and Forget-me-not, with large flappy cheerful downward ears, shaped arms and long, upward pointing trunk. This time, I wanted to introduce a new 'clown' element, by combining both pink and yellow mohair, contrasted with a cheerful Liberty print cotton fabric to line the ears and feet, giving Jellybean a bright, bold and cheerful personality.

In the sixteen years since my Great Niece Erin was born, I have created nine elephants, the threads of which are woven through the mists of my childhood and hers, inspired by a small straw-filled pink elephant, with felt eyes and loved away ears.

The Laughing Bears

 

THE LAUGHING BEARS

I was recently reminded of some of my more unusual teddy bear designs by a regular collector, who was thrilled to have located a teddy bear I made over twenty years ago and wrote to tell me about her find... a laughing bear with hugging arms, created from a beautiful animal print fur fabric.

The 'Laughing Bears' were a change of design direction for me at the start of the new millenium. By then I had become well known for creating large traditional mohair teddy bears but never one to rest on my laurels, wanted to expand my teddy bear designs with a range of more contemporary bears. I stumbled across a wonderful faux fur fabric produced by 'Tissavel' in France, a high end synthetic fur fabric used in clothing manufacture. This luxurious fabric was manufactured in a wonderful range of 'state of the art' faux fur, with an all-important stable woven backing... to my mind, perfect for creating showpiece teddy bears!

At the time, I knew there would be collectors loyal to my traditional teddy bears, who would perhaps frown upon this flamboyant change of design direction for 'All Bear', but to my mind, creative itches must be scratched, so I decided to be brave and forge ahead with my idea anyway. Beautiful 'Bisto', the teddy in the photo above, was one of my first Laughing Bear designs and still holds a very special place in my heart. Then one laughing bear led to another ... and another ... and another! Choosing names that reflected their personalities was fun ... Laughalot, Wotalot, VaVaVoom, Crazy for you, Happy-go-lucky, Tiger Feet, Beano, Bisto, Hullabulloo, Rumpus, Serendipity...  and so they went on... 

The Laughing Bears were a more complicated, time consuming design. I wanted them to retain the appeal of traditional teddy bears but also to stand proudly in their own right. I felt it was important to create an open-mouthed design which really brought the bear to life, lending him a truly happy personna, I didn't want a mouth that flopped, or worse still, grimaced!  After quite a bit of trial and error, I came up with a smiling mouth design that made me smile back... and when I added hand painted, twinkly glass eyes, it quickly became clear these new bears were going to be super fun characters! I also designed a new arm shape for my Laughing Bears, giving them arms to hug with and once I was happy with the overall design proportions, hey presto! I had created a blueprint to explore to my heart's content ... I couldn't resist creating Laughing Bears from leopard, cheetah, lynx, rabbit and bear furs ... the possibilities seemed endless. Sometimes I worked mohair, or alpaca muzzles and paws into my design with the faux fur and each design tweak brought a new character to life. 

Despite the teddy bear traditionalists among collectors, my 'Laughing Bears' quickly found their niche and were adopted around the globe, with many heading to the United States . I continued to create my much loved traditional teddy bears too and still do so today.

I made Laughing Bears for a good number of years, some in faux fur, others in mohair, or alpaca and some which incorporated a contrast of fabrics. Most Laughing Bears were around 19"/20" in height but there were also a few 25"/26" Laughing Bears... as you can imagine, those had especially huge personalities! 

Eventually, Tissavel faux fur became much harder to source (I was told the company went out of business) and once again, I began to feel a creative urge to take my designs into a new area, so I quietly retired my friendly Laughing Bears and headed off on my next teddy bear tangent.

Remembering the Laughing Bears this week has been fun, so who knows, perhaps I will think about creating one or two in the future, if I ever locate that glorious Tissavel faux fur again, for old time's sake!

Teddy Bear Pals, where it began..

 

You may have spotted 'Jellybean' on my website yesterday, a bubblegum pink and yellow elephant-teddy I created earlier this week. I occasionally make a teddy bear pal and usually their design stems from somewhere deep in the mists of my childhood...

The original 'ellie' wasn't made by me, it was in fact given to me by an uncle in 1963, the year of my birth. Back in those distant days, my little pink ellie had floppy ears and felt eyes, but as is the way of much loved childhood toys, those were worn away with many hugs, over the passage of time.

Ellie was one of a select group of soft toys gifted to me as a baby... Big Ted, my first Chiltern Hugmee teddy bear, was given to me on my first birthday by my parents, Scotty was a handmade black dog made by my Nana's boarding house lodger, Sooty, a mohair glove puppet given to me by an auntie and my now earless ellie, managed to survive six long decades and are with me today... a little more careworn perhaps, but still much loved and importantly, still together.

Which brings me to the other pink ellie in the photograph created in 2007, an attempt to replicate my childhood elephant toy and my first ever elephant design. Since 2007, there have been other elephant designs along the way, Abe, Delilah, Starlight, Forget-me-not, Ma Cherie, Butterfly, Bluebell... and now, to celebrate Summer 2023, my latest ellie-bear, Jellybean.

Ma Cherie 2011

Bluebell 2021

Delilah 2008

Forget-me-not 2011

Butterfly 2013

Starlight 2009

Jellybean 2023

I still have quite a soft spot for an ellie it transpires!

Back to the future

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Phyllis was made as a commission order for a collector in the US. I recently received an email containing a photograph of another teddy that I made way back in 2007, together with a request for a similar style of bear... not as easy as it perhaps sounds!

I put on my thinking cap, searched suppliers' websites for suitable mohair and in consultation with my customer, settled on this fabulous tangerine mohair to contrast with the white head and paws in the style of my original bear. My collector asked if I would be able to recreate the face she first fell in love with all those years ago, so I set about hand painting glass eyes to capture the sparkle, shading and needlefelting sleepy little eyelids and embroidering a stunning tangerine nose to create a 2022 version of my original teddy bear.

With her lovely chunky body, hugging arms, drumstick legs and face so full of character, 'Phyliss' has been a delightful revival of a style of teddy bear I very much enjoyed creating in the past ... and one I hope to share again with collectors in the future!

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!

:-)

Protectors of our teddy bear heritage

Reminding myself of the bear maker I truly am, with this fabulous new big bear!

22" Gulliver

Those who have followed my teddy bears since the mid 90's, will best know me for creating large, traditional teddy bears with soulful faces.  

I love these stately bears, protectors of our teddy bear heritage, guardians of our childhood memories ... and I am so proud to continue to make them for collectors around the world, twenty three years after creating my very first traditional teddy bear.

If you would like to know more about Gulliver, please visit him on my website:

www.allbearbypaula.com

Thank you!

:-)

A perfect teddy bear

After finding some old photographs, it occurred to me this week, I made my very first teddy bear 25 years ago!  My goodness, it is hard to believe that defining moment was a quarter of a century ago.  I can't lay claim to having created my first artist bear back then, nothing quite so historic (!) but that was definitely when the first stirrings of bear-making curiosity struck me enough to go and find a child's toy crafting kit in local toy shop. I recall my main interest was of practical concern, I wanted to find out how to make a teddy's arms and legs move - that mystery was solved when I pulled a set of white plastic safety joints from the bag. I hadn't a clue about hardboard discs and cotter pin joints to begin with, in fact I didn't learn about those until bear number two ...

1992, 'Ivor'

Bear number two, subsequently named 'Ivor', was also a kit bear. I forget who designed that early kit, but I do remember purchasing it from a lovely bear artist at the very first teddy bear show I ever visited.  The prospect of creating Ivor was daunting because this time the process would involve cutting mohair, which was far more costly and fabulous than the little orange synthetic toy shop kit. Even now, all these years down the bear-making trail, I remember the excitement of beginning work on Ivor and my absolute delight when, after much trial and tribulation, a traditional gold teddy with slightly lopsided, but fully jointed, arms and legs, presented himself.

Early 1990's, tentative first teddy bear designs

With two bonafide teddy bears now under my belt, my enthusiasm for bear number three was high and by then I felt ready to select a commercial teddy bear pattern to work with, along with another piece of the fabric I had fallen in love with ... mohair! Teddy bear patterns frustrated me though, nothing seemed to fit together quite perfectly enough and those that I had chosen were for small teddy bears, but I loved big teddy bears!  After my first couple of attempts at using them, I gave up on store bought patterns and instead invested in a teddy bear-making book, written by a well known teddy bear artist who had been generous enough to touch on the process of design. That was a real lightbulb moment for me and from then on, I became completely absorbed in creating my own teddy bear patterns and bringing to life the teddy bears waiting patiently in my head.

Mid to late 1990's, well into my teddy bear bear making stride!

So here I am, twenty five years later, still trying to create that elusive 'perfect' teddy bear. I wonder if any bear artist ever says they achieved a truly perfect teddy bear? Somehow I think not ...

Teddy bears from the past seven years ..

My belief is, we bearmakers are destined to strive for perfection indefinitely which is what keeps our bear-making joy alive and the teddy bear's future secure.

With that thought in mind, here's to my next quarter century!

:-)

In the Spotlight

As I was updating the Guild of Master Bearcrafters' blog earlier this week (www.masterbearcrafters.blogspot.co.uk) it dawned on me that in my eagerness to showcase Guild members' talents, I hadn't actually added my own 'member profile' since I first started writing the Guild blog!  I found myself scratching my head and frowning as I pondered  my long bear making career, but eventually, did manage to make sense of it all!

So, if you have ever wondered why I have continued to design and make teddy bears for two long decades, I hope this blog post answers your question ...

A word from PAULA CARTER
creator of
'ALL BEAR BY PAULA
Bearcrafter since 1995

UNITED KINGDOM

Paula Carter

My bear making career evolved from a love of vintage English teddy bears since I was a little girl, particularly the wonderful Hugmee bears created by the Chiltern Hygenic Toy Company between 1908 and 1967.  I have a small collection of these dignified teddy bears and even now they never fail to inspire my creativity.

Some of my Chiltern Hugmee teddies:  C1930's to 50's

It hardly seems possible it has been twenty years since I designed my first teddy bear; the time has flown by!  Since then I have become immersed in the world of teddy bear artistry and am passionate about helping to steer our beloved teddy safely into his future.

Benjamin

It is never easy to describe one's own work, but if pushed to do so, I think I would say I tend to create in a fairly traditional vein.  Now and again I veer gently towards contemporary with my laughing bears, but mostly my bears hark back towards those gentle Chiltern Hugmee teddies, with their solid proportions and no nonsense charm.

Felicity

For me, a teddy bear should spark a sense of nostalgia and security in his owner, he must be soulful, comforting and honest in his design. My creations honour the teddy bears of my childhood and are protective of his heritage.

Beau was a 2015 Excellence in Bear Artistry award winner

I have been fortunate enough to achieve a collection of international teddy bear crafting and design awards throughout the past two decades and have had my work published many times in specialist publications around the world.  It is of course, always lovely to receive such accolades, but the very best rewards are the smiles and kind words I receive from collectors when they adopt one of my bears ... those smiles are at the heart of my bear making.

A trio of my careworn style teds

As part of my commitment to the future of the teddy bear, I established 'The Guild of Master Bearcrafters' back in 2009.  At the time I had a vague concept of providing a forum which could unite teddy bear makers from around the world, but had no idea it would quickly grow to almost eight hundred international bear crafting members.  I am immensely proud of our members' dedication to creating bears of outstanding creativity and am certain that in their safe hands, the beloved teddy bear will be ensured of a long and happy future.

With hugs and smiles,

Paula xxx

To discover more about Paula's work, please visit her website and blog:

www.allbearbypaula.com

www.allbear.blogspot.com

I'd love you to spare a few moments to visit The Guild of Master Bearcrafters' Blog.  I began writing it back in 2013 to showcase incredible bear crafting talent from Guild members.  As you will see, outstanding artist bears are being created all around the world!

www.masterbearcrafters.blogspot.co.uk

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A pathway to design

I was just thinking about my previous post and realised I hadn't concluded it properly ... there should have been photographs!  So, for those who would like to wander briefly through my long teddy bear design journey, here we go ...

1996ish The early years
 Traditional centre seam large head, short body, drumstick legs, long arms,

Mischief'

2003 My crazy contemporary phase

Shaped arms, sculpted feet, free standing, inset muzzle, additional poseable neck joint, open mouth, coloured nose, wild prints! 

'The Lynx Effect' 

2007 Developing my 'Modern Classics'

Chunky limbs and tummies, largish heads, hand painted glass eyes, subtle shading, 

luxury fabrics

'Gorgeous George'

2010 My so-very vintage phase

Hand dyed sparse mohair, distressing, vintage boot button eyes, saggy stuffing, wobble heads, patching, staining, waxed nose, slender straight limbs

'Kingsley'

2011 Doing the Shabby Chic thing

Incorporating dainty prints and pastel colour with vintage appeal

'Lavendar-Lou, Merryweather and Pippin'

2011 Continuing with contemporary

Poseable limbs, hand painted twinkly eyes, eyelashes, sculpted feet, inset muzzle, 

open mouth

'Felicity and her bunny'

2012 Heading back to traditional

Slim limbs, upright posture, smaller heads, long snouts, slim bodies, waxed noses, boot button eyes, felt paws

'Jake and Mavis'

2013 Traditional Luxury

Dense curly golden mohair, black glass eyes, waxed nose, velvet paws

'Chester'

... and for 2014?  

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, I started this year true to my traditional roots, so will see where they lead me.  I look forward to sharing my continuing bear design journey with you!