Yet another bear leaves the shop floor!

There were tearful scenes around the bear trunk yesterday as the corduroy bear waved goodbye to the others. He is on his way to Massachusetts to join the little knitted bear who is now called Eddie and having a lovely time in his new life in the New World.

With a cheery wink and an Elvis Presley karate move, he was ready to leave.

There's a sneak preview in these photos of two new bears. I've been working on re-designing the classic bear paw shape so that the hockey stick becomes more downturned for Ursine verisimilitude. The old-fashioned, Steiff-style bears which i have been attempting to emulate are lovely but i think teddy-bears should  resemble real bears even more closely. I suppose i knew teddys before i knew about real bears (the first real bears i came across were probably from illustrations in a Ladybird copy of Goldilocks), and there could be a case for real bears and teddy bears being cousins of the same genus. However, besides personally finding the protuberant muzzled, jointed teds more attractive than the flat-faced, paralyzed, amputee type (absolutely no offence whatsoever meant to humans with these conditions), i think that it can never to be too early to teach children (or remind adults) about endangered species, why they are endangered (perhaps keeping baiting descriptions from the the under-5's) and generally making the link between the bears in their cots to the relationships we have with real animals as we grow up.

  New bears showing here soon!

  And some painting if i ever get a moment!!

Many, many thanks and good wishes to Anja from Massachusetts who is my very valuable and delightful customer!

Another Bear Leaves the BearBovis Shop-Floor!

Thrilling atmosphere at the shop today as news arrived by email that the grey fleece bear has been chosen for a new home! The other bears waved goodbye from their trunk.

He's off to London in the morning.

BLOG | Muir & Osborne

BLOG | Muir & Osborne

I'm trying to design my own knit pattern of a pussycat, ideally to Best in Show dog-pattern standard and was thrilled to find the authors of that great book have a blog.

Shay's Polar Bear

After adjusting the limb length and the hump to neck angle, i cut the Polar coloured faux-fur and got to work.

With shorter arms and legs, he has no problems standing whatsoever.

Looking forward to his new life in Nottingham.

Very happy bear.

Some delicacy of head was lost using this fabric although scissor-sculpting helped a lot. One day i will  position eyes correctly. I hope!

I shall crack on with his smile and claws and perhaps do a bit more snipping. (Oh! And make him a tail, ofcourse!) I'll try a shorter pile next time, too. But on the whole, I'm quite optimistic that pattern-making is not beyond me.
 

Ursus Maritimus

Some weeks ago, it was established that my great friend's 9 year old boy was not too old for stuffed toy animals. Great news! I asked her to ask him what kind of animal he might like and he said a polar bear....for which there seem to be no nice patterns. SO, for the last few days i have been attempting to design my own. I had no idea how complicated pattern making is. Hats off to anyone who has made a good pattern.

   Third body shape lucky, two head gussets along and knee-deep in leg templates, here is the first stuffed attempt:

His legs and arms are too long. I think this is the most obvious problem. Standing for long periods isn't an option.

However, i am quite pleased with the head. But i must make a cleft in the forehead.

Very long necks.

I found this lovely thing: it was an ice-sculpture and instalation of a Polar Bear for the WWF which traveled the world a couple of years ago. When it first appeared in Copenhagen, nobody knew that when the ice melted it would reveal an inner bronze sculpture of a Polar bear skeleton.

And here is Knut, the Polar Bear celebrity of Berlin Zoo. He became famous, beloved and caused controversy as he was rejected by his mother, Tosca (an ex-circus performer) along with his brother, and was hand-reared mostly by a devoted keeper Thomas Dorflein. Tosca left the cubs on a rock. Knut's brother died 4 days later and sadly Knut only made it to the age of 5 years. One has to wonder whether Tosca knew somehow that her offspring were physically weak.
  Knut was a star, by all accounts and hopefully encouraged a love of bears in all who saw him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_(polar_bear)

   I must now tweak the pattern and start on the faux-Polar-fur master copy for young Seamus who is not too old for bears. (As if anybody ever is!)