Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers

My world has turned upside down ...

2022-02-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I have NOT purposely been ignoring my work emails ... I just have not had the time or the internet connections for this past year.

With the sudden death of my best friend (on Feb 5, 2021) my life has changed drastically !!!!!!

I went from a world of making my mink custom teddy bears to: constant traveling, banks, investment bankers, plumbers, electricians, contractors. lawyers and so much more. I have spent the majority of this past year traveling back and forth to care for my best friend's cottage. It is in a lovely little artsy coastal town with spotty and sometimes no internet connection. I have spent very little time on the computer over the past year except for legal matters. My friend's estate will not be settled for at least one more year!

I have not had any time to work on any of my teddy bears for almost a year. I honestly don't know when I will find time to work on my teddies again. I am in the process of moving to that "artsy" little town with the spotty internet connection because it is so blissfully peaceful and beautiful. I am moving mostly all of my minks into storage along with most of my belongings. I have limited space in my best friend's hillside beach cottage so I have to drastically downsize. This is not how I had planned to retire but Life has other plans for me.

This is not the only MAJOR life change for me and my family because my beautiful daughter is pregnant ... with TWINS. These will be my first grandchildren !!!!!!!!!! I am OVER-THE-MOON happy. I feel so very blessed.

So what will become of my Teddy Bear Business? At this point I do not have a clue. At this moment all I know this that I have to stop updating my blog because I have to write checks to cover bills on my friend's estate then I have to go to several banks to deal with my friend's accounts that are now in Probate. It's never ending .......

Order 20 Completely finished ... finally!

2021-04-24T16:14:00.001-07:00

I had to look back through my older posts to see how long it took me to finish this order. I started it February 8, 2020. That was JUST before the pandemic locked my Southern California family down. I remember using my sewing machine to make lots of face masks (instead of teddies) in the first few months of the pandemic.

While this order of 8 teddies is one of my largest orders it is hard for me to believe that it took me over a year to complete ... until I remind myself that it was during the Pandemic Lockdown and we were focusing on more important things (like finding toilet paper to buy).

The first four teddies were delivered months ago ... so here are the last four:

This is the very last teddy of Order 20. This teddy is special because it is the 4000th teddy that I have completed since I started making teddies in 1988.

Correction ... I was just sending out my Pay Pal invoice and I was listing the teddies and I saw that I miss numbered this last teddy. Well, that just goes to show you how unsettling this year has been for me. I apparently picked up the wrong numbered tag when I was sewing this teddy. Even though it is 300 teddies away from #4000 this teddy will forever be a miss numbered teddy in honor of the chaos that this year has been so far and 2021 will probably continue to be insane for the remainder of this year (at least until I can completely settle my friend's estate).

The lining of the mink coat had pretty velvet ribbon. The coat had beautiful buttons. So I combined the two to create lovely little collars. There was enough to make a collar for all eight teddies.

I used the part of the lining with the name to make a memory pad to display with one of the teddies. I added the pretty buckle that was part for the mink belt. This part of the lining had the pocket and so I left the pocket accessible so you can hide little treasures in the pocket.

There were 4 big buttons and 4 smaller buttons.

These are the other three teddies that I completed earlier:

As you can see each one has its own unique personality.

Each teddy has glass eyes and hand stitched nose. The pads are from the lining. There are 6 joints including a double jointed neck that allows for

a darling head tilt when twisted ... it can also look either up or down with a twist. There is also wire in the limbs that can be gently bent to allow for special display movement.

Thank you, Donna, for your extreme patience. I hope these teddies were worth the wait and that you and your family will love and treasure them for many years.

Finally ... the LAST teddy for Order #20

2021-04-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

I will be honest ... this has been the most difficult time in my life. I thought I was blessed last year because I everyone that I know who got Covid survived. Now this year I lost my best friend unexpectedly to a probable heart attack, a dear friend and neighbor lost his beloved sister to Cancer, and just last week we lost our nephew also to Cancer. Too much death has overwhelmed me.

But as the saying goes: "Nevertheless she persisted".

And here it is... the last teddy!!! It was a long time coming. I think I have been working on Order #20 through the entire Pandemic.

I just have a few little details to complete and hopefully these teddies will start their journey to their forever homes by the end of this week.

Finally!

The saddest beginning to this New Year ...

2021-03-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

David

Farewell to my very best friend for over 50 years.

My dear friend died suddenly in early February .

I am his best friend and only family so he gave me the legal rights to arrange his burial. He will be buried tomorrow but because of Covid I will not be able to attend his final journey. So sad. He also gave me the legal rights to settle his Estate ... which is complicated ... and probably will not be settled completely for a year or more. This will be my last act of love and friendship that I can do for my dear friend.

To say that I have been nearly paralyzed with grief, shock and confusion would be an understatement.

But knowing that he will be laid to rest according to his final wishes has been a great relief to me. I feel like I am finally able to breathe again, sleep again, eat again, and just function in general.

***********************************************************************************

As for my Teddy Bears I will still be making them since creating them has always been like therapy for me. But to be honest I have been going through the grieving process and I don't want to make any decisions about when I will be retiring my business until I can think clearly again ... until then I will continue to (slowly) make my little teddies.

***********************************************************************************

It's a NEW YEAR ... 2021 !!!

2021-02-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

We all hope that this year will be better than 2020.

This is my dog Watson and my New Year's card ...

I have not updated my Custom Teddy Work In Progress for Order #20 in a long long time. To be perfectly honest I just had to "take a break" from all the craziness in our world of insane politics, this deadly pandemic, and also my seasonal allergies and my very sore fingers from arthritis. How did I take a break when I never leave my house? I love old old movies especially Fred Astaire and The Thin Man series. I also currently have been watching a lot of Tiny House Nation series... probably because I live in a small house and their storage ideas are sometimes really clever.

Well, today the sun has returned to Southern California long enough that I was able to do a little gardening and take a few photos of the last teddy that I made for Order #20:

I LOVE these last three teddies that I made for Order 20. Each one has such a charming personality.

I have just one more teddy and this order will be complete. The last teddy I have to make from from Step One (cutting out the pattern and attaching it to the pelt) ... so this will take a while. Just a little more patience and then I will be moving on to Order #21 which is Susan's mink stole that I will transform into 2 teddies using Pattern #1 (which is the same as the pattern here).

Work In Progress: Order #20

2020-10-17T16:57:00.010-07:00

This Order is for Donna (8 custom teddies):

Please click here to see the teddies that I have completed so far for this order

I have 3 more teddies on my work table for Order #20. They will all be my standard teddy pattern.

The pattern pieces were cut out.

Then I had to cut the seam allowance around every pattern piece.

I try to do as much machine sewing as I can to keep my fingers from hurting ... usually that's most of the body, and the limbs. I ALWAYS sew the head by hand and all of the smaller pieces.

UPDATE 10-28-2020

I will be completing one teddy at a time

Here is the first one:

sewing almost finished ...

My Pandemic Pumpkin for Halloween ...

a local Real Estate Agent dropped off pumpkins to every house in the neighborhood, so I had to do something with it.

Here is the headless teddy ...

Update: Nov 1

And here is the head ...

next it my favorite part: giving the teddy a face with lots of personality.

Update: Nov 6

I LOVE this little face!

Just need to finish stuffing and attach the ears ... then its on to the next teddy.

Update: Nov 8

This is the first of three teddies for Donna.

When I finish these three I will check the remaining pelt to see if there is enough left for one more teddy.

Now I will start the second teddy. It is partially completed. I need to do the hand sewing, jointing, stuffing next.

Nov 14, 2020

Teddy #2

body ready for the head (which needs to be constructed)

Update: Nov 20

I LOVE this little face too!!!

These teddies decide for THEMSELVES what their personalities are to be. I do all the same steps that I always do, and have done for the past 30 years, yet it is ALWAYS a wonderful surprise to see what they actually look like. This one is adorable with a lovely youthful face.

Here it is attached to the body.

Now I just have to add the ears.

Update: Nov 22

Teddy #6 is finished!

Sweet face 💕

Update: Dec. 5

Teddy #7 waiting for it's head

Update: Dec 12

Once again ... so happy with this head. Sweet!

NOT-MINK teddies

2020-10-06T14:38:00.001-07:00

I've been having some fun and making myself some not-mink teddies (click the link to take a look) ... or there is a photo link on the right side of this page on my Blog for my "NOT-MINK TEDDIES" that you can check at any time.

Custom Order 20: first four teddies finished

2020-09-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

Donna's order is half way finished. Of the seven teddies requested I have finished the two Mother-Daughter sets. I think they are beautiful!

I am now working on the last 3 teddies. They are all cut out and I am currently working on the sewing.

I will be contacting Donna to arrange shipping these completed teddies (probably via FedEx since that is how she shipped her coat to me). No point in them sitting here with me when she could be enjoying them.

Work in Progress ... plus a new teddy pattern

2020-08-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Daughter teddies :
Bodies finished and jointed
Heads and necks jointed
Now I need to work on the all important face.

I have not been getting much accomplished lately due to the heat wave here. We are only about a 20 minute drive to the coast so we don't have an air conditioner in our little house ... we don't usually need one unless we have the (what used to be) rare HOT day or days. Well, last week was sooooo hot! And our California Fire Season is no longer just a season but it is all the time. None of the current fires are near my location but it still effects the air quality. Well, I've been having headaches and one day it was a migraine. Oddly while dealing with my aching head all I could think of is "I need to make myself a new teddy". LOL. So I did.

This is a new pattern that I drew out. I wanted a chubby little teddy that fit in the palm of my hand.

I wanted to make a teddy that took just one day and not several days or weeks like my mink teddies. So I went through my mohair and alpaca storage boxes and found a scrap of alpaca (my favorite). I drew out a pattern that fit the size of the scrap piece.

I used wool felt for the paw pads which I hand painted.

I took these photos first and that's went I decided that it needed some paint ... seemed a little uninteresting without the paint.

I used to use the mohair and alpaca fabrics to work out my new pattern ideas simply because fabric is faster, less messy, and more fun to use for teddies. Am I going to try this pattern in mink? Probably not because I designed the pattern for fabric not pelts.

I'm quite pleased with the one-day teddy that I made to add to my personal collection.

Forced to change my shipping provider

2020-08-25T12:22:00.002-07:00

For the past 30 plus years I have been safely shipping my teddies through the United States Postal Service with absolutely no problems. Now there is a new Postmaster General and since he has been the head of the USPS I have had several packages gone missing. I reported each one (after waiting over a week past their expected delivery date). I was always given a Confirmation Number for each of my Missing Mail reports ... but I never received any follow-ups. One package finally arrived almost a month late. The package pictured above just arrived today August 25 and as you can see in the last photo it was shipped July 15 (from my neighborhood pharmacy, so the expected deliver was July 16). So that is well over a month late. I have one other package that stopped tracking on July 14 and I will probably never receive that one. My daughter also received a package a month after it's expected delivery date.

Therefore, from now on my teddies will be shipped either by UPS or FedEx.

By the way, I did go back to my pharmacy after waiting 2 weeks because I was running out of my prescription medication and they kindly replaced the order... and told me that the problem I had with USPS was becoming a common one for their pharmacy.

UPDATE: a few days after I posted this the package that never arrived suddenly started tracking at my local post office. I received an email notice that it was to be delivered that day. I was home all day and never received it. Then I received another email notice to say that the package was delivered to my front porch (with the time of delivery). Well, I checked my front porch camera and sure enough ... no one came to my door at that time. UUUGH! I was hoping that whoever received my package would return it ... but people are not as nice as they used to be.

Well, that just reinforces my decision NOT to ship my teddies via USPS until there is a new Postmaster General and department starts running smoothly again.

Work in Progress for Custom Order 20

2020-02-08T12:55:00.001-08:00

For Donna

This is the Family Heirloom full length very very dark brown mink coat.

It is beautiful!

It has wonderful detailing, like these buttons.

The teddies from this coat should be exquisite.

The lining has beautiful velvet ribbon detailing.

I LOVE the buttons!

They will definitely go home with the teddies to wear.

The only problem with very very dark colored mink is that visually some of the details that I traditionally do on my teddies, like the hand-painting and the black glass eyes, won't be as noticeable. In fact, on these teddies I won't hand paint their faces because you would not be able to see it.

This is the backside of the pelts and they look to be in great condition.

Hopefully I will be able to find 2 Mother-Daughter sets and 3 - 11 inch teddies hiding in this coat. That is a total of 7 bears. I am not anticipating any problems with finding that many but I won't know for sure until I cut out and then lay out the lining-pattern pieces for all 7 teddies.

Feb 15 UPDATE:

Each teddy requires 31 pattern pieces

I have prepared 217 pattern pieces for all 7 teddies

Next step is to:

(1) take the coat apart

(2) lay out all of the pattern pieces on the mink pelts

AT THIS POINT I WILL KNOW IF THERE ARE ENOUGH

USEABLE PELTS FOR SEVEN TEDDIES

(3) gently glue each pattern piece down

I plan on cutting out and completing one teddy at a time.

UPDATE

APRIL 29, 2020

Well, here we all are ... in a PANDEMIC !!!

So it should come as no surprise that I have been totally distracted from making teddies.

My daughter has Cystic Fibrosis and while she is doing quite well at the age of 32 there is no question that her lungs are fragile and this virus would definitely be fatal to her. And since both my husband and I are seniors we are also high risk. We live in Los Angeles county which has been a hard hit hot spot for Covid-19 with over 1000 people dead and many thousands testing positive including some of our neighbors. So we have been staying home and having all of our groceries and other essential items delivered. We wear our masks and gloves when we do HAVE to go out. We even wear our masks to walk our dogs in the neighborhood. We have resigned ourselves to this being our life style for the next year or two ... fortunately we are all very happy Home-bodies who love being home! We love to read, work around the house and garden, and we all have hobbies. I have been enjoying getting back to my first love of drawing and painting. Being home is our Happy Place, so my little family is content.

Now the update on this large custom order:

I had to wait for a warm sunny day to work outside because this part is very messy.

The photo above is the coat cut open and the lining removed.

It took a couple of days to glue the pattern pieces of all 7 teddies to the pelts.

Then I started cutting out each mink pattern piece ... that took another couple of days.

Then the weather turned bad again with wind and rain but I managed to get everything cut out before I had to stop working outside.

I will be working on two teddies at a time.

This is the box full of the rest of the pattern pieces ... 5 more future teddies.

I think I managed to get all this completed by the end of March. And here we are now at the end of April and I have not touched the teddies yet this month because everyday living just got in the way. My cat got sick and required several trips to the vet and daily treatments 5 times a day. She is fine now. The great sunny Southern California weather has finally arrived which means that I spend most of my time in my beloved garden where there is always something that needs tending to. And then there are the masks that are now required here in California. Of course, I started making them for every member of my family. I tried several different patterns until I found a couple of styles that we all liked. Now I am making a wardrobe of masks for my family since we will be mask wearers from now on ... during the pandemic for sure and then during the annual flu season ... from now until forever because it just seems like common sense to us now.

I am making masks from whatever fabrics I could find around my studio so the masks are quite colorful since those are the fabrics that I collected over the years.

I have 3 dogs and a cat and I will be doing a portrait of each during my time of home isolation. This is a portrait of Marnie our crazy Jack Russel-mix who is our three-legged wonder dog. Our family has a soft spot for "handicapped" dogs after living 19 years with a poodle that was born without eyes.

Okay, that my update on both myself, my family, and this current order. What's next with this order?

I need to trim the seam allowance around each and every pattern piece.
I will machine sew the large pieces like the body and arms and legs
I will hand sew the smaller pieces like the head, ears, paw pads.
Turn the pieces inside out
insert the joints

I will post photos of these steps as I go along ... I will be working on the teddies 2 at a time.

May 6 Update

1. I hand-trimmed a 1/8 to 1/4 inch seam clearance around each pattern piece

2. I clipped together each piece to prepare for machine sewing. I used to completely hand sew each and every teddy that I made because that gave me the best control over the all important stitching. But now that I have arthritis in my fingers I machine sew the larger limbs and hand sew the head and smaller pieces.

3. machine sewing finished.

Update May 31, 2020

Well, hand sewing takes the longest because I do it slowly with lots of breaks due to the arthritis in my fingers ... but I finally finished sewing the first two teddies.

Next steps:

clean up the seam lines
turn the pieces inside out
joint the pieces
stuff the teddies

I also finished another colored pencil portrait. This is my best buddy Watson.

(To see more of my drawings and sculptures you can click on the link with the dragon photo on the right side of this blog page)

UPDATE: July 3

Bodies sewn, jointed, and limbs stuffed

Head stuffed with neck attached

inserted eyes and embroidered nose

Looking really good so far !!!

As you can see black fur teddies with black eyes and black nose is very hard to photograph.

Actually black fur is very hard to work with because I can not see the details as I am working... but they always turn out beautifully elegant.

UPDATE JULY 23

I have already started on the companion daughter bears for these two mother bears:

I finished cutting out all of the mink pattern pieces for all of the teddies

Black mink is hard to photograph and see all of the details because I use only natural light

(I no longer have space to set up a photo area with correct lighting in my tiny house)

This photos shows a little better how elegant black mink is with its undercoat of rich chocolate brown .... delicious!!!

I am now repeating all of the steps for the "daughter teddies" to accompany these mother bears.

Finally finished Custom Order #19

2020-02-04T15:44:00.002-08:00

For Mary Jo

I appreciate Mary Jo and all of my collectors who are so patiently waiting for me to complete their custom teddies.

To see lots of photos of these teddies

please click here

WIP Custom Order #19

2019-10-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

for Mary Jo

This custom order is for 3 teddies. This is a long shawl and it looks like I should be able to find three teddies hiding in it. One from Pattern 1(mother bear), the next from Pattern 2 (mother bear) and the third from Pattern 1 but this last teddy will have to be my smaller version (daughter bear).

It was requested that there be an initial from the shawl on each teddy foot pad and I will see if they fit.

I will be updating this post with my Work In Progress photos of this three teddy order ... so please check back to see as the teddies are being created.

My first step is to finish taking the shawl apart.

Next, I will make my cotton pattern lining for each teddy.

Then, I will lay out and attach the lining to the pelt ... it is at the end of this step when I will know for sure if I have enough pelt for two mother teddies and one daughter teddy.

Right now, the only thing I know for sure is that I will have absolutely no room for error. I will have to double and triple check my teddy layout before I start cutting out the mink teddy pieces.

********************UPDATE ... OCT 22, 2019********************

cut out pattern & lining

prepare mink pelts

attach lining pattern pieces

at this point I've cut out the two larger bears

and I'm hoping that there is enough pelt for the smaller bear

I cut out the small bear pattern & lining

Hooray!!! there was enough pelt for the smaller teddy.

Now I have all three teddies cut out.

The next steps are:

(1) to cut out the seam lining on each pattern piece

(2) to clip the pattern pieces together

(3) to sew the pieces together ... mostly by hand but thanks to arthritis in my fingers I'm going to try sewing also by machine

(4) to clean up the seam lines

(5) to turn each pattern piece

Nov. 6 update

halfway through step 3 (sewing) ...
this is the most time consuming and tedious part
due to the large amount of hand sewing that is required

Dec 8 update

turned and stuffed

jointing together

first teddy with head attached

😟😟😟 Sorry, I was delayed again from my bear-making because my poor sister had to go in for surgery. So I spent a couple of days at the hospital with her. Happy to say that her surgeries were a success but she will be recovering for at least 2 months so I will be helping her when needed.

In the meantime, I can get back to these teddies who are near completion: they need to have their bodies stuffed and sewn up, their ears sewn on, and the hand-painting on their muzzles. I used a different heavier embroidery thread on their noses so I will not be waxing their noses. Last I will see if I can get the initials to fit on their paw pads.

😫😫😫😫😫😫😫😫 Update: Jan. 21, 2020 😫😫😫😫😫😫😫

Obviously I did NOT finish these teddies before Christmas ... or before New Years. What can I say? It was the Holidays and I just didn't find any time to work on the teddies. I had high hopes at the beginning of the year that I would be able to get back into my teddy routine. But then my dog suddenly got sick and even with several tests they could not find a reason. After a week or so of medications he was better. But I still wanted to know why he suddenly had tummy troubles so I did some research and I'm convinced that he accidently ate some toxic plants (that I had no idea were toxic if eaten). So I spent the next few days changing my garden (thankfully I have all my plants in containers). All of my toxic plants are now out of reach of my pets.

At this point I expected my problems were out of the way. Nope. Now it was the cat's turn to go to the vet. She has kidney stones. Smooth sailing yet? Not a chance ... now a cold virus is knocking off the members of my family. Not all together but one by one. As soon as one person starts feeling better another gets sick. Last week it was my turn.

As luck would have it just as I was starting to feel better the plumbing in our old house decides to become a major problem. AAAUGH!!!!! Well, we are currently in the middle of a major plumbing overhaul with old pipes going out and new pipes coming in. I won't mention the expense because its all too depressing.

Believe it or not, I did get some work done on these teddies, despite the chaos. I need to take some photos but they are finished except for the final detail painting and seeing if I can put the initials on the paw pads. Wish me luck.

This is a quick photo of the bears, all completed except for their final detailing. That is our little 3-legged Marnie who thinks that she always needs to be the center of attention. She saw me putting the bears on the chair and just had to join them.

Custom Order #18

2019-10-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, this Custom Order took a long long long time to complete due to my home renovations ... I am still not finished with my house "To Do" list; nevertheless, I am trying to get back to working on my teddies. Of course, trying to find the time to get back to my Bear Making Routine is harder than I ever expected. I am also trying to find the time to get back to my First Love of drawing, painting, and sculpting but there just isn't enough time in the day.

To see more photos of these teddies

please click here

NEVER leave your dog in a hot car !!! I just watched 2 dogs die...

2019-09-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

I was on my way home from the art supply store and had no plans on stopping by my favorite thrift store (to look for things I could use on my hummingbird water fountain) but I thought I would make it a fast stop. It's a small store so I was only in there a few minutes but just as I was leaving a frantic woman came rushing into the store screaming that she had left her dog locked in her car while she was shopping and she could not get into her car. I just happened to be parked next to her so I ran to her car window to see a pit bull obviously dead from the heat. I don't know where her keys were but she picked up a huge rock and started throwing it at her window to try to break it ... it wouldn't break. I went to my glove box in my car and found the "window breaker" that my daughter had given me at least 15 years ago ...

to my surprise, one hit with this little thing and her window shattered! The woman came and pulled her dog out of the car (right onto the broken glass ... it had been dead so long that it's legs were already stiff). I'm screaming at her not to pull her dog into the broken glass. Next thing I know she is going into the back seat of the car and pulled out another dog (I had only seen one dog so I was surprised to see a second pit bull). She pulled it across the pavement and tossed it onto the grass (poor dog hit it's head on the big rock that she had tried to break the window with ... so I'm screaming at her to stop). Then she runs back towards the thrift store and I'm trying to give the dog chest compressions because I can see that it is not dead yet. So the woman comes back with a garden hose and starts spraying the dog with water ... I'm screaming at her again to stop because I was afraid that the dog would go into shock. She did stop, so I had her do the chest compressions and talk to the dog. The police arrived (3 or 4 cars), a police officer took over the chest compressions and another woman came to help him but the dog died. Animal control arrived. And the paramedics arrived, the woman was a complete wreck by now and needed medical attention.

I was there for about 2 hours since I was the main witness, I broke her window, and tried to revive the dog. I had to give my information to several officers. The woman told the police that she was only in the Thrift Store for 20 minutes and she swears that she left the air conditioner on in the car for the dog (all the windows were up and the car was locked). She was blaming the dogs by saying that they must have turned it off somehow. The store volunteers that were outside watching told me that she was in store about 2 hours (yes, they told the officers the truth about the time). The animal control officer told me that they could do testing on the animals to see the temperature that they died from and then they would be able to charge her with a crime depending on what they found.

Two beautiful dogs lost their lives in a horrible painful way ... for no reason.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NEVER LEAVE YOUR DOGS IN YOUR CAR ... NOT EVEN FOR A FEW MINUTES.

I have a studio!!! I'm finally getting back to work ...

2019-08-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well, after my last post ... way back in May ... I found that I was much too optimistic about finding the time, space, and supplies to work on my mink teddies. It has taken me this long to finish building my storage cabinets, unload and sort through my supplies (bear making supplies, drawing and painting supplies, sculpting supplies, airbrush supplies, silk painting supplies, wood burning supplies ... and other various arts and crafts supplies). Then I had to organize a space for each and label their location. Of course, after filling all of my storage spaces I then had to decorate the doors. Yes, my studio is full but it is organized.

I had maybe 3 or 4 times as much before the reorganization. I made multiple trips to make donations. And I filled 11 trash bags ... yes, eleven ... full of scraps of mink that I had been holding onto for the past 30 years. Even with getting rid of all that I still have a closet full of mink stoles and coats for future teddies.

The arthritis in my fingers has been bothering me from the stress of building and moving things. So I decided to get back into teddy making gradually by finishing some mohair teddies that I found in my old storage boxes (working with mohair is so much easier than mink pelts).

I also need to figure out a new place to do my photo shoots ... this is my first attempt at a new location indoors with two lights set up:

These are the mohair teddies that I have completed recently. They range in size from two inches to eight inches. The two light colored teddies in the middle are my designs and the others were unfinished bears from teddy bear conventions ... I would sign up for classes taught by other artists but I would spend most of my class time socializing instead of bear making. That resulted in a box full of unfinished teddies but I always had a good time because it was something to do until the showroom opened and I had to go to work selling my teddies.

One wall of my studio

The opposite wass of my studio

My desk with the same two custom teddies from my last post still waiting to be finished.

I share my studio space with my cat, Gypsy.

My unplanned hiatus from teddy bear making...

2019-05-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Fortunately, unlike my previous unplanned breaks from making my teddy bears (those were for illnesses or injuries), this hiatus was due to ... if you are a homeowner you will understand when I say "home renovation". I had no idea that it would be a total disruption to our normal routines and a major decluttering of our house. Well, if it was "just" a house it would have been easier but it is also my studio/work area.

Needless to say home renovations are exhausting. After a day of decluttering, making many trips to my favorite Thrift stores to make donations, cleaning, painting, repairing, and reorganizing I typically fall asleep as soon as I sit down. We had some minor construction done to our house so our decluttering was on a deadline, so I had to stop working on my bears and start moving furniture and lots of clutter away from our walls before the professionals arrived. Since we live in sunny Southern California I brilliantly moved half of the contents of my workroom in the backyard ... so, of course, we are getting rained on ... rain!!! we used to be in a drought. Anyway, I could go on and on but I finally found the supplies I need to finish the detailing on these two teddies. I actually got them to this point over a month ago and they have been patiently waiting to be completed ever since. My sincere apologies to their future owner for the very long delay.

To be perfectly honest, all of this home renovation has become so stressful that I am really looking forward to carving out some time to work on my teddies because I find it calming and relaxing.

Custom Order #18 ... Work In Progress

2019-02-09T15:03:00.002-08:00

For Cathy

I have two mink garments to work from. While they are both brown the jacket is just a little lighter shade of brown. The original request was for two teddies but the pattern choice was left up to me ... of course, if you leave it up to me I will make one of each. So I need to verify with Cathy if she has a preference on the pattern and if she wants me to use both minks or just one. If I use just one I prefer to use the stole because the pelt is solid which is gives a smoother look to the teddies.

I'm starting on the fabric pattern while I wait for Cathy's reply ....

I got a quick reply from Cathy and she decided that she would like two teddies from Pattern #2 and if possible to use the stole for both.

UPDATE

I cut up the stole

and I was wrong ...

it isn't a solid pelt afterall.

As you can see it is a lot of little strips of mink sewn together.

It is a small stole so, at this point, I'm not sure that here is enough pelt for two teddies.

When I lay out the pattern I have to be aware of the direction that the hairs grow.

I can't hardly believe it but I managed to get all the pattern pieces on the stole's small pelt ... just barely. I had to switch some pieces in order to make everything fit. It was like putting together a puzzle.

Next, I have to cut out each piece. Then I have to trim the edges around each piece. This can be very messy ... I work over a trash-can to try to catch most of the scraps.

each piece has been cut out

I cut the seam allowance around each piece.

Now I can start sewing.

Just a side note: I was hoping to work on this order on a regular schedule (hopefully daily) ... but life gets in the way ... recently both my daughter and son-in-law were very sick with the flu. Fortunately, they both had their flu shots this year so my son-in-law recovered in less than two weeks. Unfortunately, since my daughter has Cystic Fibrosis she ended up with pneumonia and is currently on strong IV antibiotics. Since she has a port-a-cath in her chest she did not have to go into the hospital ... so I put on my mommy-nurse hat and I help with her infusions 5 times a day. And if that wasn't enough, my cat, Gypsy, got sick! I've spent the last two days in the vet's office. She had to have a procedure where she was sedated. She had labs that showed that she has an infection but they were not sure where. So she had to have an ex-ray today that showed that she had kidney stones. Well, $800 later, I finally went home with Gypsy, new cat food to help dissolve the stones, and antibiotics. Whew!!! Sorry, if this order is taking longer than I wanted but ... life gets in the way.

Lots of hand-sewing! Both teddies are sewn and now I have to clean up the seam lines, turn the pieces, prepare the armature, and stuff each piece ...

one bear body ....

two bear bodies ....

two bear heads ....

Custom Mink Twin Teddies

2019-02-06T15:37:00.002-08:00

For Debra (order #17)

to see lots of photos of these teddies

please Click Here

The see me making these teddies just take a look at the post below.

Work in Progress ... Custom Order #17

2018-11-23T12:04:00.004-08:00

For Debra M.

from her family's vintage blond mink stole

to be transformed into 2 custom teddy bears

using pattern #1

(I will also use the name in the lining to make a sitting pad/quilt for the teddies)

I had intended on starting on this order a month ago but I was having trouble with my vision. After several trips to the doctors and a variety of treatments, I am able to see what I am doing again. After 30 years of bear-making I could probably make a teddy with "my eyes closed" but since I am using someone else's mink stole I did not want to risk making a lop-sided bear. So now ... back to work!!!

This is Debra's family mink stole.

I don't have a lot to work with because it is on the small size

with a small collar.

Debra wants to save the embroidered name

so I will make my usual little sitting quilt to display with the teddies.

Unfortunately this mink stole was not the in best condition BUT

fortunately the stole was only falling apart along the seam lines.

The pelt, for the most part, seems to be holding up pretty well.

Of course, the real test comes when the teddy is all sewn together

and I start to stuff it ... I've actually had borderline condition pelts SHRED APART when I start of stuff. Now THAT is frustrating to say the least.

The fur is a very pretty blond color.

Before I lay out my pattern pieces I have to figure out the direction of the hairs.

What I really like about this particular mink stole is that the pelt is solid, as opposed to a lot of little pieces of mink sewn together.

I've deconstructed the mink stole and laid out my pattern pieces. And as I expected I have NO room for error ... there is JUST enough mink pelt for the two requested teddies.

These are the pattern pieces cut out, there about 60 pieces.

Each pattern piece has to have the seam line trimmed about 1/8 inch all around.

Here are all the pattern pieces, organized, trimmed, and

ready to start the hand-sewing.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year holidays ... the holidays definitely got in the way of my sewing schedule. Well, to be honest I did very little sewing over the Holidays ...

But now I'm getting back on track:

all sewn up ... finally

cleaning up the seams

These are the steps that I do next to complete each arm and leg:

stitched arms and legs turned to outside
cotter pin joints added
wire armatures added
stuffed
opening stitched closed with a hidden ladder stitch
turn body to outside
attach completed arms and legs to body with cotter pin joints
stuff head
attach neck
stuff neck
complete head by scissor sculpting face, add glass eyes, embroider nose then wax nose and seal it, finish scissor sculpting face
attach completed head to body
stuff body and close opening with hidden stitches
sew on ears
hand-paint face
do final detailing

Thankfully everyone on my waiting list is very patient ... as you can see each and every mink teddy that I hand-make is very very time consuming.

Well, back to work ...

eyes and nose attached

starting to scissor sculpt the face

This is one little face ...

this is the other.

Now just have to attach the bodies and

do the finishing touches.

All finished!

I also finished to little quilt from the stole's lining with the original owner's name.

Now I just have to finish the final photos of the teddies and I will introduce them in the next post ...

Teddy has a companion puppy ...

2018-10-24T16:14:00.001-07:00

Custom Teddy #15 finally has a puppy as a companion:

It has been a few years since I've made a Teddy-Puppy set and I'm remembering why I designed them ... because they are absolutely ADORABLE!!!!

Someday I'm going to have to make myself one of these sets ... someday.

To see more photos and a description of this wonderful pair please

CLICK HERE

Puppy for Custom Teddy #15

2018-09-30T15:05:00.002-07:00

I had originally (before I restricted my Custom Work to teddies only) promised a companion puppy with Custom Teddy #15...

They did not have a contrasting colored mink stole to send me for the puppy so I will be using one of my light colored mink stoles.

"Companion Puppy"

As you can see in the photo above,

I designed my puppy to be smaller than my teddy bear.

Due to the small size I need to find a mink with short dense hairs

and a full pelt (and not the typical mink with pelts that are

sewn together in tiny strips)

This is the mink that I found in my supplies ... it is beautiful!

it is a very pale beige ... or possibly an ivory color.

it has beautifully dense hairs.

and best of all, it is a full pelt.

I have to mark the direction of the growth of the
mink hairs on the back of the pelt ...
then I have to lay out the pattern accordingly.

I have no doubt that I purchased this mink stole with the intention of it becoming a series of pandas ... or polar bears ... and with the remainder of this stole, after this puppy, I will be looking forward to finding some time to making more pandas or polar bears or mice or bunnies with this beautiful mink stole.

*** Update ***

30 little pattern pieces, cut out and trimmed

... ready for hand sewing ...

Teddy is patiently waiting for it's puppy to be finished. It is getting closer: it is in 3 pieces now (rather than 30). The head, the body with legs, and the neck. The adorable white dog watching me work is my daughter's sweet dog, Tenley ... actually she wants me to STOP working and play ball with her instead.

I forgot how much work my little dogs and teddies were to create because I can only sew them by hand (the seam allowance is about 1/8 of an inch). Every seam has to be precise or the puppy or teddy will not look symmetrical. It a challenge! I'm pretty sure that is why my teddies started getting larger as I got older. Not that an 11 inch teddy is large but it is large for me because in the 1990s the typical sizes of my mink teddies was between 3 to 8 inches!!!

Custom Order #16 for Pat

2018-09-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Laughing Dog

To see more photos and details

CLICK HERE

A Challenge ... AKA: Custom Order #16

2018-08-01T12:18:00.001-07:00

Work in Progress

for

Custom Order #16

(this should be an interesting WIP to watch progress)

Custom Order #16 comes from my long time friend-collector, Pat. She may live on the other side of the world from me but she has always taken great joy in continually challenging me with her Custom Order requests. And Custom Order #16 is no exception. While I am currently limiting my Custom Order to teddy bears only. Pat personally handed this mink to me way back in 2012 while she was visiting Laguna Beach. My long time friends know that they can request anything (not that I will agree to make it but they can ask). For example, Pat just asked me for a dog ... with teeth. I've never made anything with teeth and don't plan to, so I agreed to make her a dog with an open mouth.

This is what I have to work with:

I have scraps. Originally she gave me a mink stole and asked me to make her a bunny. Which I did but she didn't like the bunny. So someone else adopted it and I kept the scraps until she decided what else she wanted.
It's unlikely that there is enough usable mink scraps for a larger dog so I will use some of my mink.
I won't be able to match the color exactly but hopefully it will be a close match.

UPDATE

This is my pattern of my larger dog
Standing size: 10 inches
Sitting size: 8 inches

Pat wants her dog with an open mouth,

this is an example of one of my smaller (6 inch) dogs.

So I will have to make some adjustments to my 10 inch dog pattern.

These are the scraps that I have to work with from Pat:

I cut out my liner pattern pieces:

In my mink supplies I found a mink that is just a little lighter in color.

As you can see ... I have one of Pat's scraps across the front of my mink.

This is the main reason that I want to use some of my mink ... the pelts from Pat's scraps are little strips of mink sewn together while my mink is a solid pelt.

A solid pelt is much easier to sew by hand. I will use my mink for the head and Pat's mink for the rest of the teddy.

I've got the head cut out and ready for sewing.

It's been a few years since I've tried to make a dog ... even longer since I tried to make one with an open mouth.

So far, so good ...

Custom Order #15

2018-07-31T15:54:00.004-07:00

To see the Work In Progress photos for this teddy

please scroll down to the preceding post.

To see more photos and details of this completed teddy

please click here

I created this teddy for Theresa from her family heirloom mink jacket ...

but she has not responded to any of my emails

so I just mailed her a note

hopefully she will respond because this little teddy is just adorable.

To everyone on my Custom Teddy Work Schedule:

I have a lot of people on my Custom Teddy Work Schedule and making each teddy is very time consuming so it will take a long time to get to each order (which is why I stopped accepting deliveries of the mink garments until I have time to actually work on your order). Please continue to be patient ... and if you move or change your email please let me know, especially if I already have your mink garment.