Recycled Fur

I've never made a bear out of real fur; I've always wanted to, but never took up the challenge. I was asked to make bears by my niece from a full-length muskrat coat that belonged to her deceased mother. As I understand it, the five children in the family grew up playing in mom's coat. A couple of weeks ago I got another call from a local lady wanting bears out of a full-length mink. Two real fur coats...I immediately signed up for the Heirloom Bear online class at EbearZ University.

The first step is to take the coats apart and check for tears or bald spots. This is a messy, messy job that must be done outside. As I started taking the mink apart I found lots of little yellow pieces that looked like sawdust. Did you know that real fur professionally cleaned is tumbled in large drums of sawdust? I didn't, not until I checked with Nancy Tillberg. Take a look at her website to see some of the beautiful bears she makes, many of them from recycled fur.

After I calmed down about the sawdust, it took me two days to take the mink apart. It will probably take longer for the muskrat since it has an underlining as well.  Both coats saw a lot of use and were in worse shape than they appeared as whole coats. Today I'm working on a pattern. I'm a little scared to start cutting into someone's special coat, but I'm on it and will let you know how I do.

New Bears Available

Lovey

Charlotte

Three new Waggle Bears are available for adoption. Sadly, they did not find homes during the recent "Be My Valentine" online show. If you have questions, please email me.

Owen



Basic Bear Boot Camp

Here's my finished bear from the EbearZ University online class. Everyone taking the class used the same traditional teddy bear pattern provided in the class. It will be interesting to see how different everyone bear turns out.

Online Bear Class

The past few weeks I've been busy with an online class with EbearZ Univeristy.  Basic Bear Boot Camp is a new class and offered for free...can't beat that price. Class was taught by Nancy Tillberg of Kran-Bearys. You can read all about it at EbearZU blog. I've been making bears for several years but Nancy has  some really great methods and techniques and I learned much easier ways to do some things. I especially enjoyed the videos provided with the written lesson.

If you haven't been by EbearZUniversity in a while, stop by and take a look. She's added many new classes and some new teachers, too.

Finished my bear today and will try to get pictures this week.

My Apologies...

My apologies to my followers and everyone who has visited my blog over the last several months. For some personal reasons, I was unable to maintain my blog. That's about to change. I'm back! I hope you'll still  want to visit my blog in the future.

I've recently completed  two bears and have two more cut out waiting to be put together. I have signed on for the Be My Valentine online show on February 12, 2011. Kind of strange to have things on my calendar that far in the future, but I'm ready to think about those bears, too.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

We are looking forward to spending the holiday with my sister in the

Central Valley, along with nieces, grandnieces, great-grand nieces

and nephews, our daughter and dear friends.

Long Overdue Reunion Update

Thanks to everyone who wrote me a note of interest about my reunion. I suffered a little post-reunion depression when I got home and realized how much I miss my hometown friends. It was like the years hadn't passed at all.

Judi, me, Patty, Toni

It was an outside event at a ranch belonging to a school friend, though not in our class. Even though it was miserably hot that evening, everyone said it was the most fun they've had and a reunion, and I thought so, too.

Friday evening after we arrived at the hotel, Judi and I opened a bottle of wine and invited some classmates staying in the hotel to our room for just catching up. She thought my hair style was doing nothing for me and she brought out the scissors and I told her to have at it. I didn't see what she was doing until she finished but I loved it...thought it made me look younger.

Unfortunately, I went off and left my camera in the room so I've had to depend on others sharing their photos.

And just for fun, the four of us at the last reunion I attended, 1994, the 30-year.
Darlene, Toni, Linda, me

And, to show you what I looked like before Judi cut my hair...what do you think?

And I'm already looking forward to the next one in 2014.