Another side of me

Ok so you all know I scrapbook. And I love doing stuff crafty. I'm making ribbon angels now for the family which BTW are coming out pretty damn cool if I do say so myself. I have made wooden angels -- yep doing my woodwork on my band saw. I have painted Santas made of peanut resin. But I also used to make bears -- yes teddy bears with movable arms and legs. That's where my "joints" are now adays!!! Ha, ha!!! That always gets everyone's attention!!! The joints are made up of hex screws, with fender washers, and locking bolts. There is a buffer in between the fender washer and the material of the arm/leg/body of the bear so as not to rub a hole in the material. And to assemble the joints, that is done with MY own set of tools of course. The bears are sewn normally from different types of fur, i.e., mohair, alpaca, polyester, cotton, etc. However, some special bears are made from wool coats, linings of rain coats, bedspreads, suits, and other materials that might be special to certain recipients. I have even made bears out of a wool suit and dressed them in the lining of the suit via a vest or hat. I named them Memory Bears because when you receive them they make you remember the memories of the special person.

For example, there are pictures here of the bear that I made for my mother-in-law when my father-in-law died fifteen years ago. Why do you ask am I bringing this up right now???? Well I am now the privileged owner of the bear. The family decided that they wanted the little bear to come back to it's maker to enjoy too. You see when Chief died, we took his London Fog coat and I took out the fur lining. There was just enough to make two normal size bears for my two nieces -- his granddaughters Kaycee and Karlee. There was not enough to make bears for the rest of us, namely his two grandsons (who probably never would have admitted that they wanted bears anyway) and the three sons---not even considering the daughter's in law or his wife. So because my MIL was so sad that she didn't get her own bear, I caved in and took the little bit of fur that remained from the left over bears and constructed a head and hands and feet. The rest of this little bear is made from one of Chief's ties. Yes, a tie. A striped tie nonetheless which some of the seams stripes were actually matched. What am I crazy you ask? Well yes I am. I didn't like the way the tie met the fur so I added ribbon with beads all hand sewn on the body of the bear on each arm and each leg making it look like he's in his pj's. There is a bow around his neck with a ruffle. Well little did I know that my MIL would have wanted to call this bear "Ern" after her Ernie who we all called Chief (because that's who he was ... our chief). Well when I gave Cec the bear the first question was "Why is Ernie wearing ribbons and beads? He never would have worn ribbons and beads. He was a man's man!!" I said that he would wear anything that looked good on him and from that moment on, she wouldn't let go of the bear. He sat in a place of honor in her home, usually in the front window on top of a flower planter she loved. When she passed, her sons asked me if I wanted the bear and I jumped at the chance to hold on to the bear for a little while. So enjoy the pics as you can see the handy work on the bear. I guess that's why my license plate is "BEARCRZ" to show you just how crazy for bears that I am!!!
















Check out the stripes and hand sewing. Next he's sitting on my keyboard at work. Oops supposed to be workin but guess I'm not really getting much done!!!


Well ya all take care now.










Bear Hugs to you all,
KTTTT.....