A black nose on a black bear

We've still nutting away on the many custom bears we have on our to-do list this week. One of those bears is a massive 66cm tall black bear in our 'Ace of Spades' long pile faux fur, with blue hand painted eyes. He will be heading to France when he's done. The photo above shows him laid out on the floor with a normal spool of thread by his shoulder to show a size comparison! 

I set his eyes yesterday, then got to work on his nose today while I had day light. I must say I wasn't 100% sure on giving him a black nose on black fur... but I didn't think any other colour would look right. And I wanted the colour in the eyes to be the focal point - so needed the nose to be less obvious. So black thread was the best bet. The photo above shows the foundation stitches. (yes, I stitch my noses upside down!) This acts as my 'template' - marking out the size and shape of the nose that will suit the bear's face.

I then follow that template with layers of evenly-tensioned stitches. I stitch the first layer slightly smaller then I want the eventual nose - building it up slowly. This will give a nice 3-dimensional effect at the end.

This was the finished nose. The photo below shows the nearly-finished bear fully stuffed and just waiting for seams to be closed surrounded by our rainbow bear 'works in progress'. (all just waiting for their seams to be closed!).

Sewing on a nose

I was recently asked if I could help finish two bears that had been lovingly hand made, but work had stalled on their faces. This is like my ideal situation - all the hard work (cutting, pinning, sewing, jointing, stuffing...) is already done, and I get to focus purely on the face!


Shortly after this discussion, these two cuties arrived in the mail.



I set to work on the little one first. Had to put him down a few times thanks to busy little 'helpers'. But eventually got him trimmed and looking cute.





With a bit of trimming and shading to the big bear as well, we had a funky looking duo on our hands. My 8-month old was particularly partial to the little bear... I think he would have chewed him all up if given half the chance! (mind you, he'd chew anything up at the moment... Obviously 8 teeth aren't enough for one little mouth - more are coming in!).

New Bear - Lukman

Finished another bear. Feels like he was a long time in the making! But i am very happy with him. His name is 'Lukman' which means wise and intelligent. (as much as a bear can be wise and intelligent!) - i think it suits him though. He has such a nice expression on his face! His full listing can be seen at: www.bearpile.com