Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers

Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers
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Monday, December 14, 2015

WIP Custom Order

For Kathy

I will be making a Mother-Daughter set 
from Kathy's family heirloom mink stole




"Mother" bear ... Work In Progress

Friday, December 4, 2015

Custom Teddy for Bonnie



Please CLICK HERE to see more photos of this custom mink teddy


Update:
Bonnie had this special teddy created as a gift to her sister, Jane. I am delighted to know that Jane loves her teddy because she sent me this lovely email:

I had to email you to thank you so very much for making my most memorable bear 
from my mums mink coat !!
I have to say it brought tears to my eyes to see the most beautiful bear !! 

Do you have a shop that one can buy from ? 

Thank you once again
And happy new year !

Thanks Jane 

Sunday, November 22, 2015

WIP for Bonnie

Work In Progress
for Bonnie

This is a continuation from Bonnie's previous order
A Mother-Daughter set using two different minks

Bonnie is now ready for bear #3
I will be using the blond mink to make another "mother" teddy



WIP


Bonnie's previous order

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Fairy mouse

Created for Deb



I have lots of photos of this precious little mouse

Monday, October 26, 2015

Halloween Mice Available for Adoption

Finally!

As usual, I just couldn't stop making my mink mice (still my personal favorites). I was going to just offer one ... then two ... finally three. Just for fun, since it is October, I've given them Halloween props. If you live in the USA your mouse should arrive before Halloween but if delivery takes longer than your little mouse will be ready for all future Halloweens.

Sorry ... all 3 mice quickly found new homes 

Adoption fee $395 plus shipping

Please CLICK HERE to see more photos of the beige mouse 

Adoption fee $425 plus shipping
Because the the unusual mink this mouse is a One Of A Kind

Please CLICK HERE to see more photos of this Crosscut Mink Mouse

Adoption fee $395 plus shipping

Please CLICK HERE to see more photos of this Gray Mink Mouse

Friday, October 9, 2015

WIP ... Halloween Mouse coming soon ...

I just couldn't let Halloween pass by without offering a fun creation with a Halloween theme.
In the past I've offered a Halloween teddy and polar bear ... and, of course, a cat.
I don't think I've ever offered a Halloween mouse.


This mink collar is a recent find from my local monthly Antique Mart. I love the color!
If you look at the tips of the collar you may see that the hairs are shorter and denser.
That is why I decided to use that part of the collar to create a mouse ....
WIP Halloween mouse #1:
This is my WIP mouse from the above collar ...

I've decided to make another mouse after I've finished this one because I know that this one will find a home very very quickly. Both mice will have Halloween themes and I will offer each one for adoption on this blog ... I will send out email announcements to everyone on my General Email List.

Update (Oct 16):


I have this wonderful crosscut mink collar ...


WIP Halloween mouse #2:

Crosscut mink mouse almost finished!
WIP Halloween mouse #3:
Okay ... I love making my mice so much that I just had to make a third ...
this last Halloween mouse will be a gray mouse.

Watch my blog and your emails
for my 3 Halloween mice
that will soon be posted here
for adoption




Adoption fee for mice is $395 USD
The crosscut mink mouse will be a little more, $425 USD because it is definitely a One Of A Kind

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Custom teddy with puppy

For James 
created from his family heirloom mink stole


Saturday, September 12, 2015

Custom "Sister" Teddy Bears

created for Carol and Joe


To see more photos of this custom pair


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Work in Progress
Custom Order #2 for James
I will be creating one teddy from this lovely grey mink stole
using my Custom Teddy Pattern #1


This mink stole is one of my favorites to work with:
wonderful dense hairs and best of all full pelts!

Saturday, September 5, 2015

WIP "Sister Bears"

Custom order for Carol and Joe

I have not been able to work on these teddies for the last few days because they should have been finished by now. Unfortunately I spent all this past week in different doctor's offices with either my mother or my daughter and by the time I got home I was just too exhausted or I had household chores to do. I'm hoping that this weekend I will get more bear-making time because I finished the bodies last week and got the heads started. Now is the most important part: completing the heads.  I'm making them at the same time so I can keep these two sister bears very similar. So far, so good.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Spotted dog ... WIP for Laura

Laura requested a spotted dog from her crosscut mink scraps ... great choice because I love making my spotted dogs! I enlarged my dog pattern to make a dog as large as possible from the remaining scraps. I managed to enlarge my original dog pattern by 30%.


A pile of pattern pieces
As you can see I tried to cut out a mix of black and white.

I still hand sew the entire dog ... this is the most time consuming part ...
but there are so many tricky darts and other areas that need intricate joining
that hand sewing is my only choice.

So far the head is looking great!

 I will be updating as I go  ... so check back again ...

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Custom ... WIP Skunk

Custom order for Laura 

2 skunks from her crosscut mink


I am altering this pattern to make 2 custom skunks from the crosscut mink.
I've enlarged it by 25% and made some other changes.

I am considering using the chevon patterned pelt to use for the tail ... that could be interesting.

 Skunks in real life have many different black and white patterns:



This is such a unique custom order that I will be creating a photo journey of the
creation of these two skunks ... so keep checking back for updates.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Custom Mink Mouse

for Dee ...

Dee decided that her mouse should have ears up ... good decision! So sweet.
More photos posted on the link above.

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Now it's back to Laura's WIP black and white crosscut mink coat custom order ....



This is my "Sweetheart Skunk" ... but in brown and white.
I like this pattern. I could use this pattern and use the crosscut black and white mink pelts to give the skunk random patterns because, as you can see, skunks can have different patterns. I may have to enlarge the pattern .

Laura, just has to decide if she wants a skunk ... or a panda from her black and white pelts.

Striped Skunk



Skunk




Saturday, July 18, 2015

Work In Progress

Laura's cross-cut mink coat to be transformed into ???


Unfortunately most of this coat can not be used to create a teddy or other animal.
 Why? Because the majority of the coat is a chevron pattern where just a small strip is
fur and the largest area is leather.
The leather strips are wider than the fur strips.

Inside of coat ... thin strips of fur and leather sewn together in a chevron pattern.

There are larger pelt areas that can be used: the collar, the cuffs, the shoulders, the upper back.
I will need to cut the coat apart to see how much fur I have to work with




I'm not sure what I will be making using this cross-cut mink.
 I will make some suggestions and Laura will have to decide.
Cutting coat apart:

The body of the coat already makes a nice mink throw!



This is what I have left to use to make a mink creature ...
obviously something black and white.
A panda?
A skunk?
Any other ideas?