Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers

Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers
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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?


Monday, July 13, 2015

Saturday, July 4, 2015

WIP ... custom order

I am finally working on Laura's custom order!
Laura sent me this collar Feb 2011. Since Laura is a long-time friend she kindly let me by-pass her many times while I was backlogged with orders. Now, after over 4 years, I am finally ready to create something special from her mink collar.

The collar is not very big so whatever I make will be a miniature

It is a pretty color. It is cream with a few areas of tipped beige. The hairs are long so that may be a challenge when working with a miniature.

As with most collars it is a full pelt (as opposed to little strips of mink sewn together). I prefer working with full pelts because they are easier to hand sew as long as the pelt is not too thick. All of my miniatures have to be sewn by hand.
What am I making?
Well, I have a choice because Laura has two ideas:
"Out of the collar we had spoke about a baby mouse but if you look 
at the mink and want to create a bear instead, I love the Vanilla 
Sundae pattern (who I adopted and is one of my absolute favourites), 
which is similar to the little sheared polar bear cub I adopted as 
well.  As it was my Gramma's mink collar, I would love whatever is 
created to be feminine.  She was a farmer's wife but still very much 
a lady, very smart and I can remember her dressed up with pearl 
earrings on her Golden Wedding Anniversary."  

Here are some examples of each:

This is a similar mink in color and length of hair

This is mink but I sheared the hairs because they were too long

Another little mouse

This is "Vanilla Sundae" miniature polar bear. The pelt was ermine rather than mink. Ermine has a very thin pelt and short hairs which makes it perfect for miniatures.

This is a mink polar bear but I had to shear the hairs because they were too long for such a tiny teddy. 

This is an unsheared mink miniature polar bear

Which one will it be?

I think I will have to ask Laura to decide which she would prefer before I cut into Gramma's collar.