Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers

Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers
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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.