Vintage Mink Bears by Kathy Myers: Cashmere and Silk

Cashmere and Silk

My NOT-mink teddy bears:

October 6, 2020 update

These are teddies and other animals that I make when I want to "play" because while I LOVE making teddies making a mink teddy for me is no longer fun because after over 30 years of sewing leather pelts by hand my finger have arthritis and it hurts to make mink teddies. Making mohair and alpaca fabric teddies is just sooooo easy on my fingers that I can still enjoy the creative process.

At this point my family and I have been Sheltering At Home since the first week of March (that's 7 months!). Everyone in my family has a pre-existing condition that makes them high risk to the Covid virus. So we are happy homebodies.

While I have been slowly working on my long list of Custom Orders as soon as my fingers start to ache I have to stop ... so making a mink teddy has become tediously slow. So starting the end of September I decided to make myself a little teddy so I pulled out some mohair pieces that I've had in storage for 20 to 30 years and I made one bear then another and another ... I just couldn't stop. I even ordered more mohair and alpaca fabric from Intercal Mohair. These are the results of 2 or 3 weeks of continuous bear making:

these are my unfinished pieces

this was the last teddy that I made and it is my favorite

teddies in color are so much fun

all of the teddies that I make are small

I bought this tipped fabric nearly 30 years ago and it was always my favorite ... I was happy to find a little left in my storage box.

This is from another very old piece of mohair that I had in storage. Very tiny teddies are my personal favorites to make and collect.

I wanted to make a cubby baby teddy ...

I found this mohair yardage in my supply box and had some fun with it. I tried 3 different teddy styles :

I had lots of fun with this one because it was a little pattern that I found on Pinterest and I was curious as to what it looked like completed ... I have always designed my teddies from "the inside out" because I envision patterns (not completed teddies). And because of that I never know what the teddy will actually look like until it is completed

Even though I did not design this little guy I only had the pattern and did not know what it was suppose to look like.

I think he is adorable.

I liked the head of the previous teddy and I designed a different body and arms and legs.

Soooo cute!

This is a new fabric that I just ordered from Intercal. It is a wonderful dense alpaca. I love it because I can scissor sculpt it just like my mink.

Have you noticed something else new? I started hand sculpting the noses. I love my new sculpted noses!!!! and they are so much fun to make.

I needed to make a bunny ... a blue bunny ... it makes me happy.

This one was the last one that I made ... a blue panda. I love this panda!

Sculpted nose

Okay that was FUN ... but now it is back to my Mink Custom Order teddies ....

update on my cashmere experiment ... I am currently not making any cashmere or silk animals ...

This is the page where I will exhibit my cashmere and/or silk menagerie.

I love textiles ... especially silk and cashmere. As a result I have boxes of cashmere sweaters and silk neckties and scarves that I have collected. When I need to take a break from the tedious hand sewing of my mink pelts I will design an animal that I can create from cashmere or silk.

When I do have some of these rare creations available for adoption you will find them listed in either my Etsy or Artfire shops.

My Etsy shop

My Artfire shop

These are a few examples of my Cashmere and/or Silk Creations.

Examples of my animals that were created from cashmere sweaters and the Love Bird was from silk ties and a bit of mink.

To see what is still Available for Adoption in my Cashmere Creations please visit my Artfire shop.