Bunty

Here is the second bear I’ve made for my cousin Gwyneth. It’s to be a gift for a friend’s young granddaughter ………. and can you guess the little girl’s name? Well done, yes it is ‘Bunty’!

From the first day Gwyneth asked me to make something for Bunty, the only thing that kept coming into my head was the ‘Bunty’ comic I used to read as a girl, together with the Christmas annual, which I awaited eagerly, so that’s where the idea came from. As with ‘Daisy’ (two posts ago), I couldn’t make one of my quirky, vintage style bears for Bunty; as she's quite young, so she is prettier than I prefer to make. I managed to find a copy of an old annual on eBay at a very reasonable price, which I then took loads of photographs of, loaded them on to my laptop and then reduced them way down in size before printing them out. Then it was just (!!!!!) a case of cutting out and gluing together to produce a miniature copy – it isn’t the whole book, but just enough to make it look good – flippin’ hard work though I can tell you!!

Bunty's appears to be enjoying her book - have a peek over her shoulder and see what she's reading!

Anyway, to the detail! All 9 inches of Bunty is made from pretty pink mohair and a contrasting floral fabric for her paw pads. She is 5-way jointed, has black glass eyes and is filled with firm fibre filling and steel shot to weight her. I’ve made a collar trimmed with a bit of lace and finished with silk ribbon, which happily matches the fabrics used – the ribbon was an experiment in hand-dying a while ago. The final touch is a little brooch tied to the ribbon containing a picture of a bear (well what else eh!).

Bunty will be off on her travels to South Wales as soon as I can find a suitable box!