{"id":1225,"date":"2022-05-19T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T08:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radishthegreat.com\/blog\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2022-05-19T13:16:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T11:16:25","slug":"a-bear-named-sample","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radishthegreat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/19\/a-bear-named-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bear Named Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last fall, we were lured to the Deutsche Teddyb\u00e4ren Museum<\/a><\/em>, in Spielzeugstadt Sonneberg<\/a><\/em> (the toy city of Sonneberg) by the world’s biggest teddy bear as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. At 5.3 meters, he’s a big boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That’s a lot of mohair.
September 2021<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The museum is located above the Martin B\u00e4ren<\/a> storefront, a family high-end bear-making company, now in the fourth generation. We didn’t realize this when we set out, but as we go to a lot of brand museums–BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Spam<\/a>–this wasn’t a big deal. Small, but filled with cute vintage dioramas, and a room with a thousand limited-edition models. Keep in mind that Sonneberg is in Thuringia: this toy shop survived four decades of Soviet rule, and the drain of the young people to the West in the early 90s. I am impressed.

They’re really nice bears.

And mohair plus hand-stitched equals expensive bears.

A heady combination of BEARS<\/a>, parsimoniousness<\/a>, and hubris led to the purchase of a “make your own Martin Bear” kit, containing mohair, glass eyes, metal pins to joint the limbs, and a photocopied page of vague directions. The word Nahtzugabe<\/em> (seam allowance) is completely missing, for example.

I am a person who cannot cut into “the good mohair” until I know what I’m doing. And thus Sample was born, my test of the pattern directions in cotton and acrylic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following image, a life-sized scene from the museum, we see how easy it is to make bears! Even bears can do it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What a pleasant workroom! Nobody’s swearing!
September 2021<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lies! We needed four hours to stitch a leg, and a full week to figure out the shape of the head. The air was blue the entire time. You can feel the tension in the Radish workroom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Serial killers and seam rippers.
April 2022<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Eventually a small bear with button eyes and no joints emerged. He is not offended by being called Sample, as many fine bears are named for their origins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He has a certain charm.
May 2022<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Out of morbid curiosity, I introduced him to a bear I made around 1996 (out of a book from the library<\/a>) to see if I’ve improved at all since then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unnamed ancestor with Sample.
May 2022<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I show a touch more sophistication in my pattern and material selection, but remain clumsy. Hrm. (Maybe not so sophisticated<\/a>. Heh.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial killers and seam rippers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,20],"tags":[60,75],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hannele","category-stitching","tag-bears","tag-museums"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t