Learning Journey in USA (Part 3) ~ Lunch with Kelly Dean and visit his studio!

Joanne had specially arranged for us to have a lunch appointment with Kelly Dean! He is currently one of the best realistic bear artist in USA!

L-R: Kelly, Wayne, Joanne and Philip

Kelly is a humble man and we enjoy chatting with him over lunch. We love his stories about the past incidents when he attended various bear shows. Sadly many of the bear artists have retired and we have not heard most of them. Kelly has spent more than 20 years making bears. He enjoys making realistic bears with armatures as these give them movement and ability to pose at various angles. He also shared with us that needle sculpting is not his strength. So to overcome his weakness, he uses multiple pieces of fabric to form the profile to his desired shape. What impresses us is his bear faces typically consist of more than 40 pieces of fabric pattern!

After lunch, we went his studio to take a peek! We were all thrilled like children dashing to meet new friends in a zoo! His works are incredible and huge! We have never expected them to be so huge and heavy! We were so pleased to be the first to hold and hug his latest creations and most of them will be going to the Woburn Abbey Teddy Bear Festival with him at UK in June. It is our first time seeing Joanne's face lighted up! She is so happy and excited to see Kelly's bears too. We were all so glad to make the trip to meet Kelly.

Kelly told Wayne that his bears are never prefect, he is still working on the designs and strive for perfection. His words have deeply inspired all of us!

We even saw a pulley mounted on his ceiling which is probably used when he worked with his bears. The intricate paws, foot pads, claws and nose of his bears were all made from leather. Philip took a 360 view of his studio and share it on Facebook and he is shocked that it has more than 200 likes!

Thank you Joanne for driving us to meet Kelly. Thank you Kelly for inviting us to his studio. Wayne believes that Kelly's inspiring words to him as a great artist would definitely motivate him to become one someday.

In the evening, we took 3 hours ride back to Joanne's home and look forward to the bear making sessions the following day.

Hugs, 

Wayne & Philip

WIP Bear!

Hi everyone, we want to share some pictures of our WIP bear. This is the same bear which Joanne has taught us.

He is turning out quite well and we are very pleased with him!

Do you know that his face is needle felted with wool? It takes Wayne approximately 6 hours to do that.

Do you know, after the face is needle felted, rooting fur back into the wool takes another 12-15 hours?

This is how much time we spent on this bear's face! That's why artist's bear cost so much price for them.

We are currently working on the bear's nose, it needs to be harden, painted and sealed.

We hope you enjoy our WIP pictures! Practise makes prefect! The more we do, the faster we gets!

Have a great weekend! =)

Hugs,
Wayne

Wayneston Bears is going to "Pirates of the Straits" Flea Market at SAF Yacht Club this Saturday, 3 June 2017!

Dear all, Wayneston Bears will be participating in "Pirates of the Straits" Flea Market at SAF Yacht Club this Saturday, 3 June 2017! The event is open to Club Members and Public.

Artist Bears and bear-making supplies will be on sale on that day. Hope to see you there!

Venue: SAF Yacht Club (Treasure Trove)
43 Admiralty Road West, Singapore 759962
Time: 10am - 5pm

Cheers,

Wayneston Studios Team

Learning Journey in USA (Part 2) ~ Visit to the R. John Wright Studio

Joanne asked Wayne if there was anything he would like to do or visit any places of interest while in USA. Immediately, the first place that sprung to his mind was the R. John Wright Studio.

Wayne is a fan of R. John Wright's creations. He first learned about their products when he was working with the Toy Museum years ago.

The company was established in 1976 and has been producing some of the finest handmade toys for more than 40 years! Each creation is individually crafted and hand painted by their skillful craftsman.

We were welcomed by Ms Susan Wright on 2 May and we felt very privileged that she personally brought us around their factory located in Bennington, Vermont. The 3 storey high factory comprised of different departments. One of the department has a die-cut machine where pieces of felt were pressed to form shapes of the dolls/animals.

The workshop is so clean and neat!

A heavy duty die-cut machine

Pieces of felt are cut to shape and ready for molding

Ms Susan Wright showing us their latest project

The cut pieces were then molded and later sewn and stuffed. The other departments have several ladies painting doll eyes, whereas the other artisans were cutting and sewing pieces of fabrics to make outfits for the dolls.

Each bunny has been individually stuff

The eyes and face make up are meticulously hand-painted with steady hands!

MaryAnn, the airbrush artist

MaryAnn, the airbrush artist skillfully and effortlessly gave the easter bunnies colours and bought them to life!

We were all very impressed with a machine that enabled them to turn the bunnies inside out and an enormous stuffing machine which they use to fill up their creations with polyfiber!

Wayne and Susan

After the tour, we popped by the shop viewing gallery to admire the completed creations on sale. To our surprise, Mr John Wright appeared right in front of us and welcomed us! We were both thrilled to meet him and quickly took a group picture with John and Susan Wright.

L-R: Philip, John, Wayne and Susan

Bonzo the puppy!

At the end of the day, Wayne and Philip each bought a piece of creation from the shop. John personally gave a signed autograph to us as a souvenir. It was definitely one of the most memorable experience for Wayne and Philip. We hope to visit them again next time!

Hugs, 

Wayne & Philip