Tutorial: How to Make a Flocked Teddy Bear

When I posted this doll last week, I promised a tutorial for the teddy bear. These cute little guys are really easy to make, and look great sitting in a toy box or on a bed. You don't need much experience with sculpting: the bear in the photo above was made on my second try!

You will need:
polymer clay in tan
2 extra large black no-hole beads for eyes
light brown flocking
brown acrylic paint
fine-tipped paintbrush
glue
junky paintbrush for applying glue ( I used a foam brush)
liquid sculpy
toothpicks

Optional:
pink pastel chalk
silk ribbon

1.Start by sculpting the torso. Just roll an oval for the body, and pinch the top into a pointed cone for the shoulders and neck. I also like to pinch the bottom a little, to reduce the width of the bear's hips.

2.Next, roll out a snake of clay. Cut in half to form bear's legs.

3. Attatch legs to the torso. A dot of liquid sculpy at the join helps the clay adhere.

4.After I attatched the legs, I decided I wanted my bear to be sitting instead, so I fussed around with his legs a bit. It would have been better to attatch his legs this way in the first place. I also gently bent the bottoms of the legs upwards to form feet.

5. Roll a second snake, slightly thinner than the legs. This will become the arms.

6. Cut arms from the thinner clay log. Use dots of liquid sculpy to join to the bear's body where the torso begins to narrow into the neck.

7. Bake your headless bear according to package instructions.

8. Roll a ball of clay to form head.

9. Use a little liquid sculpy to attatch the unbaked clay head to the hardened clay body.

10. Gently pinch a slight snout in the front of the head. From the side, your head should look rather like an egg.

11. Press the two black beads into the clay as eyes.

12. form two tiny balls for the ears.

13.Use the back of a paintbrush to cup ears.

14. Attatch ears to the head using more liquid sculpy.

13. Bake acording to package instructions.

14. When bear is baked and cool, brush a light coat of glue over bottom half of bear (feet and legs). I like to use a landscaping glue that dries with a mat finish, so that the glue doesn't shine between the flocking. Don't let the glue pool in the cracks.Place the bear in container of flocking and shake until coated.

15. Allow to dry. Try not to touch the wet flocking. When glue has dried, shake or blow on bear to remove excess flocking. The last two photos show the difference between the bear just out of the flocking, and then with the excess flocking removed.

16. Repeat glue and flocking on the upper half of the bear. Don't worry if the eyes are covered with flocking, that can easily be scraped off with your fingernail when dry. Allow to dry again.

17. Repeat flocking as many times as necessary to cover bald or thin patches. I had to flock my bear three or four times to get a nice dense fur look. You can see in the photo below that I missed a spot on the shoulder. There's flocking on that lighter patch, but it isn't as dense as the rest of the bear.

18.When all flocking is dry, and the eyes have been scraped clean of flocking, use your fine paint brush and acrylic paint to add a triangular nose and mouth on your bear.Be especially careful when painting the mouth! It is very easy to make the mouth too wide! If you do make a big mistake in painting, you can sometimes cover it up with a little flocking.

Finishing touches: I like to brush a little pink pastel dust inside the ears. You can also give your bear a bow made of silk ribbon , or a scarf made from a scrap of jersey.

You can see how slight changes will give each bear you make a unique character. While my bears have long, skinny bodies, the bear below has a round face and small, flat ears compared to the one above. You don't have to stop at just bears! With different coloring, slightly larger ears, and a wire tail, the bear above could have easily become a mouse instead.

Edit: I've had several people ask where to buy flocking. I've found it for sale at dollhouse shows and craft stores. Ladybug has it listed in her online shop, and I've also seen it listed on Amazon. I don't know any specific sources for purchasing flocking if you live outside the U.S. but hopefully you should be able to get it from one of these places!