Vintage Glove Puppets

I have been finding a few glove puppets in my never ending search for old bears and toys (or hand puppets as they are sometimes called).
I only have one left in my Etsy shop at the moment.  He is a Mr Twisty Bun from Merrythought.

Mr & Mrs Twisty Puss and Mrs Twisty Bun 24"/61cm
and the full set in 11"/28cm

The Mr and Mrs Twisty toys were listed in their catalogue from 1965 to 1974.  They also made Mr and Mrs Twisty Puss toys (see picture from book).  They were dressed and had wire frames inside so that they could be twisted into different positions.
My Mr Twisty Bun puppet does not have a wire frame, but has the same character face as the toys.
I think he would have been made a bit later than the toys - late 1970's, possibly 1980's.  He has his Merrythought label stitched onto his back


Mr Twisty Bun Puppet

I have 3 more puppets to come.  Two of them will need a bit of work and at this moment I do not know who they are made by. This is the only picture I have of them.

 

In the meantime I will leave you with pictures of the puppets that have been sold.

Dean's Black Cat

Chad Valley Sooty

 

Chimp (unknown maker)

Steiff Rabbit

I will continue to try to find more of these little characters to put in my collection.

 

As well as the vintage bears I like to source unusual old toys that are usually bear related.

Christmas mini flocked bears



Mini flocked bears - playground

Recently I have found a batch of miniature flocked bears (1.5"/10cm) and I am currently going through some gorgeous teddy bear porcelain figures to prepare them for listing.  Also I have some wind up flocked bears to sort out.

That is as well as the couple of nightdress case dogs that need a clean (and one of them needs eyes), a very large tubby bear, a Chad Valley cartoon faced bear, a rabbit with red felt clothes, a small Merrythought bear with one eye, a Chiltern grey cat that smells really fusty, and a pretty, soft, unjointed bear, possibly a 1960's-70's Chad Valley.

That is in between knitting and sewing more cats, dogs and bears.

 

Oh dear, December is looming and I don't think I have time for Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Is he a Bear? Is he a Mouse? No - he's a She

Dreaming of getting his arms and legs

Last time I showed you the mohair miniature that I was making.  At the time I was wondering if he was a bear or a mouse.
Definately a bear I decided, but something was just not right.  I tried a ribbon around his neck - no that didn't work.  I went to my little jar of decorations - bows, flowers, buttons etc.  

Ready for the Queen's Garden Party

That's it! 
No wonder he didn't look right,
he is a young lady bear, not a boy bear.

 
 I found a little yellow flower made of ribbon and fastened it to her head in the style of a fascinator, the type of modern hat  that everyone who is everyone is wearing.
It transformed her into a pretty young lady bear, and she is now ready for Ascot or Buckingham Palace. :)

She is just 3.75"/9.5cm tall and although my efforts to get her to stand unaided have sort of worked, it still needs more work as she is still not quite balanced enough for my liking. Probably I need steel shot instead of glass beads for the weight.
You can find her in my Etsy shop priced at £25 + postage.
I have one more of these miniature bears to make
up before the Minstead fair on Sunday. This next one is a pale fawn colour in a thicker long pile mohair, so should be quite a fluffy bear.

After that is completed it will be back to the Diddy Dogs as they will give the colour to my table at the fair.



Pud Bears Miniature Bears and Mice - a Work in Progress

Tufty

I designed a miniature bear with a centre head seam.  It was the smallest bear I had made to date at 3.5"/9cm.  The first one was a nice little fellow.  I called him Tufty as he had a tuft on the top of his head.






The next one really didn't look like a bear, more like a mouse so I added whiskas and a tail.

Holding his fir cone behind his back and balancing carefully.

Squeaky

The standing up was a delicate operation and only for the camera, so I decided to try and make the next one so that he could stand unaided.  I always use glass beads in the tummies to give a bit of extra weight, so I thought if I put them in this one's feet as well he might be weighted enough to stand.

The next bear/mouse

I cut small cardboard shapes to flatten the bottom of his feet and prepared to fill the legs with beads.

Not as easy as I first thought - how could I get the slippery tiny glass beads into such a small leg?

I use a miniature jug to tip them into a small body, but the legs were smaller than the body. 

I couldn't use the funnel that I use for the 6-8 inch bears as it is far too big for these little fellows.

The tools for filling the legs with glass beads.
The legs stand unaided, hopefully the bear will
when they are in place

Then I spotted a Biro pen - it might work!

I took it apart and carefully tipped beads into the end using the jug.  It was very fiddly and I still managed to spill a few, but it worked.

I now have to assemble the bear (or mouse) and see if he can stand all by himself.  Watch this space.....

By the way, I have a question for you - is he a bear or a mouse?  I am having difficulty deciding, but I am leaning towards bear.  What do you think?