This is a personal project I wanted to do for myself. Many years ago I made this wonderful birthday cake for my five year old daughter.
Even all those years ago anything that I made was seldom planned, but more just an idea that evolved as I worked on it. I was particuarly delighted with this cake filled with little marzipan sunbathers and swimmers. Unfortunately the cake never got eaten because whilst walking with it, I tripped and fell and the cake ended up on the floor - pool side down!
Okay, so firstly the bears.
Initially I designed the bear just for fun and the first ones have a little magnet in them and several I wore as broaches before they decided they prefered to be sunbathing! I made about ten bears before I remembered the cake and that was when I decided to see if I could make a Swimming Pool filled with bears, some sunbathing, some diving, some swimming and all relaxing.
All the bears were made from the same pattern which I admit did go through several changes en route to the [above] design which I decided was one I liked best. Each bear is totally individual and all are hand sewn and stand between 1.5" - 1.75" tall and they all have jointed arms.
Then I had to consider the design of the pool, and how to put 'water' in. I opted for a simple oblong shaped pool and used PVA glue for the water. I did consider using other water products, but PVA seemed best suited for my purposes. I have used it for other water effects and it works for me.
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| This is the basic idea - The pool with lounging/swimming bears.
At this stage the bears are not fixed, but I had to put some around the pool to get an idea of where they could go as well as trying to decided how many I might feel I needed to make. |
I put most of the bears on 'towels' - to make them
more comfortable! I felt the scene needed a back wall - with something
interesting behind it. That proved to be the most difficult part of the
project. . |
I found two photographs on the internet which I thought might work. This woodland scene I liked, because it had colour and a perspective 'depth'- but felt it might be a bit to 'busy' - the combination of the 'busy' looking background and lots of bears just didn't feel quite right. Also, I thought it unlikely that a swimming pool would have been built in the middle of a wood and so near a woodland lake! - Scrap one woodland scene!!
Also of course, the foliage around the walls was far from complete. With a bit more work, and using the other other picture (a tropical beach scene - below) I now had this:
And here it is. In the end I made 20 bears and a couple of pair of legs!
I learnt a few things in the process. Placement of the bears is imporant. I placed the two standing bears [front right of the pool] and realised too that that I obscured the diving bears - you can just about spot one pair of legs! The little golden bear [front-left] is playing with a little yellow duck, but you can hardly see this because of the lounging bear in front, creating another placement problem.
However, to be honest, I am rather pleased with it. Yes it could have been better, but the bears do look like they are swimming, and it does make me think of lovely balmy, summer days relaxing in the sun.