A polar is born

Today I finally finished my 1st attempt at a polar bear. Well not really 1st, as I had made two heads that didn't work out, but 1st whole attempt of a polar. He name is Donald. And while there are things I would like to make better, I am still not quite happy with his head, I'm wanting a more downwards curve, I think well as a first go, he might be ok. I sort of based the idea of him off my old steiff polar bear, called Polar ( harking back to my ingenious childhood naming days where my lamb was called lamby, a hippo hippy, a ram called rammy etc) but Donald and Polar don't look much a like ( Polar is way more special). He is made out of mohair a sort of matted kind that i found in my cupboard, and has jointed legs, so he can stand , sit , sit up on hind legs, and lie. He's about 4.5" (11.5cm) tall and 8.5" long ( 21.5cm) when standing.
It was my first foray into antique style mohair bears since Willoughby last year, and I have to say that I loved getting back to it. As frustrating as it is at times, drawing patterns, trying and re drawing, I guess it is the form I love most making bears in, and goes back to my deep love of steiff bears and animals, especially the old ones, which I think are the most beautiful toys that were ever made, which I guess was one of the things that inspired me to make toys, to try to get something , a tiny bit of the beauty and spirit in them, that is sometimes not around in toys today ( although with the softy movement, things are so much improved to when I started 10 years ago).

Anyway hope you like him.