Brown Bear Tutorial

Not too long ago, I ran out of propane and my regular supplier was too busy to fill my tank. Needless to say he lost my business for good. Looking in my phone book for another place to get my tank filled, that was close to my home, I found Fort RV Park. I'm so glad I did! Located in the park and where I had to go in to pay for my propane; was Lizzie Mae's. Now I'm not much of a shopper so for me to say I love a store says a lot. This place not only has great home decor, the building and fixtures are wonderful and rustic. It just a comfortable place that you can literally spend hours browsing through. Anyway, my point in telling you this, is some of the things they have for sale is black bears. Wooden, resin, ceramic...you get the picture. So I'm standing there staring at these cute little creatures and the light bulb goes on over my head. This doesn't happen very often. So I go home with my newly filled propane and set to work making a black bear in glass. I work backwards, meaning I try the hardest things first and when they fail (and fail miserably) I then simplify my work. So I thought I'd share my simplified version of a black bear in glass.

1. Make a straight sided lentil with my Zoozii's press using black.
2. Two dollops of glass on each side of the mandrel for ears, using black.
3. Build the eyes: White pressed flat and half-way melted in. Clear left raised. Small dot of black for the pupil, melted flat.

4. Add two dollops of brown for the cheeks.

5. Add two small dots of brown on the ears.

6. Add small dot of black in the top-center of the brown cheeks for the nose.