Hello friends,
I am Carol Kelsen, a soft sculpture artist living on the beautiful Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
I've been making artist bears professionally since 1997 but unfortunately haven't created as many as I would have liked. Isn't that what every bear-maker, artist, novelist says about their craft? The bears I did make were sold via shows or fairs I managed to attend, very rarely on ebay, but generally privately to those avid collectors I was lucky to meet. Now self employed and able to manipulate my spare time more creatively I've returned to something I love...creating soft sculptures.
One of my latest passions is...vintage mink. I've always loved the gorgeous beauty of mink, as many people gone before me obviously have.. testament to this pertaining to the prolific amount of vintage coats circulating the world today. But I detest the thought of any creature being abused or mistreated.
As I said there are many vintage minks (cira-pre 1960) floating around, some of them having been stored away with great care but never to be worn again. Many hundreds of others falling apart from lack of care and more than likely bound for the tip. Such a shame to think that instead of hiding away these lovely pieces, but items unacceptably worn by most of society today, we could 'recycle' their beauty and let the spirit of those little creatures be reborn.
Having thought about this for some considerable time I decided to recycle a vintage mink coat and create something that could do justification to the beauty of those little minks. It took months and a great deal of patience fiddling around to refine the first little bear I made. Working with real fur is quite a different process as it has to be treated with great care, but I was delighted with the result and thought it well worth the extra time.
If you 've never held a mink bear before please make sure you do so if the opportunity arises. There's something extra special about them, perhaps some mystery as to what their life was before their present reincarnation.
Just a quick thought for those interested. I'm still making a few other bear creations in mohair and alpaca, as the inspiration hits.
Kind Regards Carol Kelsen
