Bears Made From The Forest Floor

Bears Made From The Forest Floor 33-6-11 Richard Carpenter and his wife, April, make their living from the land, using elk antlers to make jewelry, buttons and sculptures. Craft show customers often asked them for a bear sculpture but Carpenter resisted because "everybody makes bears." He finally said he'd do it if he could find a new material to work with. After three months he almost gave up on the idea. Then he started to rake the pine needles in his yard. "An idea clicked in my mind that I could use them with a wire frame," Carpenter recalls. "I put a sheet on the living room floor, dumped the needles on it, and asked my wife to help sort them out." April - to say the least - was dubious, but she helped pick out the unbroken, straight Ponderosa pine needles and put them in bundles. Carpenter shaped a wire frame, then washed and softened the bundles of needles and started weaving. "I figured out my own style of weaving," Carpenter says. "The whole thing was an experiment. And I wasn't sure if it would turn out." Three months later he had his first bear cub. That was in 1996. Since then Carpenter has completed his third bear in 2000 in honor of April. Mountain Magic ù A New Life, is the lifelike bear on all fours that has become so popular in emails. Altogether Carpenter completed five cubs and two large bears, refining his technique and adding details. "The pine needles seem to lend a nice shaggy hair look to the bears," Carpenter says. He breaks some of the pine needles - which are 6 in. or longer - to create details. The tuft end on the needle adds texture for the ears, for example. He carves the nose, eyes and claws out of wood and coats each sculpture with polyurethane to keep it supple. The bears don't weigh much. The large bear fits in a 4 by 6-ft. glass case and only weighs about 40 lbs. A large bear takes about 8 months and more than 200,000 pine needles. Because of the time involved and the originality, Carpenter sells the bears for an astounding $60,000. The smaller bears are much less. He also stays busy making jewelry and sculptures out of elk antlers that he sells at his shop and on the internet. Carpenter is open to commission proposals, but he isn't fond of doing the same sculpture over and over. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup (www.mountainmagicoriginals.com).

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