Bear

We receive a lot of requests to make a series of tutorials on weaving beaded 3-D forest animals. In fact, there already are a few products at our site that make up such a series, for example, a hare, a hedgehog, a squirrel, a bullfinch, an owl and a reindeer. In order to make this series more or less complete, we should make a bear, a wolf and a fox. So we will gradually make them, and today we’ll start with a bear.
We will need:
- seed beads #8 of brown, white and black colors;
- wire 0.3 mm in diameter;
- thin nylon line and a needle for cross-linking of finished figure.


To weave a bear we will use the technique of three-dimensional beading. We have already met such a beading technique in our tutorials, so I hope that you are familiar with it. But if this tutorial seems too complicated, you should start studying  3-D beading by making more simple products. You can, for example, make a spider - it is quite simple, and its tutorial is detailed enough.

Let’s start weaving. Take a wire of 120 cm in length and for the 1st row of the bear’s head string onto it 1 black and 3 white seed beads. Place the set of beads on the middle of the wire.

Take the wire that comes out from the black bead and pass it through 3 white beads on the other wire in the opposite direction.

Tighten the wires trying to keep the beads on the middle of the wire. We've made the first row. The upper tier of this row consist of 1 black bead and the lower tier consist of 3 white beads.

2nd row of the bear’s head:
For the upper tier string 4 white beads onto any of the wires,

and then pass the other wire through all these beads in the opposite direction.

Tighten the wires and bend them placing the beads above the lower tier of the 1st row.

Side view at this stage:

For the lower tier of the 2nd row string 6 white beads onto any of the wires, pass the other wire through all these beads in the opposite direction and then tighten the wires and place these beads below the upper tier of the current row.

All the other rows we make similarly.

3rd row of the bear’s head:
The upper tier - string the beads in the following sequence: 1 brown, 1 black, 2 brown, 1 black and 1 brown.
The lower tier: 7 brown beads.

4th row of the bear’s head:
The upper tier: 9 brown beads.
The lower tier: 7 brown beads.

5th row of the bear’s head:
The upper tier: 8 brown beads.

Side view at this stage:

Next, at this tier we make the bear’s ears. First, make one ear. String 5 brown beads onto any of the wires,

then pass this wire through two nearest extreme beads of the current tier, leading the wire from inside to outside of the product.

Pull the wire

and string 1 white bead onto it.

Then again pass this wire through two nearest extreme beads of the current tier, leading the wire from inside to outside of the product.

Pull the wire, placing the white bead inside the circle of brown beads. One ear of the bear is finished.

In the same way make another ear of the bear at the other wire.

The lower tier of the 5th row of the bear’s head: 6 brown beads.

6th row of the bear’s head:
The upper tier: 5 brown beads.
The lower tier: 2 brown beads.

Weaving the bear’s head is finished. We will weave the bear’s body perpendicular to the head therefore pass the wires through all the beads of the lower tier of the 4th row of the bear’s head. First, pass any of the wires,

and then proceed so with the other wire.

Side view of the bear’s head:

Start weaving the bear’s body. Now the upper tiers of beads will form the back of the bear, and the lower tiers of beads will form its abdomen. For our convenience we will restart counting the rows.

1st row of the bear’s body:
The upper tier: 5 brown beads.

When tighten the wires, place these beads between the lower tiers of the 4th and 5th rows of the bear's head.

Side view:

For the lower tier of the 1st row of the body string the beads in the following sequence: 1 brown, 4 white and 1 brown. Place this tier close to the lower tier of the 4th row of the bear's head.

2nd row of the bear’s body:
For the upper tier string 6 brown beads onto any of the wires, pass the other wire through them and then slightly pull the wires but do not tighten the wires at the moment.

Take an additional piece of wire of 30 cm in length and pass it through all the beads of the current tier.

Tighten the basic wires and continue weaving on them. We will use additional wires later, for weaving the bear’s forepaws.

For the lower tier of the 2nd row of the body string the beads in the following sequence: 1 brown, 5 white and 1 brown.

3rd row of the bear’s body:
For the upper tier string 7 brown beads onto any of the wires, pass the other wire through them and then slightly pull the wires but do not tighten the wires at the moment.

Take another additional piece of wire of 30 cm in length and pass it through all the beads of the current tier.

Tighten the basic wires and continue weaving on them. We will use additional wires later, for weaving the bear’s forepaws.

Side view at this stage:

For the lower tier of the 3rd row of the body string the beads in the following sequence: 1 brown, 6 white and 1 brown.

4th row of the bear’s body:
The upper tier: 8 brown beads.
The lower tier - string the beads in the following sequence: 2 brown, 5 white and 2 brown.

5th row of the bear’s body:
The upper tier: 9 brown beads.
The lower tier - string the beads in the following sequence: 3 brown, 4 white and 3 brown.

6th row of the bear’s body:
The upper tier: 10 brown beads. Through this tier pass one more additional piece of wire of 30 cm in length. We will use this additional piece of wire later, for weaving the bear’s hind paws.

The lower tier: 9 brown beads.

7th row of the bear’s body:
The upper tier: 9 brown beads. Through this tier pass the last additional piece of wire of 30 cm in length. We will use this additional piece of wire later, for weaving the bear’s hind paws.

The lower tier of the 7th row of the body: 7 brown beads.

Weaving the bear’s body is finished. Side view of the bear at this stage:

Fix the basic wires. Pass any of the wires through all the beads of the upper tier of the last row,

and then twist together both wires and cut them off.

Bend the tip of the wires and hide it inside the figure.

Now we make the paws of the bear. We weave them using the same technique of three-dimensional beading.

For the each paw use the following pattern:

1st row:
The upper tier: 2 brown beads.
The lower tier: 2 brown beads.

When tightening the wire, be careful and do not pull the wires which should be used for the opposite paw.

The next two rows are the same:
The upper tier: 2 brown beads.
The lower tier: 2 brown beads.

4th row - only upper tier: 3 brown beads.

Fix the wire. Pass any of the wires through all the beads of the lower tier of the penultimate row,

and then twist together both wires and cut them off.

Bend the tip of the wires and hide it between the rows of beads.

Using this pattern, make two front and two hind paws of the bear.

Weaving is completed.
Since the bear is small it should keep a good form and not require an additional sewing.

But if you want your bear to be more tough you can sew it with a thin nylon line.
To do this, use the technique of cross-linking which is described in detail here.
You should sew only the body and perhaps the head of the bear. It is not necessary to sew the paws.

An amusing beaded bear has turned out!

I remind you that at our site there is one more tutorial of how to make a bear using the beading technique of flat parallel weaving; you can find it here.

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