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Laboratory Information 
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Published Articles 
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A ROARING WELCOME!
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"Bear Photo's"
The Claudia Collection
All my bears vary, like most people - individuality is a quality I encourage. The most useful lesson I have learnt as a working artist is that no living creature is truly symmetrical, I personally feel that this is one of the most important factors we can learn if we want realistic designs to look natural, after all, nature is perfect and this must be realised before we can make an impression of it. I like to break the rules once I have learnt them - thinking of rules only as a guide. I carefully design my bears using artistic licence, in order to copy nature, in fact certain bears incorporate weighted areas to encourage a natural stance or sitting position. I actively encourage in my work a natural feel, which even includes dying mohair in tea or coffee in order to give it a tonal range similar to our own hair, after all bears are scruffy dirty creatures, you will not find a well groomed bear in my collection! To add to the realistic designs, many of the bears have leather claws(which is optional), or double neck joints. I take considerable time over the feet and hand sculpture, both the pads and the bears muzzle, which is often air brushed. I also developed my own exclusive nose treatment, which I add over the traditional embroidery to produce a wet look shine and most recently I have been working on jointed wrists and the use of magnets in producing special effects the use of which is patent pending.
I am honoured to have been presented with awards for my work which include: First Prize and Second Prize at the Linda Mullins Bear Fair in San Diego U.S.A. and a coveted "der Goldene George" for First Prize at the Teddybär Total bear fair in Germany.
With the greatest excitement I am pleased to inform you of my very latest design due for his launch at The Winter Bearfest on 22nd February. I have been going through remedial work on my own teeth and have a mouthful of metal braces, and this has been the inspiration for this latest design. “Hopi”, whose name comes from the Indian Tribe which live and manage the Grand Canyon U.S.A. is a realistic brown bear based on the American brown bear. Of course he has all the usual features which I put into my realistic bears, like double neck joint, leather claws with sculptured pads, tail and airbrushed details. But most of all this bear is the first of my creations to have dentally correct teeth for the breed, and which I believe to be a world’s first! 
This bear has been over a year in the making, I have created over 60 prototypes and I have spent months on research. It seemed as soon as I solved one problem another one was caused by it. Finally I decided to source some help from Martyn Young of “The Cotswold Dental Laboratory” who as one of Cheltenham's top dental professionals would understand the mechanics of the jaw. At first he was amused by my suggestions but took on the project regardless and helped me along my quest for producing a bear with anatomically correct teeth. This proved to be a very complicated process as all the teeth had to be produced in wax first and we were relying on a mixture of photographs of bears skulls (with teeth), - the calculations of which would make my bears jaw and teeth dimensions correct. Of course I added to the problems because I also required the jaws to be hinged and the teeth hand coloured to look old and unbrushed as a bears would. I had never collaborated with anyone else before, never mind someone in a different profession, but I think it is safe to say that we both found each others work very interesting and the project challenging. I consider this design to be the most demanding I have produced, and he certainly takes the longest to make at over 75 hours! To this end, and after previous problems I have had the design fully patented even though the expense and time involved has been a drain emotionally and financially.
The Claudia Collection ©  Top
© Martyn R Young
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