​Making stuffed animals and soft sculptures such as dolls has always been a primary focus of mine. However, I had never really delved into using different shades for a completed piece and have always stuck to solid or contrasting colors. So, I knew from the start I wanted to make a plush and see how I could incorporate different shades into the final product. Ultimately, I felt that this project pushed my use of textiles and patterns because my original idea of painting on the bear or making a cow-bear hybrid fell through. I definitely found that when I started looking into different shades for the achromatic scale of the bear, I began to look into the texture and patterns more because I felt like they would add a nice contrast to the different parts that formed the bear. More is shown, and various textures are added. Seeing what would look good against the bear’s other parts, I wondered how it would capture the viewers’ attention without feeling too stressed. It started to look sort of blocky, almost mimicking modern art. That reminded me of vintage stuffed animals and toys because they were usually very plain, and it made me feel like they were combined with a sort of cubism. That made me feel like the bear would need more mobility than the standard teddy bear, so I added Doll Joints. So that he could be posed in whichever way would fit best. In sewing everything, I was a little surprised by how long it took me even to use the sewing machine because I usually do it by hand or make more miniature sculptures. For this specifically, I wanted to use different patterns for the head; I ran into some issues with the snout, which made it a little tricky, and in the end, I felt like the head looked more like a badger, which I ended up liking even though I didn’t at first because it made the bear somewhat ambiguous. It’s a bear, but if you look closer, you will see that it could be a badger. I felt that it was enjoyable. I think next time, if I were to make another bear, I'd probably add weight to the belly, and I think I would probably make a mock-up first with scrap fabric, see if that pattern that I use works, and then create the final piece other than that I think textures and patterns and Shades of color were expressed pretty well.