Left: Peter Polar is 18 inches long and built over a complete skeleton with four disk joints, 12 mechanical joints, and a flexible neck and spine. He has leather paw pads, eyelids, and claws that were machine-sewn then treated and hardened. The penguins are 5 and 6 inches tall with swivel heads and wired wings.

Above: Bearily Marilyn is 4 inches tall and made out of platinum blond silk plush. She is jointed and poseable, and she has leather paw pads, nose, and eyelids over brown vintage taxidermy eyes. Marilyn also has strong magnets in her paws and feet to help her stand in place and hold things. Her dress is made of a micro-pleated silk, and the hem has a tiny steel wire sewn in. The grate is a leather construct with a vintage perfume atomizer attached to the back.

These 3-inch ducklings, or Nibblets, are made of sassy mini-bear fabric with leather feet, beaks, and eyelids and have antique taxidermy eyes. They are built over an internal armature and have poseable necks. The plant and base are made entirely of shaped, stitched, and formed leather, and the can is an artist-made construct of heavy silver leather.

This 6-inch squirrel is made of vintage alpaca, and his 6-inch tail is Shulte® mohair. He has antique taxidermy eyes with leather eyelids and paw pads, jointed arms and legs, and a ball-jointed neck. He also has tiny magnets in paws and tail. The artist-made tree stump is an all-leather construct that measures 12 inches.

Fierce Phoenix, 6 inches, is made of leather and string mohair. He has a loc-line spine, wired wings, and is filled with Tendertouch silicone pellets and glass beads. The artist-made stump is leather.


Little Pearl the polar preemie stands 4 inches on all fours. She is built over a combination skeleton/armature, jointed, and has a flexible neck and spine and an additional hinge-joint in each foot. She has leather paw pads, permanently closed eyes, and hardened leather claws attached to the skeleton. Her incubator is made of silver leather and lined with antique red velvet.

Gertie & the Goslings is a brand new piece by Kelly Dean. Gertie is an 18-inch articulated grizzly bear cub, and the three silk plush goslings stand just 4.5 inches each.


Gabe the Gosling is 4 inches standing and sewn of silk plush fabric with leather feet, beaks, eyelids, and taxidermy eyes. He is built over an internal armature and features a poseable neck, wings, and feet. The body is filled with a combination of steel shot and silicone pellets for a lifelike feel. The “egg-white” pillow in the vintage pottery egg cup is made of vintage white silk-velvet, and the “yolk” pillow is made of vintage long-pile rayon. 

“My work is constantly evolving,” Kelly explains, “but it is less in ‘leaps of faith’ than a slow, steady progression.”

Kelly is grateful that the bears are his “bread and butter” as they allow him to experiment and continue with new endeavors, including his fanciful birds. “I’ve always made small geese and goslings as companions for my bears,” he says, “and one day while researching pictures of goslings, I stumbled across a wonderful photo of a tri-colored heron chick. The bird was so comical and cartoon-like that I felt compelled to create one of my own.”

His white woodstorks with their black tails look as if they are about to make their own distinctive noise, while the small grey sandhill cranes are perfectly camouflaged to blend seamlessly in the meadows. Pleased with the outcome, Kelly soon tried his hand at chickens, vultures, and ostriches.

“The birds also led me down another path,” he notes. “I had always used leather for the noses and paw pads of my bears, but as I worked continually to perfect the use of leather as a covering for the legs on my storks and cranes, I became enamored with its malleability and organic texture. I was soon imagining plants, trees, and entire vignettes for my creatures to play in, all shaped and formed out of leather.” This revelation ultimately led him to design woodland and fauna playgrounds for his creatures.

Sleepy fawn-colored squirrels peer from behind the carefully stitched leather stumps, leaves, and mushrooms. Their expressions immediately evoke feelings of tenderness and joy. Like Kelly’s other pieces, they seem quite alive and ready to frolic. Logic tells us that they are a blend of toy and art, yet magic prevails. How does he do it?

In essence, it is the fusion of craftsmanship and artistry, driven by an intense passion for perfection that, according to the artist, “is achieved when all the separate parts add up to the whole, and pieces come alive, hopefully in a manner readily identifiable as a ‘Kelly Dean’ piece. Each leaf or article of clothing should stand on its own, and when assembled should meld into one.” To achieve this continuity of style, Kelly insists on creating most all of the accoutrements for each piece himself. “When I look at my own work,” he explains, “I’ll consider the flaws and spend hours, even days, taking it apart if I think anything could be done better.” 

Clearly, Kelly is more than a master craftsman, and his pieces attest to that. He is naturalist and artist; old world and new skills. He is proudest of his leatherwork and will “continue to perfect [his] armature design and keep pushing the envelope with [his] skeleton and joint work, moving ahead to the eyes, ears, and mouth.” And, he admits to being his own harshest critic.

“Every time I finish a piece, I look at it and think next time, I’ll change that part, or do this, and it will be better. Most pattern changes are more of a morphing than a drastic change. The one place where I take frequent leaps of faith is with experimenting. I rarely make a practice piece, or prototype, and will brazenly try a new airbrushing technique or trimmer on a completely finished piece.”

And if collectors think they know the scope of his work, they will indeed be dazzled with his newest soft sculptures. Bye-Bye Blackbird Pie is an intriguing piece that literally brings an old English nursery rhyme to life, while Fierce Phoenix mixes rare mediums to create
an astounding mythological creature.   

“My ideas almost always come in a flash,” states Kelly. “I see the complete piece in my head. Sometimes I have to work out the logistics, but usually, if I can ‘see’ it, I’m certain I can create it.”

With their large orange beaks poised to open, the amusing blackbirds explore the world beyond their “pie” as collectors hold their breath imagining that they will crow and squawk for food. The sharp detail makes the wonder believable. 

The Fierce Phoenix is clearly in its youth, having just emerged from the ashes with its pastel colored scales and fuzzy wings. Its expression is that of youthful innocence and the wisdom of sages. This is no mere toy. It is art and imagination at their best. Kelly admits that he was inspired to create the Phoenix when given a piece of rattlesnake skin that serves as the creature’s body.  

“I am hugely influenced by fabric and texture and maintain quite a large collection of leather, fabrics, and trims to rummage through,” says Kelly. “I keep a running inventory in my head with a sharp eye for color, shade, and texture.” Interestingly, he admits that it is not uncommon for him to have fabrics on hand for years before used.

Mohair is Kelly’s preferred medium, “because it’s strong, durable, flexible, long-lasting, forgiving, resilient, and adaptable.” Past experience taught him that “it will stand up to a multitude of indignities and mistreatment, and still maintain its beauty.” Collectors can look forward to increased use of the new silk plush, since Kelly is interested in infusing that fabric into his designs, along with the mohair.  

A visual person, but many of Kelly’s ideas are inspired by words or language. “I love books, puns, and wordplay.” Hence the 18th-century rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence” that went from verse to tactile fantasy.

His “preoccupation with the importance of friends and family” influences his work as well. When not designing vignette concepts Kelly turns his attention to individual bears and critters. “I think the word one really is the loneliest number, so most of my pieces come with at least a pet or buddy, and if they don’t, they’ll most likely have a task, tools, or a chore to be done.” He attributes the fascination and fanaticism for work to his own upbringing. “Raised as Dutch Reformed Protestant in the Midwest, I was given a work ethic that left little room for idleness or error, a lethal combination when added to an obsessive/compulsive nature.

“Sitting still is boring,” quips Kelly. “It’s hard for me to sit still for more than five minutes, and if I’m not sitting still, neither are my critters. ADHD is why most of my pieces are so elaborate.” That and his fascination with mechanical toys and building sets. He goes on to explain that his work has to be complex in order to keep his own attention. “I’d like to be able to play with it. And I don’t want it to just sit there like a bump; I’d like it to play back.”  

No wonder his pieces are so engaging. From emerging eaglets in a can to tumbling bunnies, stoic vultures, and gawky heron chicks, movement and humor play heavily in Kelly’s work; and his groupings make the most of it. He finds that the humor he observes in the very young coupled with the wit and whimsy he sees in the aged motivates him to portray different ages in his vignettes and assemblages. He readily admits that his own personality and point of view mesh well with the sagacity of the human condition.   
  
His repertoire expanded as a “conscious decision made out of economic necessity and personal need.” His artistic pull meant moving beyond the costumed character bears to reinvent his work and “build on the skills and materials” that served as his anchor for many years. Inherent in his approach is his insatiable need to challenge his own creativity. Notwithstanding, Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe found herself re-invented in one of Kelly’s more whimsical and playful pieces as he came frightening close to sewing the wind itself under her infamous white dress.

“I use my sewing machine as an integral part of my creative process, and visible stitching, both structural and decorative, is one of the hallmarks of a ‘Kelly Dean’ piece. Going from vision to machine is easy, if it fits under my pressing foot, it’s going down.” Kelly ruefully notes that according to his mother, he “never really learned how to sew, just invented a new way to use a sewing machine.”

Kelly lives in Narrowsburg, N.Y., perched on the Delaware River, a location that provides him with an endless source of inspiration. “We have a resident bald eagle population with a nesting pair directly across the river from my windows, and they have shown up in my work several times, as have the geese and herons we see daily.
 “No matter what we do to desecrate her, nature always does her best to eradicate our tracks,” continues Kelly. “I find a certain beauty in the sight of a fragile, perfect violet, dandelion, or vine growing over a discarded tin, or a wild rose twining through a rashly discarded tire. These observations become my trashcan ‘vignettes.’”   

Collectors run the gamut from a British boys-school headmaster to a California bear aficionado and a four year old who drags his bear around as his everyday teddy. And then there are clients who are not bear collectors, but rather, people who stumble upon one of his creations and must have it.                               

“I sold a bear to a walk-in couple at the studio because they thought the bear looked like ‘Madame X,’ the lady in John Singer Sargent’s painting,” gleams Kelly. 

While he does take on the occasional commissioned piece if it is interesting or challenging, Kelly’s clients realize that they will get his best work if they give him the “free reign” for his creativity and vision.

There are, of course, those rare situations, like the time he assisted an elderly woman with a bear repair. The bear had been with her though her battle with cancer and the birth of her four children. Its value was the strong sentiment it carried. In fact, when Kelly reached for his scissors and seam ripper, she gasped in horror and had to wait outside his studio, crying, “I just can’t watch this.” Thankfully, her treasured teddy was in capable hands.
“I’ve always considered myself an artist who happened to make bears,” says Kelly, “rather than a ‘bear artist.’” But observers clearly see a modern-day Renaissance man who “makes cakes and desserts for a café a few doors down from his studio,” and decorates his village’s main street for Christmas when the local Chamber of Commerce calls upon him. And then there are the photography, graphics, landscape, and gardening projects that also beckon him, along with his “rambunctious beagle-mix pups that need at least two hours a day of rigorous exercise.”

One can only ponder the quintessence of his talent. For Kelly, “not growing stagnant” in his work, or standing still, is paramount. “Looking back, I’m quite proud of having created a small, but diverse body of distinctive, original work that will hopefully stand the test of time.”

This is a quiet evolution of skill, observation, and insight. And while Kelly’s magic is moved to new heights, we are pleased that the illusion is real.

Kelly Dean & Co.
www.kellydeanandcompany.com