Teddy Bears Come to Life for the Holidays
Harlem Irving Plaza’s Corporate Marketing Director Laura Heitz contacted Chicago Scenic to breathe new life into the mall’s Christmas décor. Their annual holiday decorations consisted of five-foot-tall bears with instruments in a festive and lively scene. However, these bears just didn’t fit Heitz’s vision of the cute and cuddly bears she imagined, so with the help of Project Manager Gary Heitz and Debbie Miller, the head of softgoods at CSSI, the bears underwent major surgery and reemerged as adorable teddy bears.

Miller performed cosmetic surgery on the bears’ eyes, noses, ears, and chins. To make their noses cuter and smaller, she unstitched them, reduced them by four inches, and reattached them. The remainders of their noses were transformed into chins and reattached to give them smiling faces. New wider eyes were purchased from a taxidermy supply company to create a gentler look. Finally, their ears were moved further back on their heads. Some of the bears were animated to turn around and rock back and forth on drum pedestals while playing their instruments. The drum pedestals and musical instruments were spruced up with new paint and a layer of iridescent glitter by CSSI’s Kevin Taylor, which was particularly effective and added a level of splendor to the décor. New drums, which also served as receptacles for a food drive sponsored by the mall, were fabricated to match the existing ones.

For the final touch, Debbie Miller redressed the bears with authentic band jackets and hats from the Band Shop in Indiana. They were specially tailored to the bears to match CSSI Designer Tom Ryan’s specifications.

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