Billy and Jiggy Bear featured in this month's Local Life Magazine

Meet Billy Hyland, our sculptor

Locally based sculptor, Billy Hyland, was the man who created the design for our beautiful Bear Mania bears.

The technique he uses is the one Degas perfected with his 'Little Dancer' at the Tate (one of the three most famous pieces of sculpture in the world). Degas began with a wire armature to support the figures – imagine coathanger wire. He also used wood internally to support the weight during the sculpting process. At that time, most sculptors applied clay to the base structure, but Degas used wax – a bit like candle wax. That’s the approach Billy uses. With fine instruments and dental burners for softening small areas at a time, he builds the figure up and slowly creates textures such as flesh, fur or feathers. From the finished wax figure, just likeDegas, he creates a mould that can be used more than once. That’s why you can see the Little Dancer in the Louvre, the Tate and the Metropolitan Museum, New York.