The Summerfield Gummy Bear Bed Project was a collaborative effort between Craig’s Beds And Twelv Magazine (Images and Video are below)
We did the project originally to promote our Store, The Craig’s Bed in a box by Summerfield and to say thank you for all of the support and enthusiasm customers have shown us over the years. We did it to let people know how passionate we are at being the best company that we can be. We wanted to inspire people and make them smile. We wanted to say thank you to all of the people who have stopped by our business in their life journey. When people visit us they not only talk about how they sleep, but they also talk about their big New York City dreams and why they came to the city. This project is meant to represent all of the dreams and ambitions people have shared with us.
My background prior to the mattress business was actually textile/fabric printing for the garment center in NYC and I am still inspired by artwork. A painting like a Van Gogh, with all of its color and energy is inspiring to me personally. Art and creative projects can manifest inspiration in many ways. So this was an out of the box way to bring my love of art into our business.
But somewhere in the middle of the project we realized that the above reasoning was not enough and that we had to take advantage of the support we are receiving for our little project. The project had to evolve, it wasn’t just enough to do it for business or the love of art, I saw it as an opportunity to accomplish something really special. We became inspired again from the work during the project and inspiration manifested itself again.
We want to help raise money for research for an effective treatment of Alzheimers and help people keep their minds as bright and colorful as our project. We want to help support the caregivers as well as the toll can be just as tough on the caregivers and loved ones as the patients themselves.
We have teamed up with Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health
Department of Neurology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai NYC and are sponsoring a charity event for Alzheimers Disease. This cause is very dear to me personally and we will do everything we can to make this event a success. We will be announcing a date and time for the event in the coming days, so stay posted.
More about the project-
The project took about 4 weeks, 26,000 Bears, 117 tubes of glue, and many hours of fun and frustration:) Divided by colors and flavors there were over 3000 black black-cherry, 4000 red wild cherry, 3200 yellow mango, 4000 green apple, 4200 blue blue rasberry, 5000 purple grape, and 2100 orange orange- flavored gummy bears. The dress the model is wearing is a vintage Alexander Mcqueen dress supplied by the Albright fashion library. The same dress that inspired Hissa to do the gummy bear dress three years ago, that inspired me to do the bed.
The gummy bear bed is a queen sized mattress, containing 500 coils for a firm but luxurious feel. The mattress is 15.1 inches high and is 60 x 80 inches in dimension. We went through 225 pounds of gummy bears and used clear foam materials so the mattress could be lit up from underneath. There was some weight gained by the team as we estimate 500 gummy bears were eaten.
Why gummy bears you may ask? It was a cute reference to sleeping hibernating bears and they allow light to shine through from under the bed.
I would personally like to thank Hissa and the rest of the Twelv Magazine Team who worked tirelessly with passion, helping me bring my idea to life and for believing the project was good when others thought I was a little crazy:). We would like also to thank Margaret Rowland for helping us edit the video that we shot. Special shout out to Kayla Tangeman our model on the bed.
It is our hope that the project will inspire other to pursue their own unique big city dreams.
Please Share The #gummybearbed Project and pass the inspiration on! Yes I already have ideas for our next bed project 
Warmest Regards,
Craig
