The Bear Rocker was made for my grandson (Ian) for his first Christmas. I had never really attempted anything like this. I had inherited the band saw and drill press from my dad but it had sat and collected dust. I was looking for something moderately difficult and found the plans for the Bear Rocker on the Rocker web site. Don't bother looking for it now. They stopped selling the plans. Something about liability? I don't get it. But anyway. I didn't build it exactly according to plan. The plan called for making the nose using a wood insert for example. We decided to use a wood burning tool to draw in the nose and ears. Then we purchased googley eyes from Amazon.com. Even though you can't buy the plans from Rockler, I may be able to help you out. Please read to the end.
On the left is what the plans looked like after I cut them out. It was just a matter of tracing the pattern onto my wood and cutting them out with a band saw. Some assembly, sanding, staining and clear coating is next. On the right are the first few pieces I cut out.
I decided to make this rocker out of oak wood. Mainly because I wanted it to outlast me and many generations to come. The problem was, oak boards that wide are rediculously expensive. You can find oak boards that are edge-glued to make wider boards but not knowing that at the time, I did it myself. using a Doweling Jig to make sure the boards were perfectly alligned.