“A few clowns short of a circus”

I was browsing through some of my earlier blog posts today, when I came across one I'd entitled, 'There ought to be clowns'.  I wrote the post back in May 2007, at a time when I was excitedly preparing to embark on a new range of bears ... in fact, back then I had just started to design my big clown bear 'Billy Buttons' who subsequently went on to win the coveted 'TOBY Industry's Choice Award.'

23" 'Billy Buttons'

Billy Buttons blazed a successful trail for me and since 2007, I have enjoyed making many more clown bears.  As they always make me smile, I thought you too might enjoy sharing a few of my favourites here today ...

23" 'Raffles'

Naturally, as he's the logo bear for my blog, I think I should begin with the rather majestic 'Raffles'.  He won an URSA Award in 2008 ... seems these clowns are pretty popular with the voters eh?!

20" 'Kefalonia'

One of my personal favourites this year has to be Kefalonia, a pretty clown bear created in beautiful peach and white to reflect my lovely holiday in Kefalonia.

20" 'Victor'

As an English girl through and through, I jumped at the chance to create a patriotic bear for a magazine when I was invited by the Editor.  'Victor' was the result and I had such fun designing him!

19" 'Crocus'

I created Crocus to celebrate Springtime and entered her into a competition, but she didn't win an award that year.  It makes not a jot of difference to me though, I still think she was a lovely Spring clown bear!

20" 'Tipsy'

How could this festive clown bear fail to make you smile?!  I made Tipsy to celebrate Christmas a few years ago ... hic!

20" 'Sophia'

My lovely Sophia was designed for the 'Edwina's Friends' shop and quickly found a new home in France. 

19" 'Mayhem'

And as we all know, I love Halloween, so mystical 'Mayhem' created in vintage red and green last year, has to be on my 'favourites' list!

20" 'Calypso'

I have a lovely collector in the US who adores brightly coloured bears.  She commissioned Calypso, challenging me to make him as brightly coloured as possible.  I had such fun hand dyeing the fabric for this cheerful bear and was delighted with the outcome!

20" Cornelius

Cornelius was a beauty!  He was created from both antique and modern mohair in such rich Autumnal colours ... very handsome if I do so say myself!

14" 'Rhubarb'

By the way, not all my clowns have been big bears, little Rhubarb was only 14" and such a cutie!

28" 'PaZaZZ'

My affair with clown bears began many years ago when I designed my very first clown called 'PaZaZZ'.  He won second place in the British Bear Artist Awards way back in 1999, then flew off to Hong Kong - I wonder where he is now?

There have been many clown bears along the way and I know there will be many more in future.  I simply love making these colourful characters!  In fact, if you keep watching, I may even have a Halloween clown bear on the horizon for this year, so if you love clowns, please watch this space!

If you would like to read my earlier 'There ought to be clowns' blog post, please click the link below:

http://allbear.blogspot.com/2007/05/lets-bring-on-clowns-there-ought-to-be.html