Long live the big bear!

When I first began to make bears, for some unfathomable reason, I was always drawn to design new patterns in BIG, then gradually scale them down to more manageable proportions.  I'm not sure how other bearcrafters went about designing their bears back in the mid 90's, but for me, big was and still is, always best.

Monty is a magnificent 25" in height!

There's something immensely satisfying about designing an enormous teddy bear.  A bear to sit proudly, confident of his place in the world and not afraid to make a statement.

Over the years I have found myself reluctantly reducing the stature of my biggest bears to fit with many collectors' requirements for less space hungry teddys, but no more!  Now it's time to bring back my BIG, 'Big 'uns'!

And on that rather defiant note in these space dictated times, I would like to introduce 'Monty', an unashamedly area consuming 25" alpaca teddy bear (shown with Max, an 8" Tiddler bear).  I am happy to tell you 'Monty' was adopted straightaway upon completion, thanks to a keen Twitter follower who had been closely watching work-in-progress pictures published daily from my workroom table, directly to my Twitter feed: 

https://twitter.com/allbearbypaula

I firmly believe we should take care not to lose our big bears in favour of more clinical, minimalist homes.  Big bears are such an important element of the teddy bear's heritage and I for one, am proud to do my bit to help keep his heritage secure ... 

Long live the BIG BEAR!!!!

A Spring break, then back to work..

Sorry my blog has been so quiet, but I've been enjoying a busy 'holiday-at-home' week while Stuart waits to start his new job.  Rather than holiday away, we decided to take long walks with Polly and between walks, finish redecorating the room that was my daughter's bedroom before she flew the nest a couple of months ago.

I can't lay claim to the decorating itself, Stuart makes a far better job of painting and wallpapering than I do, but I did enjoy blowing the budget to choose all the bits and pieces!

Hucking Woods

Leybourne Lakes

Riverside Country Park

We've been on some super walks with Polly each day; Spring has definitely sprung here in Kent with bluebells and baby lambs everywhere and the countryside as pretty as a picture! It's a beautiful time of year to don a pair of walking shoes and go exploring. 

My son Anthony, with his son Toby

And this year, my little Grandson came too - it was such a joy to share his excitement at being outdoors with us!  I am certain Toby will love walks every bit as much as his daddy always did when he was growing up.

Rainy visit to Emmetts Garden!

One of my favourite visits last week was to Emmetts Garden a National Trust property near Sevenoaks.  It was a rainy day, but that didn't dampen our enthusiasm, the garden was an absolute gem!  These rather whimsical tulips looked as though they had been transplanted straight from Alice in Wonderland ...

And the azeleas and rhododendrons were magnificent too!

Best of all though, were the bluebell woods, thickly carpeted with the most magical display of bluebells I have ever seen ...

There are some superb walks from Emmetts Garden, which are perfect if you are visiting with your dog.  We hopped onto a trail through the woods and needless to say, Stuart opted for the red route, the steepest of the circular walks.  It was worth the effort though, because the views across the Kent countryside were fabulous and after being on her best behaviour in the formal gardens, Polly loved being able to race through the woodland.

All in all, it has been a very busy week, but lots of fun!

So now Stuart has started his new job, I'm back in my workroom to finish the large alpaca bear I started a couple of weeks ago and Polly 's explorations will be restricted to local walks until the weekend.  Holidays never last quite long enough do they?  Ah well, such is life!

Back to bears: as soon as I've organised myself back into my workroom swivel chair, I will share some work-in-progress pics with you; that's a promise!

:-)