Magic Moment

 

Magic Moment

While I was hunting through the old photographs I mentioned in my last post, I started to sort through the many teddy bear magazines I have collected over the past thirty years and I came across this copy of the 'Teddy Bear Times' magazine...

I couldn't help but smile to myself... seeing the cover again took me right back to 1997 and the early days of my bear-making career. Having one of my teddy bears published as cover star on a national teddy bear magazine for the very first time was thrilling!

'Gently', a very large teddy bear with a beautiful, gentle face, was featured on the front cover of Issue 45. I had taken the photograph myself, then sent it to the magazine, together with several others... and they chose to use Gently on the cover! It was a wonderful compliment to my bears and in those pre-internet days, very exciting to rush hotfoot into town to see the copies displayed for sale in our local High Street shops!

Bear Beginnings, Auntie Bears

Bear Beginnings

I have been hunting out old 'Auntie Bears' photographs from the 1990's... this photo was snapped at 'The Big Bear Show' in the Business and Design Centre, Islington, London in 1998...

Back in my early bearmaking days, teddy bear photographs were taken on an old SLR 35mm film camera and developed at the local printers. Sharing new work was a much longer-winded process than it is today...digital cameras and mobile phones have made the process of distributing photographs so much faster. However, it has also made it even more important to remember to document my bears because digital pictures are so easily lost and forgotten.

For the past twenty years, I have always made an annual photobook of my designs. I keep the books lined up neatly on my workroom shelf and enjoy referring back to them regularly when I am designing new bears. It is a lovely document of how my teddy bears evolved over the years and one day, I hope my grandchildren will enjoy these portfolio books and take a sense of pride in their Nana's 'work'. 

It occurred to me recently, that my earliest designs weren't ever made into a photo album and neither was the 'Auntie Bears' story...

The 90's was a very special time for hand crafted teddy bears in the United Kingdom, re-igniting a nostalgic passion for teddy bears in collectors who had loved them as children and lighting a flame of creativity in many aspiring bearmakers. Prior to the age of the internet, teddy bears became established as an art form in the UK in the early 1990's, designed and created with dedication and love by bear artists in their own homes, then sold through shops and at specialist teddy bear fairs across the country. 

It was an exciting time to become a new bearmaker. There were so many creative challenges... learning to run one's own business effectively, fulfilling the desire to produce quality teddy bears to share with collectors, establishing a market for them and helping secure their heritage for future generations. Creating 'artist bears' for adult collectors quickly became an all-encompassing passion for me, one that I have never tired of and probably never will.

In those days showcasing work was an important element of growing a small business and developing new ideas, so participating in specialist competitions hosted by magazines, seemed a sensible path to take, if I wanted validation for my teddy bear designs. I pushed forward with what I considered exciting new bear designs and despite being in complete awe of my fellow competitors, braved entry into the British Bear Artist Awards in 1997, 1998 and 1999, achieving recognition instantly when my submissions were honoured with awards.  It was a heady time!  Suddenly my bears were invited overseas, exhibited in museums, featured in magazine articles. My order book quickly filled and my telephone didn't stop ringing at all hours. My bears had arrived on the worldwide teddy bear stage!

Auntie Bears was the banner under which my sister Fiona and I sold the bears we designed and made individually. We both loved creating big bold teddy bears and were great friends, besides being good sisters. In fact, it was Fiona who launched our bear-making journey by one day by showing our work to the owners of 'The Rochester Bear Shop'. We were then invited to exhibit at our very first local bear show, hosted by the shop and our bearmaking path was set. Going forward, we shared costs, attended shows together and planned marketing strategies as sisters, working hard to establish 'Auntie Bears' and find our niche in the heart of the teddy bear industry.

So, back to my dusty photographs! I was looking for my earliest teddy bear designs to begin making a book of my earliest work but of our four years as Auntie Bears, I could only find a couple of small slip albums holding photographs. Unfortunately many of my original photographs were disposed of when I moved house in 2007; caught up in the fast paced age of the internet, it didn't occur to me back then, I might find a purpose for those old photographs in the future...

Thankfully, whilst searching for photographs, I also came across boxes of old teddy bear magazines and found many of the articles featuring Auntie Bears and our work as teddy bear designers. Happy memories that made me smile all over again almost thirty years later, reminding me of long forgotten moments in my own teddy bear making history. It was a magical time to begin a bearmaking business and one I now plan to document properly...  I am so glad I kept those magazines!

It hardly seems possible I have now been making teddy bears for the best part of thirty years. Those thirty years have seen many changes in the bear making world, the most significant being the use of the internet to reach out to collectors around the world. These days information can be made available instantly at the press of a button, which is amazing but I do sometimes wonder whether the internet can ever truly convey the dedication to creating teddy bears and many hours of work and skill involved in their production... the passion behind their evolution. I do hope so.

Sadly we have seen the demise of many specialist teddy bear publications, teddy bear shows, shops and competitions worldwide in recent years and yet, collectors still love teddy bears and creators still need to express themselves through the art of their creation. Hopefully, that love and dedication always be sufficient to protect the teddy bear both as an art form and also as a friend, in the disposable digital world in which we now find our much loved Teddy Bear.

A perfect teddy bear

After finding some old photographs, it occurred to me this week, I made my very first teddy bear 25 years ago!  My goodness, it is hard to believe that defining moment was a quarter of a century ago.  I can't lay claim to having created my first artist bear back then, nothing quite so historic (!) but that was definitely when the first stirrings of bear-making curiosity struck me enough to go and find a child's toy crafting kit in local toy shop. I recall my main interest was of practical concern, I wanted to find out how to make a teddy's arms and legs move - that mystery was solved when I pulled a set of white plastic safety joints from the bag. I hadn't a clue about hardboard discs and cotter pin joints to begin with, in fact I didn't learn about those until bear number two ...

1992, 'Ivor'

Bear number two, subsequently named 'Ivor', was also a kit bear. I forget who designed that early kit, but I do remember purchasing it from a lovely bear artist at the very first teddy bear show I ever visited.  The prospect of creating Ivor was daunting because this time the process would involve cutting mohair, which was far more costly and fabulous than the little orange synthetic toy shop kit. Even now, all these years down the bear-making trail, I remember the excitement of beginning work on Ivor and my absolute delight when, after much trial and tribulation, a traditional gold teddy with slightly lopsided, but fully jointed, arms and legs, presented himself.

Early 1990's, tentative first teddy bear designs

With two bonafide teddy bears now under my belt, my enthusiasm for bear number three was high and by then I felt ready to select a commercial teddy bear pattern to work with, along with another piece of the fabric I had fallen in love with ... mohair! Teddy bear patterns frustrated me though, nothing seemed to fit together quite perfectly enough and those that I had chosen were for small teddy bears, but I loved big teddy bears!  After my first couple of attempts at using them, I gave up on store bought patterns and instead invested in a teddy bear-making book, written by a well known teddy bear artist who had been generous enough to touch on the process of design. That was a real lightbulb moment for me and from then on, I became completely absorbed in creating my own teddy bear patterns and bringing to life the teddy bears waiting patiently in my head.

Mid to late 1990's, well into my teddy bear bear making stride!

So here I am, twenty five years later, still trying to create that elusive 'perfect' teddy bear. I wonder if any bear artist ever says they achieved a truly perfect teddy bear? Somehow I think not ...

Teddy bears from the past seven years ..

My belief is, we bearmakers are destined to strive for perfection indefinitely which is what keeps our bear-making joy alive and the teddy bear's future secure.

With that thought in mind, here's to my next quarter century!

:-)

The 'Normous Nineties!

Back in the 'Normous Nineties, a magnificent decade of significant statement bears, this bearmaker was truly excited by the possibility of creating bears big enough for proper hugs; so she worked hard designing 'Big 'Uns' - bears big enough to stand out in any crowd! 

27" 'Glisten' - 1995

27" 'Timeless' - 1996

27" 'Only' - 1997

32" 'Himself' - 1998

The nineties was definitely a bear-crafting decade for celebration!  Back then there were no cries of 'I don't have room for big bears', instead collectors relished their bold proportions and more often than not, bigger really was better!

26" Black Magic - 2006

I still absolutely adore big bears, but like so many other big bear makers, have had to gradually scale down sizes to accommodate collectors' needs over the years. In fact, from memory, I think the largest bear I made during the past decade, was 'Black Magic' and he was a mere 26"!

8" 'Titch' - 2011

And last week, something I never imagined could happen, did actually happen ... I found myself sewing a little 8" bear!

23" Nat - my largest bear so far in 2011

The magnificent big guys of the nineties will always be dear to my heart and there's no way I'll ever completely let them go - after all, once a big bear maker, always a big bear maker!  But it is fun to try new things and of course, unless you are lucky enough to own a mansion, collecting space in homes does fill up pretty fast, so I guess a few little 'uns, mixed in with slightly less enormous 'Big 'Uns', will hopefully be a positive step forward for this bearmaker in 2011!

Ad break

The November issue of 'Teddy Bear and Friends' magazine dropped onto my doormat yesterday and in the 'Artists' Showcase' section is my latest advertisement. I'm very pleased with the way it stands out on the page (thanks to Tina's lovely 'Victor' photograph!) and hope it will help to spread the 'All Bear' word throughout America and beyond.

Teddy Bear and Friends Nov/Dec 2008 issue, on sale now!

By the way, my last advertisement for this year will be published in 'Australian Bear Creations' Nov/Dec issue, on sale from Woodlands Publishing on the 8th November and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in print.

I have been hunting through some back issues of teddy bear magazines today and could kick myself because despite clambering up into the loft space to ferret through my trunks, I still can't find my copies of the bear mags which over the years published articles on both 'All Bear' and 'Auntie Bears' ... I am particularly upset at losing the early Auntie Bears articles as you can imagine. I think I must have accidentally sent the mags to the dump during the intense pressure of moving house the year before last and sadly, I haven't been able to locate copies of those issues on the internet yet. I am hoping I will at least manage to find the millenium (January 2000) issue of 'Teddy Bear Times' magazine, because that particular issue contained a lovely article I wrote about my Chiltern Bears and I remember being delighted when it was published in the very first issue of the new millenium! I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for the early 'Teddy Bear Club International' magazine (published mid/late 90's) containing our first 'Auntie Bears' article to turn up one day, but as neither magazine is in publication any longer, I realise it may take me a while to locate them. I'll let you know if I find them ...'Gently' my 1997 Teddy Bear Times cover star! (Issue 47) Shown here with two 'Teddy Bear Scene' issues (2004 & 2006) featuring my bears - top left insert pics.All was not quite lost in the house move though, I'm pleased to say I did succeed in finding my very first ever front cover for the 'Teddy Bear Times' magazine up in those dusty trunks! 'Gently' was a lovely big bear, about 26" from memory. I don't remember where he went to live, but I do remember being thrilled to bits when I saw he had been given the front cover of TBT in October 1997!

Teddy Bear Times magazine - issue 49 February 1998

Before I go back upstairs to work on my show bears, I thought you might like to see an early 'Auntie Bears' advertisement from 1998 ... I can't remember if this was our first attempt at magazine advertising, but I think it probably was. Back then my sister Fiona and I enjoyed being able to take larger ads, conveniently splitting the cost between us. Very handy!

Full Circle

There is only one, ever decreasing week until the 'Teddies 2008' show in London and am I ready? Am I 'eck as like. I'm feeling particularly disorganised this time and am approaching the show with a growing sense of resignation, because I would like to have been able to accomplish so much more than I have time for. Ah well, I guess that's life!

Paula's pre-show workroom

 

Show work in progress!

I had an unexpected visit in the week - my Dad rang to ask if he could pop in with his sister my Auntie Mona. As I can count the number of times I have met this aunt in the past thirty years on just two of my fingers, of course I said yes and we spent an enjoyable afternoon catching up, making me very aware of how fast and how craftily, time flies steals away our precious years. (In fact, it feels like no time at all since Fiona and I were naughty little girls, relishing the prospect of secretly tormenting our poor cousin Stephen, while Auntie Mona entertained our parents in her home!) After all these years, we had plenty to chat about and to my delight, Auntie Mona, now a fabulously fun and feisty eighty years old (I'm sure she won't mind me telling you) confessed (with a noticeable twinkle in her eye) that she has her very own teddy bear collection, which even her brother, my own father, has been unaware of, until now! In fact we share a keen interest in crafting and I discovered Auntie Mona is actively involved in judging craft competitions for the Town's Women's Guild. As she sat hugging one of my show bears that afternoon (while my Dad delighted in gently teasing his older sister - brothers it would appear, never do quite outgrow such antics, no matter how many years slip by!) she told me all about her long-standing passion for embroidery, knitting, jewellery making, sugar crafting and cake making and I found myself pondering - is it possible for a crafting gene to be mysteriously passed through the generations?

Angus with friends (left, standing) now safely in my workroom!

Before I go back to work on the four furry heads waiting for me on my worktable, I must quickly tell you Angus arrived safely! It was such a strange feeling, almost one of deja vu, to be opening a cardboard box containing one of my sister's earliest designs, a bear neither of us ever expected to see again! I had a big grin spread across my face as I spied Angus's ear poking up through the polysterene packaging. He is every bit as handsome as the day he was originally made available for sale all those years ago and is even still wearing his ribbon ... I can remember when we went shopping for that ribbon! The only thing he has lost along the way, is his original 'Auntie Bears' hangtag. Unfortunately another bear was sold at auction wearing Angus's hangtag, a case of mistaken identity. Never mind that though, let's keep it our little secret eh?! Angus is now safely ensconced in my workroom and when I emailed Fiona at work to tell her he was on his way to me, she wrote back to say ...

"I am very chuffed to think that Angus will be sitting watching you create the next generation of teddy bears!"

Hey guess what Sis? So am I!

Before I go, I must mention one last thing - my photographer sister Tina has now joined us in Blog Land! She says she's a bit unsure of what to write, so I'm sure she'd enjoy a few comments on her current entries from readers! Please spare a moment to find out what Tina gets up to in a day's work, by reading her 'Viewfinder' blog ... http://tinas-viewfinder.blogspot.com/

Auntie Bears, a click down Memory Lane

The 'Auntie Bears' stand

Did I ever mention that I first started work as a teddy bear maker with my sister Fiona? No? Well, perhaps I should have done! It's such an integral part of my life and work as a bear maker. Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I'll begin!

Unfortunately I can't remember this chap's name at the moment, but I do remember it was me who made him. Together with 'Frankie' below, he was a shop exclusive for 'House of Bruin' ... my very first pair of shop exclusive bears!

Way back in the early 90's, Fiona and I were having so much fun creating our first teddy bears together. We spent most of our time talking bears and of course, discussing the business of bears. Initially our goal was simply to make teddy bears for the sheer pleasure of knowing we could, selling didn't enter our thoughts, but as time and our confidence pressed on, we noticed many of our creations heading out the door in the eager grasp of family and friends, at which point the business of bears began to intrigue us.

'Tosh' by Fiona Smith of Auntie Bears

One daft day while I was out of the house, Fiona bear-napped a small selection of my bears, bundled them into her car and drove them to the 'Rochester Bear Shop' for evaluation. Those kind ladies (does anyone remember Carol and Michelle?) sang our bears' praises and invited the bears not only into their shop, but also into their very own teddy bear show, 'The Rochester Bear Fair', which in those days, exhibited a heady list of quality bear artists. Naturally I was utterly shocked when Fiona finally 'fessed up to her dastardly deed, but to her credit, she was responsible for making me recognise our apprenticeship had come to an end and the time had come for us to take up the mantle as fully fledged teddy bear artists.

That was then and of course, this is now. Times have changed beyond recognition over the past fifteen years or so, not only for the two of us, but also for the bear world in general. Regrettably for me, Fiona's career as a bear artist drew to a natural conclusion as life events took over, redirecting her focus some time ago. So I have since continued alone in my life as a creator of teddy bears, waving a wistful farewall to shared sewing days, lovely cake and coffee lunches and to the many bear related plans and projects in which we jointly invested our hearts and souls. Do I miss those days? Oh yes, of course I do. They were a whole heap of fun and who better to share them with than my own sister?!

Fo, what was this bear's name? My memory has let me down again!

'Aston Martin' by Auntie Bears, a great big growly bear created by me as a special order for an enthusiastic collector.

We created so many bears between us in the early days that I'd go so far as to say we were prolific! Show days were fast and furious, we accepted invitations to make personal appearances in teddy bear shops, our bears were regularly featured in magazines and our telephones didn't stop ringing. Auntie Bears travelled far and wide beyond the UK ... America, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the list went on and on and ...

'Godfrey' by Fiona Smith of Auntie Bears

... but with the arrival of the internet in recent years, I have noticed how much quieter my telephone has become and somehow an inbox full of email just doesn't quite have the same pulsatingly urgent ring to it; in fact, I swear some days I don't even hear my own voice from morn 'til teatime!

'Frankie' (named after Frank Webster of Charnwood Bears, owner of 'The House of Bruin')by Paula Carter of Auntie Bears

An original, hand scribed 'Auntie Bears' hang tag

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of person to be forever harking back to the past, far from it in fact, but late last week, I was stopped in my tracks and hauled back to our 'Auntie Bears' days, by a single listing on 'Google,' stumbled across whilst surfing the web. One thing clicked quickly through to another and in seconds there I was, walking right back down Memory Lane! As my research became more focused, these dear old Auntie Bears began to greet me like long lost friends. Tosh, Edwin, Godfrey, Frankie, Aston Martin, there they all were, rehomed and reassigned, (one or two wearing the wrong hangtags and claiming each other's identity, but hey, that's life in the bear world and I've learned my lesson, these days I stitch the hangtags to my bears!) Angus however, was still patiently waiting; waiting I am absolutely convinced, for destiny to reach out and claim him back ...

'Angus' by Fiona Smith of Auntie Bears

So, I'll let you know when he arrives later this week ... sentimental? Moi? As if.

Fair exchange is no robbery.

Here's HUGHIE!

Recently one of my suppliers contacted me to ask if I would be interested in receiving a sample of a new fabric they were introducing, in return for photographs of any bear I could create from it, so they could use the pics to give their customers an idea of how the fabric looks when made up. I thought it sounded a fair exchange, so set to work and 17" 'Hughie', now available for sale on my website http://www.allbear.co.uk is the outcome.

The fabric is less dense than I would usually choose to work with and has lent Hughie a very sweet faced, slightly tousled, appeal. I thought the gorgeous traditional dark amber glass eyes worked very well with the colour and was drawn to traditional gold velvet paw pads to complete his overall look. I created a new pattern for Hughie and am pleased with the outcome. He's a lovely size, a manageable 17" hug ... just right! Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you, I've given him a growler too, so that when you tilt him forwards for a cuddle, he can growl his appreciation.

Now I must get back to work on my BAO Summer Show bears ... let's see if I can get at least one more completed before the deadline ... I can't wait to share them with you them properly!

XXXXXXX

It's been an odd week really. A week of mixed feelings. I don't know if you will remember, but for many years I worked with my sister Fiona creating bears under the 'Auntie Bears' banner.

'Becks' by Paula Carter and 'Scrump' by Fiona Smith ... created mid 90's.

We were proud to be bear makers and shared a great deal over the years as we created our niche. Many's the time we've dashed excitedly to the local newsagents desperate to get hold of a teddy mag we know our work is about to be featured in, or have packed up the car with our precious teds and made our way, Thelma and Louise stylie, to take part in a bear show.

Showtime! Early days ... The 'Auntie Bears' stand.

We've planned for the future together, built British Bears on the Net together, launched our charity project 'Dare to Care' together, munched cake, drunk copious amounts of coffee and above all else, laughed and sighed together, during our decade shared as teddy bear designers.

'Beau' by Paula Carter and 'Lottie' by Fiona Smith .. these were available exclusively in Singapore, an edition of ten bears apiece.

However, time moves on and lives take unexpectedly different turns, so a while ago Fiona made the difficult decision to move into a completely new field of work. Initially she felt she would want to return to bear making on an occasional basis and would be reluctant to give up entirely but subsequently, she has become so involved with her new world, she can no longer imagine herself returning to teddy bear design work.

Naturally this is very sad for me, because I miss all that we built together and shared as sisters in the bear world, which let's face it, can be a lonely place to be whilst working, but I am pleased Fo has found fulfilment in her new role and am grateful to her for all the support she has given me over the years and for the huge stash of bear making materials she so generously donated to me a few days ago. Who knows, with luck maybe one day she will get the urge to create again and if that happens, I'll be ready, willing and able to help with components, coffee and of course, cake!

High Spirits with my sister Fiona, on my 40th birthday!