Who are the Secret Sisters?
Cosmo's mothers hail from 7 different countries. A lot of fun was had during the project. At the beginning, the artist who designed the pattern, had a gender in mind, but it was the artist who picked out the mohair that knew Cosmo's pre-appearance. We teased each other mercilessly that Cosmo (Cossie as he is fondly known) was a green, purple, cerise blend of mohair, with small ordinarily large feet, and that he/she/it was kind of anorexic with a green tipped head. Jayne Soule even wrote a poem...
'Twas almost Christmas & Cosmo was cold
"I'll need some stuffing before I get old...
To keep me warm & round."
He sighed without a sound.
First the sun, then the snow
How is a bear supposed to know
Where he is or what the weather?
When he's not even joined together!
Brown eyes or blue?
Whitish fur or a darker hue?
Brown paws, or green or yellow?
Oh what a poor confused little fellow!
One day though, when he's all complete,
He'll do us proud & look so neat
When in London Town he's on display,
Just before next Christmas Day!
Well you get the idea... Presented in alphabetical order is the biography of each artist. Those with websites have links added to their names.
Tove Backhammar
Tove was born in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in 1970. There was
always handicraft in some form in her family. Both her mother and grandmother were trained seamstresses. Music and arts were also very strong influences in Tove's life. She has been through periods of crocheting, knitting and cross-stitching. And, as a teenager, Tove moved on to sewing and embroidery. She stumbled upon bearmaking some time in 1995. Whatever it was that sparked it off she doesn't recall Tove did have a beloved bear (70's red and white plush) as a child, but it was just one among several other toys. Tove began making bears in inexpensive plush, using patterns from books. Soon enough, she discovered the wonderful world of bear collecting in the form of arctofilia magazines. She simply had no idea! The market in Sweden is very limited, which means you can make real bargains in the antique shops. A lack of interest keeps the prices down, but also means there's not much variation (=almost exclusively Steiff). After a while Tove wanted to try her hand at designing...and well, she's still at it. Although, she admits that she keeps finding new hobbies to explore. Tove tried porcelain dollmaking earlier this year and needless to say, was snared. So right now her brain is boiling over with ideas!...
Chris began by making her first bear from a commercial pattern back in 1992. At the time she and her family lived in Perth, Australia and her first bears were only ever intended as an expression of affection for friends and family - a very personal gift. Since moving to Myrniong (a very small rural township near Melbourne), and with her eldest daughter away at University, Chris seemed to have a whole lot more time on her hands. Like so many other artists, Chris started by adapting commercial patterns. It was only a matter of time before she drafted her first pattern. With alterations this pattern developed into one of her most popular bears, Priscilla BaskerBear. Chris sold her bears first through local teddy bear and craft shops. As business increased she sold direct to collectors. Chris has an active show schedule and hopes to include Brisbane and Perth in 1999. Last year, Chris expanded into teaching the skills of bearmaking, which has been a very rewarding experience. Again like most artists, she does everything herself, with the exception of some wonderful hand-knitted clothing items from her very talented mother and the jointing discs, which are all handmade by her father. Both of her parents are long retired but Chris knows how much they enjoy being a real and valued part of "BaskerBears" success. Working in this way she can ensure that every bear that wears the "BaskerBears" label is a truly special bear, hand-made with care and affection. Chris relates, "I love every aspect of bearmaking and it is a thrill to see the look of joy a bear can bring to a humans face. The biggest thrill of all is when that delighted look is from someone who has just picked up your newest bear!"
Nita is passionate about textile art and came across bears
by a curious but happy accident whilst exhibiting at her local museum in August 1995. She was stewarding the exhibition during her lunch break and was given a bear magazine to read by a visiting embroiderer, who just happened to also make miniature bears. She thought this very strange, her own experience of bears being limited to the cuddly synthetic variety with zero personality, but smiled sweetly and thanked her for her thoughtfulness. You guessed....Nita opened that magazine in a moment of idle curiosity and was immediatly struck by pictures of bears with character and huge personalities! As soon as her session was over, Nita rushed out to buy a copy of the magazine to find out as much as she could - she wanted to be able to create characters like these herself. Almost immediately she discovered the Teddy Bear Mailing List on the Internet, which at that time was based in Germany.
The people on the list at that time were so supportive, answering all her many questions and helping Nita
celebrate the completion of her first bear, Bruce. Like many bear-makers she made her first bear from a pattern,
but soon after designed her first bear for an international bear swap, Florabunda. Nita had always intended to use my existing skills in textiles, by painting and dyeing mohair hoping to come up with something quite different. Well, Florabunda was a very unusual shade of mauve! She continued to develop and make her designs, but the big turning point came when she offered to make a bear for the first Libearty auction. She knew her bear had to be special and worked hard on a new design, for the first time coming up with a bear that fitted that initial spark of an idea Nita had had when she first thought about making bears. Fern was made out of bracken coloured mohair, with old gold
stencilled paw pads, now one of Nita's trade marks, with huge feet, tummy and bum! She was thrilled to see him auctioned at Christies and he even made it onto the cover of Teddy Bear Times! Nita decided that this was the time to start my own business, Posh Paws - derived from their stencilled pads and the fact that Peterborough's football team are the Posh! Fern became the head of a family of Woodland bears, in all shades of foresty greens and browns. She likes to work in series, the next being the Moon bears - hand dyed blue-violet bears with amethyst eyes and gold moon charms. Dawn, made for the Libearty auction of 1998 at Alexandra Palace, was the first in a series
of hand-painted bears, featuring a sunrise scene and fur fading from blue to lilac. This series also includes hand painted clowns and I am currently working on fairy bears! Nita admits that she is not very prolific as a bear maker, certainly the ideas come faster than she can make bears! Nita generally sells bears over the Internet from her web site and her bears now live all over the world, a fact of which she is very proud. Nita has also donated her bears for charity auctions, which means a lot more to her than just giving money.
Jean became fascinated with bears in 1997. She began first by collecting German and English manufactured mohair bears. During this time she discovered an internet teddy bear list. Jean relates "I never knew there was such a big teddy bear community out there!" Naturally, she became more and more interested in making teddy bears. Being a stained glass artist, Jean was intrigued with this different media and took a class in June of 1998. After that class Jean went straight into designing her own teddies. In January of 1999 she began to make bears for sale, adopted the name HankieBears, and developed a web site. Now she has all but given up stained glass in favor of a softer, fuzzier, huggable activity. She was really excited to have worked on this project because it is such a worthy cause. Jean now lives in Seattle with her husband Joe, a traditional woodworker. He contributes to HankieBears by making show displays. They also have two ornery cats and a sweet, but bossy little Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Betsy. You can see Betsy on Jean's website, she's "The Boss". Since this bio was originally penned, two more corgis, Albert and Scout, have made their home with Jean and Joe.
Sue Lui
Sue Lui from Singapore got hooked on bearmaking in 1998. Like most bear hobbyists, she found the craft highly addictive and has since taken to designing her own. She favours the unusual and the wacky although a good old fashioned bear still warms her heart. Always on the lookout for new ideas and new mohair, Sue makes mostly small to medium-sized bears ranging from 6" to 16".
Gay Moller (Paws Four a Hug) began making bears about four years ago as a hobby. Her bears, which tend towards a quirky style have done well in competitions in her native New Zealand. In July she is putting her new range of "Cocktail Bears" on display at the Mid Winter Doll and Teddy Bear Festival in Auckland. The Cocktail Bears are a range crafted in mohair which are hand dyed to represent particular cocktails. It is obvious from their facial expressions that the bears have all been partaking. Gay also has a series of Farming Bears who rather disapprove of these boozy guys. The farmers are clean, green, organic types developed from her 1998 christmas bear Fletcher The Worm Farmer. She and Mike, her husband of 27 years, live rurally in Northland, New Zealand together with two Siamese cats, a couple of hundred teddy bears and, at the time this bio was origionally published, thousands and thousands of worms which they used to farm commercially. They have three grown up sons who despair of their ‘odd’ parents but visit regularly
to enjoy the lifestyle.
Jayne has always loved old collectibles, especially dolls and toys. Her first teddy bear "Teddy" is still with her after having moved from England to South Africa. Jayne moved back to England about three-quarters of the way through this project. She has always loved to sew and was encouraged by her mother, a skilled seamstress. After leaving school she studied & qualified as a clothing designer at which she worked until deciding to start a family. Having tried all sorts of crafts from patchwork & cross stitch to candlewicking & toy making, teddy bears were bound to appear rather sooner than later! After a trip to the UK where Jayne was amazed by the diversity of bears & supplies she decided to give it a go. However, that was easier said than done as supplies were virtually unobtainable in South Africa, but with a bit of perseverance & the help of a teddy bear magazine from England Jayne was able to get started & her first bears were born. This was about three years ago & after "surfing" the internet she was delighted to find a group of like minded people on the "Teddy Bear Mailing List" where Jayne has made many wonderful, lasting friendships. Since then she has sent bears off to live in countries as far apart as New Zealand, America & England. When the first Libearty auction was suggested in 1997, Jayne was thrilled to be able to contribute a bear to this worthwhile cause, as was the case in 1998, too. This year (1998) the suggestion of a collaboration of bear artists from all over the world was met with great enthusiasm & she feels honoured to have participated in this project.
Judy hails from Canada. She says "I make bears because I love the way the personality comes out on each bear - each is so different and they all have so much to say! " Judy is/was a quilter and then made a few porcelain dolls but feels the biggest reward in bearmaking comes from creating their little faces! When I asked her, how do you want someone to feel when they pick up a Judy Zuchetto bear and look into its face?, she answered "I would like them to feel that my bear is filled with love and it talks to them, and they can't go home without him/her!" Judy has promoted the love of Teddy Bear making by starting a group in her community called Bearly Theirs. She teaches bear making and supports the ladies in their teddy bear making. They meet twice a month at Judy's studio. She also started a group, the Teddy Bear Connection for teddy bear artists in Calgary and surrounding areas; each artist brings tips and support to the group. Judy is also a member of the Chinook Arch Chapter of Good Bears of the World.
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