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description=A blog about teddy bear making, mohair teddy bears and the life of teddy bear artist Paula Carter.;

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ddy bears and the remaining third of the year simply trying to find motivation to work at all after saying a sad farewell to my dad that autumn sad to say there were no ellies whatsoever in 2010 however the ellie bug bit again in 2011 i decided to develop my ellie s personality further i wanted give him cute low slung ears and close set eyes to lend his personality a endearing dimension i was so pleased with my new whimsical blue ellie design i named him forget me not in dedication to my dad also in 2011 came ma cherie a pretty pale pink ellie i decided to create a slightly smaller elephant called butterfly in 2013 and it wasn t until 2021 that i developed my smaller jointed elephant design to create buttercup the sweetest little elephant part of my springtime pals trio which also included a bunny and a bear all wearing knitted jackets and that was it the ellies really were almost as rare as hen s teeth until today i found the very piece of mohair i needed to complete an ellie bear i started this summer then had to discard because frustratingly i misremembered how much mohair to buy and ran out of the denim coloured fabric as did my supplier however all was not lost i finally finished my 2025 dilys ellie bear yesterday and can at last share her with you and add her name to my catalogue of elephant designs posted by all bear by paula at friday october 17 2025 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels blue bears elephants teddy bear design tuesday 7 october 2025 spellbound spellbound when i was a child way way way back in the 60 s halloween wasn t especially celebrated where we lived but buried deep in my primary school library was a book i found utterly magical sadly i don t recall the title now but i have never forgotten the sillouette illustrations of witches flying across a moonlit sky and how they captured the imagination of the little girl i once was the memory of that mystical book is why half a century later i let my imagination loose to cast a spell of childhood magic in teddy bear form and celebrate the witches flight of all hallowes eve happy halloween magic to you posted by all bear by paula at tuesday october 07 2025 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels halloween friday 29 august 2025 making memories after a lovely holiday away in devon with my family and our five dogs i am now catching up with website updates orders and life in general i am also scratching my head over new us tariff legislation which is rather a rude post holiday come down and seems to have most countries in a somewhat grumpy trade spin from what i can gather before the 29th august 2025 us collectors were protected by something called the de minimis rule which meant imported goods up to 800 were exempt from nasty import duties so my teddy bears could travel happily to new lives in the land of milk and honey however president trump in all his presidential wisdom has now removed this friendly trade exemption meaning import duties and a variety of charges will now become due on receipt of any sweet natured teddy bears travelling to the us to share hugs mean eh i will of course be checking tariff codes carefully to see whether or not handcrafted teddy bears are definitely part of this shake up and keeping fingers crossed that us collectors will bear with me while my creative brain attempts to fathom export details and shipping consequences needless to say this is all a million miles from my cosy world of teddy bear making in happier news the scenery in deepest devon was as always spectacular we stayed on a lovely two hundred year old farmhouse which everyone enjoyed hugely and the dogs had a blast on the beaches my favourite day trip was spent on dartmoor an area of breathtaking natural beauty where wild ponies long horned cattle and sheep roam freely the children climbed tors and adventured to their hearts content and when they were ready for a rest we visited a beautiful ancient village called widecombe in the moor for a very welcome cream tea time now to make my memory book and preserve our holiday memories and once i ve figured out the implications of exporting to my us friends to settle back into my workroom to find peace by being me and simply creating teddy bears posted by all bear by paula at friday august 29 2025 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bearmaking holiday monday 11 august 2025 we re having a heatwave we re having a heatwave as i sit here relishing the breeze wafting across my shoulders from the fan conveniently placed behind me with my dogs snoozing in front of yet another large floor fan i must admit i feel rather lazy and a little bit sleepy the summer heat is back here in the uk and that means the temperature in my workroom is on par with a sauna the garden is scorching as the strong sunshine beats down outside and my energy for all things creative is well and truly zapped it has been a while since my last blog post so now seems as good time a time as any to tap away on my keyboard besides making teddy bears and walking my three dogs i have recently re introduced my tiddler sized teddy bears after their brief sabbatical if i am totally honest they are not my favourite to make simply because at only slightly bigger than my coffee mug i find the small scale a fiddle but even i can t deny their cute appeal and they certainly do look super cute perched among my bigger bears how some bearmakers cope creating miniature teddy bears i really do not know that is a skill far from the ability of my own bear making fingertips the tiddlers are the smallest bears i think i am ever likely to make last week the postie delivered some fabulous mohair all the way from the us one piece i must set aside for a special commission order promised for early autumn the other two pieces are so glorious i may decide to use them together to create a summer clown bear although i am also tempted to save the wonderfully vibrant orange for halloween decisions decisions decisions summer can be a strange time for making teddy bears working with mohair becomes tricky when the weather is so warm and my workroom becomes stuffy no bearmaker really enjoys working with their hands when they are hot and sweaty also teddy bear collectors are usually otherwise occupied at this time of year with treat funds naturally redirected towards family holidays summer wardrobes and special days out and of course school holidays mean my nana duty is reinstated with long days to fill entertaining two lively grandchildren not that it is a chore you understand we really do love our time together but of course it means that just for a few weeks there will be a little less time available for work with luck we may take a last minute short break somewhere with the dogs too after all summer wouldn t be summer without giving them the chance to splash through a few waves fingers crossed i can whistle something up i am definitely craving a change of scenery in the meantime i have been ploughing through a stack of paperback novels to while the afternoon heat away today i placed rob rinder s second novel an engaging legal thriller titled the suspect on my ready to pass on pile and slipped a bookmark aka all bear postcard into the cover of david nicholls latest book titled you are here i watched the author interviewed on this morning recently and thought his book sounded like my cup of tea so ordered it straightaway much as i dislike ordering brand new books at heart i am a secondhand book reader and always try to buy used copies where possible however this time i made an exception and by the magic of amazon a shiny new hardback copy arrived yesterday with perfect timing i also read books by kristin hannah percival everett and rebecca f kuang over the past couple of weeks the kristin hannah books were by far my favourites so i will definitely read more of those the other two books were okay but not really to my lazy day easy read summer heat requirements hopefully this wearisome heat and humidity will ease soon it is the second heatwave we have endured of late and already i am bored with it so are the dogs by august days usually start to feel more pleasant with a promise of autumn so for me a much nicer time for making teddy bears and perhaps some knitting too anyway i seem to have rambled for quite a considerable while so i will sign off now please bear with me if the website seems on the quiet side through the coming weeks i will still be working on new teddy bears but likely at a slightly more leisurely place thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog catch up soon paula x posted by all bear by paula at monday august 11 2025 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels tiddlers nothing ventured 1930 s chiltern hugmee restoration project nothing ventured those who know me well know i was a collector long before i was a bearmaker i have always loved chiltern hugmee teddy bears especially and was lucky enough to collect several over the years well recently the collecting bug bit me again when i spotted a beautiful if somewhat grubby 1930 s chiltern hugmee on a well known auction site after talking myself in and out of making an offer eventually in won and now this lovely bear lives with me and i have undertaken my first serious teddy bear restoration project my initial inspection unveiled several areas of concern for this lovely bear s future a very wobbly head glass eyes that were not secured a grubby but beautiful mohair coat and tragically split paw pads i decided to undertake radical surgery and plucked up courage to take my bear to pieces completely i sought advice in a restoration group and was told in no uncertain terms i should not have done so and that thirty years of bear making did not qualify me as a restorer which was probably fair comment but i decided nothing ventured nothing gained and as this bear was my own not for resale i went ahead anyway the mohair revealed fabulously rich colouring hidden around the joints and the only way to bring it completely back to life was to wash the pieces thoroughly by hand to the horror of some of the professional restoration artists i have to say i am feeling rather smug as the result is stunning a century of dirt and dust washed to reveal a glorious orange gold mohair a beautiful today as it would have been when it was first created my next job was to rebuild the head secure the eyes safely and replace the head joint the head was stuffed with woodwool excelsior and it was ultra important i retain the original look of the bear if i wanted to claw back any credibility after my apparent recklessness so i worked carefully taking great care to ensure his eyes were secured back into their original holes and the muzzle was stuffed sympathetically retaining the original nose stitching which has naturally faded over the years i had to replace the mouth stitched as the original embroidery thread disintegrated but fortunately i use the same perle thread on my own teddy bear designs so that wasn t a problem i simply ensured the mouth was exactly the same shape and position at it had been originally this week i have lined the original arm paws with cotton velvet inside to support the existing velveteen fabric restuffed the arms taking care not to overstuff and reassembled in the original holes using new hardboard discs and cotter pins which should last my bear for at least another hundred years the most delicate job will be to create new velvet footpads to replace the original split ones which unfortunately are not able to be saved so i plan to insert new pads into the mohair with the original cardboard liners which i plan to use to create the footpad pattern i am taking this project slowly and very much enjoying the process so far my beautiful hugmee bear has clean mohair which is suprisingly rich in colour and still dense a hundred years since his manufacture plus head and arms now securely attached once i have braved making him new footpads his legs will be reassembled his body stuffed and the original non working bellows growler reinstated safely in his tummy for posterity i will then close the final seam knit him something smart to wear to protect his beautiful mohair put him with his pals and sit back and simply enjoy him nb if you have a much loved elderly teddy bear in need of a little restoration please don t try this at home folks professional restorers work is undertaken with utmost respect for teddy s heritage and with great skill teddy bear restoration is a serious undertaking and should be done sympathetically a skilled teddy bear restorer can work miracles posted by all bear by paula at monday august 11 2025 no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels chiltern hugmees chiltern hygenic toy company monday 16 june 2025 ken yenke a teddy bear expert a teddy bear expert i have been re reading my teddy bear reference books lately and adding a few more titles to my bookshelf there are some superb collectors books written in the 1980 s and 90 s now listed secondhand on websites such as world of books and good old ebay and usually offered at very reasonable prices i love to read about the development of the teddy bear over the past century it is fascinating to learn about the teddy bear phenomenom and its impact on social history and as a teddy bear designer myself i am always inspired by photographs of old bears i think i may be a bit of a teddy bear geek but the written history of the teddy bear has always interested me perhaps because the authors who write about our beloved teddy bear are also genuine collectors and enthusiasts writing with deep passion and respect for their subject one such author was ken yenke an american teddy bear expert sadly lost to the bear world after his death in 2014 ken was an expert in the truest sense of the word not only respected internationally for his broad subject knowledge and love of teddy bears but also a dedicated private collector he built a significant collection of antique teddy bears with his wife brenda and shared them with the world through his books which i am fortunate enough to have on my workroom bookshelf i first learned of ken yenke s work through my subscription to a us teddy bear magazine published in the 1980 s subsequently as a competitive teddy bear artist i was honoured to have ken include my nomination in the golden teddy bear awards presentation video in 2011 i didn t win my category that year but it was such a thrill to be included in his presentation https allbear blogspot com 2011 10 2011 golden teddy award winners html if you would like to read more about ken s beautiful teddy bear collection and the wonderful personal histories behind many of the bears i highly recommend hunting for copies of his books they are written in his inimitabl...