Bear Essentials & Silver Bear Centre

We like to invite you to preview some of the 2010 limited edition Steiff Teddy Bears.

This is Reinhard – the Schulte Patchwork Teddy

For more than a century, the famous fabric mill Schulte has provided Steiff with superior quality mohair, alpaca, and fine woven fabrics for their Teddy bears and animals. After a long and productive relationship, the two companies have now joined forces. Steiff  purchased this legendary fabric mill – now known as “Steiff Schulte.” To celebrate this partnership, Steiff created a special Teddy bear that pays tribute to the creativity and innovation of both companies. It’s a first-of-its-kind patchwork bear that displays a small sampling of the thousands of fabrics that Schulte is able to create. Made from 11 swatches of mohair and alpaca (dense, sparse, new, distressed, straight, curly), each piece of fabric harmonizes beautifully to create an exceptionally appealing Teddy bear with real character. To commemorate this milestone event in the history of the Steiff company  you can  add Reinhard, the Schulte Patchwork Teddy bear to your collection. On available >>>

This is Limpy – like Reinhard another first Steiff creation.

“What if,” a Steiff designer wondered, “it was possible to tie-dye mohair, the way you tie-dye a t-shirt? What effect would you achieve?” For the answer, look no further than Limpy, another of Steiff’s designer Teddy bears in the 2010 collection. Steiff Schulte artisans very eagerly accepted the challenge of creating this entirely new type of mohair coloring. The result is another first for Steiff. The tone on tone effect is an ever-changing, swirling mix of brown and blond tones. It makes no two Teddy bears exactly alike! But the mohair isn’t the only unique aspect of this unusual Teddy bear. He’s a completely new face in the Steiff assortment. He has a cream-colored mohair complexion accented by apricot and black airbrushing. His nose is lightly waxed. The insides of his ears are sewn with a longer pile cream mohair to accent his face. The edges of his paw pads are very lightly airbrushed to add extra dimension. With his broad smile and sparkling eyes, he’s a very contented Teddy bear – just waiting to bring some happiness to your collection – and your home. One available>>>

The sun is warming everything around us for the past days but it is still very chilly. A few month ago the big freeze has put Bear Essentials under a blanket of snow. Our video is a reminder of a beautiful white sunny day in December with Brandy, Charlie and Sparky enjoying the snow.

White Christmas at Bear Essentials

Teddy Bears come in all shapes and sizes. It doesn’t really count how they look like to me. What matters is how they appear to you or what they signify for you. It has something to do with feelings, either the situation you were in when you bought the bear (if you felt happy or sad) or the significance of the relationship to the person who gave the teddy to you (a boyfriend, child, parent, grandparent….).

Isn’t that why we love this special teddy bear so much?
From bears who visit our teddy bear hospital we know how much they mean to their owners. They have been part of their life for some time. They have been going on a journey with them through good and not so good times and some of them desperately need a bit of a facelift to carry on.
Some have been loved, some have been neglected some been insured by a dog but they all have a momentous relationship with their owner.

This is one of the reasons why so many people buy real mohair teddy bears nowadays. We have seen on shows like the Antique Road Show how much a famous old Steiff teddy bear could be worth. If we want to give a present to someone we usually like to make that present last a long time. Mohair teddy bears, made from the hair of the Angora goat are so durable they can last not just one generation but many.

I wish I still had a teddy bear from my mum or dad.
We like to encourage you to get out your favorite teddy bear and think what he means to you.
May be you like to share your story with us, we are looking forward to hear from you.