Bear Essentials & Silver Bear Centre

Before

Hi to all at Bear Essentials
I enclosed Teddy to be repaired. This teddy belongs to my son C. (we not use original name) age 9 and he has him since he was one year old. Previous to that he belonged to my sister and is more than 20 years old. C. brings him everywhere he goes and he is a very important part of our family. We believe he is something special to heal us when we are sick and everyone loves to cuddle him. But we realised he needs “healing” himself now and that is why we have chosen you to mend him. We know you will take extra special care of him and return him as quickly as possible. Many thanks – we will miss teddy.

We had teddy booked in for this week so he could go home within 2 days. Not only children find it hard to part with their longtime friend, adults do too. After all teddies are the holder of so many memories for us.

If you like to get in touch with us – look at our teddy bear hospital page on our website.

Some times bears need big repairs but sometimes a little bit of stitching, cleaning or stuffing will keep him “healthy” a few more years.

After

What do you think my old teddy is worth?
At Bear Essentials we have been asked this question so many times and we  cant really  give you a satisfactory answer. We do design teddy bears and also restore old bears but to evaluate a teddy bear requires a lot of knowledge about the history of that particular bear. So the best we can do for you is to forward this address to you of someone who might be able to help.

Teddy Bear Times Magazine – 00441903884988 – they can give you an address who to write to.

When you send them a question give them as much information about your teddy bear as you can like age, where he came from, size, a photo and what else you remember. Good luck and happy new year!

Some need a little bit more than a face lift.

Before and after – let us know what YOU think!!!

This is Snaggy!

Dear Anke,
Just recieved “Snaggy” today. I would like to sincerely thank you and everyone at Bear Essentials for your fantastic work. We are delighted with the work you did. I know must have been a difficult task with the poor condition he was in, but he is looking fantastic again and we are amazed at what you could do for him.
Many Thanks,
Pádraig

We love to get feed back from our customers especially if it is such a nice one and we like to share it with you. We hope it assures you as well that we will look after your precious teddy bear and restore him to his own natural self as much as possible.

Here is Mary’s comment: Anke, Our trust was rewarded when we placed my late mother’s 90 year old ‘Big Ted’ with Bear Essentials for restoration recently. I gather he was the largest bear ever treated by the team? You did a fantastic job in keeping his old features (eyes and nose) while replacing all his fur and my daughter was amazed when he appeared as a gift for her on Christmas Day – this investment will make sure this new/old bear takes pride of place within the family – his days of being disguarded in the attic are over. Many, many thanks for your friendly professionalism – Mary

We just like to start the new year to answer some of the questions our customers email us before they bring or send a teddy bear to us for restoration.
We get a lot of inquiries about “sad looking” or almost “beyond repair” teddy bears, animals or indeed baby comforters. The good new is that we never had to send a bear home without making him look better or preserve him in someway for future generations. We usually run one teddy bear clinic per week. The other days of the week we are busy designing teddies or baby items for our customers or run workshops here in the Silver Bear Centre.
First of all we cannot give any quotations via phone or email. Even if you send us an image we not see the condition of the teddy bear from all angles. You bring your bear personally to us or send him via mail (track & trace) to us at Bear Essentials Teddy Bear Hospital, Tirnawannagh, Bawnboy, Co,Cavan, Ireland. As soon as your precious bear arrives we will ring you to ensure that he arrived safely and to talk about what you like to get done. Than we can give you a quotation which is usually the final cost of restoration.
What does happen when a new patient arrives at Bear Essentials teddy bear hospital?

A box arrives via courier or post. Must say- we are always excited when a new patient arrives.We unpack him and listen to his story. Most bears come with a story or history written down by their owners. Some are heart braking reports of lost loved ones or about the cause of the bears state at the time of arrival. Would you believe that one of our most loved pets – our dog – is quite often the course of old teds destruction?
After we ring the owner and the bear is admitted into our hospital book, the bear goes into his own basket where he stays until he is ready to be send home again. Usually no teddy bear has to stay longer than one or two weeks. Just at busy times when we are fully booked or have to order special accessories it might be an extra week of waiting. Repairs on teddy bear can range from sewing seams, attaching new eyes or stitching new noses to stuffing them, replacing paws or re-designing a total new bear. If we get a teddy bear who belongs to a small child we like to replace missing fur with material the child already loves. This could be a piece of  their own clothing or something mum has at home.
The bear you see here is actually a new bear James – one of the Charlie Bears – he got an outfit made of grannies old night dress.

In general we like to keep as much of  Teddy’s old image & appeal as possible because that is quite often the reason why he is so loved in the first place.

I will write a bit more about our teddy bear clinic tomorrow. I hope you enjoy reading about it.

The Roscommon County Play Day Family Event in Lough Key Forrest Park yesterday brought hundreds of visitors.
It is a fantastic place for families and offers lots to do. We were delighted to be part with our mobile teddy bear hospital and like to share the video with you.

The whole event made almost €1000 for Crumlin Children’s Hospital.

Jack brought his dog Spot who got caught in a fence. We stitched him up and Louise gave him a good brushing.

We think he looks so real.

Jack with dog Spot

We had a great day with our Teddy Bear Hospital at Market Cross Shopping Centre Kilkenny on the 19th of June. The whole event raised €2785 for the Children’s Hospital Crumlin – regarding research into Diabetes in children.

The kids brought a lot of teddy bears for a check up and got involved in finding out what was wrong with teddy. We looked after the more severe cases and after they were fixed all were discharged on the day.

We enjoyed the day with kids and parents. Here are some images to share with you.

Craig & Michael from Kilkenny

We had great fun with these two boys who got their teddies seen too on the day.

While we checked teddies heart beat, Craig had to check ours and mummy and daddy’s as well.

Next teddy bear hospital on Sunday the 4th of July from 2pm – 6pm at Lough Key Forrest Park near Boyle.

Come along and get your teddy checked out for free.

Just a few more stitches!

Dr Nicolaus checking the heart beat...