Bear Essentials & Silver Bear Centre

My first bear is now past his mid 50’s and has worn well even though he was hugely loved. He has been re-stuffed and wears my brother’s baby clothes (they are now grown man).I first heard of Anke and her Bear Making Centre in Cavan a few years ago and I looked forward to going there and make my own teddy bear. I thoroughly enjoyed my day session there and this was my first of many bear making times with Anke. I have since attended each year our teddy bear making week in An Grianan. Made about 10 bears including a panda and polar bear.

You and your friends can vote for this image & story after the 5th of November – vote Mariah Cooney

The entry with the most votes is going to adopt teddy Freezy for Christmas and will give him a new home forever after.

Mohair Teddy Bear Making from 12th – 15th of July from 10 am – 1 pm for children age 6 – 16 for more information follow this link

This summer school is the only one in Ireland – where children can make their own fully jointed Mohair Teddy – a keepsake for years to come.

Crafts & Cookery Summer School from 19th – 22nd of July from 10 am – 1 pm for children age 6 – 16 for more information click here

To design teddy bears and creating their own characters is just one way of expressing our creativity. Like an artist painting a picture or a potter building a vase it gives us the opportunity to invent, to form, to produce something new and unique. The innovative product is our reward and for me as a teddy bear artist the prize is that people like my creations and buy and collect them.

But a real thrill for me is when other people can experience the same then I do.

It is great when you can pass on your skills to people and it is exciting if they give you fine feed back on their experience.

A mum who took part in a course with her daughter wrote back to us with words like “We were impressed with our efforts” – “We were trilled and chuffed and didn’t think we had the confidence and skills to do such a great job.” Isn’t life to be there to experience it in full? To be able to do so we have to learn all the time and at all stages of our life.

This little girls is not even 6 years of age and embroidering her newly made teddy bears nose. And the boys get really enthusiastic about sewing. The ladies in the button picture show off their bears at a course I delivered in An Grianan in Co.Louth this August 2009.

One of the boys is working on Blizzard’s nose. He is using black thread and a large doll makers needle to embroider the nose.

At the beginning of our project we agreed special terms with the boys how to use and behave when applying more dangerous tools in school then usually. One of the conditions where that everyone using a needle had to sit down. We also agreed on sanctions for not keeping to our terms.

Sounds strict but when working with 23 boys in a classroom environment, on a project that requires a lot of skills but at the same you like to experience every child to develop those skills, safety is very important.

Everyone had a go with Blizzard. Some of the boys were stuffing his legs while others where working on his head. At the end of the session we joint all the parts up with his body. A bonus was the growler we inserted in his body. Some boys thought he sounded more like a cow then a bear.

The boys where also personalising their little friendship bears. When I arrived everyone had made a flag of the country their bear is symbolising. We are going to leave the flags until the end to see where they best fit into the whole project. The boys added a lot of different attributes to their bears like, scarves, medals, hair and a class eye for the pirate.

When I came home I took a picture of all the friendship bears (we have attached them to each other) with Blizzard in the middle.

Blizzard is made from material of an old coat. The friendship bears are from material the boys brought in. Imagine what you can recycle and turn into new use or into art & craft ideas.

At Bear Essentials Summer School in July we are planning to make designer bags from strong fiber material ( read more )

We had lots of fun today. We have two more sessions left to finish our project. We will share the result with you. For this week the boys have to come up with a tittle for the project.

Craft in the classroom project