Bear Essentials & Silver Bear Centre

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 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.

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...