1.

Snowblossom, Musical Alpine Bear

Artist's comments: I wanted to make a bear with an imbedded

music box because I found one that plays “Edelweiss”.  This

inspiration led to the creation of Snowblossom, a fantasy bear

possibly hidden away in a secret world among the “blossoms

of snow,” as they are called, in the European Alps. Charming

Snowblossom measures 22" long and is fashioned in a slightly

bent-leg style, made for sitting only.  Her sumptuous fur is long

wavy, incredibly soft German mohair in two colors, painstakingly

pieced together in an interesting design.  Embroidered ultra suede

paw pads, hand painted eyes encased within leather and satin

cord eyelids, adorned with a necklace of wonderful garland of dried

edelweiss blossoms.   Her music box operates with a wind-up key

extending from her back.  Snowblossom was truly a labor of love

for me and what I consider my most wonderful bear yet!

HannaBears
Karen Cwayna

2.

Fuzzyface

Artist's comments: Fuzzyface is a generously proportioned

bear made from luxurious, long wavy mohair in a curious

taupe/grey colour. Once completed, he decided he was

just too fuzzy and demanded a haircut. This is a very serious

matter for a bear because the fur won’t grow back! Over

the course of a couple of weeks, with many consultations

and a rather timid start (you don't want to get a bear all

growly!), the scissors finally started to fly! Excess fur

was trimmedfrom nose, ears, shoulders, hips, and tops

of paw pads.  He is quite pleased with the results and

spent a lot of time in frontof his tri-fold mirror! Large

black stitched nose complements his large black glass

eyes, which are shaded with blackt, a bit like a raccoon. 

Loosely 5-way jointed.

Binkibears
Aina Ferris

4.

Nakoda Smiles

Artist's comments: Nakoda was a sweet cuddly grizzly, but

one day he smiled! And I saw the real Nakoda for the first

time.  19" tall, imported Belgium plush, needle sculpted and

hand colored features, black glass eyes set in handmade eye

sockets, leather paws and nose, jointed head and legs (legs

also soft armatured), sculpted ultra suede open mouth with

free tongue.  Nakoda can sit or stand without support.

KJ Lyons Design
Karen Lyons

4.

Honey

Artist's comments: Honey's name was accidentally discovered

as I reached for a needle to make the final closure, saying to the

bear,  "C'mere, honey."  Honey just looked up at me and smiled

that special smile that say, "NOW, you know my name!" 16" tall,

batiked mohair, securely, yet flexibly jointed and evenly weighted

throughout to deliver you the most heartfelt hugs ever. 

Fool's Gold Bears
Laure Weltsch

5.

YMIR

Artist's comments: YMIR is a "primal being" or ice giant,

26" tall, and looks quite relaxed about the whole idea. 

I had no special plans for this bear or to make an ice

giant.  I simply wanted to make maximum use of this

gorgeous hand-dyed mohair from Barbara-Ann Cunningham.

I tweaked an earlier pattern for the head and body and then

designed the arms and legs as I went along.......as usual,

this created an element of panic - "will I have enough mohair?"

...which means that I have to sew faster, until I find out!

For his inserts, I coloured some long-pile cashmere, using

silk paints.  He features a double neck joint, wired arms and

fingers, black glass eyes and stitched nose - and just for

a change - I "lacquered" it with sparkly nail varnish! He

wears a neck-piece of "pearls", "diamonds" and rose quartz

beads, and sports an amethyst bead in his belly button. 

púca Bears

Maria Collin

6.

Sage

Artist's comments: Sage is a new pattern design for me.

His head is a rounder, more realistic shape and his belly

and feet are larger than I usually make.  I absolutely

LOVE how sweet his open mouth turned out. He puts

a smile on my face every time I look at him and I think

that is what a bear should do! Sage is 21” tall, made

of super dense black and pale sandy alpaca with a slight

sage green undertone.  He has paw pads of black textured

upholstery velvet.  I made Sage with a smiling, open

mouth with a pink velvet tongue.  Sage’s eye patches are

applied alpaca and his German glass eyes have white felt

backing and hand painted “glint”.  He has flexible Loc-Line

neck joint for adorable laughing poses.  Wears a large old

copper skeleton key on a sage green velvet ribbon around

his neck.

Sunnie Bears
Sonya Shaw

7.

Bleu

Artist's comments: The inspiration for this piece is easy

to trace:  Everywhere I look -- forums,, magazines, eBay,

shops, etc. -- DYED MOHAIR are there, right in front of my

eyes.  So I figured, I've got to try this dyeing thing, myself! 

I'm very comfortable -- too comfortable -- using natural

colored mohairs (browns, beiges, golds, tans, creams, and

whites), in my work.  But a BLUE bear, dyed by my own

hand, would be a real departure for me! Bleu is an overdyed

bear, dyed with RIT onto a creamy, wavy mohair underlayer.

In keeping with the fantastic color combinations, suggested

by dyed mohair, I really WENT WITH IT! I gave Bleu purple

eyes, if you can believe that! Plus, matching blue eyelids, r

aspberry pink nose and vibrant, multi-colored wool hand knit

neck scarf to bring out the turquoisey teal colors in his fur

and raspberry nose, all that much more.  I loved the effect

washing and drying, post-dye-bath, had on Bleu's fur as well. 

He's a little bit matted, but in a very soft and fuzzy way.  His

paw pads are created from that same overdyed mohair, clipped

to 1/8" pile length, edges shaded in deep greyish-blue tones.

Potbelly Bears

Shelli Heinemann

8.

Bobby

12" tall and 15" long, not counting his tail, this bright little

Puppy is made of batik mohair in beiges and oranges, fully

jointed, heavily f illed with sheepswool and rubber pellets.

Mick Bears

9.

Skip

22" big, Skip is made with beautiful gold mohair, premium

glass eyes, ultra suede paw pads, stuffed with poly fil and

BB"s for weight.  He is a soft bear and his softer stuffing

works well with his soft mohair fur for added huggability. 

Airbrushed shading on face and paws, antique key around

his neck.

Lemmon Bears
Joan Lemmon

10.

Sergei, the Siberian Tiger

Artist's comments: Sergei is close to my heart and my

pride and joy because he is a work I have wanted to create,

for some time now - a glorious tiger cub,straight from the

jungle! He is entirely hand sewn from short white German

mohair.  His chubby cheeks are a slightly longer mohair. 

I airbrushed him entirely,from head to toe, in several layers

of colors to create soft shades and beautiful, extensively

detailed stripes.  His paws have white and black needle

felted details from the tops of his toes to the bottom of his

feet and around his upper eyes are also needle felted.  Large,

hand painted German glass glisten in greens and shimmering

golds.  Sweetly dispositioned, Sergei is 18" tall and fully jointed, 

Luxembears

Judi Paul

11.

Dorothy

16" tall, traditional bear, is a very ladylike little girl, who

loves nothing better than to dress up in her mummy's hats

and dresses.  Dorothy loves Easter time, because she can

find the prettiest bonnets to wear while hunting for Easter e

ggs with her tiny friend, Sunny Bunny and little straw-lined

basket, ready for collecting yummy Easter eggs.  Made from

a gorgeous medium-dense long pile Schulte mohair in a lovely

gold colour, antique rayon velvet paw pads, beautiful German

black glass eyes, handstitched black Perle thread button nose

and mouth, 5-way jointed, wobble neck joint to allow for lots

of cute poses.  Arm and leg joints nut and bolt jointed, stuffed

with polyester and some glass beads for weight in her tummy,

tiny layer of crushed garnet in her feet keep them firmly on the

ground!

Bickerton Bears
Beryle Tidey

12.

Gopher

18" tall, brown with black tip tufted imported synthetic fur,

black ultra suede paw pads and inner ears, gold hand painted

German glass eyes with leather upper eye lids, handstitched

gold perle cotton nose, hardboard disc and cotter pin head

joint, hardboard disc and lock nut arm and leg joints, polyfil/

plastic pellet and BB's (tummy only) stuffing.

Barb Clevenger

13.

Skyler

Skyler is a cool blue bear made of hand-dyed mohair in shades

of blue, glass eyes, handstitched nose, white ultra suede toes,

polyfil/plastic pellet stuffing, locknut/bolt joints

Teds`n Such
Tyler Crain

14.

Ace: This Joker's Wild

Artist's comments: This mischevious, wild Joker thinks

he can pull the wool over your eyes by tucking a spare

Ace  of Spades in his jolly jester hat.  16" tall, created

of curly, coffee dyed matted mohair.  His face is intricately

needle felted from the finest Alpaca roving and then hand

painted.  Paw pads embellished in a similar manner using

hand dyed Alpaca. Each paw pad sports a needle felted

design representing the four card gamesuits: Hearts, Clubs,

Spades and Diamonds.  Jolly Jester-style, hat and collar,

complete his mischievous expression and are made from

wool felt aged by boiling it for a softer look.  Don't turn your

back on this one as his cocky smile tells you he's always

up to something!

Twin Cubs

Lisa Bunting Thoms

15.

Tawainai

Artist's comments: Please let me introduce you to my latest

panda, 17" tall Tawainai, which means "silly" in Japanese.

Tawainai created from off white and black Schulte mohair,

wool felt paw pads.  Peers through antique shoe button eyes,

white and grey wool felt tucked behind them. Nose sculpted

of Fimo with a white shadow, to add character.  Airbrushed

eye patches and highlights around nose for sweetly innocent

look.  Fully jointed with hardboard discs and locknuts, stuffed

with excelsior and glass pellet combination for extra weight.

Simple red neck bow completes his "look"!

Kim Endlich

16.

April Blossom Bearie

OOAK, 10" tall, made from medium density S-Finish mohair,

5-way jointed, armatured arms for posing, double jointed

neck for even more varied posing! Gold painted paws, hand

painted face, sculpted eyes and nose.  Open mouth design

is sculpted and hand painted and may be posed open or closed. 

Wears an Easter egg blossom headpiece, hand made Rose

Quartz necklace with Easter egg blossoms and silver accents,

which encourages self-love, a strong heart, romance and the

ability to love.   She carries Easter egg blossom "flowers"

accented with white flowers and ribbons, in her paw.  Comes

with her own Easter egg tree and Easter eggs.

Kassity Allison

Kassie Bears

17.

Montmorency

19"/48 cm tall, Montmorency is a one-of-a-kind artist

bear. Mainly made from extremely long and luxurious,

cream mohair with pale, soft, animal print faux fur used

for his tummy, snout, ear fronts and under tail.

Barbara-Ann Bears

Barbara Ann Cunningham

18.

Grizzly

18" tall bear made of luxurious Australian plush with German

mohair inset muzzle, wool felt paw pads, fully jointed, hand

painted details on face and muzzle, German glass eyes, hand

embroidered nose.

Anita Spero

19.

Clarabelle Clown

22” tall Clarabelle, is a wonderful friend to all the animals

and is in charge of feeding the lions and tigers (scary!). 

She also enjoys treats of caramel corn.   Made of rusty

distressed mohair, suede leather paw pads, German glass

eyes, tri-colored nose.  airbrushed accents bring out

distinuishing elemnts, stuffed with poly-fil and plastic

pellets.  Adorned with colorful stripedruff collar and matching,

polka-dot patterned hat accented with buttons and jingle bell.

Bainbridge Bears
Donna Hinkelman

20.

Elizabeth Claire

Nearly 17-1/2 inches tall. made from dyed silver fox,

cotterpin jointing for huggability,filled with polyfil, and

BB's for weight, paws pads embroidered with flowers,

hand stitched nose, glass eyes.

DiBears

Diana Watts