Fair Warning!

My passion is promoting healthy choices with emphasis on the word “choices”. 

My name is Patsye Stanley, a mother of seven,

foster mother of nine, and now grandmother

of five.  Children and all that goes with them,

remains the prime focus of my life.

Of course, it is only natural that somone who

loves children, also loves teddy bears! The two

go hand-in-hand.

I don’t know how anyone can have even one

child without also playing host to a whole parade

of various bears and buds, who occupy a special

place in the the heart and the home. 

A teddy bear or buddy exists for everyone from

the newborn cuddler to the avid collector.

A Natural Inclination

My love for teddy bears carries over to my career

as well.  For many years now, I have worked as

a teddy bear “doctor” performing bear repair along

with designing bears for individual customers and commercial companies.

I designed my first organic teddy bear by chance,

simply because I loved some naturally brown

organic fabric I happened to be using in my

business, at the time.

My 18 month-old granddaughter, Allison, inspired

me to develop my line of organic bears. She kept choosing my simple organic teddy bear to cuddle

with and ignored all the brightly colored plush toys.

This poor bear was without clothes and had no joints……….the simplest of creatures but it was

Allison's chosen one. 

Her preference for that organic bear convinced

me that teddy bears made of natural fabrics

of cream and brown, can be just as wonderful

as plush and even better because they can be enjoyed by the chemically sensitive child or adult.

Appropriate Alternatives

I have used a variety of organic fabrics for bears

and their apparel and have found many reliable organic and natural choices for bear making

supplies and accessories. 

One of my goals is to help build a well-rounded database of organic and natural sources.

The First Step

The best place to start a discussion regarding

teddy bears and their relationship with the organic world is to simply explain some common terminology that can be confusing.

Organic - This labeling refers to food, fiber and

other materials that have been grown or produced

without the use of chemicals.  

Organic wool, for example, originates from sheep raised on an organic diet and their wool must be processed according to organic standards, without the use of scouring chemicals.

The resulting wool product will retain its natural lanolin and sometimes have a bit of straw spun

in.

Cotton, linen, hemp must be grown without the

use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides

or conventional textile processing chemicals and dyes.  Only dyes with low mpact on the environment and as outlined on the standards list, are acceptable.

Natural - Primarily used in reference to the fabric

and fiber industry, and helps distinguish between

the animal and plant source as opposed to the fabrics which are synthetic and chemically based.

Cotton, linen, silk, hemp, wool, alpaca other animal wools are all natural fibers. What is done to the

fiber while processing, can alter the natural qualities.

Wild -  This term may be new to some. Wild-crafted means the fiber is gathered or "crafted" from the

wild or cultivated in a natural setting.

In India, silk is still harvested from the wild or

semi-cultivated. While these fibers should not

have chemical additives, it is hard to document

them as organic.  In reality. they would actually

be “naturally organic”.

I have had opportunities to secure wild-crafted

Kapok, harvested from the Cieba tree, for use as stuffing alternatives.

Lots of Options

There are a myriad of wonderful organic stuffing materials, eyes fashioned from vegetable ivory,

and wonderful fabrics for clothes and accessories

in an almost endless array of colors, prints, different weaves, weights, stripes, and of course yarns and threads.

Organic choices minimize exposure to chemicals

in the final product and for the chemically sensitive, this is vitally important.

I look forward to sharing more in-depth information and ideas in subsequent articles.

Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome via email: info@flaxorganics.com!

Patsye's Bio

The roots of Flax Organics, Inc harken back to 1998 when Patsye Stanley, President, began making flaxseed-filled hot/cold packs for her own use. 

A chronic pain sufferer, Patsye knew she couldn't continue taking increased amounts of prescription

pain relievers without seriously damaging her health. 

So, she decided to find

a more natural relief

for pain.

Stanley discovered when she heatedher flaxseed packs in the microwave

for a few minutes and

applied to affected body parts, they supplied welcome, warm relief

from migraines, sinusitis, and joint pain. 

stored in the freezer, the oil in the flax seed packs also made them effective as cold compresses.

In 2002, after making her special flaxseed packs for herself, friends and family for four years, Stanley created, Flax Organics, Inc and began marketing products as Flax-ease Therapacks™.

In order to render the Therapacks™ safe for chemically-sensitive individuals, Patsye makes them with 100% organic cotton and 100% organic flax seed. 

Certified organic products are grown and processed without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, dyes, and

fabric finishes as much

as possible.

Therapacks™ come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including teddy bear shapes to appeal to children. 

Children are frequently the most challenging patients

to accept the use of hot or cold therapy. 

The charming appearance of the teddy bear Therapacks™ frequently make them their favorite, warm and snuggly, bedtime items for toddlers.

The FDA has designated the Therapacks™ as a Class 1 medical device, meaning they can be marketed to all ages except small infants. 

One of the main benefits of Therapacks™ is they can be added to any treatment regimen since there is no chance of medication interference. 

Also, they can be used over and over again, making them an economical pain relief therapy.

In 2004, Stanley added a new product line, Lil' Britches Comfort Friends™. 

Lil' Britches Comfort Friends™ are artist-quality stuffed toys constructed from organic fabrics. 

This makes them ideal for chemically-sensitive children.