Welcome to my website!!! I am Gina and I am an aspiring miniature teddy bear artist. I love bears, bears and bears!! And the smaller they are, the more adorable they are to me! Although, I have always dabbled in some kind of craft before, it is only in the early part of 2004 that I started bearmaking. With the help of all the bearmaking books I could lay my hands on in the library, I practically taught myself how to make a bear. The first bear I made is an 8 inch, non-jointed corduroy bear with plastic nose and eyes. The stitching is not that neat and even, and the nose is off-center,but "Nonoy", as I fondly call him , has his pride of place among my collection, as he is the "firstborn"(kind of...) =)
I have made a lot more since then, bears made of synthetic fur, denims, etc.but it was after we went to a teddy bear show and sale 'TEDDY BEARS ON VACATION' in Burlington,Ont. in March of 2005 that I first laid my eyes and hands on mohair!!So after gawking at all the wonderful bear creations in all the booths and tables at the show, the last stop was at the bearmaking materials/supplier booth , and hubby and I went home with a bagful of materials- mohair,German glass eyes, steel shots, etc..., and driving home, I already have the picture of the bear that I will make in my head! The very next day, I finished my first mohair bear!!And there's no looking back after that!
All my creations were handstitched with careful attention to detail, all of them are jointed, either string jointed (for the really wee ones), or combination cotter pin and string jointed. The bigger bears have german glass eyes, and the tiny ones (less than 3 inch) have onyx black eyes. They are all stuffed with polyfill fiber and most of them have steel shots for added weight.And because of the tiny parts, they are not safe as kids' toys and are meant to be adult collectibles. I sew them all with much enjoyment and love, and whenever I see their little faces and eyes looking back , they never fail to give me joy! As no two bears would ever be exactly alike, each creation is one of a kind (OOAK). As of late though, I have found myself wanting in 'creative juices' and the inclination to pick up a needle and sew away. So the bearmaking is temporarily shelved until I find myself in the mood again.
All the bears in the following pages have been sold mostly on Ebay.
I have moved the images of my little creations HERE.
