Gloria Bears

                 

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COLLECTABLE HANDMADE GLORIA BEARS  

 

I was born on june the 27th 1955 in Maastricht (in the most south part of the Netherlands) and I've always been a teddybearlover. 

I got a lot of different hobbies, love all animals and I love angels.. My livingroom is filled with pictures and paintings of angels. I'm a collector of, among others, crucifixes of all times and my most important friends in my home, besides my husband,  are my dogs Polka and Imma.

 

I can't remember my first teddybear. I can see myself on some old pictures with this teddybear though. 

our family    1956       me and my first teddybearmy old bear Sonny

I guess the bear has probably been thrown away. When I was 11 years old, my only wish was to have a teddybear again. Thanks to my older sister my parents bought me a new one and so I got Sonny, the bear who is still living in my bearstudio. 

 

In  1993 I started designing and making my own teddybears, inspired by my own teddybear.

I also repair and restore old teddies.

All of my teddies are replic's of antique bears from 1902 till about 1960.

I only work with the finest natural materials like woolen mohair fabrics for teddies in different colours and hairvarieties. Furthermore I sometimes use hairy cotton and viscose fabrics for some bearmodels, both also natural materials. Viscose is a kind of fabric, made out of wooden pulp. The cotton fabrics were often used in the years 1960-1970 to make teddybears from.

The stuffing is 100% sheepwool, which I prepare myself. I'll buy the wool at a sheepfarm and wash it myself in an authentic way, so it won't harden during the process. Some bearmodels are also being fiiled with wool ánd dried beans.

The head and limbs are secured with wooden rounds and steel bolts, which allow the bear to move, sit or stand up.

The glass eyes are sewed into the head in exact the same way as it was done in the beginning of the teddybeartime: with little metal hooks.

The mouth is embroidered with special twined yarn on the front of the nose.

A guarantee certificate is being delivered with the bear.

Each bear has a "pattern" name  Uurke  click on the picture for a larger reproduction

Apart from that,  each bear can have its own name, as a beads bracelet, which will be bound around the bears ankle. 

 

Since 1997  I teach the art of handmade bearmaking by giving some  one-day-workshops teddybearmaking in spring and autumn, every year.

Click the "Workshops" link for more information.

 

In 1997  I designed a teddybear to enclose a ashtin of a deseased. I named this bear the "Urnbear" .

By designing this bear, I earned my place in the "World of Bearmakers" as the only and first teddybearmaker who has developed this idea for a gravemonument.

The knowledge of feelings and emotions of the proccess of mourning, which is needed to enter this emotional aspect of live, is an unconditional "must" for someone to make such a teddybear and can only be someone who has had an equal experience and therefore is capable to help others in an always exceptional and utterly sad situation, as the death of a beloved one .............

Click the link "Urnbears" for more information.

 

"Out of your own feeling ... you can listen ........ and hear someone else !

Out of your own feeling ... and you can experience someone else !.

Out of your own feeling you can reach someone else, very deep ... and when the soul gets touched, it absorbs all these good feelings .... and carries them further, over life and death  .... till  ...............?

angel dreaming

"A teddybear always looks right through your eyes ...... into your soul ......

..... and enlightens it ..... !" Gloria