Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Having recently spent a week in Romania fund-raising for rescued bears, I have been behind with reading about Lily and Hope. Having just spent time with these magificent animals, I just cannot believe the mentality of these people that would want to hurt them or kill them. I am devastated and beyond angry.

I'm sorry, but I cannot think of a single defence for anyone that goes out hunting any animal.

Hope was a very special bear, however, we should not forget all the other wonderful bears that we have not had the pleasure to watch closely who are also hunted every year by cowardly people who cannot make themselves feel good without hurting others.

Please, please please do anything you can to stop these horrible people causing so much suffering in the name of sport.
               

Hi
Meet Harry, a very cuddly 14 inch bear just waiting for lots of hugs. Made from mohair with felt paws he is filled with woodwool, cotton, steel and glass beads. Harry has been airbrushed, and scissor and needle sculpted for a gently aged look.

Harry is now available on Ebay low start and a realistic Buy it Now price.  http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? … RK:MESE:IT

Hi Marilyn,
We got back on Sunday, but both of us have been very tired since we got back. The trek was very hard as it was very hot - 85 degrees even up the mountains. However, the bears were wonderful, and now we are ready to do it all again! I have to earn a livign for while though - Kim and Adam did not even sell enough to cover their petrol! :-)

Hugs

Dawn xx

Meet Maisy, a substantial girly bear that was just made to be hugged. Made from a lovely light cocoa mohair, Maisy has a growler and is filled with Woodwool, Cotton, Glass Beads and Steel Beads. Maisy is very realisatically priced to find a new special someone nice and quickly.

You can find her on Bearpile: http://www.bearpile.com/item/48560

I thought you would like to know that Victor Watkins has published a book about the Romania Bear Sanctuary, details for you below.

NEW BOOK – Bear Sanctuary.  By Victor Watkins

This wonderfully illustrated new book tells the story of how and why an oak forest in the heart of Romania became transformed into a retirement home for bears rescued from years of suffering in captivity.

Bear Sanctuary, written by Victor Watkins , tells of how young bear cubs were illegally caught from the wild in Romania and kept in cages near petrol stations and restaurants to attract customers. It also describes how captive bears were suffering from poor diets and little or no veterinary care in many zoos around the country.

With changing attitudes towards wildlife exploitation and with Romania becoming a member of the European Union, the time was right to ban the private keeping of captive bears and to close down the poorly managed zoos.

The Romanian bear sanctuary was the dream of a Romanian woman - Cristina Lapis, who persuaded the authorities to enforce the law and confiscate all illegally held bears.   An international animal protection group – the World Society for the Protection of Animals ( WSPA ) funded the construction of the sanctuary.

The Romanian bear sanctuary sits in 160 acres of oak forest in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in central Transylvania . The land, donated by the nearby town of Zarnesti , provides space for more than 50 rescued bears which now live in this idyllic sanctuary. Here, they can feel the earth and grass beneath their paws, climb trees and swim in pools while feeding on a rich natural diet for the first time since they were captured from the forests as cubs.  But there are more bears in need of rescue.

Victor’s book explains how each rescued bear has its own story. He describes the veterinary care the bears need, what their diet is in the wild and how bear cubs, orphaned through hunting, need care and rehabilitation to enable their release back to the wild.

There is also a section in the book about other bear sanctuaries around the world - in Turkey , Greece , Thailand and even in China .

The book, priced at £12.99, can be ordered from www.bearsanctuary.com .  A kindle e-book version van be ordered from the Amazon kindle store.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me and Chris on our trek - not long to go now, there is still time to buy a lovely bear or to sponsor us. www.dawnandchrisbeartrek.co.uk and www.justgiving.com/dawnandchris

Meet Cecilia,
Very ladylike in her pretty silk dress and vintage cotton embroidered shawl. She is made from sparse mohair with black guard hairs for an aged appearance. She has a full set of inderwear in the finest muslin with vintage lace and wears a pretty enamel and crystal necklace. Her crowning glory is a beautiful hat which has been trimmed with the softest wispiest featers. Cecilia is now appearing on Bearpile. http://www.bearpile.com/item/46866

Hi
This year has flown past, and it won't be long now until we are off trekking 50 miles to raise funds for rescued bears in Romania.

Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who has donated either directly or by buying a bear. Every penny that we have collected is really appreciated and will go towards food and vet bills for the 52 bears in the Santuary.

There have been quite a few people who have said they wanted to support us, but that they want to do it online. This is a gentle reminder if you are one of those people, the fund-raising page is www.justgiving.com/dawnandchris

Alternatively, we still have lots of bears left for sale and the links to those can be found at: www.dawnandchrisbeartrek.co.uk

Once again, thank you so much for your support, and I can assure you that every donation no matter how much, will make a real difference to the lives of those poor bears who have suffered so much in their lives.

Hi

We are stepping up our fund-raising for the 50 mile WSPA trek which is only 9 weeks away.

All the bears donated to us which are on Bearpile are now half price - they were great prices to start with, and now they range from £10 to £65 - also the bears on our website will be half price.

www.dawnandchrisbeartrek.co.uk

If you don't want to buy a bear, our online fund-raising page is www.justgiving.com/dawnandchris or if you are in the UK, you can text BEAR551 to 70070

A huge thank you to everyone who has already supported us, we really appreciate it. We have raised over £3,000 and now need to give a final push to reach our target of £5000.

I always take the tag off straight away and keep it somewhere safe. I believe that the bear won't feel properly at home until they have their tag off!  :c :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup: rackup:

Artair means bear in Scottish! This 14 inch Bear is very traditional and is made from a lovely grey mohair with black guard hairs. He has been airbrushed and sculpted and has a lovely big embroidered nose. Dressed in traditional highland clothes, he is looking for love not war! He carries a replica Braveheart sword (not sharp) which is just like the one that William Wallace used. You can find Antair here: http://www.bearpile.com/item/45945

Thank you for looking.

Thank you so much for the photos Jane - they show what a wonderful fair it was. I am especially pleased that you have a photo of one of mine that I only finished off on Saturday, and he was sold as soon as the show opened. Sadly, I forgot to photograph him, which wouldn't normally be a problem but he was wearing a miniature trilby hat that I have been waiting for five years for the right bear to come along for! With your permission, I would like to take a copy of the photo.

:dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:

Hi Jane

I'll be there - I will have the latest copy of Teddy Bear Times with me - my last one. So if anyone needs a copy they can get one there.

Looking forward to seeing you.

xxx

No-one did Karon - I was phoned by one of his close friends on Saturday, and he didn't know either. I think it took everyone by surprise and happened very quickly.

I understand that he and his family only found out a few weeks before he died, by which time it was too late for treatment. I also understand that this is quite common with pancreatic cancer, that it is hard to spot early signs.

I was totally shocked as well - he was so full of life. It also seems very harsh that someone who went on so many adventures ie balloon rides over the artic circle etc., should have his life cut short in that way. A real loss to the bear world.

I was incredibly sad to hear that Oliver Holmes of Merrythought had passed away. I had the privledge to meet him on several occasions and he was a lovely man with a great sense of humour. He was the grandson of the original founder of Merrythought.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2011 … er-battle/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sh … e-13295041

When I start hitting my head on the ceiling!  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

Thank you  for adopting the bears - it really is appreciated and I know they have gone to great homes. Thanks to everyone that has bought bears and my son running the London Marathon last weekend I am delighted to say that we have raised well over £2000 so far. There are still loads of wonderful bears to be had, we have just put a lot more on this afternoon  - I'm afraid the photos are not the best, as we have had so many to photograph. All the bears are in lovely condition.

LOL Peter - if you feed Olivia any more chocolate she won't fit into that lovely dress anymore!  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

Now all we have to do is climb those mountains!

Hi Susana

Certainly, artists from Asia will feature after the ones I have mentioned.

Hi Andrea

I probably wouldn't place Austria in Eastern Europe. I am looking for the new wave of artists from Eastern Europe i.e. Russia, Latvia, Poland,  etc.

The rest of Europe will be covered in a later edition.

Thanks
Dawn

Hi

I am looking at a new feature for Teddy Bear Times called 'Around the World in 80 Bears' - the feature will run over a good few issues and will highlight the different styles of artists in different parts of the world. I am hoping that each issue will feature about 20 different artists. For the first one, I am looking for artists from Eastern Europe. Deadline 10th May

I will require 2 large photos of your work together with a couple of paragraphs about you and why you make the particular style of bear you make i.e. what influences/inspires you designs.

The second part  will be Canada USA and South America - Deadline 10th July

The Third part will be Australia and New Zealand - Deadline 10th September

Space will be limited for this feature so the sooner I receive your information the better. Please send to :

tbteditor@btinternet.com and mark the subject line as 'World Bears'

I look forward to receiving your submissions.

Thanks

Dawn

Hi

It is that time again! I am looking for artists to feature in the Hugglets Preview. I understand that many will not have the bears that are going with them, but if you could send me photos and a brief description of something that represents the bears you will be taking that will be OK. My only stipulation is that it should be photos that have not already been published elsewhere. Deadline 20th May

Also, any news that you have for inclusion in Teddy Talk  Deadline 20th May

The deadline for these is 20th MAY and I'm sorry but I will be sticking rigidly to this deadline.

The celebrates feature is 'Bears in the Garden' so any bears that are photographed amongst plants and flowers, or that represent them to be included. The deadline for this one is: 25th May

Fantasy Bears feature in the following issue - wizards, unicorns etc., deadline 25th July

Please send submissions to me at tbteditor@btinternet.com please ensure that the photos are clear and large, what seems large on a website can be tiny when printed in high resolution. The best photos to send are the originals from the camera card. If the file size is less than 300 kb then almost certainly the photo will be too small. Ideally, the file size should be around 1 MB upwards.

Sadly, every issue I have to leave out some stunning bears just because the quality of photos is not up to print standard.

I look forward to receiving your submissions.

Have a great Easter

Best Wishes

Dawn

Hi Karon

Thank you very much. I have been delighted with the response so far - five bears re-homes already. There are still lots of lovely bears there at great prices.

Hugs

Dawn

Hi

As I have said before, in September Chris, my husband, and myself are going to be walking 50 miles through the Carpathian Mountains in Romania to raise funds for rescued bears in the WSPA sanctuary.

We have been donated a large number of really wonderful teddy bears to help us reach our £5000 target. These can all be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?fb … tif_t=like

and we have started listed them all on the Bearpile Orphans pages with their prices and details here: http://www.bearpile.com/artist.cgi?id=1386

I am asking that payment for these bears be made direct to our Just Giving page. That way WSPA not only gets the donation for the bear, but they can also get the Gift Aid as well. It will also keep down the Paypal fees. The shipping cost will be paid separately by Paypal.

There are some fabulous bears there and they are all in really good condition. There are some great early bears by well known artists who are still making, and then there are others from artists who no longer make bears. Sadly, there is at least one bear from an artist, who I knew fairly well, who is no longer alive, I'm sure she would have been delighted to know that one of her bears was being sold to help real bears.

I have priced them at good prices so the buyer gets a bargain and the bears get a good donation.

It's a win win situation - so why not have a guilt free bear shopping spree knowing that you are feeding a real bear while treating yourself.       

I've been quite amazed to see this, this afternoon. Individuals cannot vote twice from the same computer, but the problem is, the votes could be manipulated if say someone worked with or had a partner who worked with a lot of people on different computers! Most online voting that I have taken part in at least asks for an email address, there was no question on this one - just go into the site and vote. Presumably therefore, if you share a computer, as many people do, only one person would be allowed to vote.

I don't like the results being shown, it seems very unfair.

Sam is gorgeous - Richard is a very talented young man, and I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of him and his bears in the future.