Not only have I helped Mary Saundry out on her table at the odd London fair she has attended, but I also felt priviledged to have helped her organise the London venue when Patti & Graham from Kympatti Bears did a teddy bear workshop in Holborn at the end of February 2004.
If you find an issue of the magazine from September 2004 - you will be able to see that I was COLLECTOR OF THE MONTH for that issue.- Both the photographs below were printed, see if you can spot a doll, a bear and a panda shown in the colour photo (below-right), in the black and white photo (Showing me aged about 4yrs with my wonderful Dad), circa 1953
| Teddy Bear Scene Magazine Issue No: 1 I was proud and delighted to be asked to submit patterns for the first two issues of this magazine. In issue one you will find my PILGRIM BEAR and the single colour fabric version HONEY BEAR which were featured. I was totally thrilled to be 'published' especially as I had never designed a bear before. When I was asked if I could for the first issue of this brand new magazine, I thought 'why not give it a go' and although it was around Christmas time and I planned to do a Father Christmas Bear, the more I looked at the bear I had made, the more I just couldn't visualise it as anything other than a Pilgrim Bear! I think I made the right choice. |
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Issue No: 2
| I had been asked to create another pattern for inclusion in
the magazine and this time I chose a miniature bear pattern, whom I named
DEBONAIR BEAR as I thought he looked very debonaire in his top hat and
tails! Unlike the first issue, where my hand drawn pattern had been converted into a proper printed version, the Debonaire Bear pattern was printed using my hand drawn version. I was somewhat surprised because I thought it didn't look as professional as the Pilgrim Bear pattern had looked. Why they never did this was never explained. I was invited to attend the launch party [for the magazine] which was held at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London in November 1994. I created a special limited edition of two miniatures versions of my Pilgrim Bear, featured in the first issue. I kept one miniature and presented the other to the magazine's owner/creater, shown in the magazine in the photograph on the page on the right, in the first photo. That is me, wearing the dark jacket, presenting the miniature copy of the Pilgrim Bear to the owner. |
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| February 2007 Teddy Bear Club Internatioanl Magazine I am delighted to be able to say that there was an article dedicated to the little minibears that I have been making for the last few months. The article was written by me and it seems the Editor of the magazine, Kirsty McCool thought it good enough to go with the photographs which I had sent her without any changes. Only the last paragraph was something she put in herself. There are a great many people who regularly have magazine articles written about them or the creations they make, but for someone like myself who does not consider herself to be anything other than a long-time hobby-artist, this feels like a great honour. |
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Maybe the only thing better than having a one page spread in a magazine about something which you have created would be to have a two page spread! You may imagine my delight when I submitted another article on the next MiniBear projects I complete and found them covering two pages.
 For full size graphics - Page 1 and Page 2 |
This was Minibear Project 4 After completing these themed shops, I was delighted to have accepted by the magazine, Teddy Bear Club International, both a number of the photographs I sent and the article I had written. It was wonderful to find it printed as a double page spread on pages 8 & 9 of issues no: 168. The article relates why and how I came to make these scenes and some of the mistakes I made along the way. As I have said in the article, although neither scene is what you might called 'perfect' and the kind of standard expected by craftsmen and women, it is for someone with my fairly limited abilities, something which I am very proud of because so much of it was created, designed and made by me. |
The next project which I hope to have in the magazine will be my latest creation, a MiniBear Chess Set.