Teddy Bears and Critters - Australasia

Affiliate Members

To view the bears made by our Affiliate Members, please click on their banner or to see the latest goings on in their world, click on their blog ~

BELGIUM

My name is Christel Van Hove. I live with my husband Johan, my daughter Maya, a dog named Edd and a lot of chickens in Werchter, a small town in Belgium. I'm working as a fulltime teacher with children between 2.5 - 12 years old.

Craft has always played an important part in my life. When I was a little child my grandmother was always busy and I was very interested. Soon, I discovered sewing and knitting.

I started with collecting dolls from Philip Heath and Anette Himstedt, almost 20 years ago. At the shows I also saw those lovely bears and I began to collect them too. In 2005, I started designing my own bears which are made from mohair and/or alpaca. Most of them feature sculptured and shaded faces and paw pads. I love making distressed and vintage style bears, as well as elephants, rabbits.....I love to make.

My favourite part of making a bear, is creating its personality by sculpting and shading its face and embroider its nose. Most of the time I design “one of a kind” bears.

DENMARK

Tina Jensen, the designer of TinyBear, began designing her own bears in 2001.

Her hand sewn bears are fully jointed and just six inches and under.

Tina's bears are made with great love and attention to detail and come with a certificate and a TinyBear.

You can see Tina enjoys making different style bears and she is always working on new designs as well as improving her skills and techniques.

TBACA Admin.

GERMANY

Hello !!

Please let me introduce myself. My full name is Ines Kretzschmar. I was born 1964 and I live in the wonderful city Freiburg, Black Forrest.

I have been designing and making bears for over 10 years. Begining my bearmaking with bigger bears, my bears grew smaller and smaller, until, in the year 2000, I decided to specialize in minibears.

Creating minibears and sometimes other animals is a great passion for me! Most of my little bears are between 2 and 4 inches tall and are made with a lot of love and only high quality materials.

Please stop by my website, I'm sure you will enjoy looking at all my bears.

Thank you,

Ines Kretzschmar

LITHUANIA

I am happy mom of three wonderful children – two dear sons and a small Princess. After my daughter's birth in 2008, I created my first teddy bear and understood that teddy bears became all my life love.

Ina Smirnova

SWEDEN

Ann-Marie Dodd lives in a small village called Skurup, Sweden, with her husband and three children.

Ann-Marie discovered bear making a few years ago when she was on holiday in England. Finding a magazine in a shop, led her to this wonderful exciting world of bears. Although it took a little while, before she found the time to start making her own bears, she absolutely loves it.

Her full time job is in fashion, so at present she is only doing this part time, but every spare moment her fingers are busy with her bears.

TBACA Admin.

UNITED KINGDOM

Gail Parsons from Newmarket, Suffolk U.K, has been designing and making small and miniature bears since 2001.

Although Gail uses several different fabrics for making her bears, she prefers to use vintage long pile upholstery fabric for her minis.

Her bears range in size from one to seven inches, the smaller of which are thread jointed with a cotter pin head joint, the larger ones are all cotter pin jointed.

Stop by and visit her soon!

TBACA Admin.

UNITED STATES of AMERICA

Hi! My name is Marlys and I invite you to visit my website!

I live in Southern California with my husband, Allyn, and three Scottish Terriers. We have two adult children.

In 2002, I signed up for a bear making class. That’s all it took for me to become hooked on bear making. Even though that first bear had a lopsided nose and a crooked smile, I thought she was beautiful.

I now design all my own bears and truly appreciate all the encouraging comments from my customers and friends. I’m constantly working to perfect my skills. I love seeing the personality come to life as the bear comes together and I look forward to designing new bears for years to come!

I have been designing and making bears, dogs, and cats since 1993. I was also a Veterinary Technician and dog breeder at that time, thus the name Dog Patch Critters.

My critters tend toward the whimsical and most are 6" to 12". Most of my bears are dressed and I have made several breeds of dogs.

I also enjoy designing and maintaining my website. Please visit!