Ima Clown Bear

 

Quite a number of years ago, I had the pleasure of restoring a number of Steiff animals and teddy bears for a good friend of mine. My favorite of the lot was an old 1925 Steiff Clown bear. For some reason, he simply captured my heart and I could not forget him.

This is what he looked like before I got my teddy hands on him.

This is what he looked like afterwards.

He was way out of my reach as far as purchasing him was concerned, so I simply hung on to his picture and just loved him anyway.

A week or so ago, I was in creative mode and one of the bears I decided to make turned out to be a clown. I made her out of sparse mohair and had every intention of putting her up for sale in my Etsy store.

After the photo shoot today, I noticed that one of her arms was quite loosely jointed. Too loose to present her for sale and although I could have taken her apart and repaired the arm, it occurred to me that this bear was adopting me and that was her way of telling me she wasn’t going anywhere.

Teddies have a way of choosing us. I don’t know how that works. It’s a look, a feeling, one of those phenomenon that can’t be explained. But I believe they choose us, we don’t choose them.

Llittle Ima had this one in the bag from the beginning, much to my surprise. And I couldn’t be happier, loose little arm and all.

Thanks for sharing the teddy love. Hugs from Vicki and Ima!

Happy May Day!

I remember when I was a child, I loved the first day of May, because it was May Day. We would make little May baskets and fill them with tiny candies and ribbons. We would then chase down the object of our affection and a few best friends, give them a May basket and hope for a kiss in return.

What a sweet way to welcome this beautiful Month.

Today I was going to work in the garden, however it is a bit chilly. I read a post on Facebook this morning from someone who said they were busy working on bears and it made me jealous. That was my clue… I want to work on bears today and leave the gardening to another day. So rather than make little May baskets and chase down my friends for hopeful kisses, I’ll simply cut out a few hopeful teddy bears and enjoy the day.

The bears on the photo are some of my most recent creations. From left to right there is Mojo, Caramel, William, Humphries, Gloria, Brett and Miss Gray.

Happy Merry Month of May to all my friends on the blog. Hugs from Vicki and the Bears