"Absolutely!" exclaims Angie when asked if she is a bear collector as well, "I love bears and everything beary". Although her ever-growing collection isn't huge by any means, she has a nice variety of lovely artist bears from around the world. These are mainly from swaps that she has done with many of the good friends that she has made thanks to the Internet. Angie's first preference in bears is always fairies, but she is also drawn to any bear that is totally different. Other favourites are the big bears of Gregory Gyllenship, pandas and polar bears. "Really there aren't many bears that I do not like" she muses. "Then there is Pooh, my all time favourite - and Paddington, and Rupert and ..." she continues.
There are many bear artists that Angie admire and whose bears she would love having in her hug, but she finds it difficult to single out any one as her favourite. She admits having a very special soft spot for Wendy and Megan Chamberlain's bears though, probably because they have been her inspiration since moving to Cape Town, combined with the fact that they have taught her just about everything she knows about bear-making. One of her favourite relaxations is paging through bear magazines and admiring the work of fellow bear artists. This is her window to the work of the many diverse artists out there that bring out the most unusual work and some that make the most fantastic realistic bears. She has a great admiration for artists who make realistic bears with open mouths with teeth and claws on the feet. Lisa Pay's dogs (Pedigrees Royal Australia) also get a special mention from Angie, who finds them incredibly real looking and is amazed at the work she puts into them.
Angie has a sneaking suspicion that her family might think she is totally crazy with regards to her bear-making, but she adds that they are also very critical of her work and that keeps her on her toes. Her sister Pat, who also used to make miniature bears, has been one of her main pillars of support in all her bear-making endeavours.
Angie still remembers how it all started she was paging through a local magazine when she saw an article on Eunice Beaton of Thread Bears in Durban. She was "totally amazed" that there was something like this around and when she saw that Eunice was offering a kit, she called her and asked her if she could come pick up a kit straight away. Angie grins and adds that she has never been to good at the virtue of patience. She continues "Once I started that was it hooked big time", echoing the experience of all bearaholics out there.
Angie is originally from Durban, but moved to Cape Town in 1995. She has been widowed for 12 years and has one daughter, Brigitte, who is married and lives in Hillcrest in Natal. Angie tells that Brigitte is a chef at a school and proudly states that she is very talented and artistic, and cooks like a dream. She laughs when she says that she doesn't think the cooking gene came from her though as she would much rather be sewing than cooking. She adds that her mom loves cooking, so maybe the gene just skipped a generation.
After moving to Cape Town, she found Wendy and Megan Chamberlain (Essential Bears) with whom she did an advanced bear-making class and promptly found herself in the "artist" world. She tells how Wendy and Megan have been very supportive and has always encouraged her to strive for the best she could do. She adds that the Cape Town bear community is a very encouraging group and that she has made wonderful friends there.
Angie started selling bears in May 1998, but it has become a second income to supplement that of her job as a secretary to three managers at a large insurance company. About her full-time job, Angie's only comment was "Extremely boring!" and adds that she would much rather be making bears. Angie dreams of becoming a full-time bear artist so she can "play all day". She gives a wry smile and says "Well, pretend to play. I know it is extremely hard and time consuming work". She says further that whenever she sees a table laden with bears at a fair,
she realises all the masses of hours that went into
their making and how sore the poor bear artist's
fingers are. However, she finds bear-making extremely
relaxing and that the best part for her is watching a
little face come alive.
The most thrilling and most terrifying experience that Angie has had since starting her bear-making endeavours was the occasion of her first sale at her first fair. Angie recalls that she nearly fell over from shock when a very sweet lady expressed an interest in one of her bears. She had a hard time believing that somebody actually wanted to buy one of HER bears. "It was a lovely dark brown bear with a gorgeous cross expression on his face" she continues, "and one I wouldn't have minded keeping for myself". She ends off by saying that she very reluctantly handed him over to his new mum.
Angie draws her inspiration from many sources. It could be anything from a book that she is reading to a piece of lovely material. She likes heading off to the library and paging through different books where she can pick up inspiration. "Shop owners think I am crazy for sure when I look at a beautiful piece of material and then just want a small piece" tells Angie, "When they ask me what I want it for and I tell them its for a bear, I get very strange looks sometimes". She also tells of a hairdressing salon that she passes every day and that has an unusual window display with frosted material on big wire cones. She threatens that one of these days she will just have to go in there and find out about the lovely stuff. "It would be stunning for a winter fairy" she explains.
When quizzed on her first bear, she reluctantly admits that she still has the poor little thing. Angie says that the little bear wasn't very beautiful, so she decided to name her Emma-Rose to try and make up for her appearance. She adds that she didn't know much about face sculpting then, but is nevertheless still proud of her. She laughs when she tells about her first miniature bear "It is definitely not to be seen in public. I'm not too sure what it looks like ... we are still trying to identify it!"
Emma-Rose, Angie's very first bear.
Winter Fairy
Angie admits that she is quite embarrassed of her earlier bears and cannot believe that people actually bought them. She has, however, worked long and hard to improve the quality of her bears, paying a lot of attention to the small details. Because Angie started off making large bears, she has had to spend many hours of hand-sewing to try and perfect her mini bears. She expresses her hope that she has managed to offer a good, well sewn, quality bear, but knows that there is always room for improvement and something new to learn.
Angie has recently passed the 200 mark with her bears, but feels that her style isn't defined yet. She is still experimenting with different shapes amongst other things. She prefers more traditional styles with longer arms and a hump on the back, but not when making fairies or her little ballerina bears. Her current preference is smaller, rounder heads with small ears, fat little bodies and a nice fat tummy. Angie's love for soft, country colours also seem to express itself in her creations. Another feature of her bears are that they always smiling, "hopefully like me" says Angie. "The traditional turned down mouth makes me sad so I never use it any more".
Theodore - 10cm
Angie loves all types of craft and will sew, knit, crochet or do anything that is remotely craft related. She has targeted quilting and cross stitching as her next new activity, but sighs "If only I could find the time there really should be more than 24 hours in a day". Angie adores all animals and has a cat named Sammy Jo who she claims likes to help her make bears. Sadly Angie lost a kitty kid recently and is still too heartbroken to try and find Sammy Jo a new friend just yet. A suitable mourning period will have to pass first. Reading is another of Angie's passions and she says that she usually has two books going at the same time. One for the train to and from work and another one for a bit of 'bedtime reading' at night. She also admits to being a bit of a packrat where teddy bear fabrics such as mohair or mini clothing fabric is concerned and reckons that she can never have enough of these. She loves collecting things and enjoys going to fairs and craft markets where everything is examined thoroughly for any potential use with or on a teddy.
Angie's bears range in size from 4cm to 10cm, but she also makes larger bears to order. She uses upholstery velvets for her miniatures and either mohair or alpaca for the bigger bears. She excitedly adds that she has also got some rare long pile fur that she can't wait to try out. For the future, she would like to experiment with dying some of her fabrics and would also like to learn more about sculpting feet and making open-mouthed bears.
Angie feels that the bear world is going through a very exciting phase and the different bears that are being made are unbelievable. When she pages through the different bear magazines, she can see how much the bear world is expanding with the multitudes of bear artists and bear shops around the world. She also states that the standard of bear-making is extremely high and if a bear artist wants to sell bears internationally, then they must offer a product that is perfect and original.
Angie's advice for beginner bear artists is to firstly warn them that bear-making is extremely addictive and once you start on that path everything else falls on the wayside, especially housework.! "Why would you want to do housework or washing and ironing when you can make a bear instead" she smiles. Bear-making is, however, extremely hard work she adds and involves long hours of sewing which produces little money for a lot of effort at the end of the day. She also warns any prospective miniature bear artists that they should be prepared for very sore and bloody fingers when the back or front of the needle is repeatedly stuck into your already painfully sensitive fingers. Another recommendation is that an artist should always try and come up with new and exciting ideas in their bear making to help them differentiate themselves from the multitude.
- Text by Jacques Linssen -
The teddy scene in South Africa is also growing in
leaps and bounds and is very exciting at the moment
according to Angie. She reflects that when she
started, the only hint she had of anything happening in
South Africa was an article in a local magazine on
Eunice Beaton of Thread Bears. Since then she has
been totally amazed at how the bear scene in South
Africa has grown and has gone from strength to strength.
She does feel, however, that a bit more publicity would be good, since by and large the SA public is unaware of how popular bear collecting is the world over. "The people need to be educated that quality is better than quantity and that artist bears are worlds apart from the cheap mass-produced bears available everywhere" says Angie.
