Friday, July 20, 2018

Travels with Bears: Salt Lake City, Utah; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; London, England; and-- The World!!

With so long between posts it's always difficult to know where to begin! It's been a good year for the bears and I, and the best is yet to come!

It has long been a goal of mine to participate in one of the largest Teddy Bear shows in the world--Hugglets Teddies Festival in London, England! This year I am going, and my husband will be joining me so we can make a vacation ---or should I say holiday---out of it!  We leave just six short weeks from now!  Please come and see us in Hall 1 Stand 32!!! See my "Schedule" page for more information.

















This year my bears also brought me the opportunity to visit Salt Lake City, Utah, another first. While there I had the chance to teach a  3 day class to more than 700 people from 14 countries! No, really! I did! It was filmed live by Curious Mondo, and streamed online for people all over the world to watch and participate. I felt honored that so many, including many bear artist peers of mine, as well as folks new to Teddy Bear artistry chose to tune in and spend those three days watching me create a Teddy Bear. I will be teaching another live class in January and the first class is still available to purchase at www.curiousmondo.com  The bear below--Curmon--is my class sample.

Curmon, CuriousMondo class bear 2018

























Curmon, CuriousMondo class bear 2018



















































April took us to the Quinlan Show in Philadelphia, which is my favorite show. I love to see the doll art as well as the bears and the gallery pieces are always jaw dropping.  I had a full table and nearly all of the bears found homes!

Before the Show

Sean and I





































Dodger, the Artful Dodger, my gallery piece won a Beverly Port Award. I also entered him and Dakota in the British Teddy Bear Artist Awards (Bristol Bear Awards) and they both won! These were awarded during the British Teddy Bear Festival at Woburn Abbey, which the bears and I were not able to attend this year, but that show is now on my wish list to attend someday!

Here are Dodger and Dakota to way goodbye for now. I will be posting some of the bears I have been working on for Hugglets in the next six weeks so stay tuned!
Dakota

Dakota

Dodger

Dodger