Meet our Artist of the Month Susanne Mensing-Varila

1)When did you start making Teddy Bears and what inspired you to do so?
I started in the end of 1998, when I took a course at the local craft school. Before I had dyed wool with natural materials for many years, and our home was stuffed with this, so I finally had to get rid of it and look for something else. The first bear I made told me immediately that this was MY THING TO DO, and I never stopped ever since

2) What do you enjoy most about bear making ?
I enjoy designing a new bearpersonality everytime I start,and sewing, jointing and stuffing, individualizing the face, shading it, sewing or needlefelting the nose, dyeing the material, stitching the claws, sculpting the feed......the only thing I do not really like is closing the seams after stuffing. That's kind of boring...

3)What Unique Qualities do your bears have ? They are mostly handdyed with natural materials such as blossoms, mushrooms, leaves or roots, and they are all individuals, just like people: I never make the same bear twice.


4)How would you describe your style ?
I refuse to have a certain style, but want to keep my absolute freedom of creating what ever comes to my mind, so some bears are crazy, some quiet classic, some have small heads, some have very long arms or short legs, but the next one will be most certainly completely different. I do not want to be a slave to some style-dictate, not even from myself. Still: most of my bears are recognizable as siblings by the way I put in their eyes, ears or noses.

5)  What in your opinion is the definition of a good bear?
A creature with excellent design and done with good workmanship, that make you want to pick it up, give it a hug and keep it forever.

6) Where do you find inspiration for new creations ? Everywhere in nature, in the arts, in music, in people I meet, in stories I hear, in books I read....I see bears in everything around me and never find enough time to make them all.

7) What has been the high point of your  bear career ?
There have been some: When a very wellknown bear artist asked me if she could use my bears for her bearmaking CD, when I sold my first bear at a fair in Germany, when I got my first enthusiastic comments on my bears, in reality and on the net, first photo of one of my bears in a magazine, my first nomination for an award, a first award winning, a letter by a publisher of an American magazin, if I would share one of my patterns with the readers, the offer of an artist portrait in a well known magazine.....all these "first times" are always very exciting.

8) If you could make a teddy for anyone in the world, who would it be for and what kind of bear would you make?
I would make a bear for any child in the world that has suffered the loss of a loved one or experienced something traumatic, and I would make it big and very huggable.

9)What advise would you give to Bear Artists who are just starting out?
Get as much information as you can get, from other bear artists, books, magazines,the internet, and keep making bears one after the other, so your skills and ideas and your style(s) will develope and you will have so much fun with what you're doing.

10)Where can bear enthusiasts find your work?
They can find them on my website www.finnteddy.com sometimes on Ebay, here on Bearpile, and sometimes on a show in Berlin or Münster or London.


11) Would you like to thank anyone who has helped you get where you are today?
I want to thank first of all Rotraud Ilisch, Monika Timpe, Mary Jo Sichak and Bobbie Ripperger, whom I have learned so much from, but also the many other bearfriends on the Internet, that I'm in contact with from here at the end of the world, who keep me in touch with the bear world and keep me informed, entertained and sane. And I want to thank my husband and children for standing all that chaos and their kind of bear-crazy wife and mother in the middle of it.

Why not adopt a Finn Teddy @

www.bearpile.com/index.cgi?id=192
they would be sure to brighten anyone's hug for Spring.

Meet our Bear of the Month Passion by Lynda Kunz Keyes

This cute little cub has a violet heart for her new mommy. Passions ideal home would be with someone who just loves purple!

Passion is 2 1/8" small and full jointed. She has black onyx eyes and hand embroidered black mouth and eyebrows, and purple nose. Passion's face is needle sculpted and hand clipped to give her extra expression. She is made from violet long pile vintage upholstery fabric with white ultra suede paw pads. Passion wears a sheer violet bow and holds a violet heart for her new mommy. Limited Edition of 5

I asked Lyda what inspired her to make a bear like Passion. It all started with a lttle bear called Candy.Here's what Lynda said

Candy is a little pink bear (you can see her at: www.lyndakeyes.com/Candy.htm ). Well, the collector's email was luvspurple, the back drop to her email was purple and the type a dark purple... I had been meaning to make Candy a little friend, as I had a wonderful, hard to find piece of long pile vintage violet upholstery fabric, and I had some tiny little violet hearts. This was the nudge I needed to get Candy's little friend made. I offered to make a little violet bear for her and she liked the idea.  As this collector's passion was purple... I named the little bear Passion.
What inspired me to make Candy.. well I purchase some cat toys that came in a cute little bag with beads strung to made the handle. The beads were tiny hearts.  Just loved them and thought they were just the right size for a tiny bear to hold. This little bear is a cub, so her description says she is hold a heart for her new mom. Why pink... some of the hearts were just the right shade of pink to go with the long pile vintage pink fur I had.

Why noy adopt a huggable teddy by Lynda visit Lynda's Teddies @
www.bearpile.com/index.cgi?id=276