The featured Artist of the Month for October is Felicity Clarke of Australia!

How I got started in Bear Making:
I started with the birth of my 4 children , making terry towell bears which could be hugged and dragged around and then washed without worries. These became popular and branched into chubby faced rabbits as well . From there I jumped into recycling fur coats into new babies - but little did I know that I had jumped into the deep end of bearmaking - but I loved it!! On moving to a new state ,a new neighbour was a bear maker she looked at my work and said she would sell some at a show and so it began!!! Bears took over the household!!

My Unique Quality:
At first my bears were traditional but then I decided to find my own style and began experimenting, after 6 months I came up with my sculpted muzzle bears and then my realistic grizzlies . They are all unique and have techniques from many different arts and crafts in them, these include - embroidery, sculpting, stencilling, painting, dollmaking to name a few. Each face is either fully sculpted from fimo/sculpy or is needlesculpted, the mohair is usually hand dyed and there is armatures, multijointing, handpainted facial and body features as well as sculpted, noses, claws or claw/paw sets. They are to replicate exactly but each has a family resemblence.

Opinions on Bear Making:
I am very excited as I see so many changes in the last 4 years. More and more people are willing to try new techniques and styles, and whilst I love traditional teddy bears there is so much more scope in what artists are willing to try. I love being creative and like to push the limits and love seeing so many wonderful artists out there. I hope we can raise our craft to the status of art-where the time and effort can be appreciated.

Please visit Felicity's website at Bearly There Creations to see her wonderful bears!