The Teddy bear
story
Years ago I started to fall in love with teddy bears. As I was a child,
like many of my friends, I also had a teddy bear to cattle.
But
one day I got a special teddy as a Christmas present.
It was a self-made one.
Being
interested in the production of teddies I became curious about this toy.
The next few months I spent a lot of time with reading literature about
teddy bears, to get information how to recognize cloth of high quality
and where to get them.
At
first I used the instructions of the bear magazines to make the cuts.
After some time I found it boring and I started to create myself new
one’s. The cuts were changed and I created new ones.
Time,
love and experience helped to produce bears of high quality mohair
cloth.
The
face, the eye position and the muzzle are the parts I care about in a
particular way. To get them a special trait I designed together with my
friends the STAR-Bear logo, which has a strong recognition effect.
In
January 1997 the television SWR 3 showed interest for my passion. The
famous TV presenter Sonja Schrecklein announced a visit together with
her team in my bear house. They produced a short report about the bears.
Sometime later countless interviews with radio announcer and newspaper
reporter were held. I had the chance to participate in events led by
experts in Hennef, Münster, Wiesbaden, Kehl, Würzburg, Stuttgart and
Berlin and improved my knowledge in teddy bears with visits in the teddy
bear museum in Florida as well as in different teddy bear shops in
Orlando, Naples and Miami. Out of these contacts developed different
long-lasting business relations.
During
my trips through foreign countries I met a lot of kind bears friends.
I’d
like to mention a special event:
The
Italian tourists know about Romano Levi, the „King of Grappa“. The
labels are hand-designed and its not easy to get a bottle. Romano Levi
himself has designed for me a special bear label. It’s a particular
one-off.
But
after years of travelling around, I preferred staying in my hometown
Esslingen and in the surrounding. I organized expositions in the city
hall in Esslingen – Berkheim, in Optik Bläschke in Esslingen, in Hotel
Rosenau in Esslingen, in the fashion store Kögel in Esslingen and
Reutlingen, in Karstadt in Esslingen, in Best Western Hotel in Esslingen
and in cooperation with Esslinger Stadtmarketing expositions at the CMT
Stuttgart and the Landesgartenschau in Ostfildern as well as in the city
information centre at the Esslinger Stadtmarketing.
I
haven’t got much time for competitions but from time to time I take part
in presenting a bear for judgement.
The most important events are the big teddy bear exceptions in Hennef
and Münster from the magazine „Teddybär and his Friends“ and in
Wiesbaden from „Bär Report“.
§
In Hennef my
bear „Pestarzt“ was nominated for the Golden Georg
§
In Stuttgart
my bear „Neptun“ has won the second place
§
In Esslingen
my bear collection became the public idol and got the price for arts in
Karstadt Esslingen
I like
designing my bear collections in subjects:
§
nature bears
§
forst bears
§
bears in traditional
costumes
§
rocker and
Indian bears with special leather cloths
§
discoladies in crazy
outfits
§
nurses for Amerika
§
teddybabies
§
bluebears
§
futurekids 2000
§
tigerbears
§
angelbears
§
bears with open muzzle
§
bears in sleeping cloths
§
earthbears
§
traditionalbears
§
Esslinger Zwiebelbären
§
s’Esslinger Deifele
§
venicebears
I
designed the cloths of the venice collection myself and mad it produce.
The basic masks came directly from Venice and were painted from an
artist in coordination with the costumes. I designed s’Zwiebele, the
Zwiebeline and the Zwiebelkinder as well as s’Esslinger Deifele
especially for the Esslinger Stadtmarketing. There they offered them and
on shopping Sundays in spring and autumn I even offer regularly bear
manufacturing courses and present my bear collection. The teddy bears
look forward to being exposed, being looked at and being bought. Since
years on about the 15th November an open day has taken place
in the Bearhouse in Esslingen Berkheim which is highly appreciated by
the public.
We celebrated the 10years Star-Bears anniversary on the 19th
of November in 2006. During the last years hundreds of my bears found a new
home all over the world. Only thanks to my family’s support I could
practice such a time consuming hobby. Therefore I’m very thankful for
standing me and my bears over the last years. I’m accompanied by my
husband and my parents on events my son is working at my homepage. In
spite of my over regional activities it always existed a steady relation
to Esslingen with the help of the Esslinger Zeitung and the EST. Their
long-lasting support helped a lot and earns a “thank you” as strong as
an ox. Other newspaper medias report from time to time news from the
Bear house. Even the Venice bears and the blue bears enthusiasted the
English special journal “TEDDYBEAR Club International”.
I’d
like to bring some more romantic into the adults’ world. My bears live
together with the human beings and the human beings live together with
the bears.
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