Story of the Star-Bears

    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.

§       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 15^th 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 19^th 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.