Gulliver arrived in Ireland

When I cam home today Gulliver the travel Ted was sitting on our kitchen table. He brought a few things with him.
Besides his passport which showed that he had stayed in South Africa in October he had little things from the places he had been and a notebook with travel information.
So I took him with me to work at Bear Essentials. First thing we did was to apply for a polar bear adoption at WWF/World Wildlife Fund for St.Patrick’s Boys National School in Balliamore. The boys are collecting money to adopt a bear for a year as part of our Craft in the Classroom project.
On Saturday Gulliver took part in a Family workshop. They all made different soft toys. Here are two of the kids with their creations. You can see Gulliver   sitting on the table. The children were also writing Easter greeting cards for Gulliver.

After Easter he is going to visit the boys at their school.

Gulliver

Gulliver the travel teddy bear has left his last host in Scotland. We are waiting for him to arrive in Ireland. His visit is starting with a holiday at Bear Essentials before he will take part in our project at St.Patrick’s Boys National School.

First Sewing Session

We had our second session with the boys from St.Patrick’s Boys School and it was lively!!!
It was like teaching 8 year old’s to drive a sports car – they just kept the foot on the pedal of the sewing machine and of they went. Never mind the material, it was just too much fun. But as soon as they realised that part of the material was our Polar Bear’s arm, leg or head they slowed down and the finished product looked really good.
We also learned a lot about bears. The 8 different species of bears and where they live. Because the polar bear is the main attraction of our project we like to know as much as possible about his habitat and his characteristics.

When we meet again next time we will stuff our hand-sewn polar bear and attach his movable arms, legs & head to the body. We are going to shape his face and add a growler into the body.

The boys are very enthusiastic about the project and have added more information to their blog. Please check it out! And please leave a comment.

St.Patrick’s Boys School

2nd & 3rd class from St.Patrick’s Boys National School in Balliamore Co.Leitrim have started their own blog. To read about the crafts in the classroom project follow this link >>> called Saintpatricksschool’s Blog.

A visit from Gulliver

Gulliver, a travel ted, is going to visit Bear Essentials for a while.
This teddy bear started his journey around the world last year in the UK.
He has been to Australia already and is coming over from Scotland to visit Ireland. I like to bring him over to  St.Patrick’s Boys School in County Leitrim, so he can meet the children’s favorite teddy bears and he can be part of our crafts in the classroom project about real bears. We let you know when he arrives with us. May be you like to come and visit him or follow his journey on teddybearsforum.com

Our Classroom Project

Our Project has started and I am quite excited about it. I am going to work with St.Patrick’s Boys School and especially with 2^nd and 3^rd class, 23 boys altogether.
Caitriona Mc Manus is the boy’s teacher and enjoys teaching art herself. Both of us are looking forward to work together, to share ideas and experience with other teachers, artists and craft workers and the students of course.
We hope that the idea of “artist in residence” will be beneficial for the school, teachers and students and also to me for the development of further projects.
We have not given the project a tittle yet to leave room for development and input from the children but the frame work is set.
Within the visual arts curriculum we are going to develop a fabric made bear sculpture that is showing the effect that global warming has on polar bears. It will be a fully jointed bear standing on an ice floe.
Our aim is to use a lot of recycled materials, for instant bits and pieces of old clothing the boys bring in from home.
We are going to work mainly with fabric and fibre but construction, drawing and clay sculpture will be part of our project. We aim to learn also about related subjects like environment, history, geography, poetry and creative writing.
Part of the documentation process will be that the boys are going to take photographs, video snaps and also develop their own blog.

Today we were watching a film about the 8 different bear species and started to  learn about habitat, location, diet & features of the bears as well as their relation ship with people.

To help to understand size and weight and how it relates in constructing a sculpture I brought in Bruno our life size brown bear.

Then every boy made a bear sculpture in clay.

At times of recession

A lot of poorly teddy bears are arriving at Bear Essentials this year. Some are missing eyes or limbs and some are looking for a new image or total makeover. We have been really busy and some of the weeks our teddy bear hospital beds are all booked.
Is it in times of recession that we appreciate more what we got and want to look after it a bit better? What do you think?

This is an old Steiff bear about 50 years old who has lost all his fur. This is how he looked like at arrival.
He left with a new set of fur looking forward to another 50 years.

Visit from the Arctic

Snow Polar Bears

Snow has become the main attraction at Bear Essentials this weekend.
Nico & Tessa where busy all day to keep these two happy, but we don’t think they are going to stay for to long.
We understand that global warming has become unbearable.

Please let us know your opinion.

Craft in the Classroom

Craft in the Classroom is a visual arts based educational programme which provides training for makers and teachers in the design and delivery of creative crafts projects for children in classroom contexts. It is based on the 6 strands drawing, paint & colour, print, clay, construction and fabric & fibre as outlined in the Revised Visual Arts Curriculum.
To read more about the training click here>>>

I am delighted to be part of this project and I am looking forward to meet the teachers of St.Patrick’s Boys National School in Ballaimore Co.Leitrim.
At Bear Essentials we are working all year round with children of all ages, starting from 3 years on. While we focus on fabric & fibre we always incorporate other strands into our courses.

Irish Independent News

Bear Essentials in County Cavan is quoted ‘Top Shop’ in the Irish Independent today.
They quoted us ‘Good Buys’ in County Cavan and we are delighted.
If you are interested to view the quote please click on Irish Independent News.
To purchase teddy bears online from us, this link will direct you to our online shop.