ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hi, welcome to my “Bear-Hug on the Web”.
My name is Beryle. My bears and I live in Kilsyth, an outer eastern suburb of Melbourne, Australia…at the foot of Mt Dandenong. (part of the beautiful “Blue Dandenongs” mountain range)
My 3 children are grown up and I now also have 8 beautiful grandchildren aged from 17 down to the youngest born in December 2009
I have been an Arctophile (a human who enjoys the company of teddy bears) all my life and have collected a large number of bears over the years, of all shapes and sizes, from all over the world.
(in fact my friends nicknamed me “Bearyle” due to my love of all things bear. My home is filled with over 200 bears of all shapes and sizes, so I can always get a bearhug when I need one.
Although I made my first bear about 15 years ago (from a pattern in a magazine) and bought lots of supplies as well as taking a couple of lessons shortly after, I really didn’t get into bearmaking until 2002, after being injured in a motor vehicle accident. I was unable to move around much and became very depressed, when a friend suggested I get out my “stash” of bearmaking supplies, and make a bear. That turned out to be the beginning of my passion for making bears of my own.
Soon after, while searching online for supplies, I found an online beargroup and the rest, as they say, is history. The wonderful people I met online were so encouraging and supportive that I just had to make more bears. I was now hooked!…lol and as a bonus I have made many wonderful new friends, and I now run a very successful and friendly online bear group of my own, with more than 60members, called Bearmakers of Australia and Beyond. You can find the group here…
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bearmakersaustralia
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Now I design and create my own little individuals, mostly from 5” to 8” but some up to 16” - under the name “Bickerton Bears”
I design fairly traditional-styled bears, but I also like to design some quirky characters, and love to experiment by hand dying fabrics, mostly with bright, jewel-like colours, to make them in, as you can see here..
Apart from designing and making bears, there are several other crafts I truly enjoy doing. These include my latest love, patchwork and quilting, as well as needlefelting, egging, scrapbooking, decorative art and polymer clay characters.
I try to incorporate one or more of these crafts into bears where I can (see “Jackinabox” and “Mamabear” on my bear pages) and love to try new techniques and a variety of different types of quality fabrics.
Now, please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa and come on in and meet some of my hug. Who knows, maybe you will even find one that tugs at your heartstrings. I’d love to hear what you think, so please feel free to email me at… beryle@bickertonbears.com
and/or sign my guest book
Beary big bearhugs,
Beryle
