Realistic bears of distinction
 
 
   BEAR BITS - LATEST NEWS

News Headlines:
New bears for 2010 - Friday, March 5, 2010
The bears are coming out of hibernation! - Wednesday, February 10, 2010
 

Welcome to the online home of Bear Bits, the premier source of beautiful, award winning, realistic bears designed and made by the internationally renowned team of Jean And Bill Ashburner who specialise in their exceptional natural designs for polar bears; Asian moon bears; pandas; black, brown and grizzly bears etc. as well as the occasional Rare Bits (the bunnies) and a few traditional teddy bears. If you'd like to see our latest product range, take a look at our online product catalogue.

We hope you will find this site useful and informative, and we hope you'll visit often. This website is best viewed using Internet Explorer 4 or above, at screen resolutions of 800x600 and upwards, and ideally at a colour depth of 24bit. If you have any comments regarding the site, please contact the webmaster.

We are members of the British Toymakers Guild and see the bottom of this page for the awards we have won.

 

New bears for 2010 Posted Friday, March 5, 2010 by Bill



We have just added TEN new bears! They were introduced at the Winter Bear Fest at Kensington on February 28th and seemed to be very popular.

Please note that some of the editions are quite short. We do hope you enjoy them.


The bears are coming out of hibernation! Posted Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Bill



Apologies everyone – Bear Bits may have seemed to be a bit quiet over recent months (no updates to the website etc.) but a lot has been done to the den! Jean and Bill have certainly not been hibernating themselves; decorating has been the activity that’s been taking their attention and effort. Decorating the dining room, hall and stairs, kitchen and utility has been done alongside the development of some new bears. Given the succession of very cold, dull and gloomy days in January, with very little light for photography, those bears that have been completed have opted to grab the nearest duvet and get underneath it. The sun emerged occasionally today, in between snow showers, and so (very briefly) did one of the new additions – Denver, a large American black bear but he was only around long enough for a quick snapshot.


They’ll all be up and about for the Winter BearFest at the end of February and will each have had a photo session so that all the new portfolios can be put on to the site immediately after their debut on Sunday the 28th. As usual we give the collectors who get up early, travel and queue in the cold the chance to see and buy the new additions to the range before anyone else. Rest assured that we’ll be keeping our promise not to sell any of our bears before the doors open to collectors at 10.30am. We look forward to meeting you there.


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Fairs

Below is a list of shows and fairs that we will be attending in the forseeable future.

  • Teddybär Welt (Rhein-Main-Halle, Wiesbaden, Germany) Saturday/Sunday 13/14 March 2010
  • Teddybär-Total (A2 Forum, Rheda Wiedenbruck, Germany) Saturday/Sunday 24/25 April 2010
  • Teddy Bear artist Event (Civic Hall, Stratford-Upon-Avon) Sunday 6 June 2010
  • Teddies 2010 (Kensington Town Hall) Sunday 12th September 2010
  • Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event (Hilton Hotel, Sheffield) Sunday 21 November 2010
 

Shops

Below is a list of shops that we supply to.

  • My Friends & Me (Market Station, 118 South Street, Leesburgh, VA 20175. USA)
    (0703) 777 8222
  • The Bear Garden (Guilford )
    01483 302581
  • Teddy Bears of Witney (Exclusives only) (Witney (Oxfordshire))
    01993 706616
  • Edwina's Friends (Web based - http://edwinasfriends.co.uk)
    +44 (0)1189 776272 - email kathymartin@edwinasfriends.co.uk

    AWARDS

    In the current, highly competitive, bear market we’ve noticed that many other bear artists have a page of their website displaying awards that they have either won or in which they have been nominated; additionally phrases such as “award winning” are used on advertisements. Apart from announcing a result at the time, we haven’t done much in the “trumpet blowing” department but maybe the time has come?!

    Jean has been making bears on a full time basis since 1993, joined by Bill late 1995/early 1996 and Bear Bits has entered nine competitions during these 14 years and have been winners or runner up in all of them. Whenever we have entered a competition we have made it a rule that our entry must include either a technique or change of style that we have not included in any previous competition and therefore we have not necessarily entered something every year - thus the 1996 entry “A week of Bears” included Wednesday’s Bear – a natural looking bear in tipped fabric with printed pads and claws and in this year’s “I’ve got a secret” with Maks and Minim, the 8in (20cm) Minim was the smallest natural looking bear with a double neck joint, drop paws with proper pads that we had made to date.

    Below is a list of the awards we have won.

    1996 British Bear Artists Awards – Winner - Group Class 12-17in – A Week of Bears. (7 different styles and sizes of bears including a teddy bear, a character bear, a ballet dancing bear, a panda, a bent legged bear and a realistic bear.

    1997 British Bear Artist Awards – Nominated/Finalist - Group Class 17in and above – Stuff and Nonsense. (Stuff – a large life-like bear with a realistically embroidered nose, Trapunto pads and very natural looking long claws – Nonsense – a 1920’s “flapper” with eyelids, eyelashes, a feather boa and head dress.

    1999 British Bear Artist Awards – Winner – Group Class 12-17in – A Celebration of Bears (4 natural bears – black bear, grizzly, polar and panda – each with a double neck joint and an asymmetric joint in each ankle so they could each sit, stand, kneel and lie out)

    1999 British Bear Artist Awards – Nominated/Finalist – Individual Class 12-17in – Panda (An accurately marked panda with double neck joint)

    2001 British Bear Artist Awards – Runner up – Group Class 12-17in Ice Bear Family (A mother polar bear with 2 cubs all with double neck joints, drop paws, wrist joints and 3D pads. The mother polar had a more complex detailed embroidered nose than previously.

    2002 British Bear Artist Awards – Winner – Group Class 17in and above – Where’s my Teddy? (A large brown mother bear with 2 smaller cubs, all very detailed and a 4in teddy bear.

    2002 British Bear Artist Awards – Winner – Individual Class 17in and above – The Caramel Bear (a large light brown bear with wrist and ankle joints, needle sculpted 3D pads, a very complex embroidered nose, fabric dyed on the reverse to reveal the darker shading where the pile was trimmed on head and inner ears)

    2004 Readers Choice Awards, Teddy Bear Scene – Winner – Bare Bear Class – Safety Zone (A mother polar bear and her cub - the cub was the smallest to date with a realistically embroidered nose, a double neck joint, wrist joints and 3D pads)

    2006 Readers Choice Awards, Teddy Bear Scene – Winner – Bare Bear Class – Happiness is a Hug (A large detailed realistic bear with airbrushed shading, holding a 4in teddy and a 4in bunny in its paws)

    2007 Readers Choice Awards, Teddy Bear Scene – Winner – Bare Bear Class – I’ve got a Secret (Maks - a large, fully detailed realistic bear made from long pile cream synthetic faux fur with black mohair inserts to the muzzle and inner ears and needle sculpted pads and 8in Minim – the smallest realistically shaped bear with double neck joint and proper paw pads made by us to date.


 
 
 
 
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