While I was pondering some new designs for bears recently, I was looking back at some past favourites and trying to pinpoint what about them appealed so much to me.

Actually, I shouldn’t call them favourites, as every new bear seems to become a favourite – rather there are bears that marked certain points in my bear making  journey where something new was achieved.  Sadly I don’t have photos of many of my bears after a computer crash but here’s a nostalgic look back at some past Honeythorpe creations.

In late 2004 I started a total rethink of my bears.  My new designs were small-ish – between four and five inches for the most part and had big feet and a chubby tummy.  By 2005 I was happy with the new look and Plum Puddin’ was my favourite bear of the year.  Pandas are my favourite bear to create and I love the soft matte finish of alpaca.  This guy measures around 4.5″

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I have always loved bears with “chops” and when the high quality woven synthetics suitable for small bears arrived on the market, I was so excited….and very very intimidated.  I was so sure that I wouldn’t be able to make a cute bear from this fabric, as it was so different to the sparse mohairs I favoured.  I still haven’t used this fabric as much as I would like – Alaina and Kaia were two of maybe three bears I’ve made in it.

I love fairy bears – and  a lot of the bears I collect are very feminine – but I don’t do “frou frou” very well myself!  I wanted to make some fairy bears but to do them in my style.  The purple bear (whose name escapes me) was my first attempt at a masculine-ish fairy bear – I love the sculpted eyes and bridge of the nose – the complete opposite of the two smooshy faces above, but still recognisable as my bears.  I love the caramel and blue colourways of the bear on the right….wishing I had more of those wings right now!  These two measure about 4 inches and 3.5 inchres respectively.

So…what aspects of these bears will be incorporated into my new bears?  We shall wait and see!