Bear Makers of South Wales

The BMofSW membears meet once a month (first Monday of each month) in Cardiff ! We share a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and we chat about a whole host of ideas and plans for beary challenges, beary events and beary trips with other membears !

It is a lovely, fun, relaxed evening and where else could you discuss the finer points of waxed noses or try out the latest mohair dyes with a small crowd of like-minded fanatics ??

If this sounds appealing and you would like to swell the Bear Makers of South Wales numbers, please contact Jane Montgomery. Email - orphan64@hotmail.com

The Bear Makers have supported a number of charities over the past few years with special events:

Charity Event 2007

In 2007 the Bear Makers of South Wales decided to do something a little different to raise money for our chosen charity that year - the Wales Air Ambulance Service. We set up a bearmaking tutorial day in a church hall in Cardiff. Ruth Dickinson (Wellwood Bears) provided a pattern and some very hard labour in preparation for the day and the other Bear Makers prepared the fabric for the course. 14 enthusiastic new bear makers joined us for the day, and were plied with a constant supply of coffee/tea and homemade shortbread. Christie Bears took to the hall stage at lunch time with bearmaking supplies and fabrics, and they had a super response. They provided us with a generous donation, which, when combined with the fees for the course, gave the Bear Makers an overall profit of over £500, which went straight to Wales Air Ambulance with our best wishes.

I'm sure that there is a photo of all of the day's participants holding their completed bears somewhere, I'll search it out ! The completed teds were all gorgeous, and everyone said how they had appreciated the warmth and patience of the teachers on the day. We had also decorated the hall with every kind of bear - big ones, enormous ones and lots of beautiful artist's creations, for inspiration. There was also enough room in the church hall for the artists to set up 5 stands of bears and bear related articles for sale. We had bears coming out of our ears, and we all drank out of bear mugs and cups ! It was FAB !!!

Well done and thanks to everyone involved for their hard work, particularly Ruth for her tremendous efforts, the results were well worth it.

Charity Challenge 2006

In 2006 the Bear Makers of Wales were set a challenge to make a bear to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Welsh national anthem. 

CHARITY CHALLENGE 2005

In early June 2005 I set the girls of the Bear Makers of South Wales a CHALLENGE ! October 2005 was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so I set the BMofSW members the task of making a pink bear (any shade or shades of pink, but they were also allowed to use white, cream and black in their designs ! ). The teds had to be completed by 1st October 2005. We then decided to auction these bears on eBay in the first week of November, to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. We have all lost relatives or friends to cancer and this seemed an appropriate way to help out. I'm happy to say that our team effort raised £175 for breast cancer research. I would like to thank the girls for their efforts and the people who bought or won our bears for their generous contributions to our cause.

Little Acorns 'Bauble' - my contribution ! Click on his picture to see his pictures and details.

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