This is our edit of the story featured in the Teddy Bear Times
with many thanks to paul.
My love for Teddies goes way back, I have some great memories from my childhood, from visiting London zoo to see the pandas Chi Chi and Ann Ann. M...
Throughout my life I can honestly say my wife and I have not been avid collectors of classic teddy bears, although we were always buying each other teddies for birthdays, anniversaries and, well, pretty much any excuse really – so I guess the writing was on the wall! Throughout that time we acquired a few collectables, one of my favourites is a limited edition twilight zone bear which we adopted at Disney’s tower of terror in Florida.
I had no idea that from being a builder most of my life I would end up with the perfect new career owning our own Teddy Bear shop, Teddy Station in SOuthend-on-Sea.
It all started when we came across a portable teddy stuffing machine in 2008 at the Birmingham international trade fair. Intrigued by the concept of making our own bear we thought this would be a great idea to bring to a wider audience, so we jumped in head first and started touring local shows and fetes with the make your own bear concept. Of course we included all the extras bear clothes for dressing bears up, making wishes to place inside your teddy and our own teddy promise pledge.
After a while of doing this we realized that quite by accident we had found something that was both for us and the children that made up our customer base, simply magical to do. A while later the opportunity for a permanent shop came up in the Southend Victoria Shopping Centre and you guessed it, yes we jumped in feet first again. During the first year at the shop it became apparent we needed to increase our sales and wanting to stay focused on the teddy bear industry we approached Steiff and quickly struck up a great rapport with our Steiff rep. This was our first foray into the world of limited edition and handmade bears and we are so pleased that we took this step because here we found even more magic and and became a Steiff club shop within 2 years! We now run regular Steiff club events, were we get to meet our clients and have a great evening chatting about teddy bears and even have presentations from Steiff themselves, which regularly feature information about new and upcoming bear designs.
We have also added other notable brands with over 1000 teddies from Teddy Hermann, Merrythorght, Deb Calham and other artists and makes.
We then considered doing our own teddy station exclusive bear and for this we approached Kelsey Cunningham of Kaycee bears and came to an agreement that she would make one especially for us. Unfortunately during the last year I lost both my parents, Pam, my mum to cancer and Bob, my dad 6 months later of a broken heart. We spoke to Kelsey and have come up with, what we consider to be an exceptional tribute to my parents, in the form of two limited edition pandas, PamPam in pink and white (mums favourite rose colours) and BobBob in traditional black and white.
Because these bears have strong emotional family values we have added a wishing pocket on the paw pad which to my knowledge has not been done before. This enables the new keeper of the bear to wish upon a star which is then placed in the pocket to give the bear much more emotional significance than just any old bear. Some people even thing that wishing stars may even make their dreams come true!
I am so pleased with these two fine pieces I am keeping the two number ones of the 25 piece limited run and will be letting the others go on general release in November. We have bold plans for more exclusive Teddy Station wishing bears to come next year, so visit our web site and register to be one of the first to know as soon as these very special, unique, limited edition runs become available
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with many thanks to paul.
My love for Teddies goes way back, I have some great memories from my childhood, from visiting London zoo to see the pandas Chi Chi and Ann Ann. M...
y first teddy was a Panda aptly called Panda.
pic with my Nan on southend day trip when I was 4 with panda.
pic with my Nan on southend day trip when I was 4 with panda.
Throughout my life I can honestly say my wife and I have not been avid collectors of classic teddy bears, although we were always buying each other teddies for birthdays, anniversaries and, well, pretty much any excuse really – so I guess the writing was on the wall! Throughout that time we acquired a few collectables, one of my favourites is a limited edition twilight zone bear which we adopted at Disney’s tower of terror in Florida.
I had no idea that from being a builder most of my life I would end up with the perfect new career owning our own Teddy Bear shop, Teddy Station in SOuthend-on-Sea.
It all started when we came across a portable teddy stuffing machine in 2008 at the Birmingham international trade fair. Intrigued by the concept of making our own bear we thought this would be a great idea to bring to a wider audience, so we jumped in head first and started touring local shows and fetes with the make your own bear concept. Of course we included all the extras bear clothes for dressing bears up, making wishes to place inside your teddy and our own teddy promise pledge.
After a while of doing this we realized that quite by accident we had found something that was both for us and the children that made up our customer base, simply magical to do. A while later the opportunity for a permanent shop came up in the Southend Victoria Shopping Centre and you guessed it, yes we jumped in feet first again. During the first year at the shop it became apparent we needed to increase our sales and wanting to stay focused on the teddy bear industry we approached Steiff and quickly struck up a great rapport with our Steiff rep. This was our first foray into the world of limited edition and handmade bears and we are so pleased that we took this step because here we found even more magic and and became a Steiff club shop within 2 years! We now run regular Steiff club events, were we get to meet our clients and have a great evening chatting about teddy bears and even have presentations from Steiff themselves, which regularly feature information about new and upcoming bear designs.
We have also added other notable brands with over 1000 teddies from Teddy Hermann, Merrythorght, Deb Calham and other artists and makes.
We then considered doing our own teddy station exclusive bear and for this we approached Kelsey Cunningham of Kaycee bears and came to an agreement that she would make one especially for us. Unfortunately during the last year I lost both my parents, Pam, my mum to cancer and Bob, my dad 6 months later of a broken heart. We spoke to Kelsey and have come up with, what we consider to be an exceptional tribute to my parents, in the form of two limited edition pandas, PamPam in pink and white (mums favourite rose colours) and BobBob in traditional black and white.
Because these bears have strong emotional family values we have added a wishing pocket on the paw pad which to my knowledge has not been done before. This enables the new keeper of the bear to wish upon a star which is then placed in the pocket to give the bear much more emotional significance than just any old bear. Some people even thing that wishing stars may even make their dreams come true!
I am so pleased with these two fine pieces I am keeping the two number ones of the 25 piece limited run and will be letting the others go on general release in November. We have bold plans for more exclusive Teddy Station wishing bears to come next year, so visit our web site and register to be one of the first to know as soon as these very special, unique, limited edition runs become available
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