Anke joined the club. She found lovely people and made good friends while in the class. She made her first bear a month later. Her children and family loved her bears; even the odd ones she made from her own first patterns.
"I went on and on and visited the "Teddycollege," an online teddy bear making school of a famous German artist." That was when she really became addicted and decided to start selling her bears.
Her first bears were contemporary with big noses and big paw pads, often made from colorful mohair and faux fur. Anke experimented with various fabrics, played with different pattern proportions and sewing techniques. She tried stitching different noses, played with open mouth designs, sculpted and Trapunto techniques and started to hand dye her own mohair.
"My contemporary bears are still very near to my children's theme; they are like little children. And like little children, they have their own personalities, not one is the same."
From this perspective, she developed her business name 'Bearsonalities by Anke Komorowski.' Since then she has entered competitions, winning first place in The Ted Worldwide in 2008 and second place in 2009. Although she's done very well in many competitions, she doesn't enter very many now, "I'm too busy with my bear business at the moment."
In the last few years, she started creating some traditional bears. "They are my sensitive and honest bears which want to be loyal partners for a lifetime with you." She's also working as a teddy doctor and started to learn airbrushing as well, which she uses to create bear T-shirts for collectors to wear.
Anke sells her bears at online shows, at bear fairs (accompanied by her sister Ingrid), on her website and through Etsy. "I love what I do and I'm grateful that the bear making bug found me. I met a lot of lovely collectors and other bear artists during the years and it's always amazing that teddy bears are able to find special people. I often have the feeling that the bears choose exactly the right persons for them."
And speaking of finding the right bear, Anke would just like to add,
"If anybody has found a flat green teddy bear, similar to a Mister Bean teddy bear, wearing a Bavarian girl's dress at the border between Austria and Italy in June 1971, please send it to me."
In the meantime, she'll keep creating bears of her own because Anke learned a long time ago, that a life with bears is a happy life.
Anke Komorowski
Bearsonalities
Member since January 2014
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