Ingrid van Iperen lives in a charming village of Boskoop in the green heart of The Netherlands.

She finds time to make bears and working as an administrative assistant for a demolition company.

Together with my boyfriend René and our cats she still has time for lots of hobbies. “Since I was little I learned to knit, make soap, sew clothes, make flowers and trees of beads. I was always very busy.” she said.

Ingrid started bear making in 2012. “I bought a kit at a fair and after many years of the kit staying in the closet, I tried to make it. It didn’t look very good, I enjoyed making him very much, so I wanted make more.”

She bought some mohair fabric and patterns from an artists who had retired from bear making and “more bears where born!”

Surfing Facebook Ingrid found that there was an open house in Germany where a company was selling bear making materials. There she met several bear makers and they told her about bear shows and fairs. How fun it was to go. “We visited several fairs in The Netherlands and I really liked it. I thought it would be fun to participate in a fair one day, but in my opinion my bears weren’t good enough yet.

Berry

Billie

Bozo

Garfield

I have seen so many  beautiful creations on those fairs and didn’t think I could ever make bears like that.”

She didn’t give up and continued bear making. Finding it relaxing and so much fun.

After  making several bears from other artists patterns, she wasn’t challenged anymore. “I started to change patterns and after a while I made my own patterns.”

Ingrid didn’t like stitching noses so she turned to needle felting and creating noses for her bears.

Her childhood hobby of needle felting paid off, as “after needle felting the bear noses, I started with the cheeks and feet and now I needle felt faces on my bears. Every time I create a bear I’m surprised about the expression of their faces.” she said.

Golden Elm bears don’t have a certain style but they can recognized by their smiling faces.

“I love to work with colours. I love to work with mohair and alpaca, along with viscose and high quality faux fur.

Sometimes I work with epoxy sculpt and I use soft pastels for shading my bears.”

Enjoying participating in bear fairs, her first was in The Netherlands. “It was a great  experience to be there as an exhibitor and not as a visitor.”

She like it so much, she widened her circle to attend more fairs outside of  The Netherlands, to included Belgium, Germany and France.

Ingrid’s bear can be found online, on Bearpile and exhibiting in online shows.

“I don’t design a lot of patterns, because I needle felt the bears faces and every bear is different.”

All of Ingrid’s bears are hand sewn. “It is very relaxing for me after a busy day at work.”

When she is not making bears you’ll find her reading, cooking and working in her garden or practicing her hand at photography. “We like to go to concerts and music festivals.”.

Jesper

Jip

Moos

Choosing a business name was not an easy task.

Ingrid decided to combine one of her favorite colours with her last name. ‘Elm’ in Dutch is ‘Iep’, a part of her last name. She put them together with her favorite colour ‘gold’ and the name “Golden Elm Bears” was born.

The reactions to selling her bears online is “so nice.

I hear how my bears are different and they make people smile and happy.”

Ingrid’s bears have found their way to many countries, making a lot of collectors smile and be happy.

“The icing on the cake, was when I was nominated for a Golden George Award last year, with a  tableau Jump Out”.

“I hope I can create bears for a long time and continue making  people happy,” and so do we.

Ingrid van Iperen
Golden Elm Bears
Member since July 2020

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