Singapore Teddy Bear Lovers Christmas Gathering 2015

What an exciting year it has been for the Singapore Teddy Bear Lovers (STBL)! Besides our regular meet up sessions, we had bear artists from overseas who joined us for our gatherings!

This year in April, we welcomed Mr Brian and Mrs Kay Cooper from Australia! They were in town for a vacation and we had a great time playing host, showing them around Singapore.

L-R: Kay, Wayne and Brian

All of us were given a “Brian” Cooper Bear pattern as a gift. As a tradition, we would all make a new bear to share with everyone during our Christmas gathering. Hence, we decided that everyone will make a bear from the pattern given to us.

"Brian" Bear Pattern

In order to make it even more interesting, we liaised with Mr & Mrs Cooper to organise a Christmas Bear Competition. We want to see how a bear made from a single pattern can differ, depending on who is making it.

Wayne and Philip decided to host the event and discussed the rules, prizes and venue for the event. In June, the Christmas Cooper Bear Competition rules and regulations were announced.

In summary, each participant is to submit 3 photographs of their bears to Wayne by 28 November and he will then consolidate and post the pictures in a Facebook album for Mr & Mrs Cooper to judge without knowing who did which bear.

2 Winners (1^st and 2^nd place) were chosen by Mr & Mrs Cooper and the People’s choice was picked on the day of the Christmas gathering through voting.

9 of us submitted our entries for the competition namely Wayne, Philip, Esther, Valerie, Chio, Su Ling, Ivy, Evelyn and Irene.

Grinch by Chio

Ollie by Esther Lee

Rose by Evelyn Choo

Adele the Santarina by Irene Goh

Sakura by Ivy Lee

Azul by Philip Tan

Shalom by Suah Su Ling

Sherlock by Valerie Ho

Midgley by Wayne Lim

The Coopers had a hard time but eventually selected the 2 winners. On 29 November, Wayne announced the winners for the event! Ms Esther Lee and Ms Valerie Ho won 1^st Place and 2^nd Place respectively.

1 week later, we met up for our Christmas gathering. After the customary Christmas gift exchange was done, we conducted the vote to determine the People’s Choice winner. Ms Suah Su Ling’s bear won the most number of votes!

The Winners of the Christmas Cooper Bear Competition were:

-      1^st Place – Ollie by Esther Lee

-      2^nd Place – Sherlock by Valerie Ho

-      People’s Choice – Shalom by Suah Su Ling

Wayne presenting the 1st Prize award to Esther Lee

2nd Prize Winner, Valerie Ho with her bear Sherlock
Photo courtesy of Valerie Ho

Wayne presenting the People's Choice award to Suah Su Ling

Wayne then presented the prizes and certificates to the winners. We also received paper masks from our lovely friend Ms Anna and took some interesting photos wearing the masks!

We have specially created a postcard and below are the 9 bears made by the STBL group!

As you can see, all the bears turned out differently even though they were made from the same bear pattern! This clearly shows that everyone’s bear is unique in their own ways as everyone has their own individual preferences in terms of the colour/texture of the fur, eye sizes, and the position of ears, nose & mouth stitches.

We would like to specially thank Mr Brian and Mrs Kay Cooper for sponsoring prizes for this event, as well as Wayneston Studios (Wayne and Philip) for sponsoring prizes and hosting the event. Not forgetting to thank Ms Anna from Russia for sending us some cute paper masks as well!

L-R: Su Ling, Esther, Paula and Evelyn

Lastly, we would like to thank all the members of the Singapore Teddy Bear Lovers for their active support and participation. Without them, this group will cease to exist!

L-R: Ivy, Wayne and Paula.(Thank you Anna for the paper masks!)

Andrey and Anna

Everyone truly enjoyed making this year’s Christmas bear and we hope that it will be an even more exciting and successful event next year!

Hugs, Wayne