We were honored to be part of the Melbourne Bear Bazaar, with the special invitation to conduct three workshops at the "Bear Essence" last October.
The Melbourne Bear Bazaar is an annual Teddy Bear Exhibition, hosted by Kim Garratt, owner of Bear Essence.
This event attracted approximately 50 International Artists around the world and welcomed more than 500 visitors.
Held at the Cardinia Cultural Centre, the venue was well appointed and brightly lighted, with many parking lots for drive-in visitors and exhibitors.
The weather was lovely and chilling, it felt so much comfortable as compared to Singapore's warm and humid weather. We arrived early at the show and were happy to be placed next to our good friends, Kay and Brian Cooper from Perth. Before the event started, we moved quickly around the gallery to take some pictures of the other artists' booth.
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| Kay & Brian Cooper |
At the show, we were pleased to meet some of our friends again, namely Charmaine Mcmurdo, Linda Benson, Cindy Cherry, Marnie Pantano, Susan Leigh, Merilyn Willits Pursell, and Valma Bolton.
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| Linda Benson |
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| Cindy Cherry |
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| Merilyn Willits Pursell |
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| Valma Bolton |
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| Charmaine Mcmurdo |
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| Josey Freni |
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| Susan Leigh |
We also wanted to thank Kim for having Wayne at this event, giving him the opportunity to go through the process and learning how to run and set up an exhibition. This was especially useful to us, as we were in the midst of preparing for the upcoming Singapore Teddy & Friends Show in the following month after the bazaar.
Despite it being a one-day event, there were many preparation works. We went through the process of packing the Charlie Bears, Teddy Bear making supplies, displays, and furniture, and transported them to the event venue. We were so lucky to have some volunteers coming forward to help.
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| Judy Parker |
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| Irina Harry |
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| Marnie Pantano |
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| Thank you for purchasing our kits |
At the show, we were pleased to meet up with Singaporean couple May and Mac who specially flew down to support the event. We sold a few kits and our bears to new collectors. Our bears Maxi, Lindsey, Xiao Mi, Darren found new homes at the show. We also wanted to thank Josey Freni for adopting a bunny, Delsey after the event.
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| Thank you Ilana for adopting Lindsey! |
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| Thank you for adopting Darren! |
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| Wendy Cosford |
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| Sharon E Hale |
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| Lesley |
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| Wendy Cosford |
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| Adella David |
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| Corinna |
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| We have a squirrel and fox swap! |
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| Shaneen Flaunty |
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| Thank you May and Mac for visiting our table! |
After the Melbourne Teddy Bazaar, we conducted three workshops in Kim's shop (Bear Essence). We will share another blog post on the workshops on our next post!
We would like to thank all friends and collectors for coming to visit us at the Bazaar. Thank you, Kim and her husband, Tony for making us feel like being at home, during our stay in Melbourne.
We look forward to seeing you soon this year!
P.S. ~ The details and application to the Melbourne Bear Bazaar are now available! Visit the official Website here.
This year's event will be on Sunday, 27th October 2019.
Hugs,
Wayne
