Patsy Lake Bears

                                                                                                                         

 

Patsy lives and produces her bears in Springwood in the Blue

Mountains west of Sydney. She was born in Glasgow,  raised

in Derbyshire, England  and emigrated to Australia in 1980. 

 

Prior to her arrival in Australia, Patsy was widowed  with three

young children  to raise and found very  little  time for craftwork

 of any kind.  After her children had  left home she found that

she had time on her hands,  especially after undergoing

back surgery, which meant she was no longer able to go out

 to work so she attended N.S.W T.A.F.E., completing the 

 Advanced Commercial Needlecraft course in the early 90's.

Upon completion of this course with distinction, Patsy settled

into a hobby of patchwork and embroidery.

 

 But then it happened! A friend gave her a piece of mohair and

 everything changed. The first bear was made soon after. 

 He needed a companion and that was the end of patchwork  

and embroidery. Soon Patsy was making bears for children who

 were sick in hospital and for friends. She started off by using

 other people's patterns and was quiet happy with what she

was doing. Then her husband retired and she couldn't  afford to

 carry on with her hobby  so she decided to start to sell her bears

and Patsy Lake Bears was formed in 2000. 

 

 Since then her bears have found homes  in many parts of the

 world. All Patsy Lake Bears are designed and  made by Patsy

 herself, using only high quality materials and craftmanship. 

Except in rare cases each  bear is one of a kind, so that each

has a very distinctive personality. They are all happy little bears

and this is one of their most appealing  characteristics. Patsy says

she derives so much pleasure from creating them that she finds it

hard to make one without a smile.

 

 Loving to share her skills she has introduced many others

 to the joy  of bear making by conducting bear making classes.

 Her talents have led her into the field of repairing old and

injured bears and she has nursed many bears back to good

health and vitality. She finds the joy on people's faces when

they see their beloved Teddy restored to good health  is both

 a great experience and motivation to continue in this line of work.