Meet Sam Mason from Blinkley Wood Bears

Jul 24, 20243 min read

Hi, I’m Sam Mason, the creator of Blinkley Wood Bears, who quite often wears two pairs of glasses, the first pair that I cannot find on the top of my head.

The Peak District is my birth place, however, both myself and my husband have always wanted to be near the sea and feel lucky that we can call the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) our home.

Blinkley Wood Bears is now a thriving Teddy Bear Hospital, Creator of OOAK Mohair Bears for the Collector and I also rescue Orphaned Mohair Teddies.

I am proud that after an invitation from the Teddy Bear Times & Friends magazine, to say that I now write a regular article about the teddy bear orphans I rescue, how I bring them back to good health so that they may become part of a new Hug.

Do you have any professional making qualifications or did you do a course?

My skills were born in childhood. My mother’s sewing left plenty of fabric scraps, she taught me some basic sewing rules and I was left to experimentation, trial and error which was a very natural learning process with no constraints, which I carried on with when I became a mother of my own two daughters making rag dolls and other soft toys, which developed

into Blinkley Wood Bears once they were of a more independent age. Reading and learning from books has also been helpful in developing my self-taught abilities.

Where do you get your ideas?

My ideas come from my childhood heart, from the stories my father would tell of mice scurrying to the Oak Tree store run by the Squirrels, and gossiping Hedgehogs when we were out on dog walks. Another favourite tale was how toys would come alive at night which only happened when little girls would go to sleep - now there lies a story of a crafty old fox!

How long does one of your toys take to make?

It can be a hard question to answer. I hand sew, it is not only therapeutic but I think it’s lovely to keep these traditional skills alive in the fast world we live in. Producing a bear can take a couple of days, but it does not take account of the hours creating, tweaking my own original drawn up patterns, selecting the most suitable mohair plush and then sourcing,

designing and creating any accessories, these are all the things that happen but not considered in the time to create.

Restoring someone’s beloved childhood bear or one of my teddy bear orphans who are all as individual as we are, some bears have faded in the sun, some have played with mud pies at the bottom of the garden. Time all depends on sourcing a good matching mohair plush, which often needs to be dyed and aged, lining or patching the teddy, darning, all done by

hand.

However these are things that bring joy to the art of restoring, repairing and creating one of the most loved childhood toys created - the Teddy Bear. So time can gently pass away before we realise it is time to stop for tea.

What's your favourite toy?

My current favourite teddy is always my latest one. In this case it is my Mini Artio Bear Collection, they are miniature mohair bears of 5-6 inches (15cm). They are delightful cheeky little bears who ask to be dressed up in some way.

Are you working on anything new at the moment?

Along with creating my mini jointed bears and my writing about my rescued Hug of mini Art Silk teddies for the teddy magazine, another childhood learnt skill has been re-ignited - the traditional art of Knitting.

However, because of the nature of my learning by experimentation, I cannot simply follow a knitting pattern, I am now creating my own knitting patterns for my new and old mohair teddy bears. I would like to get to a point where I can sell my own Blinkley Wood Bears knitwear for teddies - hand knitted of course.