My name is Sue, married, mother to three sons and

grandmother to four grandsons. No girls, apart

from two lovely daughter-in-laws, soon to be

three when the youngest son gets married in

November. It was Laura, the soon to be

daughter-in-law who suggested I look at Folksy.

I have been making my little bears for about

twelve years. I always wanted to learn how to

throw pots so I decided to take an adult class.
One day in the studio I decided I wanted to try

something a little different. I have always

loved bears, the soft toy kind and the wild ones.

As a child, like so many others, my first toy was

a bear and I have old photos of me and bear

everywhere; he got so worn that in the end he

was hardly recognisable as a bear, but I still

loved him. I decided to make myself a clay bear

with moveable arms and legs, small enough to be

held in your hand and played with, rather like

worry beads. When he was fired and painted I was

so pleased with him. One of the girls working in

the studio asked me to make her a bear - she

took her bear to a shop and he was put in the

window and sold the next day! The shop owner

wanted some more and explained that the person

who bought the bear wanted him as she was scared

of flying and decided that by playing with him it

would help her. So the “worry bears” were born.

I sell at craft fairs and a lovely shop called

The Sanctuary at Earlswood Lakes Craft Centre.
The nicest thing is when people come back and

tell me where the bears have helped - some have

gone to hospitals, students with exams coming up;

one lady had hers sitting on her computer and

came to buy some for her work mates as she was

fed up with them borrowing him, and lots of

people just like to have a bear again who they

can tell their secrets to just like when you are

a child. Many people have suggested selling on

a web site, but I have always thought that it is

very difficult to explain to people how the bears

feel. So when Laura said that she had found this

great craft site it seemed time to give the bears

an outing.