🌼Little intro about me🌼
My name is Melissa Jayne. I'm a textile artist who specialises in making teddy bears, and I live in Cheshire, UK, with my husband, four children, two dogs, and one cat!
I studied Textile Design at the Manchester Metropolitan University and graduated in 2003 with a BA (Hons) Textiles degree. I have been creating teddy bears since 2003, and 'Melissa Jayne Bears' was established in 2004 after I sold my very first artist bear.

🌼My teddy bears and animals🌼
I design and make cute and whimsical style artist teddy bears and other animal companions, created especially for the discerning adult collector. They are sewn out of an eclectic mix of unique textiles and repurposed vintage fabrics in an array of different colours, including cottons with rare prints and decorative patterns, mohair, plush viscose, velvet, and wool felt too. Born from a lifetime love of teddy bears and the happy feelings they evoke, my true desire is to spread joy and positivity through my creations by lifting spirits, giving comfort, and warming the heart. I love to create small sized bears, ranging from around 10 to 20 cm, made to nestle perfectly in your hands, being petite in size and gently weighted, giving them a tactile and comforting feel. Each one also comes complete with their own handmade travel bag, so they can hide in your handbag as little travel companions, there to quietly cheer you on as you go about your day! On occasion, I also like to add bigger sized bears to the mix, too big to hide in your handbag, these bears prefer to stay at home and are just the right size for a hug when you need one! 

🌼My inspirations, designs, and process🌼
I draw inspiration for my designs from the nostalgic aesthetic of cute and whimsical vintage children's toys as well as imaginative, fanciful fairytale books. The toys include traditional jointed mohair bears spanning through all the decades, quirky 1960s and 1970s primitive plushie animals, and my own treasured childhood toys from the 1980s. I adore too many beautifully illustrated children's books to list them all, but some of my favourites are the iconic Beatrix Potter books, The Velveteen Rabbit, colourful picture books from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, magical and imaginary classic fairytales, and all different stories about woodland animals, such as Brambly Hedge. My colour palette for each collection is heavily influenced by the beauty of nature and the ever-changing colours of the seasons, and I really enjoy the part where I get to rummage through my treasure trove of fabric, selecting different types of complementary materials and combining them with one another to create harmonious colour schemes that I feel are in sync with the current time of the year. Teaming all of this together, there is always a new design idea on the horizon for making another sweet little bear! When it comes to testing out ideas for newly imagined teddy bears or other animals (including cats, rabbits, dogs, and elephants too!), I follow an intentionally attentive and mindful process 'behind the scenes' experimenting with their pattern designs. Whether it is for a traditional fully jointed bear, a part jointed one, or a more primitive style non jointed bear, I always start off by doodling a quick sketch of how I imagine the finished bear to look, then I work from scratch to turn my sketch idea into a pattern. Following this, I then have a go at sewing a prototype; sometimes it can take me a few tries to get my pattern just right and how I imagined it to be. This method of trial and error plays a key part in the creative process since it allows me to grow and evolve as a maker by learning as I go along. I usually work in small scale batches, creating my bears in collections of between two and six, with each bear in the set partly sewn on my sewing machine and partly stitched by hand. My favourite part of the process is making the bear heads, as I feel this is when they really start to come to life and get their own little personalities. When I've finished sewing them, I enjoy adding finishing touches like accessorising them with bells, ruffles, or colourful ribbons around their necks. Every now and then, I sew clothes for the bigger bears that I make, such as small retro style waistcoats created out of patterned vintage fabric.

🌼My teddy bear making journey🌼
Back in 2003, I made my very first jointed mohair bear from a pattern out of a sewing book. I was instantly hooked and eager to make more. I started to design my own patterns and experiment with lots of different creations, and I found I had really caught the bear making bug. With encouragement from family and friends, in 2004, I started my own small business called 'Melissa Jayne Bears' and began to sell all the artist bears and other animals I had been making. I sold my creations through my own website and at collector's fairs throughout the UK: Hugglets in London, NEC in Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Pudsey Bear Fair in Leeds, and lots more in the Northwest, including Stockport, Bolton, Buxton, and Arley Hall in Cheshire. I was lucky enough to have some success, and many bears found homes both in the UK and overseas. I continued making and selling my creations up until 2007, but then stopped making them to sell when my first son was a baby. This was because not only was I so focused on my new little family, but I was also working full time for a bank, and I found I just didn't have the time I needed to spend on making the bears regularly. I carried on sewing as a hobby in my spare time, and in 2013, I also started to design and create other fabric products too, including colourful scatter cushions, personalised family trees, animal shaped pillow toys, and lavender decorations. Unfortunately, in 2019, my computer completely stopped working, and I had no way to access any of my printed fabric or cushion designs for a long time until I was able to replace it. This led me to put my entire focus back on just making my teddy bears, and it was during this time that I came to realise that bear making is the one thing that really soothes my creative soul and that my true passion is to design and make teddy bears. 

🌼20 years as a bear artist and mindfulness🌼 
Over the last 20 years since I sold my first handmade teddy bear, not only have I grown as an artist, but I also feel I have grown a lot as a person too. Now that I am a Mum to four children, I have become much more empathetic and understanding, as well as intuitive and mindful, appreciating how important it is to look after the wellbeing of others around us as well as ourselves. In keeping with this mindset and my desire to spread joy and positivity through my creations, at the beginning of 2021, I introduced handmade travel bags with my small and pocket sized bears. The thought process behind this was that the bears can hide in your handbag as little travel companions, there to give comfort and quietly cheer you on as you go about your day! Feeling strongly about this concept and how much it truly resonated with me as a person, I was moved to do a little bit more to nurture my vision by combining something that is visibly thought-provoking and mindful with my bears. Thinking specifically about how we can positively enhance our wellbeing and mental health by practicing mindfulness, I came to the transformative realisation of how powerful words can be and the effect that they can have upon us; whether they are written, spoken, read, heard, or just a thought in our mind, they can play a huge part in how well balanced and happy we feel. This notion helped me to understand that it is vitally important to try and enrich our lives with the magic of positive language, and if used in combination with practicing mindfulness, we can create the space for awareness, and positive words can fill that space like sunshine to our mind. After reflecting on this concept for three years, from March 2024 onwards, I am now including an inspiring and meaningful word and message with my bears in a bid to champion positive mind and wellbeing in my own unique way. Each word is depicted on a handmade fabric charm that is picked at random and attached to an individual bear, with an accompanying motivational message incorporated on a separate, printed cardstock piece that is placed in the package with the bear. There is also the option for you to choose your own word charm from a list of specially selected words, should you wish to. An assortment of my small and pocket bears also come with an optional healing crystal in the form of a pendant or tumblestone. These little extra touches speak from my heart, and I hope they represent what me and my bears are about: being there as a meaningful reminder to take time to pause, appreciate, and enjoy the simple things in life, as well as offering encouragement, positivity, healing, and inspiration whenever it may be needed.

🌼How it all began🌼
Strolling along my own childhood memory lane, I have always loved making and creating for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, I used to ask for all sorts of different art and craft kits and stationery sets for birthday and Christmas presents. I particularly enjoyed making miniature animals out of clay and Fimo, as well as writing and illustrating my own short story books about woodland animals and their adventures (very much inspired by Enid Blyton, Jill Barklem, and Beatrix Potter); in fact, my mum recalls my first school report from when I had just turned 5 years old, in which my teacher stated that I loved to draw animals, especially rabbits! In addition to being creative, I have always had a deep affection for teddy bears, soft toys, dolls, and all things cute and colourful. I have lots of happy memories of my childhood toys (some of which I've still got), such as Care Bears, Brush-a-Loves, Popples, Puffalumps, Pound Puppies, Wuzzles, Sylvanian Families, My Little Pony, and many more. They always brought me comfort when I was a child and were my most cherished possessions when I was growing up. I fondly recall when my sisters and I were little in the 1980s, we would visit our Nanna (Mum's Mum), and sometimes she would take us to jumble sales where she would buy us preloved toys, games, and books, many of which were from the 1960s and 1970s. I vividly remember that she also had a pretend teddy bear hospital at her house where she would sew repairs on some of the handmade soft toys she bought. Another happy memory I have is of my Granny (Dad's Mum), knitting dolls for all her grandchildren, and I remember that I absolutely loved those dolls. I think these special childhood memories are probably where my interest in sewing originally came from, and I started to try out sewing myself when I was maybe about 10 years old, I used to spend my pocket money on primitive plush animal sewing kits from a fabulous fabric/sewing shop in my local town (sadly no longer there), which I used to make with the help of my Mum. This love of soft toys has always stayed with me because of all those wonderful memories that have given me a lifetime appreciation for the magic that teddy bears and stuffed toys can bring. I'm also sure that going to those jumble sales as a child sparked an interest that turned into a passion for vintage preloved items, printed fabrics of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, and for upcycling too. All of which, combined, I feel gives the bears that I make a whimsical and retro twist of cute, childlike charm.