Tiger with Giles |
Dain lives in
Rotorua, a very popular and exciting tourist spot. She
and her husband, Malcolm, have a small 'toy' farm which
keeps them very busy. Dain began making bears when she came to New Zealand from Zimbabwe in 1984. She made Care Bears® for her four children, 3 girls and 1 boy, the first christmas they were here. |
| Raising four young
children in a new country was not conducive to much bear
making, but in about 1990, she entered a competition for
the first time. She had made a wee corduroy bear in a red
jacket and to her delight he won a first prize. From there on Dain continued to enter the National Teddy Bear Festival competition each year and in 1996 started designing her own bears most of which are one of a kinds. Dain has been fortunate enough to win Bear of the show and Judges choice awards on many occasions. |
Sam Bear of the show Wellington Doll and Bear Festival October 1998 |
Dain experimented with running her own business, Bear Cottage, where she sold Bears on commission for other artists. |
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Maggie O'Beary A Winter Walk |
However, Dain found that she had so little time for her own bears that she closed the cottage and has been spending time designing and developing a range of dressed bear called Maggie O'Beary. Maggie O'Beary has a different outfit for every occasion and Dain has now designed Maggie her own bear called Blah-Blah - so named because every time Maggie gets nagged or scolded she whispers into her little friend's ear "Blah blah blah". |
Dain's partner in business, the other half of 'Bedfellow Bears' is Sue Framp, a very accomplished designer and seamstress of bear clothes. They make a great team as Dain prefers to design and make the bears while Sue prefers to make their clothes. |
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