Hello and a big warm bear welcome to the

EMERALD ISLE BEARS web-site.

 My name is Carol Conley I live and work in Coleraine Northern Ireland where I have been designing and making traditional collector bears for seven years now.    I produce only two to three  bears per week and spend at least twenty hours on average a week designing and making my bears . To date I have sold 800 bears world-wide and each and every bear was completely different .

I also work part time in the local Grammer School Coleraine Academical Institution working  mornings as an office cleaner. I live with my partner of 14 years Ivan. on the beautiful tree lined Carthall Road. I have two sons who have both left home . Ian is 31  years old and Jason is 27  .

I made my first bear for my grandmother who lived on her own. Grannie Ellie  was often lonely at times especially at night and "the Colonel" as he was known kept her company in her little home in Coleraine. 

 All my bears are one of a kind original designs. I design each bear pattern differently, and am the only bear artist in the north of Ireland who re-cycles faux/fur to create heirloom bears.  I do not make any two bears look the same.  I use all types of fur including Coney , Imported Plush, Synthetic, and any other Faux fur I can find. My home is bursting at the seams with faux fur , sewing materials and all things to do with Teddy Bears . Sometimes its hard to find a seat in one of the three rooms I have overtaken in our home ... When my sons moved out the bears moved in.

Most of my bears are made from luxury imported faux fur that I buy from abroad . I also make bears from re-cycled fur ...fur coats the customer supplies me with. The most popular bear I make is made from Coney fur .             

  Most of us have a grandmother or aunt who owned a fur in the late 1930s to the 1970s when it was popular to have such a garment. So rather than destroy a perfectly good coat I design my customers a bear that is usually given to a grand child or kept as a family heirloom. I do not use mohair in my bear making.  I believe that all mohair bears look and feel the same so unless I am asked I wont use this fabric/fur  to design.  Since I began bear making I have only ever made two mohair bears. 

 My bears range in size from 11 inches to 32 inches. All bears are fully jointed. I use cotter pins joints and safety joints. I use only the best stuffing available to me, if a customer prefers I can also make beanie bears. This type of bear is stuffed with Polypropelene Pellets. I also use safety eyes on most of my bears unless a customer asks for glass eyes.

 I also  use growlers and musicial sounds to give each bear his own individuality.  I design and hand makes all the bears by myself and use a 1930s treadle singer sewing machine to give my bears extra strength. Its takes me around ten hours from design to the finish product. I love every bear that I make and photograph each bear before he leaves my home. I also encourage my customers to send me a photo of them with their bear to use on my web-site. I also use musical inserts in my  bears and growlers to give that realistic effect .

Recently Emerald Bears have won 1st prize in the Ballymoney Agricultural Show "Best of Show" two times in the last three years.  I was also chosen by Mayor of Coleraine for best stall at the Causeway Speciality Market.  My bears have appeared in "Teddy’s Creative" Germanys leading Teddy Bear collector magazine  Christmas 2007 issue.  I have also been interviewed by Ronan Lundy BBC Radio Ulster on the magazine programme "Your Place and Mine". I was also a top ten finalist in the TBOC in Taiwan 2008. I did sell my bears to local speciality stores but found that I did not have contact with the customer myself so I made the decision to only sell bears to people that I dealt with on a personal basis. I love to create new bears and hope that I will be making more little creations for the a long time to come.

Carol Conley

Emerald Bears