Cover Story

Dramatique is 10 inches tall and made of mohair. She wears a vintage polka dot dress and a collage pendant.

Quiet Companions

Combining vintage accessories, mixed media, and paper crafting techniques, Karen O'Brien creates teddy bears with timeless appeal.

By Billy Shelton

Karen O'Brien's journey to becoming a teddy bear artist started with a whim. "I was always crafty," she says. "For me, making teddy bears was a process that has just evolved from that."

In the ten years since she began making bears, Karen has developed a look that makes her teddies unique, as well as appealing to collectors. "The first words I hear at shows are usually, 'Look, how sweet!'" Karen relates. "Usually collectors comment on the way the bears look. The heads of the bears flop over, and they appear to be looking right at the collector."

Karen isn't sure what her "look" is because every bear is different. If she had a theme, though, it would be vintage, because she "just likes old stuff." Her bears and bunnies, made of mohair in muted colors, are dressed up with treasures she finds at yard and estate sales, as well as consignment and resale shops. "I search for clothes and accessories," she explains. "It makes it fun, and it makes a surprise. Every bear is different, an art form."

Continues Karen, "The look I go for is not so new. I want it to look aged. I hope they have this overall kind of timeless look that's unique."

To achieve that, Karen first makes the bear and then looks at it carefully to decide how it would look best when complete. "Then I just start pulling out things and trying them on the bear until it looks finished," she says.

"Inspiration is all around. It comes from the vintage clothes and accessories I pick up at yard and antique sales as I search for things to use with the bears. I like the surprise of seeing what I have saved and how it works on the bears."

Kindred (left) and Breathe are both 5 inches tall and made of mohair. They have collaged paper clay arms and legs, and come in display collage frames made using vintage ephemera.

It's an approach that fits her philosophy that "there's no set way to make a bear. There's endless opportunity with the furs available now and whatever else you want to use to make bears. You can decide to do it however you want. I've never become bored with the primary medium of the art."

As for the inspiration to experiment and try new things, "it's all around," she claims. "For me, lots of inspiration comes from what I pick up at yard and antique sales as I search for things to go on the bears and to use with the bears. I like the surprise of seeing what I have saved and how it works on the bears."

Her collectors like the vintage look of her bears so well that sometimes they wonder how she can let them go, she says. Fortunately, once they're created, says Karen, "I want them to go to a good home."

Even so, Karen does not fill orders for bears because she's very aware of how anxious people are when they order something. She doesn't make editions of her bears, either, preferring instead to sell all of the approximately 150 bears she makes each year at the half-dozen shows she attends annually and via her Web site. In fact, Karen introduces her newest creations at four Internet shows each year. Those events are promoted much like in-person shows, with advance e-mail notices going out to collectors to announce the opening dates. Collectors then buy the bears online during the show.

Cling is 5 inches tall and made of mohair. Cling has collaged paper clay arms and legs, and comes in a display collage frame made using vintage ephemera.

Such an approach fits nicely into the rest of Karen's life, since she still works part-time as a registered nurse. "I always wanted to get an art degree," she says, "but it just wasn't practical then, so I became a nurse." While she currently does administrative work in the medical field, during Karen's 26-year career as a registered nurse she's worked in a variety of areas, including cardiac rehab and hospice.

One stage of her nursing career helped Karen come up with the name for her business: Quiet Companions. "At the time that I decided to branch out into selling bears, I was a home health nurse," remembers Karen. "They were giving bears to clients then, and they became their quiet companions. Besides, I like the name because it's very gentle."

Indeed, the name seems to fit very well with Karen's bears. For example, she's currently making pendants with vintage optical lenses. One has the image of a teddy bear fashion diva. Karen is also making mixed media bears. "My favorite things to make now are 5-inch bears with paper clay arms," she says. "They're very popular, and it keeps me interested. The paper clay guy is pretty much my unique thing."

Spell, 12 inches, is made of mohair and has shoebutton eyes, wool felt paw pads, and airbrushed accents. Spell wears a collage pendant.

Each mixed media bear comes as part of a collage in a frame, which can be hung on a wall or removed. Karen's husband, Paul-—a fire captain in the couple's hometown of San Diego, California—helps make the frames for the collages. The family also includes three grown children and a five-year-old granddaughter.

It is all of these factions, then, that blend together to make the life of this teddy bear artist challenging, rewarding, and fun: her family, careers in nursing and teddy bears, time she can spend at her home studio oil painting, as well as making bears, and searching her favorite haunts for vintage treasures to use with her bears. "I've gone into a rhythm," is how Karen sees it. "I like where it is, and I wouldn't change a thing right now —but maybe tomorrow!"

And working with teddy bears, she says, is as much about the people involved as it is creating the perfect bear. "At this point," she admits with a laugh, "attending a show is partly about the show and mostly about seeing my teddy bear friends. It's all about the people."