Not cuddly bears...

Over the years, I've accumulated quite a few teddies that are not cuddly - china, wood, silver, etc.

These are not lesser teddies than the cuddly ones, they are just different. And they let me have teddies in places where cuddly bears aren't practical.

These are my kitchen bears. They're fridge magnets from various places and people. There's a Harrods Bear from the London department store, one from Caesars Palace in Atlantic City N.J., and various character bears my nieces have bought for me.

My sister bought me these for my twenty-first birthday. They're china, but there are no markings so I don't know who made them or where they're from. They just look after a few tiny teddy books, I've never expected them to hold many books in place (they're hollow, so they don't really have the weight to keep a whole row of books in place).

These two were gifts from Ant's parents and came from Russia. The wooden bear is called Pieter and he's hand carved. The little bear playing the balalaika is hand painted terracotta.

My mum gave me these two. They're wax candles, although I would never dream of lighting them. I have to be careful where I keep them, as I get a lot of sun through the windows and I've had normal wax candles melt...

These three are from the Andrew Brownsword Forever Friend series. They're cast in resin (although they appear to many people to be china, I've learnt about cold cast porcelain from my modeling). The one in the middle was a gift from a friend, the other two were Valentine's gifts from Ant.

Three from the Cherished Teddies collection, produced by Enesco. Like the Forever Friends bears, they're cold cast porcelain, hand painted. On the right is my namesake, Kathleen, a gift from my mother. The one in the middle is Seth & SaraBeth and the one on the left is called My Love.

These two are salt and pepper pots, from Avon. They're around 10 years old now, so I don't think they're still available. The girl (pink bow) is pepper, the boy (blue bow) is salt. I've never used them as a cruet...

A selection.. 

on the far left, Winnie the Pooh in a pool of honey, from Disney (who else?). Next is a salt dough bear my nephew got for me at a school fete. Then a little resin bear, no markings. Then Henry, who is sterling silver and was a gift when I left my last job.