Japanese materials

Lesley was invited to Japan to attend the Tokyo Collectors Teddybear Fair. An expensive trip I hear you say, but worth every penny it cost us, for we learnt so much within a short time of the culture and the people of Japan and then again so little. So we had to go back to experience it a second time the following year. We visited many historic places from the Hikado ancient road, Mount Fuji to the famous fishing areas where Shogun was filmed in the early eighties.

While there Lesley's childhood friend Jan took her down the little side streets in Ueno, a suburb of Tokyo, into a small shop. It was very dull lighting within the shop as Lesley was greeted by the courteous bow of two wonderful local women who dealt in traditional Japanese fabrics from Japanese hand embroidered silk brocade to antique Kimono's. Lesley fell in love with the materials and over some ritual green tea purchased a selection to bring back to the UK to use in the Gemstonebears. These beautiful exotic materials can now be found used in details such as paw pads, ears, and sometimes even whole bears....return to news.