I promise I am working on some new bears, two of which will be available to purchase later this month. But this weekend our family visited Harry Potter Studio Tours in London to celebrate my mums 60th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM! It was well worth the 7 hour drive it took to get there and I would recommend any fan visit if they can.
We had a truly magical time, seeing how all of the sets, creatures and characters were bought to life by artists and craftspeople setting a literal stage for the actors to feel like the magic was real. It was awe inspiring on every level. Moby and Puddle has seen my try my hands at many crafts before settling firmly on teddy bears but seeing the work of such incredible artists and imagining just a fraction of the time it must of taken to create such intricate details is quite honestly mind blowing. In fact even if you aren’t a big potter fan but just a fan of crafts in general then I think you would get a lot out of it.
I have come back from the experience feeling motivated to create even more intricate bears and to dedicate just as much of my time to making them perfect. I want my creations to be of a level that makes people say ‘woah, they were made by hand?’ and to know that I have created something that will be loved for a long long time. I feel inspired and cannot wait to get to my sewing!!!
I would also like to try and make a little bear version of a mandrake because how cute would that be? They really were adorable!
As we were walking around I did find myself thinking … ‘but where are the bears?’ There are no teddies taken to Hogwarts, you can’t tell me that none of the students have a teddy to take with them when they are going to be away from home all that time? Everyone needs a hug sometimes and often only a teddy will do! Those poor students!
Besides teddies though Hogwarts is placed in the highlands of Scotland, okay I admit that wild bears went extinct around 450AD in Scotland however I can’t help but feel that the laws of nature don’t really apply to The Forbidden Forest so unless otherwise proven different I from now on will believe that there must be bears hiding deep in the depths of the forest. Would it really of hurt them to stick a bear in? for old time’s sake?
Maybe I am clutching at straws but really, they could of given one of the characters a bear patronus, that would of been so magical!! Or have a bear animagus, that would give you quite the advantage in the battle of Hogwarts? So many wasted opportunities!
I am only joking (sort of), I have had a wonderful weekend, we all did. I am facing work this weekend fired up and ready to put as much pride into my work as the people who worked tirelessly to create the artefacts and niknaks that would be seen on the screens for mere moments. Look out for some new bears very soon!!!
Let me know what your Hogwarts house is, mine is Hufflepuff, maybe I should make a badger!
Thank you for reading,
Samantha Webb.
Moby and Puddle 