DtHP Featured Artist Brady Bears Studio

Meet Artist Karen Brady Hammontree of Brady Bears Studio!

Karen Brady Hammontree is the maker of antique style mohair bears and other animals. She is also a mixed media artist, creating one of a kind works of art based on her teddy bears. Hammontree has collected things since she was a kid, and she’s had a love for antiques since college. Antiques and vintage items just naturally fell into her artistic vision. The tears and stains on antique doll clothes or antique fabrics, the old chipped paint on a piece of furniture, or the deteriorating canvas of an old painting are very inspiring to her.
To achieve an antique loved look in her bears, Hammontree creates her own patterns. She uses sparse or ultra sparse English or German mohair. She lines the ears and paws with a heavy cotton canvas. She uses the canvas because it can be sanded, distressed and stained, which adds even more to each bear’s primitive look. She also uses old shoe buttons for eyes. The nose, mouth and claws are made from a heavy cotton thread. All of her bears are 5 way jointed and are stuffed with excelsior (for that antique feel) and gravel so they have really nice weight.
	To achieve the tattered and worn look in her bears, Hammontree uses elements such as tea, coffee, dyes and paint to stain and age the mohair. She plucks and does scissor cutting to distress the mohair even further. Hammontree dresses each bear in a simple cotton collar or vintage clothes. She also makes jumpers or dresses from vintage or vintage style cotton fabrics that she collects. Hammontree loves to include antique or vintage items with her bears, such as old keys, photos, buttons, blocks, scraps of ribbon and lace or anything else unique or interesting that she may come across on her antique shopping trips.
Hammontree has been 4 times selected by Early American Life magazine as one of the top 200 Craftmen in America. She has also been 3 times selected for the Holiday directory. She was also nominated for the past 3 years by Teddy Bear and Friends magazine for a TOBY (Teddy Bear of the Year) award. Hammontree’s work has been published numerous times in such magazines as; PRIMS, Early American Life, Southern Living, Teddy Bear & Friends and Teddy Bear Review, here in the U.S. She’s also been featured in Teddy Bear Club International and Teddy Bear Scene, both in the U.K.
	To learn more about Brady Bears Studio please just visit Karen's blog, www.BradyBearsStudio.blogspot.com or her website, www.BradyBears.com. If you would like to send a note just to chat, you can contact her at BradyBearsStudio@yahoo.com.

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