News
This news page contains a summary ot the interesting events in the world of the púca bears. The items are arranged in date order with the most recent item first.
4 July 2010
Update on the raffle for "Ted and Lucky"
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The raffle is now over and "Ted and Lucky" are on their way to their new home in Australia. We are pleased to announce that the raffle raised $1580 for the North American Bear Center. Thanks to you all for your generosity.
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Competition News
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The URSAs
"Does My Bum Look Big in This?" and "Ted and Lucky" have been nomiinated for the URSAs a competitiion run by the online magazine "Bears and Buds". The winners are decided by reader vote; if you would like to vote for Maria's creations (or for any of the other entries) visit the Bears and Buds Web site. If you voted last year, you may need to clear your cache before you can vote this year.
ABC Awards
"Does My Bum Look Big in This?" and "Bare Faced Cheek" have been nomiinated for the Australian Bear Creations (ABC) Awards. The winners are decided by readers' postal vote. You can vote in this competition by using the voting form on page 45 of the new edition (Vol 16 No 2) of the Australian Bear Creations magazine.
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6 June 2010
Update on the raffle for "Does My Bum Look Big in This?"
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The raffle is now over and "Does My Bum Look Big in This?" is on her way to her new home. We are pleased to announce that the raffle raised a total of $1270 for the North American Bear Center. Thanks to you all for your generosity.
If you like Maria's "Does My Bum Look Big in This?", you can still buy her picture on a T-shirt from zazzle.com and all profits from the sale of th T-shirts go to The Wildlife Research Institute.
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A New Raffle "Ted and Lucky"
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Following the success of the raffle for "Does My Bum Look Big in This?", Maria has decided to hold another raffle this time for a pair of bears: "Ted and Lucky". As before, this is a raffle to help the the North American Bear Center and you can win this one-of-a-kind creation. To enter this raffle, go to the North American Bear Center website and click on the "Donate" button. Every $5 that you donate entitles you to one ticket in the raffle - just make your donations and send an e-mail to Maria, who will allocate your ticket numbers.
"Ted and Lucky" is a very special creation and Maria would not normally sell this pair for less than $700.
Remember that the North American Bear Center is a registered charity so you may be able to claim tax relief on your donations.
Maria is planning to run the raffle to the end of June (2010).
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2 May 2010
Win "Does My Bum Look Big in This?"
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This is a raffle to help the the North American Bear Center and you can win this one-of-a-kind creation. To enter this raffle, go to the North American Bear Center website and click on the "Donate" button. Every $5 that you donate entitles you to one ticket in the raffle - just make your donations and send an e-mail to Maria, who will allocate your ticket numbers.
"Does My Bum Look Big in This?" is a very special creation and Maria would not normally sell this bear for less than $500.
Remember that the North American Bear Center is a registered charity so you may be able to claim tax relief on your donations.
Maria is planning to run the raffle to the end of May (2010).
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23 April 2010
púca Tees
Some púca bear images are available as t-shirt designs.
You can order these t-shirts from zazzle.com; all profits go to The Wildlife Research Institute.
14 December 2009
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Bear-faced Cheek |
British Bear Artist Awards 2009
"Bear-faced Cheek", on the left, has been awarded a second place in the Dressed Bear class for bears taller than 16 inches.
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2 July 2009
This the launch of the new version of the púca bears' website. It has been a while coming but here it is. The main differences from the "old" version are:
- The removal of frames.
Most browsers have no problem with frames but some search engines cannot see inside the frame. Otherwise, the site should look very similar.
- Some reorganisation to remove redundancies and make it easier to find information within the site.
- A different way of presenting some of the photographs.
Thanks to Lokesh Dhakar for making the Lightbox script freely available.
1 July 2009
| The first round of voting has begun in the 2009 URSA Awards Competition. The link on the right has details regarding the voting. After the first round, the top 3 winners in each category will advance to the second round where they'll vie for the prestigious URSA Major - Best Overall Award.
Some computers do not recognize the built-in voting controls and you might not be able to vote as cookies were left in your computer from last year. Remove the cookies and continue to vote. Other computers do not recognize cookies, so multiple votes can happen. Auditing software monitors all the voting and, when discrepancies are found, the votes are corrected to keep the competition fair.
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26 April 2009
| At Teddybär Total, Maria (centre in the picture on the right) was surprised that "The Bear with an Itch" won a Golden George in the natural bear class. |
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4 April 2009
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Torngasuk has returned from Japan and brought the TITA award with him. Torngasuk's page now has a picture of the award.
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29 March 2009
Take a look at the Awards page now that it has been updated with pictures of Torgasuk, the TITA winner, and Itchy (the bear with an itch), which has just been nominated for a Golden George.
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31 January2009
Tokyo International Teddy Awards 2009
Maria is thrilled to be able to announce that her polar bear, Torngasuk, has won one of this year's Tokyo International Teddy Awards (TITA).
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23 December 2008

11 December 2008
An update from the Taiwan Teddy Bear Association: Maria's "Three Great Danes" achieved second place in the Tableau class. The bears and their award arrived back home today.
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26 November 2008
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As an update on the British Bear Artist Awards 2008, Maria has learned that her polar bear was the winner of its class.
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1 November 2008
Taiwan Teddy Bear Association 2008 Creative Awards
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Maria has learned that her tableau "The Three Great Danes" has been nominated in the Taiwan Teddy Bear Association 2008 Creative Awards. Online voting for all the nominated bears is open until November 5 at this link. (Click on each thumbnail image to view each creation in full.)
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British Bear Artist Awards 2008
Maria also has nominations for the 2008 British Bear Artists Awards.

These bears will be on show at the British Bear Fair on Sunday 23 November 2008.
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12 October 2008
Here is a link to the Teddy Bear and Critters Australasia Valentine's Day online show.

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7 September 2008
Teddies 2008 (Hugglets) is next weekend on 14 September 2008.
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16 August 2008
The URSA Awards 2008

Maria's tableau "Chilling Out" is a finalist for the URSA Awards 2008. All the finalists are prize winners in their own class but the finalists also have the chance of winning the "URSA Prime" prize. Click on the link above to look at all the finalists and vote for your favourite Maria's "Chilling Out" is number 11.6.
1 August 2008
The Taiwan Teddy Bear Association (TWTBA) has just introduced a series of gallery pages for international artists and Maria's work is dissplayed in August. Visit the index page of the TWTBA Worldwide Artist Gallery, where you can not only find a link to Maria's Exhibition but also some links to some very nice púca bear wallpapers. Alternatively, you can go directly to Maria's exhibition page by clicking on the link below.

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1 July 2008
The Teddy Bear Olympic Challenge
At the beginning of the year, Maria was one of 12 international bear artists who were invited, by the Teddy Bear Scene magazine, to represent their countries in an Olympic teddy bear challenge. The bears could represent the countries competitors or supporters. Maria was, of course, invited to represent Germany.
With the demise of the Teddy Bear Scene, the challenge has been taken over by the Teddy Bear and Friends Magazine and the Taiwan Teddy Bear Association. Some more teddy bear artists have also been invited to participate. Click on the banner below to learn more about this challenge and, after July 8, vote.
Helga and Holger
Maria's entry in the teddy bear Olympic challenge is Helga and Holger, a pair on their way to the Olympics to support their team. Helga is excited and enthusiastic while Holger seem to be carrying all the woes of the world (as well as all the baggage).
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4 May 2008
China Bear Rescue
Maria and Mikki Klug have donated their award-winning piece "Down to the Woods" the the May auction to raise funds for the benefit of the China Bear Rescue.
This very worthy cause is sponsored by Abracadabra Teddy Bears so visit their website and the auction page and bid as high as you can afford and as often as possible.
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15 March 2008
Golden George 2008
With the publication of the curent issue of "Teddybär und seine Freunde", Maria has learned that Hamlet has been nominated for a Golden George.
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23 February 2008
Tobys 2008
Maria's "Any Requests" has won a TOBY's Industry's choice award.
Japan Teddy Bear
The magazine Japan Teddy Bear plus Friends has just published an article about Maria. It is in Japanese but we assume that is says some nice things. However, the magazine deserves a huge amount of credit for the impressive way that the article and the photographs of Maria's bears have been presented.
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