Vita

My name is Barbara Nachtigall, I live in Berlin and have been creating artist and vintage collectable teddy bears since 1998. I noticed right from the beginning that I could express my creativity by making my own teddy bears. I therefore started creating my own cuttings soon after I learned how to make a teddy bear.  Before I then became a professional bear maker with a little workshop of my own, I worked as a nurse for a very long time.

At the beginning, my husband Konrad and my son Sebastian were my best critics, later on they helped a lot by creating and taking care of my website. Apart from that, my husband is also doing the bear pictures for the website. As you can see, we are a right little family business…

I create teddy bears of almost any shapes and sizes and use all kinds of materials, e.g. mohair fur, old linen, old tea towels, sugar bags and even money bags from the German Central Bank. I prefer creating traditional bears in all sizes and giving them a vintage and tatty look.

You can visit me in my little workshop in Berlin-Reinickendorf or at one of the teddy bear conventions I attend both in Germany and abroad – many “BellaBimBären” have already found new homes all over the world!

I’ve also taken part in many competitions and won several first prizes for my creations. Some of my teddy bear cuttings have been published in journals together with a portrait of me. In November 2008, a German TV station (ZDF) shot a little documentary in my workshop which was broadcasted in the weeks before Christmas.

By any means, I will continue to create ideas so that people can continue to enjoy my bears!

Kind regards,

Barbara Nachtigall