Wendy Inkster (Burra Bears)
Maker of the Month (February 2010)

Wendy Inkster runs her company Burra Bears from Burra Isle, Shetland. Her original concept, was to recycle an entire handknitted Fair Isle patterned Shetland woollen jumper into a bear, this brought such a positive response and demand for more bears, that in time gave her a full-time job and exciting business.

Here she talks to HI-Arts about her work, how her location shapes the way she does business and how she has embraced technology and social networking tools to enhance her connections with existing and potential customers.

I started Burra Bears by accident. Having made a bear as a gift for my sister in 1997, people saw them and wanted one and so it began. I gradually started making more and more bears and the turning point came when a friend asked if she could sell them in her shop, at first I thought they were not good enough, but decided to give it a try.

I approached a few local shops who were interested in selling my bears and sourced few outlets on the mainland and in Orkney.

We now supply 10 shops locally including an exclusive range for the Shetland Museum & Archives, Northlink Ferries between Shetland & Aberdeen, one in Orkney and 12 on the mainland including the Scottish Parliament gift shop, we also sell online through Visit Scotland and Designed in Shetland.

The business has developed to include the gift bag which comes with each bear, name tags and reply cards, we now have a range of bears which are made from Fair Isle reproduced locally using wool which is grown, spun and dyed in the Islands and based on traditional patterns. We also use Shetland Tweed, recycled commercial Fair Isle waste and curtain fabric remnants.

I love being able to work from home, choosing my hours (sometimes quite late!). Having the Internet to hand and the Post Office next door means anything is possible! I think after 13 years I would find it very hard to do a 9 to 5 job.

Disadvantages may be not seeing people, but I am quite good at working on my own and I have my two dogs for company and a sister at the end of the phone who also works from home, not forgetting a very supportive husband and daughter!

We sell locally, nationally and internationally, the website helps although it is not set up to sell online, having said that most of my customers want to discuss their bear before ordering and a large part of our business is making bears from our customers garments (not all wool or Fair Isle). We also do trade orders.

I couldn’t run my business without the internet, using email every day, Facebook & Twitter for news and quick updates, which is a great way of staying in touch with customers, and a blog which I neglect terribly!

I am part of Shetland Arts & Crafts Association which is a great way of keeping in touch with other craft workers, and more recently I became part of Text-Isles, which is a smaller group of textiles designers, we recently attended Country Living as a group which was successful and has lead to sales and leads.

I recently applied to the Working Up scheme for equipment to add to the range of materials I could use, this was a great success and lead to being part of the local Hometrader exhibition at Bonhoga Gallery with our small range of Candlewick bedspread bears, and also the Viewpoint exhibition in the Shetland Museum with a range of bears made from curtain fabric remnants with a warm winter colour scheme.

I also took part in a makers research trip to Orkney, looking at the Orkney Craft scene and the Craft Trail which is something we are looking to try here in Shetland. This was all organised by Hazel Hughson from Shetland Arts, she is a great source of information and assistance, and she is such a nice person! Which always helps.

My plans for the future are our new workshop which is almost complete and is part of a new house we are building, I am going to have a bigger (tidy!) workshop with a small sales area for visitors, which I can advertise to visitors to the Isles.

I would also like to slowly increase the range using different materials and experiment with different patterns, I tend to take a while to get used to new things and don’t launch in quickly, but that has always lead to good things so I hope to carry on the same way.

Wendy Inkster (Burra Bears), January 2010

Contact details:

Wendy Inkster
Burra Bears
Tel: +44(0)1595 859374
Email: info@burrabears.co.uk
Website: www.burrabears.co.uk

Burra Bears is on Facebook, Twitter and Bebo

Burra Bears also have a blog at: www.burrabears.blogspot.com

NOTE: Wendy has also been chosen as one of six Highlands and Islands based makers who are exhibiting at the Stroud International Textile Festival in May 2010. More details about this Festival and how the makers got on there will be posted on the HI-Arts website in May.