World record auction price raised.
We have since grown as a business and I now work out of a 4 room studio and employ a full time seamstress, a part time Clothes designer and my husband is the other half of Oz Matilda who stuffs most of the bears limbs, does my cutting out and attempts the majority of paper work. He overseas the running of our family including doing all the cooking, shopping and anything else that takes up time, this enables me to be free to create, he truly is my right hand.
It took a good 3 years for us to get truly established and find our niche in the bear world. It wasn't until 1998, I designed a limited edition of 60 x 24" bears for the Australian Rugby League Football, these were sold as a licenced ARL product and signed by Football players, being an ex-cheer girl dancer, I couldn't resist this opportunity and the attention it brought us, was overwhelming. We use to attend up to 15 bears show per year and trading with anywhere between 45-60 bears per show. Also in 1998, Oz Matilda Bears launched on Australia's only cable TV Shopping Network, only one other Bear Artist had attempted to sell through them successfully at that time. A large promotional advertising campaign was made by TVSN on the football bears and an introduction to their audience for my old style bears to include in my range through them. We have continued with the TV Shopping network since selling over 1600 Oz Matilda bears through them alone in edition form. We have a strong, loyal customer base here in Australia and I regularly do 'live' TV one hour 'bear shows'. To date, we still hold a record with TVSN for sell out shows within the hour. I talk on air live about my work and collecting teddy bears in general.
I find it can be hard running a successful business and family but we are managing quite well by being dedicated and putting in the long working hours to achieve our goals. We now only attend 1-2 bear shows per year Internationally as I can no longer keep up with orders, shows and having my work sold through reputable International Retailers, so the decision to cut bear shows down was inevitable. We are so thrilled at where the bear world industry has taken us, the many doors that have opened for my work and the many friends and bear collectors we have been fortunate to meet around the world.
Oz Matilda is a Trademarked name and I have a range of styles I create from old bears to historical period costuming dressed bears, Victorian/Edwardian themed and in September, 2003, I came up with an original idea of combining my love of oil paintings with my love of teddy bears. My first proto-type was called 'The Master Painter� He was 29 inches in height. We decided to auction him on American Ebay as I had no idea really what to price such a bear at, nor did I really have an idea of how he would be received. Seven days later, when the auction finished, we were so overwhelmed at the response. My Master Painter gave us a World Recognition for teddy bear design along with a World Record price for a sole teddy bear artist. His price reached was $17,700.00 USD (which is equivalent to $24,500 AUD or �9.500 GBP). Since then, I have painted just over 60 hand paintings to be inserted into an Oz Matilda bear which are Trademarked, Oz Matilda Masters. Now, we are more recognised World wide for my Oil Painted Canvassed bears than the initial old bear designs that brought me much popularity here in Australia. The paintings I enjoy painting most are still life pictures, flowers and my continuous attempt at the Master painters of yesteryear, such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Painting has always been my first love, so to combine something you truly love with Teddy bears, is just a dream career.
I have won over 60 Awards in Australia for my work over the years and in 2004 was a Golden Teddy Nominee. I feel most humbled and privileged to have recently also been awarded a 2006 Toby Industry Choice awards as this was my first entry, I'm also twice nominated for the Golden Teddy Awards, 2006.
My recent highlight for this year, was attending the invitational only Walt Disney Epcot show in 2006. Walt Disney Studios sent me two black/white photographs of Mr Walt Disney from their archives. I painted these photos into colour on canvas and placed into my bears bellies. A small limited edition was created for them and Licenced by Walt Disney including a separate one off piece for their Auction.
I have currently been working on a project for the past year with a very large company and cannot wait for the release of this project; it's very exciting and probably the biggest highlight of my career, although it is still under 'wraps', so I cannot go into detail yet. However, you will be able to view some of my work featured in a new Bear Book which was published
in the UK from Author, Kathy Martin.
Lisa
