Katherine Hallam , Katie Rae Bears

2020 is Katherine’s 30th anniversary of bear making. 12 years ago she left her job as a marketing director and made the decision to set up ‘Katie Rae Bears’.

Katherine’s middle name is Rae. When she was little, her dad used to call her ‘Katie Rae.’ Of course, it makes sense that she would take this as her business identity.

Born and raised in Sheffield, England, Katherine is a self-taught Artist. She has always sewn and dabbled in arts and crafts from a young age.
Katherine loves coming up with an idea that starts in her head and then comes out of her hands. She keeps a large sketchbook handy that she keeps her ideas in.

Recently, she has been creating larger and more intricate pieces. Her ‘Monsters Under the Bed’ piece was such good fun to do! She loves letting her imagination run riot and then figuring out how to make the piece work. For instance, she had to work out how to get the bed to stand on top of the monsters! That was an engineering challenge.

Katherine would describe her bears and critters as unique, modern, and cute, Lately, she has been doing more sculptural pieces – pieces that are more elaborate and tell a story.

All her bears have a sparkly crystal in their nose, and she has made a few special bears – The Katie’s Diamond Collection. These bears have actual diamonds in their nose. The Katie’s Diamond bears are her larger girls, and they are the more elaborate pieces. They are very intricate. Most of her work is sold at shows in the UK, Europe and America. She absolutely loves the buzz from collectors and from other artists. She really loves to travel and meet with them.

Visit Katherine’s website to view more of her wonderful creations.
http://www.katieraebears.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/KatieRaeBears
https://www.instagram.com/katieraebears/