Our Own Bear Hands
Nes and Sam Bear live in the Lake District, UK and make practical and beautiful items from natural materials.
Nes Bear
Nes has always made things with her hands, knitting and weaving in childhood. In her early twenties, Nes set up an award winning bike project in Manchester where, she taught people to fix and mend bicycles. Nes found deep joy and peace in simply sitting with a group in that silent focus of truing a wobbly wheel straight.
Nes often found herself weaving daisy chains and twisting dry grasses into bowls, but when she trained to be a forest school leader, needing to clear lots of bramble from a site, Nes found that turning these spiky tangles into useful baskets was a joy and has continued to explore using hazel, willow, ash, oak, bramble, ivy and other locally found materials, as well as natural dyeing .
Sam Bear
Sam’s Master’s degree was in engineering. Problem solving to create useful and beautiful things has been a passion, passed down from his two grandpa’s, both of whom were engineers who built their own homes as well as furniture that we continue to use in our home.
Sam enjoys the whole process of turning a fallen or felled tree into somethings to something to sit on, sit at or decorate. Working carefully to use as much of the wood as possible, and working in a way that is as sustainable, as well as aesthetically keeping the nature of the tree itself. Rather than turning into perfect squares and circles, Sam likes to cleft the wood and shave it, mindfully keeping its own natural lines and curves.
Our Own Bear Hands 