Lakeside Bears & Friends was founded in 2007 by Mary Shelley after she fell in love with thread crochet animals. Making thread crochet animals is the art of using thousands of tiny stitches to create unique miniature bears and other little critters. Most of her work is one-of-a-kind since she does the majority of her work without using a pattern. She quickly became addicted to this art form after joining and becoming an artist with the Thread Artist Guild. More recently, Mary has started working with needle sculpting or "felting", where a piece of wool is shaped and sculpted by pricking at it hundreds of times with a barbed needle.

Mary make her little critters with quality threads and onyx eyes. They are stuffed with wool or polyester, are five way jointed and can stand upright. Most of her bears are three inches and under. She will be offering other hand made items periodically on eBay and Etsy.com and will have samples of what she makes on this site. Please view her gallery pages to see her creations. Please note: Mary's miniatures are collectibles and not suitable for children as they contain small parts.

If you have any questions about Mary's work please feel free to contact her. To see what Mary has for sale please view her shop on Etsy.com or check her eBay listings. Mary's eBay ID is lakesidebearsandfriends.

Email Mary at MERALD6419@aol.com.