Beast Master Knows Her Stuff

When Mary Ann (Mac) Pohlen was growing up, she had a stuffed monkey for a friend. The other kids had teddy bears.

Nothing much has changed except now she spends 10 to 12 hours a day making teddy bears, but she still doesn’t have one she can call a friend.

“I have a collection of bears from other artists that I’ve bought or traded, but those bears only have meaning to me because of the person who made them,” said the Brea mother of two sons, 8 and 11.

“I don’t have the need to have a personal one,” she added. “Making teddy bears at home is strictly a job for me. It enables me to stay home and work and do something I love while watching my children grow up.”

She lets her eldest son son set the eyes for some of her bears.

Since she started her teddy bear business in her home six years ago, the former free-lance word processor consultant estimates she has made about 1,800 of them.

“I sell every one I make,” she said, but points out her handmade, limited-edition and collectible bears are sold only at teddy bear conventions and shows held throughout the country.

They sell for $100 to $300 each.

Pohlen takes a traditional approach in making the 100 different styles of bears.

She has names for each of the styles, such as Harlan, Buster, Cheever and a whole series with Mac, such as MacFadden. She selects the names on a “whatever comes to my mind” basis.

“A good bear is a naked bear that has a neat style with an elongated body, long arms, legs and nose and is about 22 to 26 inches long,” said the former Cal State Fullerton student.

Few of her bears wear clothes.

“I follow a traditional line with my bears and my family life, said Pohlen, 40. “I got married with the idea it was going to last.” She has been married for 13 years.

Before making bears, “I was always making something and did a lot of embroidery and had a fascination for things that lasted a long time,” she said.

Pohlen said making bears is a joy--”I even work when I’m sick”--but she admits it has shortcomings.

“The only contact I have is with bear people and working in solitude can be lonely,” she said.

But she feels the pluses outweigh the negatives.

“Money is part of it, but that isn’t the real reason I make bears. You start with a piece of fabric and by night it’s like something coming to life. It’s like going through a pregnancy in a day.”

And there are other reasons.

“People just think I sit and make teddy bears to make money, but it’s really more than that,” said Pohlen, who does her own design, production, merchandising, bookkeeping and record keeping. “The whole reason is to be home with my children.”

And what’s more, she adds, “you work very hard, but when someone sees and appreciates what I do, it makes me feel like I’ve given something to someone. That’s funny because I get money for it.”

One of these days, teddy bears will be a passing fancy for Pohlen.

I don’t feel I’m going to make teddy bears all my life,” she said. “When it ends. I might go back and finish college.”

Six Fullerton College music students are spending their summer break playing musical instruments in a re-creation of a 17th-Century Holland village, a tourist attraction in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki.

They play in three street shows and march in two parades a day, six days a week.

The student musical ambassadors, current or one-time members of Fullerton College musical groups such as the jazz band, are Jeff Stupia of Cypress, on tuba; Morgan Fry of Santa Ana, woodwinds; Ryan Anglin of Anaheim, trombone; Dave Allan of Fullerton, trumpet; John Trombetta of Brea, trumpet, and Rich Arbuckle of Fullerton, drums.