Easter is only around the corner and our spirits are lifting as we tread our roadmap back to some kind of normal. Here in the workshop, the season has prompted us to reminisce about our rabbit ranges, past and present … we’ve made some lovely bunnies over the years and of course the most memorable was made for the enchanting Renée Zellweger movie ‘Miss Potter’ set in England’s beautiful Lake District.
An ‘out of the blue’ call from Pheonix Pictures set the whole workshop a-buzz, researching Beatrix Potter and familiarising ourselves with her simple yet evocative drawings, in order to create her iconic Peter Rabbit for the film. He was made in mohair with a powder blue coat and can be seen sitting in Beatrix’s drawing room throughout the film.
Beatrix Potter was not only a prolific writer and illustrator, but also an astute business woman who saw a marketing opportunity at every turn. She pioneered the merchandising of book characters, a system of licensing that is still in existence today. Beatrix stitched the first Peter Rabbit ‘doll’ herself in 1903 and oversaw its patenting and production, insisting it was manufactured in England. She quickly followed this with a board game where Mr. McGregor pursues Peter Rabbit through a maze of garden challenges. She then designed and painted figurines and created a Jemima Puddle-Duck toy, before moving on to tea-sets, wallpaper, slippers, handkerchiefs, stationery and more!
We are paying homage to Miss Potter and the Peter Rabbit we made for the film by creating a 2021 Easter Bunny for the ‘Beyond Bears’ Collection.
Dressed in a powder blue waistcoat, lined with floral tana lawn, Chester would certainly not look out of place in Mr McGregor’s Garden.
Find out more about Chester here
April Fool’s falls the day before Good Friday this year, we are sure the virtual world will be awash with pranks but we thought we would celebrate the tom-foolery of the April 1972 edition of Veterinary Record, the journal of the British veterinary profession, which contained a scholarly article about Brunus edwardii.
The journal stated that “pet ownership surveys have shown that 63.8 percent of households are inhabited by one or more of these animals, and there is a statistically significant relationship between their population and the number of children in a household. The public health implications of this fact are obvious, and it is imperative that more be known about their diseases.”
Apparently, the correspondence section of the Veterinary Record was inundated with letters about Brunus edwardii for months, many offering new observations about the species. Brunus edwardii‘s common name, for the less-scholarly among us, is Teddy Bear.
Please note that should your precious Brunus edwardii (sub-species Cantuariensi) suffer from disease or debilitation, we have an excellent repair team who will be far more helpful than your local veterinary practice.
A New Charitable Project for 2021 which we cannot wait to share …
