Brum the bear is just a nose-job away from a full restoration, thanks to the Motueka Repair Cafe.
Brum was given to Katrin Gierlichs by her parents for her second birthday, and he has been by her side ever since, through her childhood in Germany, then stretches of living in France, the United Kingdom and now New Zealand.
“He’s my oldest friend,” Katrin says. After 50 years of cuddles, Brum was in dire need of a touch-up and so the beloved bear has been restuffed and restitched, thanks to darner and hand-sewer Christine Grove, who volunteers at the repair cafe.
Katrin says that she learned about the repair cafe last year and is a big fan of the television show ‘The Repair Shop’, so she “jumped on the chance to finally be part of that ideology and get our Brum bear fixed”.
Brum’s nose was gnawed by Katrin’s daughter Anya when she herself was three, and so repair cafe leather worker Cally Stockdale has promised the bear a nose job to restore him to peak handsomeness.
Then he’ll be ready to be “passed on to many more generations”, Katrin says.
The next two repair cafes will be changing their usual schedule.
April’s cafe will be held at the usual venue of Te Noninga Kumu – Motueka Library, but will run a week later than usual, on Saturday, 26 April, to avoid the Easter break.
May’s cafe will be back to the schedule of the third Saturday of the month – Saturday, 18 May – but due to a scheduling clash, it will be held at Parklands School’s Āniwaniwa hall.
This is accessible on foot via the gate beside the museum, or by car via the Pah Street gates opposite Memorial Hall.
