As far as we know there have been six designers associated with the Ty Attic Treasure line. Ty Warner, Linda Harris, Anne Nickels, Ruth Fraser, Sally Winey and Nola Hart. Some of these designers, like Linda, Ruth and Nola sold their designs or "patterns" to Ty Inc. and others like Anne Nickels made more general suggestions or improvements to the line. Sally Winey’s contributions to the Ty line are still not completely known and information about her work seems to slip out in dribs and drabs. Most of these ladies were Teddy bear designers in their own right before working with and for Ty Warner. Linda, Ruth and Nola are Canadian artists.

Ty Warner often takes the original patterns and designs and makes impromptu changes in the color, fur material or size to create different looking Attic Treasures which helps expand his line. Ty’s decision to work with teddy bear artists to create the line was an exciting concept. Each designer lent their own unique ideas and patterns which helped keep the line diverse and fluid. Lately, Ty seems to have diverged from using different teddy bear artists and new designs in his line. Many of his current Attics are remakes of original patterns and the newer Attics no longer are credited to the designers by Ty. We were fortunate to track down several of the original designers, Nola Hart and Ruth Fraser and Sally Winey and speak with them directly about their contributions to the Ty Attic Treasures Collection.

Ms. Fraser is a Canadian teddy bear artist who met Ty Warner in the early 90’s. At that time the Canadian Distributor for Ty, Mr. Bill Harlow, introduced Mr. Warner to her shop in Canada. Ms. Fraser was "working the till" at the time and making a small mohair teddy bear. Ms. Fraser recounts that Mr. Warner wandered around the shop with a very serious expression on his face, and she wondered if perhaps he didn’t like the store. When he arrived back to where she was sitting and saw the bear in her hands that she was making he smiled and asked her about it. She showed him the bear and he asked if he could buy the pattern from her. She said "Of course.". This was the beginning of "Henry". Ms. Fraser’s original "Henry" was gold in color and she was surprised when Ty re released the design in a dark brown material. Ms. Fraser also designed ‘Fraser’ for the Attic Treasures line. When I spoke with Ruth about her designs she was unaware that the Ty Website credited her with designing "Grover" and "Mason". Ms. Fraser seemed unfamiliar with these names. Later interviews with Ms. Fraser’s daughter, Nola Hart, cleared up the mystery. It would appear that Ty changed the original patterns and "Mason" is just "Fraser" with a different coat and "Grover" is a grown up version of the "Fraser" design. Ty Warner has continued to adapt the original pattern, creating related Attics such as Blueberry. Ms. Fraser still designs and sells teddy bears in Canada. She makes bears from the tiniest of miniatures to very large bears. Her daughter Nola, speaks proudly of her mother’s ability to make each bear unique and wonderful, no matter it’s size. Ruth Fraser hosts an annual teddy bear show each spring in Ontario to sell her creations. Ms. Fraser will be appearing at the First Annual Attics Convention in Washington D.C. in March of 1998.   Read about the convention and see pictures of Ruth with her designs here.

Nola Hart is the daughter of Ruth Fraser and an artist and teddy bear designer in her own right. Nola worked closely with Ty Warner in the early 1990’s to develop the Attic Treasure line. Mr. Warner met with Nola Hart after visiting the shop in Ontario and become interested in the potential of using teddy bear artist’s designs in his new line. They met at the Toronto airport after one of Mr. Warner’s trips to China. Ms. Hart came prepared with a selection of designs by herself, her mother Ruth Fraser, and another teddy bear artist, Linda Harris. Ty went through the designs and picked the ones he liked for his collection. Ms. Hart then worked closely with Ty Warner to launch the new line. Changes were made to the line on an ongoing basis. Ms. Hart recounted how she would sit in Ty Warner's office and remove the black nose of an Attic Treasure and stitch a pink nose back on. Some changes were made in consultation with others and some changes were made by Ty Warner himself. Most of the Attic Treasures were produced naked for at least the first two years. Clothes were added later and Ms. Hart was unaware of the outfits in which her creations are now dressed. The hang tags for the line were originally printed in Hong Kong and say "printed in Hong Kong". The printing was moved to Korea because the quality of the tag and the printing was better. These tags say "printed in Korea". All the Collectibles were made in approximately three factories in China. Ms. Hart said that "Reggie" and "Clifford" retired early because they were not big sellers in the line, possibly due to their lighter color. When the line was introduced in 1993 the catalog featured three very similar golden bears; "Reggie", "Henry Gold" and "Gilbert". "Reggie" and "Henry Gold", along with "Clifford" and "Woolie Gold" all eventually retired very early in Attic Treasure history.

The first Attic Treasure that Nola Hart designed for Ty was "Nola". Ms. Hart also designed "Squeaky" and "Morgan". All of these designs have since retired. Each of these original designs went through an evolution. "Squeaky" and "Morgan" changed over the years as part of the ongoing design process. The original "Nola" was changed as a result of a lawsuit by Boyd’s. Boyd’s claimed that not only did Nola Hart, the designer, not exist, the bear "Nola" was a copy of one of their designs. An agreement was reached that Ms. Hart would change her original design. The new "Nola" was produced with a much more elongated, pear shaped body and legs that were shaped like a wishbone. The older "Nola" with the kidney shaped shorter body, straight legs, and big feet was retired. "Emily" uses the same pattern as "Nola" as does "Rebecca". Ms. Hart was not aware of the addition of "Rebecca" to the line. Ty used the Nola pattern in the creation of Cassie, Malcolm and Barry. If you look past the fur and the shaved snouts, you will see the same wishbone legs and elongated pear shaped torsos.

Ms. Hart was instrumental in getting Mr. Warner to accept Linda Harris’ designs. Linda Harris designed several patterns for Ty. She designed "Wee Willie", "Tiny Tim", "Tyler", "Clifford", "Digby", "Oscar", "Abby" and, of course the "Woolies". Many of these designs evolved through out their history, as well. Digby, Tyler and Clifford were all originally made with old fashioned humpbacks. These were changed after their original introduction due to feedback from retailers who didn’t like that feature of their design. According to Nola Hart, only four Woolie Browns were ever made and these were displayed at the Toy Fair as prototypes. Some of the tags made for Woolie Brown eventually found their way to the ears of some first generation Whiskers. Both Whiskers and Woolie Brown shared the same style number which is the likely reason for this mistake. There is a theory that the red and white tush tags crediting Linda Harris as designer that were found on some early Saras and Jeremys were made for Woolie Brown and Woolie Gold. These tags were likely not used on these diminutive bears because of their large size and smaller black and white ones were substituted instead. Woolie Gold was only in production for a short run because of the complications Ty experienced with the fabric. The wool material was difficult to use especially on the little faces. The faces were never alike and were often bunched or askew. While this may have been a good characteristic for a one of a kind artist bear… Ms. Hart said that shopkeepers would complain if they did not look uniform. Because Woolie is 100% wool, Ms. Hart recommends seating your Woolie Gold with a small cedar acorn in his lap, to help repel moths.

In addition to working on the Attic Treasure Line, Ms. Hart also was instrumental in the development process of the original Beanie Babies. When I asked her if Ty had a strategy for making the Beanie Babies such a hit she said he had no idea that they would take off the way they did. She describes Ty Warner as driven and Focused. Nola Hart also traveled to China for Mr. Warner to check on the factories and the manufacturing process. Ms. Hart said part of her personal motivation in making the trip was to ascertain for herself that no child labor was being used in the production of her designs and that working conditions were satisfactory. Ms. Hart was able to show the Chinese workers a few tricks of the trade to help with the manufacturing and demonstrated some new tools they could use.

Ms. Hart is on a hiatus from teddy bear making to concentrate on her family. She designs bears from approximately 4" tall to large sized bears. Nola Hart is also an illustrator. Interestingly, she never signs any of her creations. Ms. Hart feels that each thing she creates has an entity of its own and that signing her creations changes that. The Attic Treasures that are her designs have her name printed on the inside of the tag but her signature is not to be found.

Linda Harris was also one of the original Attic Designers.  She was born in Canada and attended the University of York.  She holds a degree in Visual Arts and is currently an elementary school teacher.  She still resides in Canada with her family.  Linda Harris began designing and creating teddy bears after taking a class in 1987.  Although she enjoyed the experience, she wasn't fond of the materials or the design that the class provided, so she decided to try her own hand at creating a bear from scratch.  The very first bear she created received top honors at the "Cambridge Doll Lovers Society Show" in Canada.  As Linda Ms. Harris designed more bears, she put them on consignment through a small Canadian bear shop called "Teddy Bear Garden" owed by none other than Ruth Fraser :-)  Linda Harris is credited with designing Woolie Gold and Woolie Brown.  The Woolies were based on one of the Linda Harris' original designs named Guthrie.  Guthrie was a little larger than the Woolies and was a hand sewn bear of hand dyed mohair.  The Woolies ended up being too difficult to produce due to difficulties with the fabric and subsequent quality control problems.  The wool fabric used on the Woolies is known to attract moths, so truly mint Woolies are becoming harder and harder to find. 

The attic bears - Digby, Clifford, and Tyler were all originally designed and manufactured with a humpback.  The humpback, however, did not go over well at the New York Toy Fair where they were first unveiled.  As a result, later versions of these Attics were produced with straight backs, although an occasional humpback in later generations can be found, most likely due to quality control issues. 

Although most folks in the world of Teddy Bears know that Sally Winey worked closely with Ty in the mid 1990’s on all of his lines- the plush, Attics, and beanie babies. Verification from Ty has not yet been forthcoming. Sally Winey was credited by Ty Warner for her designs in the plush line including Sam, Buttercup, Blossom, Cuzzy, Fuzzy, Wuzzy, Mandarin, Dopey, and Frisky. Other designs that she had a hand in include Eleanor, Smokey, and some of the other jointed and/or curled up plush. Sally also had some impact in the Beanie Baby line and signs Garcia and Peace at shows across the country.

Sally Winey’s biggest contribution to the Attics line in general was the addition of clothing. Many of the previously undressed attics gained clothes and a sense of style under Sally’s guiding hand. Specific contributions by Sally are said to be the designs of Attics that include, Checkers, Domino, Boris, Ivan, Charles, Dickens, Cody, and the other pot bellied designs. Sally Winey is happy to sign these designs at her shows.

Currently Sally is creating special unique bears for her business Winey bears. She travels across the country doing shows and teaching classes in bear making. She signs her designs for a $25 donation to "Good Bears of the World", a charity that places bears in hospitals and other facilities across the country. Sally Winey will be appearing at the Attics Convention in March and will be teaching a bear making class for interested collectors.

We have been unable to speak with Ty Warner, or his assistant and other Attic designer Anne Nickels. One day we hope to interview them about their designs and impact on the line.

Meet Linda Harris in our recent interview  CLICK HERE