Voiced by Stephen Fry, Mr Bear's Birthday is an award-winning animation, which started on a mountain top before coming to life in a hallway in Tarporley
With no formal training, Tarporley resident Lorna Gibson has created an award-winning animation, taking Silver in its category in the Collision Awards, which honour excellence in animation in all its forms.
‘I studied art at school, as we all do,’ she says, ‘and went on to do Graphic Design at GCSE, with a vague idea of pursuing a career in that direction. I went on to study French at university however, and then went on to be a ski instructor for the next ten years.’
Spending her winters in the Alps, and her summers in New Zealand, Lorna's day to day life couldn't have been more different to a career in graphic design in any form. Her evenings, however, gradually began to take her back to a more creative pastime.
‘Once the chairlifts shut that was my day done,’ she says, ‘and in 2018 I made the decision to make the most of my evenings and start sketching. I think having no constraints around that; no one paying me to do it and no one giving me any ideas, it all just tumbled out and I started posting my illustrations on Instagram.
'It just grew from there. People were asking to buy my work and I began designing Christmas cards and donated the money to Tarporley Hospital, something I have kept up every year since.’
Lorna did one final ski season, in both hemispheres, and in 2020 decided it was time, and there was the appetite for her work, to take the brave step of changing her career and becoming a full-time artist.
‘I had started sending emails to a growing list of newsletter subscribers, in which I included little stories or poems and in December 2019, I decided I would write a mini story and make it into a little printed booklet, which I posted to everyone on my email list as a little festive surprise. I got so many lovely replies from the recipients and it felt joyous to be able to have brought some magic into people’s lives.’
This little story was Mr. Bear's Christmas, which has gone on to achieve great things.
‘It all started with my illustrations, and then the stories, until it felt like I had begun to build a whole little world, with Mr. Bear.
‘So much of Mr. Bear's world is about homeliness and comfort - the joy of being with people you love – the magic of the everyday, and that's the most meaningful stuff in life, in the end, I think.’
This sentiment rang particularly true for Lorna in 2020, having spent so many Christmases away from home, often busy teaching during the festive season. “
‘At the end of Mr. Bear's Christmas he says, “there's just no place like home, I couldn't ask for more”, and having missed so many Christmases at home myself, and finally coming back to Cheshire, it felt really magical to be here.’
Following the success, albeit limited to a very exclusive audience, Lorna wrote a second Mr. Bear story, Mr. Bear's Best Day, which she again sent out to her 300 email subscribers.
‘We were all in lockdown, by now," Lorna explains, "and I wanted to cheer everybody up and spread a little magic.
‘This was the inspiration behind writing the stories, in a way, and by this time, with two Mr. Bear stories, I was thinking about how to make it 3D (though I can't really explain why) and needlefelt came to mind, because of the softness of the wool. I had to teach myself to do it, it was my Lockdown project in fact. I had someone make one for me, and then a friend told me it was very easy; I didn't believe her, but she sent me a little needlefelting kit in the post and was adamant I could do it and she was right, it was quite straightforward.
‘At that time I didn't have animation in mind, but once I had a Mr. Bear and had him wave at the camera, the next step seemed obvious. He felt very alive, very real and now I knew I could create the other characters myself, I had this naive optimism that I could just make a film.’
Naivety is often a blessing and this, allied with the desire and impetus to just do it, Lorna set about making her first stop motion animation, bringing Mr. Bear's Christmas to life in 3D.
"I had no fear and thought I'd give myself three weeks to get it done. It took six months, but was an absolute labour of love."
Once it was complete, Lorna loaded her animation to YouTube and the feedback came flooding in.
"I just felt happy it could make people happy. It was that first Lockdown Christmas, and it felt, again, like I was able to spread a little magic. I had no expectations of it really, but over time I had a little feedback that the sound could be improved and I considered re-narrating it, as I had recorded the audio in my bedroom, and in those musings I wondered if it might be possible to have a celebrity narrate it."
Lorna liked this idea so much she decided to go straight to the most reassuring and mellow of narrative voices, Mr. Stephen Fry.
"I actually had a dream that Stephen Fry said he'd narrate it, so I rang his agent and asked how I would go about making that happen."
Lorna sent the video over, Stephen watched it, loved it and agreed to narrate it. With this new and improved animation in hand, Lorna's obvious next step was to take it to the BBC.
They also loved it, and bought it, and played it on Christmas Day in 2022 and 2023.
"It still feels surreal. We all sat down and watched it both years. It feels so different, watching it on TV, knowing the set was just down the hall from where we were all sitting."
Since then Lorna has gone on to animate each story in her book, The Tales of Mr Bear: Mr. Bear's Day Out and Mr. Bear's Best Day, plus two more, Mr Bear's Picnic and Mr Bear's Birthday, which won Silver at the 2024 Collision Awards.
As well as her Mr. Bear books and animations, Lorna has created a collection of story and poetry books for children and adults. In these delightful musings she tackles some of the more difficult topics, such as grief and loss, anxiety, how it feels to not fit in, and many more, giving adult readers a gentle helping hand with not only processing their own challenges, but helping children through tough times too. It seems that at the heart of everything Lorna does is about offering a moment of comfort, a virtual hug through words and images that show the recipient they are not alone. It's an expression of empathy and caring that holds great power.
"One of my father's colleagues was tragically killed, right outside his home on his way to post birth announcement cards for his 11-day-old daughter. I felt very moved by this, and – and I know this sounds silly, but you know when a child draws you a picture to make you feel better, I wanted to do that – so I made the offer to his wife, via my father, of drawing an illustration to help commemorate her husband, and she said yes.
"This became part of a bigger project, where the illustration led to the writing of the poem and the creation of a book, Love Never Dies. I have had some incredible feedback from this – it's been used at funerals and by grief charities, so it's been really important and meaningful in people's lives.
"I feel I can create a space that is a little bit softer for people with Mr Bear or with one of my books, where they can feel a little better, or understood, or whatever they take from it. Magic is comforting, and comfort is magical.”