How it works
Every bear begins with one voice
Two people usually find us. Someone who wants a voice recorded and kept close, and someone who has a single recording left of a person they have lost. This page is for both, and it explains what happens to a recording once you send it.
On this page
Two people usually find us
Recording for someone
You want a voice kept safe
A grandparent reading one story. A parent who works away for months. Someone who has been told they do not have long, and would rather leave something that can be held than something saved on a phone.
You record it yourself, in your own time, and it goes into the bear as you said it.
Remembering someone
You have one recording left
A voicemail you have never been able to delete. A few seconds of someone talking behind the camera at a birthday. It is usually short, and it rarely says the thing you would most want to hear.
That is the harder case, and it is the one this was built for. The steps below spend most of their time on it.
The five steps below are the same either way. Where the two paths separate, they say so.
How we create your memorial bear
Most people who write to us have one recording left, and it is usually shorter and rougher than they wish it were. Here is exactly what happens to it.
1
Start with the recording you already have
A saved voicemail. A few seconds of someone talking in the background of a video. An old tape. Send whatever you still have: up to sixty seconds, as MP3, WAV or M4A. Or record straight into the browser instead.
Short and imperfect is normal, and it is what most people send. If yours genuinely cannot be used we tell you before you pay anything further. Every bear carries the same sound module, so choose whichever one feels like them.
2
We restore the voice, or leave it exactly as it is
What happens next depends on what you sent us, and the choice is yours. Either way you hear how the bear will sound before anything is fitted, We send you the finished audio and wait for your approval.
Restoration happens only with your permission, and we ask that you are family or have the family behind you. A voice belongs to the people who loved it.
3
Write the words it will carry
On the restored path, the words you write are the words the voice will speak. You write them, and you hear them back before we build anything. On the kept-as-it-is path they are printed on a keepsake card that travels with the recording.
A name, a date or one short line can also be stitched onto the paw before the bear ships.
4
The sound module is fitted by hand
Up to sixty seconds of audio in a module that plays with one press, held in a closed inner pocket an adult opens, to change the batteries, or to lift it out so the cover can be washed.
It is fitted once and stays fitted. The recording cannot be overwritten, erased, or recorded over by a child or by accident, and the batteries are yours to replace, so the voice never has to stop.
Because it is permanent, you hear it and approve it before it goes in. Every bear is then played once from start to finish, and if it does not sound right it does not leave the studio.
5
It arrives
Seven to ten days door to door, counted from the moment you approve how it sounds. The time before that is yours, and there is no rush on it.
Packed in a cloth bag and a gift box with your card, then posted with tracking. Delivery is free anywhere in Australia.
If you are working toward a funeral or an anniversary, tell us the date and we will say plainly whether it can be met.
Thirty-day guarantee
You approve how the bear will sound before it is made. Once it is with you, you have thirty days. If it is not right, we make it right. Your recording is used for this bear and nothing else, returned to you, and our working copy is deleted after thirty days.
Before you start
None of this is required to begin, and none of it has to be perfect. It is simply what people wish they had gathered first. If you are working toward a funeral or an anniversary, say so in the order notes at the start rather than at the end.
The recording, if you have one
Whatever you still have, however short or noisy it is. Nothing needs cleaning up first. That is our part. If you are recording fresh instead, you can do it in the browser when you get there.
The words you want it to say
Only if the voice is being restored. Write them the way they actually spoke: the name they called you, how they started a phone call, the thing they always said last. Sounding like them matters far more than length.
What goes on the paw
A name, a date or one short line can also be stitched onto the paw before the bear ships.
Someone to listen with
You do not have to do this part alone.
Questions people ask us
Can I order this for someone else?
You can, and many people do. We ask that you are family or have the family behind you, because a voice belongs to the people who loved it. If it is a gift, we can send it sealed with your card inside so they open it themselves.
Do I have to write the words myself?
Yes. We will not write them for you, because the whole point is that they are yours. If you are stuck, most people start with how that person answered the phone and find the rest follows.
Can I send more than one recording?
Send everything you have. More material gives us more to work from, and we will tell you which clip we used and why before anything is built.
Is this right for a grieving child?
A great many of ours go to children. A voice they can reach on their own, without asking an adult to unlock a phone, is very often the point of it. Keep the message short. Twenty seconds holds a small child better than sixty.
What if the bear is damaged later?
Write to us and we will repair or replace it. We hold a working copy of your audio for thirty days for exactly this reason; after that we will need your original file again, so keep it somewhere safe and backed up.
What if I am not ready to do this yet?
Then do not. There is no expiry on any of it. People write to us years after a death and, sometimes, years before one. It will still be here.
Start when you are ready
You can begin an order and come back to it. Nothing has to be decided today, and nothing is fixed until you have heard it.