Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I learned long ago that mohair is very hard on sewing machines so every few years I buy a Brother.  The $100 ones at Walmart, that go forward and backward and zigzag if you're lucky.  I know a lot of people buy fancy machines that do all sorts of stitches or sergers or something, but if all you're doing is making bears you don't really need all that.  I never sew clothes or anything other than bears so it's a good investment.  I think if them like bic lighters, they are cheap...dependable...and disposable when the inner workings become so clogged with mohair it's hopeless. 

I have had a fancy Singer and a really expensive Pfaff, and I never found they did any better job and to service them was the same price as buying a new Brother.

What kind of sad commentary is it that we all have these stories?  Does the anonymity of the net really give people lisence to just "screw us over" because they don't have to look us in the eye when they say they will buy our work.  I don't understand people who treat us as if we are not real merchants.  I am the same in person as I am online, if I commit to buy something on ebay or anywhere else for that matter, I do it!  I just don't roll any other way, but straight forward!

Perhaps we need to rent a van and gather a posse and start hunting these people down and smackin them.......

Thank you ladies, I am feeling proud AND relieved that it's done and I can go finish some bears now!  As hard as it was, it really was fun to put it together because I look upon it as just another artistic endeavor really.

I am wondering how many people really do well and enjoy selling on ebay?

I have to tell ya, I am confused....well confused and dissapointed really.  I have had my ebay account since Jan of 1999.  In that time I've bought a little over 100 things.  I've never really sold much of anything until recently. 

For me, when I win an auction I pay promptly.  ESPECIALLY if the auction ends while I am sitting there watching it end.  It's just the responsible thing to do, and the item comes all that much sooner when you pay!

Ok so I decided a couple weeks ago to go ahead and try selling a few bears since I have been workin on this website, and I thought it would be a way to get my feet wet on the net.  I marked them for opening bids at about 1/3 what I would sell them for retail because as painful as that is, I understand that ebay is a process.  Selling on the net regardless how many years you've been in the business is like moving to another country and starting over where no one knows you.  I studied it and I had a plan of action.  What I didn't count on was that people aren't always......well lets just say they don't always do things the straightforward way that I do.

Last week a woman got the bear I was selling in a sniper bid at the last moment of the auction.  So after that auction I put up another bear with a low opening bid and this time I added a buy it now price as well.  I had no sooner put the auction up and she bid on the second bear within minutes.  The first auction was specified for a 48 hour payment grace period.  Being new to ebay and still caught up in it, I looked at her feedback.  Most of it was very positive.  But in the past she apparently flaked off on paying for a few items, but hadn't for a very long time so I wasn't worried, but I still had some nagging doubts about this for some reason.  She had as many feedback items for selling as she had for buying.  So being nosey I went to see what she was buying.....she was buying lots of bears.  Being even more nosey I went to see what she was selling.....she was selling lots of bears....the same bears for the most part that she was buying.  Now I don't want to judge, maybe she is a compulsive buyer and gets buyers remorse and sells them to make up for it.  Or maybe she has limited space and rotates her purchases, or maybe she is just selling them to profit on our hard work.  Even if that's the case, I set the low opening price so there is nothing really wrong with her doing that, even if it is kind of annoying. 

So two days came and went and she didn't pay for the first auction.  Now I would have given her a few more days but I just had "bad vibes" about this whole thing for some reason.  So I sent her a polite little note to gently remind her that the payment period had come and gone. 

The next afternoon, I get up and check my e-mail and sure enough she has paid for the auction she won.  She ALSO canceled her bid on the second bear three days into it so it reset back to the original price and relisted the buy now price, pretty much ruining the auction in my opinion, it still has a day to go so we will see.  She never sent any mail, never explained why, nothin......I contacted ebay and they said her reasoning was that she bid the wrong price.  I said yeah but don't you have to rebid right away to fix it, (cause I meant to bid 20.00 on something once and accidentally bid 2000.00, and it states that right when you do it you have to fix it or you get in trouble for fraudulent bidding) and why did it take her three days to realize her error?  They said they are going to investigate it.  No real harm has been done as long as she doesn't try to get her money back from paypal on the first auction for some inexplicable reason. 

But it has left a sour taste about selling on ebay since I was so new to that part of it, and since the bears are already going for such a low price.  I am just curious about other people's experiences and if you love or hate ebay and why?

It's done........it's done!!!  *Runs around like her britches are on fire*  IT'S DONEEEEEE!

My hubby can have clean laundry again, he will be so thrilled. :dance:

Erin I laughed when you said you aren't that interesting, I am sure you're quite interesting!  But yes, I will want to redo it many times I am sure.

Thanks guys!  I have been adding content slowly today, I want to have everything else up before I add bears for sale.  I spose that's backward, but I just.....need to do it that way. 

Karen: I doubt you're much older than me, I looked at your pic.  (I am 44, I just look young cause I have no stress!  :crackup: Kidding!!!)

I have been learning code from a friend for a couple months.

Oh sure, why didn't I ask this 2 weeks ago!    Actually I am glad I did it this way....I think....I am so tired I don't honestly know.  I am fairly pleased with the results though.  I still have a lot of content to add.  But first.....sleep....

I am just sorta curious, how many of you have built your own websites?  Or have you had someone do them for you?  I just spent the past two weeks doin mine, and I just got it published.  (Doesn't have anything for sale on it quite yet, probably tomorrow if I can move my poor achy hand that looks like a claw from being wrapped around the mouse that long!)  I've never done anything like it before and I know it will need lots of tweaking and adjustments.  I am still feelin proud since it's a first time thing and I spent SO many hours on the graphics and concept of it. 

I would just like to hear about yours and how they came to be.

Thanks, Kelly

Yup, I've donated to them for years and years now.  It's a worthy cause, if you can make a piece for them I suggest ya do it. 

Congratulations!

Well lets see, 26 years ago I was a healthy robust teenager who thought she would make a teddy bear.  A couple thousand bears later, I have had eye fatigue, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, chronic neck & back pain, a bone spur in my shoulder that I had to have surgery for, a ganglion in the palm of my hand I also had to have surgery for, and asthma.  Also if you drink a lot of coffee, you might be experiencing anxiety attacks?  If you have tightness in your chest, either of those might be something to check for.  I have been to a chiropractor as well and reccomend it highly.  But something that he told me to do in the interim between visits is to take two roughly tennis sized balls (try to find something a little softer tho) and wrap them together with that white medical tape til they are completely covered.  At the end of the day, start at the base of your skull and lay on them on the bed.  Put the divot between them under your spine.  Lay til it stops hurting, because it will a little if you're stiff and then when it becomes comfortable move it down a little.  Keep doing that til you get all the way to your lower back, then move them back up.  It's slow, but it mimics a massage and really loosens up that spine and works the knots out of your shoulder.  As some others have said yoga is good too!

Edit:  If you want to see the balls taped together I can snap a pic for ya.

Yes but those toys in the toys stores are nearly always derivative of an anime comic or cartoon. 

My intention was not to make you guys all mad, but only to help you out.  Let me put into different terms.  We are teddy bear artists.  But at some point in most artists lives someone says something along the lines of "what a great hobby" or they refer to the bears we make as "dolls."  I've seen artists get really mad over those words because people aren't making the correct distinction and they get insulted.  One of the anime forums I go to has over 5 million users.  This is a very zealous culture, and they are really picky about the correct terminology, much more so even than we are in our own.  They even have a word for extreme fan, it's otaku.  It might seem like a little thing to you guys.  But to the culture that surrounds it, it's a HUGE distinction.  I am sure that is correct, that who ever first applied the term to their bears didn't know what they were doing and it stuck.  But being involved in that world as well as this one, I can tell you that incorrect terminology is insulting.  People who apply it to their work, whether they realize it or not are alienating a whole group of customers.  Sure the bears sell, but the bear world isn't what it once was.  I just feel it's very important to not alienate ANYONE who might cross over and become an ardent bear collector.  Believe me at this point in time, there are more anime collectors than there are bear collectors.  There is no bear forum that has 5 million users.  I just feel that whenever you cross over with your art into another established artistic genre you should be respectful of the rules of that community in order to gain that access, and have your work accepted in both areas. 

Edit:  I just wanted to say that this is my last comment on this subject.  Again I was trying to help you out, not offend you all, and I am shocked by your response.  The goal of business is to broaden your sales, one way to do that is to expand your target market.  If you are going to cross over into another form of art, don't you want to include that group in your target audience?  If the tables were turned and someone came in and made an anime comic and figurines about teddy bears and teddy bear artists and didn't get things right about our culture and community a lot of our people would be offended too and not buy from them no matter how popular they were with their own collectors.

I made some tiny fairy bears about 12-15 years ago, and I made the wings with stained glass butterfly wings copied onto transparencies and then colored them by hand.

I'm surprised you wouldn't consider doing one of the Japanese shows.  They are always so good.  And yes I was actually asking you to call it the right thing I guess.  I am submersed in anime on a daily basis, through the forum and I just assumed you would want to the know the right term.  But if it's working for you on ebay, then that's up to you.  Anyway, I would be delighted to post the links, I've started with Wikipedia.  Towards the bottom under characteristics it explains chibi as well.    Good luck with your pattern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime

http://www.animenfo.com/

http://www.animenation.net/forums/

http://www.animeforum.com/

When I prewash mohair I throw it in the dryer.  Just remember that if you wash it or boil it, you wash the sizing out and if it's a sparse mohair you might want to put some back on it to keep it from stretching too much.

Well since it's such a new word applied to bears I just thought you might want to know and not perpetuate the error.  Five years ago or before if you had said that at a show hardly anyone would have had any idea what you were talking about.  I've been in the bear world now for 26 years.  If you end up doing any of the japanese shows be careful that you don't offend anyone.  Anime has been an art form of theirs for a very long, and they tend to be sticklers for details.  A lot of people over there already look down upon Americans for their ideas about Japanese culture and making it our own.

Edit: If you're really curious about the difference, I would be happy to give you some links.  I go to an anime forum quite frequently.

I beg you guys to stop calling them anime.  Anime is a style of animation.  The word you want is "chibi" which is applied to that style of character with a big head and a smaller body.  It's pronounced chee bee. You don't want to offend the japanese by using it incorrectly.

It's cute.  Just a little FYI tho, anime is a style of animation as applied to drawing.  The correct word is chibi, which is the style found in anime with a juvenile look and larger head that you have created. 

Old german bears tended to have long snouts, cupped ears that are proportional with the head, curved arms and larger feet with a pronounced hump. These were from very early last century and changed a bit as time went on.

Old english bears tended to be a bit more portly, they had larger ears, a defined snout but not as long as a german bear, and shorter limbs. Again from early last century.

Old American bears had very straight limbs, short feet, sometimes shorter snouts, and were generally thinner.  Early last century.

Old Asian bears tended to be larger in the head, shorter rounded snout, larger eyes, smaller body and stumpy limbs.  These guys didn't show up til a little later.

Now keep in mind there are exceptions to every rule.  And a lot of things play a part in recreating a bear that looks like something from above, eye placement, ear size, muzzle shape.  There are so many things to consider.  If you have something in mind you like, then I would reccomend researching the company it came from and looking at a lot of examples of their past products.  For instance a little known company called Character made wonderful bears in the 40's that had HUGE head joints, big ears, small bodies, small limbs.......these bears were almost a conglomerate of every style.  And they had such a charm.  I have one that belonged to my father when he was a child.

I am really glad you asked this question, because there is more to recreating a vintage bear than just taking away fur and "yucking it up."  Do your research, see what appeals to you and follow that style.

I thought I would snap a quick pic of the bear I am currently working on......he is no where near done.  But he has been partially aged at this point:

Please don't overthink this either. *Cringes at the thought of a sander*  Keep in mind that actual wear happened to vintage bears in a simplistic straight forward manner.  Fur gets rubbed off because the bear is hugged a lot by a child or made to play dress up.  Noses wear because muzzles get pushed to the side from being held against it's owners body and kissed goodnight a lot.  Staining accumulates from tea parties and rides in sleds and being a best friend and companion to a child.  Fur fades from sitting near a sunny window and just being handled a lot.  Whatever you do to create distressing, please don't make it any rougher on the bear than anything it might have gone through naturally.  You still want the bear to withstand decades of it's own aging on top of what you're already doing to it.

I love rubber ducks, one year I painted and customized a whole bunch of them.  Which brings me to my suggestion.......why not buy some regular yellow ones and customize them yourself to go along with your shower theme.  You can paint them with acrylics, decoupage them, maybe a little ribbon or beading and turn them into something truly one of a kind.

Wow this is surprising, I had no idea how many people didn't like stuffing.  Jane, when you're stuffing the bear imagine that you are sculpting it out of clay.  If you had a lump of clay and you were making it into a bear, and you had an uneven spot you would add or take away clay until it was even.  Bears can be unstuffed if you need to and restuffed, polyfil can be manipulated into place from the inside with a tool or the outside with a long needle.  When you're stuffing a muzzle turn it in your hand as you go.  It's natural for feet to go in the same direction if you hold each leg the same as you stuff it unless you're ambidexterous....which most of us aren't.  Maybe you should consider using pellets?

About that husband of yours who is trying to be oh so helpful......good for him for taking an interest in your work!  Now after you thank him for his interest, gently and kindly remind him that it's YOUR work, and the only bears that will turn out well are the ones you believe in and love.  If you prefer making smaller bears, then make a nice big one just for him as a present of appreciation and go back to making what YOU love.

Edit:  Oh and did I mention the other trick is to go outside on a full moon and hop on your left foot in a concentric circle while balancing a 5 pound box of polyfil on your head to appease the stuffing gods? 

Speaking as someone who has taken distressing things to an art form in my bear career, I can tell you it's not so much a closely guarded secret as an innate talent.  I like old things that have history, I have the ability to see how the aging process is layered upon a thing and translate it to something new.  It's just kind of one of those things you can either do, or you can't.  I've taught a few people how I do it, and a few of them still couldn't master it even with me guiding them because they don't have that "old soul" so to speak.

If you do try to do this, the most important thing I can stress is C-O-N-T-I-N-U-I-T-Y!!!  If you're going to distress something you need to go all the way or it won't make sense.  But then again this is true of any piece art, continuity is what defines it.  There are no specific tried and true methods for distressing but I urge you to take your time with whatever way you choose.  Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was an antique real or faux.  I also urge you to not use methods that really make the item dirty such as driving your car over it or burying it in the back yard.  Nor would I use shoe polish on mohair, it would be fine for other things.  If the piece is going to be sold we still have certain child safety laws and health regulations to uphold even though they are not intended for children.  It's just not that hard to create fake dirt/aging that will not be rubbed off or fade off of the bear, or leave the bear non hygenic.  There is a lot more to the way things age than simply making them appear dirty.  Remember bears age from the inside as well, so make your jointing and stuffing appropriate.  Make a pattern that is right for the look of an old bear.  Chibi style bears that are so popular right now with the asian explosion wouldn't usually look right antiqued.  Make sure your accoutrements make sense for the appearance of an aged bear also.  I have seen people try to distress things and not go that extra distance and just end up with dismal failures.

Ted Menten has a pretty all inclusive book on design as well, but the best teacher is trial and error.  I come from the old school set where we just had to sit and look at bears and think really hard what we wanted to accomplish and to do it.  You'll figure it out as you go along.