Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

With just a few more days to go before the end of the auction, I would like to say a big thank you to all the T-T-ers who have placed bids in the auction and helped bring the total pledged so far to an amazing £6,276.  Many thanks also to those of you who donated bears (you know who you are). 

If you haven't yet had a look, you can view all auction lots by visiting our website: www.abracadabra-teddies.com then follow the links to the auction galleries.  There are some lots without any bids at the moment and I have put their photos on our Bearblog page.  I am hoping some kind souls will take pity on them 

Marsha
Abracadabra Teddy Bears

Maria, Peter and Ellen - thank you so much for your comments and good wishes for the auction.  I am very happy with the response so far, especially as it is so close to Christmas now.  I know that lots of people have been looking at the auction so I hope that they will be tempted to place a bid.  It doesn't have to be a great deal of money, every little bid adds another jar of honey or pot of raisins for the bears.

Have a great weekend,
Marsha

Hi everyone

My name is Marsha Davison and although I have been a member of Teddy Talk for some time, I have never really introduced myself so here goes:
My partner, Malcolm and I, have been running Abracadabra Teddy Bears, a shop and website business, for just over 9 years.  I have a passion for artist bears which I collect and I visit Teddy Talk from time to time to see what's new in the bear making world.  Some Teddy Talk members know me well, some of their beautiful bears will be on sale in our shop as artist bears are our speciality alongside well known brands and soft toys for babes and young children as well.

However, the purpose of my post is not to promote the business but to ask you to have a look at the auction we are currently running to raise funds for the Animals Asia Foundation's work with Moon Bear rescue in China & Vietnam.  You will find the auction on our website: www.abracadabra-teddies.com then follow the links to the auction galleries.  There are 6 galleries with over 100 lots of teddy bears of all kinds; artist bears, Steiff animals, Charlie Bears, soft toys, bearabilia etc etc - all donated by collectors and companies. 

We have been holding auctions for 6 years now and have raised over £34,000 for AAF.  We do not take any fee for the arrangement and admin - all winning bids are transferred to Animals Asia. 

Fund raising has been very tough for charities this year and animal charities suffer more than most so AAF really need our help and support to continue with their work to rescue these beautiful bears from the dreadful lives they are forced to live on the bear farms.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the charity's work in Asia, you can read more about what they do at www.animalsasia.org.

Many thanks in advance and wishing you all a wonderful Christmas.

Marsha

This is just an update to my previous post about the auction for Animals Asia which will finish on Sunday at 9 p.m.  We currently have high bids totalling just under £5,000 which has far exceeded our expectations and we hope to improve on that before the auction closes.  My thanks to all the members of TT who have participated - either with a donation of a bear or by bidding - you know who you are!!  There's still time to bid so please visit the auction gallery at www.abracadabra-teddies.com/charityaug08gallery1.htm. 

I have been asked on a number of occasions whether all the money bid on our auctions goes to AAF and the answer is yes, all money raised goes to the charity.

We have raised over £23,000 so far without this auction and have sponsored a bear called Abracadabra.  You can see her with Jill Robinson in the photo below.

Marsha
Abracadabra Teddy Bears

I know that many of you already take an interest in or raise money yourselves for the Moon Bears and I just wanted to let you all know that we have just opened an auction which will run until 31st August to raise funds.  Many of Abracadabra's customers have donated artist bears, one or two artists have been generous enough to donate their work, Steiff have donated some soft toy animals, we have some late vintage Steiff and Merrythought (80's - 90's), novelty items - there is absolutely something for everyone, 80 lots in total.

Do please take a look: www.abracadabra-teddies.com/charityaug08gallery1.htm. 

Many thanks

Marsha
Abracadabra Teddy Bears

Seems I've caused some controversy by making this post which wasn't my intention so if it has upset anyone, please accept my apologies. 
I did investigate the story before I posted the details.  I understood that the comments made by WSPA and PETA were necessary because the artist and the gallery made a number of conflicting statements about the situation.  They aren't able to verify or deny anything as no-one from either organisation was present as witness.  Whether or not the dog escaped after the first day is questionable, in my view, because the photos show a state of decline in the dog's condition which would not have occurred over a 24 hour period. 
I don't believe in forwarding bulk email of any kind (well, ok, I do forward really good jokes to friends) so I posted the details because I hoped that some people who would sign the petition.  I'm sure that randomly forwarding email with content such as this can inadvertently bring publicity for the perpetrator of the event to the wrong kind of people.  I felt that bringing it to the attention of TT-ers would garner the right kind of attention.

Marsha

Sorry if it upset you Sheryl but the purpose of posting the photos was to make sure that people would click on the link to sign the petition which has now over 1,100,000 signatures from all over the world.  Hopefully that is doing something to stop the artist from repeating this cruel act again which is what he has, in fact, been invited to do.

I received this via email and was completely shocked, disturbed, upset so be prepared.

THIS WILL TAKE A MINUTE OF YOUR TIME AND WILL SAVE A CREATURE – AND HOPEFULLY REMOVE THIS SO-CALLED 'ARTIST'!!!
 

This is a very serious matter...

In the 2007, the 'artist' Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, he tied him to a rope in an art gallery, starving him to death.

For several days, the 'artist' and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful 'masterpiece' based on the dog's agony, until eventually he died.                   
         

Does it look like art to you?

But this is not all ... the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American  decided that the 'installation' was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.
 
 
Let's STOP HIM!!!!!

Copy this URL into your browser:   
http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html to sign a petion to stop him to do it again, then digit the name Guillermo Vargas Habacuc to find the petition to sign.

Please do it.

It's free of charge and it will only take 1 minute to save the life of an innocent creature. 

Please also send this e-mail to as many contact as you can... Let's stop him!!!

If you want to double check all the above informations you can google the name of the 'artist' to see all I have just said corresponds to truth.

Thank you

I just wanted to say a big thank you to Maria and Mikki for donating "Down to the Woods" for China Bear Rescue and an extra thank you to Maria for posting the topic today.
If anyone wants to visit the auction page on the website, there is an error in the URL in Maria's post - it was probably my mistake when I emailed it to her.  The correct link is as follows:
http://www.abracadabra-teddies.com/charity1.htm

We already have a high bid of £200 which is fantastic.

Bear hugs
Marsha
Abracadabra Teddy Bears