Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Thank you for the compliments.

Charlotte, he's 4 1/2" tall.

I showed him off to several people and everybody loves him.  I already have an order for my next one.  Which leads me to the question....  How much do I charge when I start designing my own?  I said around $25 - $30 for one like this.  How far off am I?

This one's not going anywhere, he's already on our Christmas tree.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi all,

I found Daphne's 'Nicholas Needlefelted Ornament' in the December '07 TB&F and had to give needle felting a try.  I'm pretty happy with him.  Tomorrow he goes on display as I have several people at church that like seeing what I am up to.  He will also make an appearance on our Christmas tree which I will be setting up tomorrow.  Nicholas will definately go on my side of the tree.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

I'll be there, my second year.  It'll be another big trip, 5 whole miles!!!!    I can't wait to see the familiar faces and meet a few new ones.  I'll make up for the short trip next month with a trip to Luann's show in Austin.  I'm also considering the Portland show this coming October.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi Shane,

I shake them out when I cut out the pieces.  But I also vacuum them just before I go off for a show.  My bears tend to sit around and collect dust, one of the problems of living in a desert. 

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi everyone,

I'm the sole breadwinner of the family now that my wife is ill.  I went into bear making, just over two years ago now with the modest hope of my hobby paying for itself.  I actually came out in the black last year by $50.      My first hobby to even come close to paying for itself.  There is certainly not much of a market for tatting, my first hobby.  I braided a rug or two and decided after the second one that that was WAY to much work to have somebody walk on.  Quilting is even more labor intensive than bear making so even if I sold a quilt, which I didn't, I would be working for about .10 an hour.

Bear making is an escape for me.  I need something to do with my hands as many of you also mentioned.  It also keeps me from killing brain cells watching television :D

I also found that I like doing the bear shows.  This is a way for me to get out and meet artists and collectors.  You can't go wrong with meeting other bear lovers!

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Great news Sue Ann!  I wish you well with your continued bear artistry.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi again Charlotte,

It has been interesting here in Albuquerque.  People actually slowed down and drove the speed limit.  They didn't always stop at the stop sign on the corner but they did slow down.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't stop because the didn't want to get stuck in the icy intersection.  I've even seen several people wave at me as I was shovelling snow (not the one finger wave either  )  Getting out of town was a different matter.  I think the Interstates are finally open.  I sure would hate to be stranded in my car over the holidays.

I hope your hubby is okay.  It sounds like you have a lot of work to get back to normal operations being so remote.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi Charlotte,

I'm in Albuquerque, we got a good 16" in town.  I would have to say that's more than we've received the last 8 years combined.  My wife loves it.  It reminds her of the snow when she was little in central WI.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Gemma,

I'm working with an older version of PhotoShop, 5.0, so the buttons may be in a different location but the results should be the same.

I agree with Jared the best way is to record the best image to start with so adjusting the EV to the (+) side of 0 will lighten the overall image, going on the (-) side of 0 will darken the image.  A +1 will essentially double the quantity of light on the image, a -1 will halve the quantity of light.  The change will be noticeable.

PhotoShop - To adjust the image you already shot OPEN the image,   Go to IMAGE/ADJUST/LEVELS  (You can try AUTO LEVELS to let PhotoShop make the changes.)  LEVELS will let you manually adjust for your taste.  The resulting curve/histogram shows the number of pixels vs. intensity level.  The left side of the curve represents the dark area of the image and the right, the light area.  By moving the extreme arrows you affect the light and dark portions of the image.  By moving the center arrow you adjust the mid-tones of the image.  Optimally the curves will end at the ends of the box.  By moving the arrows to just under the ends of the curve you will enhance the contrast.  Once you hit OK you will save the changes.  By toggling CTRL-Z you can go back and forth from 'before' to 'after' to view the changes you made.

PhotoShop part 2 - I believe that all digital cameras save images at 72 dpi.  Again, with your open image go to IMAGE/IMAGE SIZE  Another window will open showing the image in pixels and the print size in inches.  (You may have to change the units in the drop down box next to the items of interest.)  Leave the RESAMPLE IMAGE box unchecked and change the RESOLUTION to ~300 dpi (the resolution I use for printing)  You should see the print size become something manageable.   Example - I have a 1514 x 2271 pixel image, at 72 dpi I have a 21 x 31" image.  At 300 dpi the image is 5 x 7.5"

Tiff's save every bit of information from every pixel.  So the size of a tiff image is at least 3x the size of a jpeg.  Save the images in PhotoShop as jpegs and the use the maximum quality (least compression)  I have prints made with these setting all the time.

If you have any other questions please feel free to write, I don't always make it on to TT so I may not answer for a few days.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

I will be doing my first craft show this coming November here in NM (the jury for the show liked my bears ).  Both my wife and I have attended the show the past two years and noticed that items ranged in price from $15 - $500 with all the items of high quality.  What we also noticed was that all the exhibitors were selling items, not just the inexpensive crafts.

Going into the show I am assuming that I will have to educate the patrons as to what mohair actually is and the work involved in putting together a collectible bear as opposed to the $9.95 Walmart bear.  I intend to take bear parts and given time, photos of the process.

Good luck on your show.  I'm interested in hearing how your craft show goes.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Great idea Mindy,

The only people that will be mad at you and your idea will be the postal employees. 

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi Bev,

Glad you made it home from Albuquerque!  I use Microsoft Publisher.  I got a deal on the Office package and took it.  Sometime later I found out from a coworker that he built his website with Publisher.  I built mine from scratch, no lessons.  It doesn't do lots of fancy stuff but it shows bears, good enough for me.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

This was a great class to take.  I highly recommend it if it comes your way.  This was my first teddy bear related class and I can see how some little nips and tucks and coloring can make a huge difference.  We touched on many topics; needle sculpting the face and paws, adding an open mouth both at the design stage and adding an open mouth to a finished bear.  I wouldn't have believed you could do it to a finished bear but I saw Luann of Lulu bears add an open mouth to her finished bear and it looked like it was there all along!  We also did some coloring with Copic markers, added eye lids, put different finishes on noses, talked about adding teeth and claws, coloring the backs of clear glass eyes and many other things of which I don't remember at this time.

The really impressive thing was when Jennifer brought out her bag of tricks.  It reminded us of the little cars filled with clowns in the circus where the clowns keep coming and coming and coming.  There's no way she could have kept all those tools in that bag without a secret compartment. :)

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi Patsy,

There is usually one here in Albuquerque, NM some time in May.  That's the next one I am planning for.  I only have 8 bears waiting to go out and see the world right now.  I would like to have around 20 for a show.

Happy bear trails

Mark

Hi Hayley,

Since I just finished the Schaumburg show, my first, I thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I agree with Eileen, it seems that once people stop and look others also stop to see what's so interesting.  I went for long periods of time with nobody stopping but once someone did others also stopped.  I also noticed that some collectors just want to look without speaking with their creator and others wanted to talk with me while bear browsing.  I just had to learn when to jump in with conversation and when not.   

Fewer bears on the table are better.  I noticed some of the other tables around us were full of bears.  They had lots of people stopping and looking but the collectors had a hard time of pulling the one out they were interested in then putting him back if they changed their mind.  Also too many bears makes the decision harder because there are too many choices.

Be prepared to be tired at the end of the day.  We stood better than 90% of the time the show was on.  Fortunatley since there were two of us we gave each other back rubs when it was slow.  I think after dinner that Saturday night we slept a good 10 hours, at least, from being tired from standing.

I do like Wanda's attitude about treating the collector's as a guest in her house.  I will have to take that one with me to my next show.

I also agree with the idea to go and have fun.  I had fun watching the people's smiles from looking at my bears.
I do have more fun making bears than selling them but I have to sell them or I will have to buy a much larger house to make room for all my new bears.

Since I have a full time job I do not have to make a living from my bears so I feel lucky that way.  I hope you are in the same position.  I have known people that started with their favorite hobby, turned it into their main source of income, and do not enjoy their hobby any more.  I have already realized that I will not make a living from this so I can treat it as hobby.

I hope you have better luck at your first show than I did.  I did not sell any bears.  I'm certain it can only get better from there.  But I did learn a lot from the experience and will take that with me to the next show.   (I also learned a lot from this thread.)  I also got to meet a lot of wonderful bear artists and collectors that I would not have ever met except though the show. 

Good luck.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Shantell,

I have been using 1" screws without any problems.  My bears are also in the 10 - 16" range.  The end of the screws just barely stick out from the end of the lock nut.  I am experimenting with double jointed necks and I want as little screw sticking out from the locknut as possible.  So far I have tried a double jointed neck with muslin and although I have a very naked looking bear it seems to work.  My next experiment is with mohair.

Jared,

I used to live in WI so I am not very excited about returning to the cold of the great midwest, I do love the people though.  My blood has thinned out living in NM for the past 20+ years.  I start to shiver when it gets down to 40.  :)

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi all,

I used to have great luck finding all the parts I needed from a LOCAL hardware store, the type where you go in with a broken part from the house and some 90+ year old guy comes over, looks at what you have and digs out the parts you need from some drawer in the back corner of the store.  My local hardware store just went out of business courtesy of Lowe's and Home Depot among other huge chain stores.     The chain stores only sell in boxes of 5 or 6 parts which gets expensive when you have to buy a couple packages per bear.  I just hope that Intercal and Edinburgh keep handling those kinds of parts.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Try being a guy and tell them your a bear maker/artist.     It is fun to see their reactions.  At that point they usually forget to ask how much my bears cost and how much I make.  If they do ask they are very suprised at the cost of collector bears and I have to explain the cost and time I put into each bear.  I am not certain I convince everybody I talk to about those details.

Since I'm still sorting out what and how to make my bears I still consider myself a bear maker with aspirations of becoming an artist.

Happy bear trails,

Mark

Hi all,

Thank you for the votes on the website.  I know I got us off the subject of generating a following, sorry about that.  I do want to thank Quy for his help with getting my website setup.  Thank you very much!

I thought of a few other things after my reply last night.  My wife has spoken with several of the people she comes in contact with about my bears.  To date several of our librarians have seen them, since she almost lives at the library.  Several of her doctors, our dentist, several of my crafty friends at church.  (Doctors and dentists are good, they usually have lots of money:))  I don't expect to sell but just getting them out of the house may generate something sometime.

Dilu

3.  I think your idea of a stamp for the back of your business cards is quite interesting; and now has me wondering if it would be possible to print on both sides of the card, rather than use a rubber stamp-I am going to play with this idea; which i would never have had without you.

I'm not planning on stamping on the back of my business card.  I am thinking of having prints of either indivudual bears or my bear family and putting the stamp on there.  I will pass the prints out to those that seem interested either one-on-one wherever that may be or those that sign my gust book at a show.  A gentle reminder.

Mark

Hi Kim,

I will add my 2 cents.  I don't have a 'following' yet but I'll tell you what I did and I'm still doing.

I started taking my bears to work.  I showed them to various people, mainly women.  Word got to a few other people and I sold my first bear just in time for Valentines Day.  I ended up working 'till 11 PM on Feb 9th to get her finished but my coworker and his wife were very happy.  They actually dressed her up and sent her to 'camp' and sent me a Powerpoint presentation of her 'outing'.  It was neat to see someone having fun with something I made instead of having it put on a shelf.  To date she is the only one sold so overall I am into the bears for much more than I have gotten out of it just looking at it from the money side of the equation.  I figure if I didn't have bears to work on I would be in with some other equally expensive hobby.  I thoroughly enjoy bear making so I want to stay with this.  My wife is somewhat concerned that I am spending a fair amount of money on bears (she's the one that got me started) and is wondering when I am going to start selling.  I am still taking them to work, lots of promises but only the one taker at this point.

A digital camera will help with the photos.  I am a die-hard film guy and finally went to the dark side (digital)  and saw better results.  At the very least you can look at the images right away and make whatever improvements on-the-fly instead of waiting for the film to come back.  It turns out I reshot my entire family of bears (about 12 at this point) to put on a website and to make prints for others to see when I cannot have the bears with me.  By the way, my new website is now up and running www.marksbears.com
Please have a look and let me know what you think.  I already know you want an 'about me' with photo.  I am doing the entire thing on my own so it will be a continual work in progress.

I am also doing business cards and I'm contemplating a rubber stamp for the backs of the prints I will hand out when there is interest.  I will be with Sabine Klett at the TOBY show in October showing a bear or two so there will be lots of exposure.  I also plan on getting in on one of the local shows here in NM.  All the artists I spoke with at this years show in Albuquerque said shows are the greatest thing to do.  You get to meet the collectors one on one.  All I have to do is build up an inventory, 5 bears for sale will not cut it as a show.  I think I'm doing all the stuff to get noticed I guess we'll see if I am still around in a few years as one of the people with hundreds of posts imparting their knowledge to us new kids.

I wish you luck, hang in there.

Mark

Hi Daphne, Dilu,

I'm doing pretty well.  I have to have a real job so I can afford my bear habit so I don't get on Teddy Talk more than once or twice a week.  Today I had an all day class with the State of NM and the IRS for small business owners.  My head is still spinning over what I have to put on my taxes, what I can deduct ...

In the mean time I am searching web hosting companies so I can get a website out for all to see.  I already did one on ATT's personal web page feature but I quickly realized that the address is way too long and I need to spend the bucks and get a real site.

Hope all is well with everyone,

Mark

Hi Karen,

I have only been in the teddy bear business for a short time so I do not have a lot of scraps yet.  But I am quickly accumulating more and more.  I saw in the back of Nancy Tillberg's book 'Teddy Bears with a Past' patterns for pins or Christmas ornaments.  I am planning for the ornaments, but not for this Christmas.

Good luck with your scraps.

Mark

Hi everyone thank you for the warm welome and the responses.

I can see I have a bit of research on credit cards to do before the show.

Yes, I will be at the Octobear show in Schaumburg.  Sabine Klett a close friend of ours is up for a TOBY this year asked me to serve as her assistant at the show.  I was more than happy to oblige.  She has helped with patterns from Germany so I got to use my 20+ year old high school German lessons to translate the patterns.  She also helped with encouragement and direction when I ran into problems.  She also got permission for me to display a couple bears of my own so I plan on bringing some along.

Thanks again for all your help.

Your bear guy,

Mark

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this board.  I have been on the side lines for the past month or so.  I am usually too busy working for a living along with bear making that I've only been reading everyone's ideas and suggestions.  I hope to be able to add valuable input where I can.

I have attended a few shows over the past year since I have only become enlightened to bears just over a year ago.  I have attended the Albuquerque show a couple times and the Octobear show in Schaumburg last year.  I had no idea of the following!  I want to thank SueAnn for her encouragement while I visited her at the show in Albuquerque.

I've been making bears since the start of 2004 with patterns from both Intercal and the 'competition'.  Once I got the idea down coupled with additional prompting from several bear artists I started with my own patterns.  I have run out of room in the house for more bears so I have to make room and pay for my hobby by selling them.  It's amazing what you can do when you can turn off the television!

I will be doing my first show later this year and I am working like mad to get all the parts ready; business cards, a website, photos and bears.  I have at least one question about setting up a credit card account for selling bears.  Where, what, and how?  The web is somewhat helpful but I'm certain since you are users you have lots of suggestions.  I'm guessing that I will want something that operates only temporarily while at a show and 'turned off' while not showing.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Your new bear kid on the block,

Mark