Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I spoke to our local trading standards about this ahead of attending our winter craft fair. They seemed to be happy as long as the product was clearly labelled as not a toy, and unsuitable for children under the age of 14.

I've just put that on all my labels and marketing materials, and that seems to have done the trick.

I've been experimenting with plush fur (as opposed to mohair) for the first time ahead of a christmas craft fair.  Last year I took the mohair bears with me and had a great time, but as it wasn't a collecting crowd I got the sense that some of my bears were just a bit too much money for the casual impulse buyer.  This year I figured that I could try making just a few bears out of cheaper plush fur to help the stall pay for itself and provide an entry point for folk who were interested but not serious enough to pay collector prices. I also figured the cheaper fabric would be a nice medium for testing out new patterns without the worry of wasting expensive mohair.

First plushy bear came off the sewing machine today - I stuffed his head and then set about sewing his nose.

ARGH!  How do you do it? I can't shave it right back to the backing because it's not nice enough - but the ruddy fur keeps pulling up into the nose thread no matter what I try! I've started, cut and re-sewn at least four noses on this guy now and it's driving me bonkers.
Is there a technique I'm missing? Should I be gelling the surrounding fur down? At this rate I'll still be sewing this flipping thing in a month's time and I wont have time to make anything else for the fair...

Going back to a nice distressed mohair now to soothe my frayed nerves.

Does anyone know of a good 'Wooly' mohair (or other type) fabric out there? I'm making some patterns based on my childhood toys, and I had one little lamb toy that was made out of an appropriately stiff, 'wooly' feeling fabric. It might even have been some kind of wool based fur, if such things exist?  I'd love to make a simple stuffed lamb toy and something wooly would be ideal to recreate the stiffer feel of their fleece, but I wouldn't know where to look to find the right material.  Thoughts? I am no felter, so don't want to have to needle felt real wool...

I did my first show this weekend (craft fair, not specialist bear show) - teamed up with a friend who paints furniture & upcycles stuff, and we won best in show. So pleased!  This is the first time I've ever sold (or shown!) my bears to the public - I managed to sell 9. Still got 20 to get rid of (some better than others! I can see the bears getting better as I churned them out in readiness!).  The local craft buying public seemed to really take to them - but it'd be great to get some bear lover feedback on them too!  They're all on facebook at www.facebook.com/tedwinaandfriends if you want to pop over and see...

(I did upload photos with this, but it didn't quite work )

Apparently the bear is a 1938 Merrythought - confirmed by the merrythought archivist (I've never seen one with whiskers before!).  Deans might be a possibility for Bunny. There's also a possibility he might be Northern European as there is a connection with a shop which was trading toys from Denmark. Not up on my Danish toymakers though!

They were found in a museum collection, and they are looking for more info on how old they might be and who might have made them.

Is anyone else struggling to find natural cotton fill at the moment? I normally use it and I love the hard stuff it gives to my bears heads, but I've not been able to get hold of any for ages now.  I'm using Kapok at the moment instead, bit it's not as firm as I would like, and the stuff gets up my nose and all over my clothes! :(

I've got some heavy fibre filling which I might try instead, but I loved my cotton fill. Wish I could get my hands on more now!

Hello!

I am back behind the sewing machine stitching like a loon this month as it's now only 2 months until the big local craft fair which I plan to 'launch' my bears at. I agreed to do this as part of the funding I was awarded earlier in the year to develop a small selection of patterns and buy in enough material to set me on the road to being able to make enough bears to sell through local shops/craft stalls etc.  My original plan was to do lots of testing before this point, but I got a new job and so that all went out the window, and now I've slung together five patterns (three were bears I'd already designed with tweaks, and two are total make it ups!) and have started to produce them.  I've only ever made one off commissions though, so this is my first go at making bears en masse. 

How much stock do you guys normally take to fairs? This is a general craft fair, not a collectors fair, so I'm not sure how much I will sell given that artist bears are probably a bit more expensive than people would generally pay for a teddybear. It is a BIG fair through (three halls over three days!) and its quite close to christmas, so I dunno what to aim for.  I'm going to have to sew like a demon however you slice it though.  My poor little fingers!!

Thanks for all your help guys! Funding application is now in, so no more stupid questions from me! I know pricing is something that can't be worked out simply - it's just conveying that in a small box on an application form that is difficult. Hopefully they will be satisfied with what I have said based on the examples of other people's work & their pricing that I have also submitted.

And now I just wait! Two weeks until I get the results apparently. If they don't fund me it will not be the end of the world - but a big chunk of money just to spend on my bear supplies stash would be brilliant! Fingers and toes crossed!

A few weeks ago while googling online charity shops for a completely un-bear related project, I came across this little guy in the SCOPE ebay shop

He was too adorable and grumpy looking for me to resist, and as he only cost me £9.99 I took him home.

A few days later I spotted this guy, also on Ebay

There was absolutely no way I could resist that face, so he came home with me too! (for a bargain £4.99!)
So - in a matter of weeks I have somehow come to acquire two old merrythought dogs (both still with tags).  I have no idea how old they are - but they are both so adorable.  Do Merrythoughts usually come with a name? If so how might I find that out?

Anywhere, here they all are posing with my other mad, hairy, not stuffed dog!

Hi All,

I apologise for asking this AGAIN, as I've already done the search & checked the index, so I know you've all been asked about this a dozen times before, BUT, I have a quick question on pricing.

I know the rule is to add up all materials, and then factor in your time, compare with other bears on the market and take it from there. However, as I have to put together a business plan to go with the funding applications I'm currently working on, I need to give them a short and simple idea of how I will price my goods (in relation to the costs of the materials I have listed).

Now - I know there is an 'old guide' which says that you factor $10 to the inch (for bigger bears at least - rubbish for the minis, as has already been noted). However, the thread I first found this on is about 10 years old now, so I figured inflation might have factored into it.  $10 comes in as just under £7 at the moment, which would make a 6 inch bear about £42 ($60) - does that still sound right to you guys?  In my experience I hardly ever see bears for much under £80 on the market (this is usually though dealers etc though) and I would expect to pay at least £50 for a mini - obviously I buy from more established bearmakers than myself, so I expect my own prices to be lower, but I don't want to sell myself short either.

My reason for asking is just that this 'guide' seems the simplest way to come up with a quick and simple formula for the application assessors, given I have not designed the bears yet, so have no idea what size they will be, or what materials will go into them. However, I want to make sure I'm working from an up to date price sheet before I go ahead.

Unfortunately I've never had the funds to be as extensive a collector as I would like, so I only have a very small collection of artist bears to draw on - my lasting impression of bear prices is generally 'more than I can afford' (which is why I started making them in the first place!), so I could do with the insight of wiser and more experienced bears than I!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I've got all the fabrics, threads, joints, stuffing & eyes I can think of listed now, plus some position eyes, cotter keys and that sort of thing. Plus at the last minute I thought it might be a good idea to put on a product photography light setup for online selling - so now just have to keep my fingers crossed that I get it!

Right folks - this may be a case of running before I can walk etc, but I've just got out of a meeting with our local arts/crafts development officer and they think I should apply for the local arts and crafts development fund, so I can get a bunch of stuff in to allow me to design and make a collection of bears to go on sale.  My bears might not be the best in the bearmaking world, but there is a very vibrant local craft scene up here, and if I can use that to get me some time and money to really work on developing my bears, then what the heck, I'm gonna go for it!

So - the idea is I will put together costings to design a small collection of bears which would then go on sale - I was thinking maybe 30 bears max (is this too many?), probably 6 individual patterns and then 5 variations on each in terms of colour, finish etc...

Anyhoo - what I really need to do is put together costings, as the fund covers materials, equipment etc as well as time.

Obviously I will need to factor in fabrics, joints, eyes, fillings, thread etc to cover the initial run of bears. Is there anything else I need to get though? I've got a sewing machine, so I can't apply for that as its not on it's last legs yet - but I'm thinking stuffing tools, cotter pin keys, other useful bits and bobs that might make my life easier.

It's not guaranteed I'll get what I ask for, but as this would allow me to make a good number of bears without having to wait months in between each so I can afford to buy more fabrics etc, I think I might as well grab the bull by the horns and run with it.

I'm thinking things like a big sheet of plain cotton (or similar) to test patterns on - things like that that I might have overlooked but would make my life easier & also one off purchases that I could cost into my 'project' so that I don't have to fork out for them from my own pocket!

So - if you were me, what you would be putting on the wish list?

Ah yes - I know the stuff!  I will see if our local haberdasher stocks it, and if not I will order some in!

I think you may be right about the arms - I like the long armed look, but this one is not quite right. My boyfriend said she looked like her wrists were broken   - but then what does he know!

Perhaps I ought to embrace the flat headed bears as my style? 

Fabulous! Thanks for all your comments everyone! So glad I found this forum - I've already got buckets of ideas for my next one now! 

Thanks Jenny!  I am definitely going to have to try with the darts.  I actually learned the stuffing method that I used on this one from you - I was at a beginners bearmaking class you taught at Silly Bears in Aberdeen a couple of years back! I used my thumbs on the inside and pushed round to the outside as if I was making a clay pot, but it is possible I put too much attention into getting it all packed in at the top, and didn't push enough out into the bottom half of the head (is that what you mean?). She has a head like a rock now though - I don't know if I could get more in there if I tried! I could maybe have stuffed the top less, but I worry about saggy bits if the stuffing settles? No tables used in this one though - I stuff on my lap with the bear's head upright and facing me so I can see the shape as it forms.

Thanks everyone!  Glad that what I see as glaring faults don't seem too obvious to everyone else! :D
What is peel and stick interfacing?  Sounds like it could be useful!

Is this the right place to post this?  Or would it be better in the 'latest creations' section? Let me know if it's not right and I'll re-post...

I've just finished my latest bear project (photos below).  Although I'm pretty happy with him/her (? - not sure yet, I can usually tell by now!), I always find at the end of creating them I can see things I have not got quite right.

In this one the tweed fabric on one of the paw pads is pulling strangely - I think I will have to stop using tweed, or at least make sure it is felted tighter, as the weave is too loose on this one and it's not stitched brilliantly (warp threads seem to be pulling loose from the fabric, despite my having used fray stop on it before I put them in...) - I may have to ladder stitch over that seam to make sure it stays in place Was fine until I stuffed it, so perhaps I just stuffed too hard on that side...

I am not sure about the arms on this one either  - I think I have perhaps placed them too far back, so s/he's a bit splay chested (but then I like my bears to be a bit barrelly. 

What do folk think? I'm still very new to self designed bears (and bearmaking in general actually!) - so I'd really appreciate honest critical feedback!

This one is destined to go and live with my new niece anyway - to compliment the my first ever self designed project who went to live with her brother when he was born 18 months ago.

Apologies for poor quality pics - these are just iphone snaps from after I finished working on it - it still needs a lace collar (I think?) and perhaps something else before it is complete...

Thanks Francesca - I was wondering about 4 part head patterns - something like has been used on this little guy here I presume?
http://teddy-talk.com/viewtopic.php?id=44171

Fantastic - thanks for the advice!  Sewing the darts in once the head is fully sewn makes complete sense (I was thinking I would need to add darts to my pattern!) - I will be trying this on one of my next creations!

Hi All,

Really pleased to have found this site - I'm a relatively new bearmaker - I've been making them for about a year now, but I don't make many as I can't afford the materials very often!  I started out from kits, and have now progressed to designing my own patterns & creating my own unique bears.  One thing that has always stumped me however is how to make the pattern for the right kind of head shape.  So far I've had success with creating varying head sizes & muzzle lengths, but my bears always come out with a sort of flat head - for a case in point see the fella in my profile pic, and the attached WIP pic of the bear I'm currently making for my new Niece (apologies for the creepy hanging eye pic - only one I've got of him/her so far!).  I've experimented with varying widths of head gusset, (the wider it gets in the middle, the flatter the head!), and varying sizes of profile piece, but so far I've not been able to find a way of getting a really satisfyingly domed head. 

For an example of the kind of head I'm thinking about look at the bears made by Jenny of Three O'clock bears, or Cheryl Hutchinson's bears from Bingle bears.

I have ideas for some lovely bubble headed bears in my head, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to translate them into patterns!

At the moment my bears all have three part pattern heads (gusset & two side pieces) - should I be keeping the gusset wider at the base, or be adding darts in around the ear section to add more roundness?  I would be interested to see what more experienced bearmakers do to achieve the desired shape...