Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Oh my gosh, fantastic and gorgeous! Just great, Kathy!

Thank you all so much! I am really enjoying getting back into making my bunnies again!  I told the owner that I named this bunny after him and he just laughed and said, "but he's so soft and cuddly!!" 

Hello everyone, I have my next wee bunny available!  I am offering him privately before listing him on eBay next Tuesday, just as I did Butler.  Butler has gone to live with one of my wonderful collectors!

Please meet little Timothy O'Bryan! I know it's not St. Patty's Day, but well I work on inspiration and I have dear friends who own a local Irish Pub, and have been spending a lot of time with them there!  The warm, welcome atmosphere and family-oriented kindness just really got my creative juices going!  And so here is wee Timothy O'Bryan, named ofter the owner. Timothy is made from premium mohair, soft and wavy, in white.  He has been extensively shaded, scissor and thread sculpted to create his baby bunny face.  He is fully jointed with a wobble neck joint and hardboard/locknut joints in his limbs and armatures in his arms.  He is filled with polyfil and a pouch of stainless steel 'sand' for a nice weight.  If you are interested in Timothy, please feel free to email!

Thanks so much to you all, it's so great to be back!

Thank you all so very much!  Your compliments are so appreciated!

Thank you all so very much for your wonderful compliments!  Little Butler is going to live with one of my very dear collectors!  Thanks also for all the wonderful words of encouragement!  Now back to my next bunny! 

Ahhh another magnificent kitty... I am never disappointed with your work, Karen; it's just stunning!!!

Oh MY, soooooo cute!!! What a little sweetie!

Ohhh they are BOTH simply WONDERFUL, Shel!  I love their expressive eyes the most!

Ohhhh my GOSH, how ADORABLE!! 

Thank you all sooo much!  Lanie, I hope you get back in the swing of things again soon!! I feel so much better now that I have gotten out of my funk.  I know it's tough though... when you get in a funk, it's really hard to get back out of it!

hugs,
Kimberly W.

Hello everyone!  Wow it sure has been a while!  Thank you to you all for your warm welcome-backs!  It sure has been a bumpy ride these last several months, but I think things are finally starting to go in the right direction...  WHEW!

I would like to introduce to you all my newest little bun-bun, Butler.  He is named after one of my very close friends who truly helped me through this time in my life, and really got me going creatively again!  I am offering Butler privately first, if he is not sold, then he will be listed on eBay Tuesday evening!   He is made from deliciously soft sythetic fur that has graduating light and dark overtones, and a chocolate brown undercoat.  I cut his pattern out to take advantage of the shifting light anf dark fur, so that his belly and cheeks are silvery and his back and limbs are mostly darker gray.  He is hardboad/locknut jointed with a slight wobble joint in his neck.  His arms are wire armatured for paosing and he has premium US made amber glass eyes.  Butler has been extensively scissor and thread sculpted, and even has wittle bunny toes!  Thanks so much for coming to meet him; if he is not sold he will be listed on eBay on Tuesday evening and I will post the link!

Warmth,
Kimberly W.

Thank you JoAnne. I am hoping to have this bun bun finished very soon!

Kimberly W.

Thank you ladies SO much! Yes, things are looking up, I have the support of two really great friends who have helped me get out of my funk.  That whole saying "God sends people into your life for a reason" has never held more true than now. 

Well, I am slowly working on my bun bun, I am excited to show everyone!

Thanks again, everyo

Hey everyone,

It's been a while....   I have spent the last several months fighting depression and anxiety, which is why I disappeared from the Teddy Bear (bunny?) scene... But with the much needed and appreciated support of a couple of good friends through this time, I am back!  I hope everyone has been doing well; I look forward to seeing everyone's creations, and presenting mine again! It feels WONDERFUL!!

Kimberly W.

Kathy, thank you so much for your morale booster; it is really appreciated!  I think that what frustrates me the most is that eBay has become so big that they don't see how their 'policies' affect the smaller people.  If I had billions of dollars, I couldn't care less about a payment held here or there... But I've had 5 of my 6 last payments held, and there isn't anything I can do about it!  Plus, their whole change to Featured Plus, I really DO think that affected my auction!  I had nearly half as many watchers as usualy lately... Even just watchers!

My thought (and not that I intend to do this, but do you know what I mean?) on the 'Payments Held' topic is, why bother trying so hard to uphold your standards and feedback rating if you're just going to be thrown in to that group of sellers who don't ship in a timely manner, or don't ship at all??  We who work so hard to have smooth transactions shouldn't be punished along with those who try to rip people off, just because we don't have a super-high feedback score!

I am just bummed that the place that used to be my favorite to sell has become the most frustrating place to deal with!  Even their responses are obviously uncaring and automatic.

P.S. and I'd also like to mention eBay's AWFUL customer support... Has anyone else tried to get an issue resolved with eBay through Live Help, their only 'obvious' way to contact a (semi) human being?  Every time I've contacted Live Help, I get somewhat automated answers and I get the run-around... I have never gotten on Live Help and received good, quick resolution to my problem... 

As an example, and I will summarize the 30 minutes that it took for this issue: This last time I was on Live Help, the lady was supposed to be walking me through how to email eBay about my complaints with their changes and their new policy on holding a seller's payment through PayPal. She kept giving me the wrong info, then finally when she did actually give me the 'right' topics to click, she pointed me towards requesting a reimbursement of a listing fee. I said, "I thought you were directing me to the place to email about my complaints on their new policies, and were going to tranfer me to billing for my issue with the listing fees..." to which she replied, "Oh, yes. I'm sorry, let me help you with that issue," and then, "Hmm, my computer is a bit slow, and I am having trouble accessing the sites for fee reimbursement..." I mean, come on... At any rate, I never got the info, I finally just said, "Just PLEASE tranfer me to billing so I can sort out my listing fees...."

Personally, I do look at the Featured Items, at least once. And while I do like to see people's work who don't use Featured Plus, I do feel that there is more exposure by being on the first page.  Somtimes I don't have time to filter through all the pages of bears... and I would imagine that there are others out there that don't all the time, either... It was very much worth my extra money to be listed in Featured Plus by their old standards, because I think that even if collectors do have time to sift through all of the pages, they do still look at the Featured items. It's kind of hard not to when it's right there in front of you, know what I mean?  And I found that I had far more watchers and tended to get higher bids (often by new faces, not my regular bidders) listing as Featured Plus.  And with eBay making these new changes, not everyone is opting out of the new search style... and I have half as many watchers right now.  Just a coincidence? I dunno... maybe Count Cottontail isn't as good as I thought he was... or maybe I'm not getting as much exposure because eBay is in the middle of changing and my work isn't as visible.

Who knows... all I know is that right now, my husband is gone at Basic Training for the Army, and until we receive his first paycheck, this month all of our bills are riding solely on me, and I would have been fine if I were getting the bids like I was before. This is a heck of a time for me to not be making as much.

And Denise, I know I can opt out of the new search, but what about when eBay changes absolutely and there is no 'old search'?  eBay has already changed the definition of Featured Plus on their site, so it's only a matter of time if they are allowed to get away with all of their 'changes for the better'....

Yes, you can always revert back to the old version, but you won't be able to once they decide to start using the new version completely... And how they have changed the definition of Featured Plus, that tells me that they plan to go ahead with this new way of searching...  Our Featured Plus listings may still be all on the first page for now with the old version, but if you view with the new version (which I think is going to eventually become the only option) featured plus will be  broken down into the pages of your search results.

Kelly, with the older version, you should be able to see all of the Featured Items... There should be about 20 or 30 or so....

Here is Featured Plus! As quoted from eBay in their policies section:

How Featured Plus! works in Search:
Search results can be organized by the listing end date, price, or other options. There are 50 results per page. Your Featured Plus! item will display at the top of the page it naturally falls on in the search results list.

Hi all, I am not sure if everyone is aware of this, but occassionally I go into the Search on eBay just to see what other bears are out there, and see my listing amongst everyone's work. 

Well, the default when I go to eBay is the 'Newer Version of Search' and I did not see my Featured Plus listing, nor did I see many of yours who have listed with Featured Plus!  I only saw about 5 Featured Plus listings... Even when I change the 'Sort By...' option. 

I contacted eBay Live Help (what a joke... by the way) and they informed me that Featured Plus! in the new version (I wonder how many collectors are viewing eBay now with the 'newer version'!) means that your Featured listing will be at the top of whatever page your auction happens to fall on... So, as an example, if your auction is on the 14th page out of 20 in Artist Bears>OOAK it will be at the top of the 14th page... NOT on the first page before all of the regular listings. But we're still paying the extra for more visibility!

This is 'How eBay is changing for the better'.... They say. 

Kimberly W.

P.S. By the way, I was on 'LIVE HELP' for over an hour to get this information... she only divulged this after trying to send me many links saying, "Here's your auction right here..." and giving me the run around by saying things like, "I am able to see your auction..." and "It IS in the featured section on my screen".... Yeah....

Awww, I LOVE Ozzie!  We changed our shelter dog's name from Sage to Charlie, and she picked it up very quickly!  Ozzie definitely looks like an Anatolian Sheperd mix of some sort... He's handsome, at any rate!!

Awwww, he's adorable, Kim!  I love his face and that material is way cool!

HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE, Your baby puddle is just TOOOOO CUTE, Wendy!!!         Sorry I've been a stranger... 

Hi Brenda, read my post in here further up.... they can and WILL disconnect... it happened to me, if they don't want to deal with an issue....

Hee hee hee, thanks all!  Samuel and Frodo get along soooo well.  Frodo almost never runs away from Sam, even though he usually comes by to smoosh Frodo into the carpet and give him 'head butt' kisses...    All the kids and dogs are getting along well over here! 

Daphne - Hee hee hee!  Frodo was watching Animal Planet with us the other evening; it was so funny!  I've never really had a dog that actually sat there and WATCHED tv... but he was enthralled with those animals on tv!

Jane - YES, thank goodness for sippy cups with safety lids and... spill proof! We'd have some gross floors without them!!