Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Feed your head!

All tired out after a long day of being a tiger.

Aww...  He faw down, go "boom!"

(Referencing the previous panda picture.)

"Mummy said to stay here...  Ooh!  What's that over there?"

"You stay right here.  Mummy will be back in just a minute."

Tenancy rights?  Ha!  Bears outnumber humans in this house, 500 to 1!  They don't live with us.  We live with them!  ;)

Yes, every Bear has a story.  When and where he was adopted.  What vacation or special day.  Who gave him to us.
Then, after they've been with you for a while, each one's personality begins to come out.  We have some very precocious Bears.  We have some Bears who like to snuggle on the sofa while we watch TV.  We have some Bears who prefer to sit on their shelves and pretend to be king of all they survey.

There are benefits.  When my wife asks me who took all the cookies from the cookie jar, it's always the Bears who ate them. 

If any of "Us Bears" ever catch up to the person took your purse he is going to find out what happened to Gulliver!

There is nothing wrong with adults collecting Teddy Bears.

Teddy Bears are one of the top five most collected items.  Right up there with stamps, coins, dolls and model trains.
My wife and I have over 1,000 Teddy Bears in our collection.  No!  That's not a joke!  That's a "one" with a comma and three "zeroes."  We have a bedroom in our house that has been specially redecorated to be our Teddy Bear Lodge.

Teddy Bear collecting is a fine hobby.  There is a lot of history involved.
Of course, we know that the name "Teddy's Bear" was coined by Morris Michtom, the founder of the Ideal Toy and Novelty Company, in 1902 after he saw Clifford Berryman's famous political cartoon "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" in the Washington Post.  Did you also know that Theodore Roosevelt is believed to have use a Teddy Bear as his mascot in his campaign for reelection?  Further, did you know that the song "Teddy Bear's Picnic" was used buy BBC broadcast engineers, for several years, as the official test recording for testing and calibrating radio transmission and studio equipment?

There is a lot of history and knowledge of manufacturers and products for Teddy Bear collectors to learn, understand and relate to the general public!  Sentiment and caring are an important part of Teddy Bear collecting but Teddy Bears are not just children's playthings.  There is more to it than that.

If you are a serious collector, some of your Bears can be quite valuable!  The Guinness World Record for most expensive vintage, collectible Teddy Bear is £110,000!

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/rec … ue-origin/

Read that quote over again...  Colonel Bob Henderson, decorated officer of the British Military, collected Teddy Bears and carried one everywhere.
Further...  Japanese businessman Yoshihiro Sekiguchi spent £110,000 to buy Col. Henderson's Teddy Bear at auction!

Don't let anybody make you feel shy about being a Bear collector!
Teddy Bear collecting is a very serious and, possibly, expensive hobby!  You are in the company of some very prominent people!

Hi, Keenzie!

We are 1,000 Bears living with our humans, Randy and Melanie.  Since we are Bears, we can tell you how to take care of your Bear.

When a Bear is new and his fur was just made, there will often be a little bit of fur that pulls out.  This is normal.
A little bit of fluff, here or there, is okay.  If a lot of his fluff pulls out, there is a problem.
Your Charlie Bear's fur should not pull out because of normal hugging and gentle playing.

If your Bear has jointed arms and legs (the kind that you can turn or move) you should play more gently.  Yes, you can break your Bears arms and legs if you play too rough.  Don't pull on your Bear's arms the wrong way.  Turn them the way they are supposed to go.  Don't pull sideways.

The BearMakers who made your Charlie Bear made them for collecting but they also know that kids like to play with Teddy Bears, too.
There are also laws that say how toys are supposed to be made in order to make them safe for kids to play with.  It would be very sad if kids got hurt from playing with toys.  The people who make Charlie Bears know this.  They try to make good, sturdy Bears.  You should not hurt your Bear if you play with him gently.

Yes, Charlie Bears are collectible Bears.  That means that they are a little more special.  You shouldn't play rough but you can still play with your Bear.

Do you like to have tea parties with your Bear?  Do you like to sit together and read a book?  Those are things that collectible Bears like to do best.
They don't like to wrestle.  They don't like to go outside to play very much.  Sometimes, maybe if you are feeling sick, your Charlie Bear can snuggle in bed with you until you feel better.

The better you take care of your Bear, the longer he will be with you.  If you take care of your Bear well enough, he will still be with you when you grow up.
Maybe, some day, if you have children, you will be able to give your Teddy Bear to your son or daughter!  If you take care of him, you will be!     

"Does this outfit make me look fat?"

"You must be THIS tall to ride the roller coaster."

"I think it's going to rain."

Bacon!

The problem with naming Bears is that you don't often tell a Bear what his name is.  He usually tells you.  Sometimes he takes his good, old, sweet time to tell you.

As we think about names, we have decided that the first syllable in "ginkgo" doesn't sound very nice.  It sounds too much like the slang word, "Gink," which means "foolish or contemptible."

Us Bears like "Fincastle" better.  What Bear wouldn't love to live in a castle!  :cool:
We also like the idea of putting a ginkgo leaf in the background.

Like this:

Not saying you should do this exact thing.  Just an idea for brainstorming.
Feel free to like, not like or modify.

We just think it's easier to decide on things if you can visualize the idea.

Ginkgo berries contain butyric acid which smells like rancid butter.  However, if you remove the smelly flesh, the little nut or seed inside is edible.  Ginkgo seeds are somewhat popular in Asia.

Ginkgo trees are dioecious.  That means that there are male and female ginkgo trees, the same as holly.  If there isn't a male tree nearby to pollinate a female tree it won't grow berries.  Because the ginkgo berries are so smelly, most public parks and places that plant ginkgo trees will only plant male trees.  That way, people won't be exposed to the smelly berries.  This is probably the reason why most people don't know that ginkgo trees grow berries.  They've never seen (or smelled) them.

As to naming, remember that the second part of the ginkgo's taxonomic name, "biloba," refers to the tree's leaves that have a distinct two-part shape.  "Biloba" is Latin for "two lobes."  ("Bi" = two or twin.  "loba" = part or lobe.  "Bi" + "loba" = "two-lobes.")

Maybe you can use some of this info to help you use word play and alternate meanings to decide on a name.

Us Bears still like "Ginkgo Bear-Lover."
Say it with a New York City accent.  ("Ginkgo Beah-lovah!"  )

The common name for ginkgo biloba is "maidenhair."

"Maiden-Bears?" 

Also, there is the play on words:  "Ginkgo-Bear-Loba"  or "Ginkgo-Bear-Lover." 

P.S.  T.S. Eliot smiles at you! 

There has been a trend in recent years where people have been using fur from their dogs to make yarn for knitting sweaters and things.  If I remember correctly, it's called "chiengora."

When people make yarn for chiengora, I understand that they often mix the dog fur with a little bit of wool in order to make it stronger.  I'm not certain whether it would be called for in this case but it's something to consider.

I think it will be neat to make a Bear from chiengora. 

I wasn't going to say anything because I might sound negative but, after reading a few posts, I've changed my mind.

As a person who buys Bears, occasionally from people on this website, I would be a lot less likely to adopt from Bearmakers who squabble over semantics and the wording of trade marks.

Too cute to be so bored. 

+1!

Maybe he's done eating?   

Could be.  The shadows make it look like the light is coming from the top, left at an angle.  Might have been a flash gun held off to the side.
Look at the upper left quadrant of the picture it's all dark.  It still looks like the image was tweaked after it was taken.

It's still a nice picture and the bunny is as cute as can be but this over manipulated look just takes away from it.

Peter takes some really awesome pictures of his Bears.  Mostly using natural light as far as I can tell.
If the person who took this bunny's picture had done it the way Peter does, it would have been a perfect ten.

Which one is the fake bunny?  I can't tell.      

I think the picture has been overworked.  The lighting looks like it was faked with Photoshop and it looks like the somebody went to town with the "vibrancy" controls.

It's still a nice photo but they made a "10" into a "9" by messing with it too much.

I can't tell.  Is that a fake-looking real bunny or is that a very realistic-looking fake bunny?