Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

now, now, Mel, I've seen bear people do this too. . . in fact, I once spent an entire banquet sitting next to a woman who would only speak through her teddy bear.

talk about creepy  :crackup:

and it wasn't an artist bear neither

I agree. . .they are facinating. . . and more than a little creepy.  I show them (on ebay) to shop customers & clients occasionally and 'creepy' is usually the first word out of their mouths. ..

I treat velvet the same way I do pile fabrics and mohair - I fray-check every edge of the pattern piece, shave the seam allowence. and I don't use pins or alligator clip, which can crush and mark the pile, but 1/2" binder clips from Staples, which hold tight. flip off easily and don't leave marks if you clip to the seam allowence.

fray-checking will help stop the shifting and streching of the fabric and stablize it, much the same as it does when you coat the inside of knit=back furs

for more tips on working with velvet:

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Sew … Velvet.htm

I saw this set 'in the fur' at the TBF photo shoot, they were even more wonderful close up, such meticulous work, too. beautifully done :clap:  :clap:

got to admit that I'm a little bamboozled myself.  I rarely take the time to fill those out, but how bizarre.  how do you improve that if you can't list?  and for the third time, from the same auction winner, ebay is holding my funds 'to ensure customer satisfaction'  I will be suggesting sending a check from now on. 

who do you suppose sits around and thinks these things up???

lord love a duck, Ellen, we sure share this trait!  my mothers been telling me for years 'kel, you just don't say things like that to people'  - and I'm either, like, 'um' I didn't mean too' or 'I guess I do' 

so I too have learned the value of both silence and emoticons!

it's a very cute bear - and very pink, I couldn't imagine pinker!  but I'm still puzzling over the 'cuddly' part, too.  is it possible she likes her bears stuffed softer?  jointed looser?  what did you use for stuffing?  woodwool?  poly?  plastic pellets?   would she be happy if you were able to 'fix' it somehow?  everybody is right, logic says leave it alone, but the perfectionist in me agrees with you, I'd like to be able to pinpoint the problem and fix it.

zapped!!!  the little suckers got me!  a nice little email telling me they were holding $975 dollars for 21 days 'just to be safe'. 

yeah, right,     

I've had that paypal account since '98, with nary a single error, a transaction number over 1500 AND over $800 in my account and suddenly I might be a risk???

:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

color me unimpressed

thanks, folks!  the birds are really fun to do, but they don't really appeal much to my teddy bear collectors.

Marilyn, the birds are jointed at the hip, so they actually fold right up and fit in a suitcase fairly easily (in a 30" suitcase)

these are a few of my lifes-sized sandhill crane chicks

the one balancing on one leg was a small engineering challenge.

and the photo I used for reference

I thought it would be fun to show a couple of my larger storks & herons.  the first one is 36" tall and used as the centerpiece for my Hugglets show 2 years ago.  Because it needed to free-standing on a rather wobbly cloth-covered suitcase (the traveling bear-artists instant display riser)  I made it a leather base with wire-covered leather reeds & grass to help support it.  unfortunately, it sold so quickly that I was unable to get more that 1-2 quick shots.  sorry for the picture quaility.  they have leather beaks, feet and eyelids, antique taxidermy eyes, loc-line necks and are jointed at the hip.

the second is a life-sized female great blue heron & her chick I did last winter.  the heron is 48" tall, the chick is 18".  another one that I only got one fast 10-minute opportunity to photograph in very bad lighting. It was a rush birthday commision for a wife who loved herons.  they have leather beaks, feet and eyelids, antique taxidermy eyes, loc-line necks and are jointed at the hip.

there are lots more pictures of these and my other storks, cranes, egrets, chickens  and other winged fowl.

Bing!!!

yep, I read that, but I took it to mean that they were adding additional editoral departments slowly, more fiber arts, etc.. .  it stands to reason that if the mag goes quartly, the individual issues will be bigger, not smaller   -   and I'd say as a community, we'd better do our best to make sure that it happens - and submit, submit, submit, subscribe & support.

sweetie, Mindy didn't bail as an editor, she got a promotion.  The news was in the latest email advert and the dec TB&F editorial.  She's not leaving Mavador and still going to be very much in the loop at TB&F - she told me so personally when I sent her a congrats after reading the editorial.

I think the change with the magazine is really for the best, I'd rather have 4 fat issues a year that seriously deal with soft-sculpture as an art - along with the new kids magazine for all the boyds and gund stuff.

I don't have any suggestions as far as shows go, I didn't know that DC Expo was out - ouch! (isn't that Teddy Bear Review's show?")

I think that TB&F is about the best magazine we've got out there.  They treat our work as art, display it as art in a really classy format, and it promises to only get better.  I was appalled by the thiness of the current issue, and I partially blame myself for not supporting them as a subscriber for the last 5 years.  I won't let it happen again.

(ps - as a single mom transitioning to a new position, I'm not sure she has time to read TT every day - and I'm sure the new editor is busy as a big dog herself settling into a new job).

line them all up in a row and call them bad names, tell that their mother dresses them funny. . .that their buttons don't match. . .their collars are wrinkled. . .

they'll be in tears in no time!

seriously, you are best off making the clothes first, then distressing them.  it will be easier to make sure your 'wear' spots are actually in spots that get wear - the collar, the cuffs, the knees.   and just throwing the clothes in the washer will help age them a lot.

annealed wire is steel wire that has been heat-treated to have no memory.  if you get a kink or a bend in it, it's very easy to straighten.

one note on using copper electrical wire for armature - copper wire has a high conductivity, but a very low tensile strength.  in other words, it's soft, and fairly easy to break by twisting.  I've used black coated 14-gauge electrical wire for years to wire all the trees and lights in place when I decorate our Main Street and have gone though many huge rolls, so I've had some experience with it.  I doubt anyone will be twisting your teddy's arm off, but it's something to think about.

I use galvanized steel wire where I want rigidity and annealed where I need flexibility, in gauges anywhere from 4 - 28, depending on the size of the piece. 

Judi, I really like your idea of using apoxie sculpt to strengthen joints.  I've got a bunch just sitting here anyway.

yeppers! our miz Mindy is now the editor of TB&F's sister puplication, Doll Reader, but she says she'll still be active behind the scenes at TB&F

it's a terrific idea and I was hoping you were going to report a resounding success, but frankly, I don't think most of us have the traffic at our website - or the cliental - to be able to run a private auction.  I didn't turn to ebay thinking I was going to strike it rich or make a killing, I did it because I had to pay the rent and seriously needed to expand my collector base.

my auctions have done ok, not spectacular, and sold for about what I would have priced them at my website (tho Wally was a very good deal)and I have to say that while I've only done 2 successful auctions to date, I've sold 3 other pieces as a direct result of my ebay listings, all to completely new clients.  so while I hate ebays silly rules & fees, I guess I'll be using them until something better comes along.

and I'm with Jenny on the whole ebay structure thing.  I understand it.  personally, I love shopping on ebay and rarely purchase anything elsewhere if I can buy it on ebay (my other account has over 1800 transactions, both buying & selling).  I love the idea that I'm either getting a bergain - or that my item is so valuable that everyone else wants it, plus that little thrill of the winning the bid.  I'd miss that in a private auction, and it would be hard to start a bidding war if no one else could see what the next bid is.  I also think maybe part of the lack of response to your  auction might be reluctance to insult you by bidding really low - or the thought that they might be overpaying by not seeing the next lowest bid.

after ebay, TT itself is the best exposure I've had in years - 'cept maybe for that magazine cover ;-)  :dance:

congrats, Shelly!  it's my total complete favorite show and that trip always one of the highlights of my year, but now I'm kind of sad, reading through the posts, because I had to pull out this year.  my favorite nephew's getting married that weekend and I was threatened with excommunication, family visits - and worse - if I didn't show up.  Hugglets is always like 'old home' week' for me, and seeing all those smiling, familiar faces when I walk in the door is just the best (Paula's just inside the door and her smile lights up the whole room).

but I'll be back next year.  good luck and break a leg!

thanks for all the compliments!  I'm really honored to be there, I can tell you that!

and I got my own copy (copies!) yesterday, and the whole mag really is a TT-roll call - Robert, Mikki & Edie are all in Bruins & Buddies, Tami, the Zimmers, Chloe, Judi, Samantha are all in 'carols' spread with Naughty Nick - I'm sure I've left someone out, sorry. . .

and I noticed reading the editorial that our miss Mindy is moving up!  Editor of 'Doll Reader'!!!  gosh almighty, what a lucky lady!  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

well, say what you want, whatever version I choose to search, old or new, I never get more that 3-9 'featured plus' listings at any one time.  there used to always be 50-60, all of the featured plus.

funny, loads and loads of 'buy it now' show up next, every time. . .

gosh. . .I'm so confused. . .

oh, wait. . .

we're back where we started. . .  :crackup:

thanks, Joanne, I get it now - but how about $19.99 to get 'ramdomly selected'

yeeeeehaaaaaah, as they say down in Texas!

this is a totally new development.  I just went to try starting a listing, and the 'featured' options have changed, as have the prices.  the old $19.99 'featured item' appears to be gone,, along with $24.99 featured gallery' option,  replaced by a single $24.99 'featured first' item that they explain as thus in the listing options:

Featured First ($24.95)

Showcase your listing at the top of search results in the Featured area. Gallery Plus included!

Listings are randomly selected to appear in the Featured area from sellers who maintain a Raised or Standard Search Standing. (italics mine)

Add pictures to make your items more successful and to take advantage of features like Gallery Picture, Gallery Plus, and Featured First.

sweetmarymotherofgod, what are these people up to. . .

(I think this might be what the other Kelly was talking about, also)

the really bizzare thing is that I have been paying the $24.99 'featured gallery' fee because eBay wouldn't let me use the $19.99 'featured plus' option until I have a feedback rating of '10'.  I've been buying like mad & begging for my feedback to get myself up to a '10' by Sunday, as the 'featured plus' option seemed to score far more hits. . . and now the option is gone.  . . . .

I feel like I'm in Orwells 'Animal Farm'. . . what rule will they change next, for what arbitrary reason. . .     and to hear 'Oz Matilda' talk in another thread, they are even monitoring TT at time . . .totally bizarre. . . (oh sure, they are probably just reading, but doesn't monitoring have more punch. . .?

awww, thanks, 'tilda!  I have to admit that I think it's a pretty great cover myself, and not just 'cause it's my Nick (ok, that helps alot, but. . ) but I also think that Teddy Bear & Friends - under Mindy's savvy art direction - has become one totally cool magazine, and I can't wait to see what changes are going to happen with the new format.

the photo shoot really was fun, and watching Mindy & Pammi Shirk (the photographer) work together was amazing, as was the studio we shot at.  they had the most incredible digital camera/editing setup I've ever seen, and these wall-sized softboxes, including one hanging on a crane/boom setup that looked like a piece of industrial construction equipment.  Pammi was the same photographer that did my first TB&F shoot, in 1997, so it was like meeting an old friend, and Mindy's son Jack was there to provide comic relief (a totally cool kid who actually reads)  except for getting lost 4-5 times on the way down there, it was a terrific change of pace to my usual 12-hr-in-the-studio grind.  :dance:

editing your listing ia another reason your listing might disappear for a while - I edited my Wally listing last saturday morning and it disappeared completely from ebay for over 16 hours - all day saturday! - and I know it wasn't just my imagination, because I had emails from clients wondering if I had ended the listing early.

when I finally got in touch with ebays 'live chat' they told me that when you edit your listing, it gets put back in a queue, and that the 'q' is really long on a busy weekend.  sheeeesh, go figure!  never gonna do that again. .