Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hi Daphne,

I'll email you with more info once I've checked, but I should be able to send what you need.  I am kind of a sucker for those synthetics, love 'em to death so I try to keep stocked at all times.  Never know when you'll need to make an emergency polar bear or rabbit, you know.

Cheers,
Kelly

Ah yes, I do need to add the eBay link to my person listing here.  I guess I was wondering if it was permissible to do something like this.  Let's say I buy 10 yards of 3" blue mohair.  Then I decide I don't like blue.  So I list it all on eBay and then post to Teddy Talk and say 'Hey guys, I just listed 10 yards of 3" blue mohair on eBay".  Can I do that last step, posting to the board to let people know what supplies have just been listed?

P.S. I do not have 10 yards of 3" blue mohair, before anybody asks for some 
Kelly

I looked it up in the rules for the board, and I'm still not sure about this.  If we are offering bear-making supplies for sale (say on eBay), are we allowed to post to the board regarding those items?  The way I see it, somebody selling bear-making supplies is selling a 'bear to be', so it can't be too off base.  I only ask because it is getting to be spring cleaning season, and the answer probably affects more than just me.

Cheers,
Kelly

I knew of a fellow that had a unique way of dealing with junk calls.  He would tell them he was *extremely* interested in their top-of-the-line product and thank them *so* much for calling.  Once he got the salesperson very revved up on the idea of making a sale, he would tell them someone was calling on the other line, and to please hang on!  He'd put them on hold and leave them there for 30 minutes or so.  He'd check back with them then, make sure they were still there, tell them how very excited he was about their product and to please not hang up, he just had to finish his business on the other line... then he'd put the salesperon on hold another 30 minutes.  He would repeat that process indefinitely, or at least until the other guy hung up.  Apparently, once the salesperson realized they were being made a fool of, they never would call back.

Kelly

I'm really sorry to hear about this, Danni, I know you've put a lot of time and effort into Bearwitched.  It is always disappointing to find out about such unprofessional behavior (gossiping and viciousness) in any professional venue.  And in the bear community, it always seems doubly shocking when the bears themselves are so... well.. innocent.  I can't blame you if you decide this venture isn't for you.  But in other ways, I hope you stick it out!  If someone had concerns about the way something was displayed on your site, I would have hoped they would have contacted you with a comment or suggestion (particularly since your site was new, and any new site makes refinements over time).   If you do decide to hang in there, can you use a rotating display to solve this problem, where each person is displayed in random order?

Hugs  :hug:
Kelly

Mindy, can you see Aleta's card here in this post?  (Just out of curiosity.)  Can you see the other images in the other posts, for example in Carolyn Green's post right above this one?  There is a setting in your user profile to display images or not... maybe yours is turned off?

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Repost of Aleta's image:

Jenny, talk to your phone company and see if you can do one of two things.  First, see if you can get a caller ID system.  Once you can recognize it's them when they call, you can ignore the call.  Turn off the ringer if they start calling every 15 minutes.  They have to stop eventually.

My other suggestion would be to see if you can block specific phone numbers.  The only thing better than ignoring the call would be to not receive it in the first place.  (In the US) on my phone system, there is a combination I can dial after receiving a call to trace the call.  Once I have the number, I can block it through the phone company.  I would not hesitate to use that option if some loser called me like the one that's bothering you.

Good luck!
Kelly

Kim, thank you for your response on this!  I was getting concerned that it seemed like ALL glues were getting a bad rap lately.  I know for my mother and I, we always try to be mindful of how archival the products we are using are.  With her history in fine art, this is something she has always been concerned with.  She once told me a story of how a few decades ago, painters went through a craze of doing big abstracts with toothpaste on them!  They'd smear raised mounds of toothpaste all over the painting for a 3D effect.  People paid a fortune for them, tens of thousands of dollars!  A year or two later, the toothpaste fell off.  The enthusiasm for these works, needless to say, passed.

Anyway.  Not all glues are the same.  It's not like we're all gluing our bears together, but glue may be the occasional necessity for some portion of the process or accesories.  Look for the keywords on a bottle of glue that Kim mentioned before you use it on your projects, words such as pH neutral, acid-free, archival, or non-yellowing.  I know I've showed the elaborate ornaments that I make on this board before.  My mother made similar ornaments when I was young.  She used the same type of glue that I use now, and it is archival.  Her ornaments, now 25-30 years old and up, look as good as they did the day she made them.  It gives me confidence that my own should last a lifetime.

Hugs,
Kelly

Yes, I agree with the others.  I have used a BIN on eBay bear sales, and I'll just put the BIN a level above my regular retail pricing.  Of course, then when it sells I always wonder... 'if it had just been an auction, would people have fought over it????'.  BINs are particularly nice for doing quick sales, though.

I think one question to ask yourself would be... when you ask a reasonable price for your bear on eBay, do you usually have one or two people bid on the bear, or many, many interested parties?  If you usually just get one or two bids on an auction, you might as well try the BIN.  Maybe that one interested party would be interested enough in the bear to pay a little more and not have to wait for the end of the auction.  However, if you routinely have people fight each other for your bears, unless your BIN price takes that into consideration and is even higher, you're probably better off letting your regulars cheerfully duke it out in an auction.

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Shantell, that is my problem, too!  I feel bad if I greet a few new members and then not the next few... or I post comments for half a dozen bears in the showcase and not the next half a dozen.  I just can't keep up with all of them without making it a full-time job, and I feel really bad for responding to some people and not others!  Hopefully it is a common enough problem that everyone understands, I would hate to think I might hurt someone.

Hugs,
Kelly

Trapunto pawpads can be really lovely!  We've only done them once, but will definitely do them again (our one trapunto example is actually the bear in my avatar, who has leather trapunto pads).   We want to try ultrasuede the next time around.   Fabian Song does really elaborate trapunto pads, if you've ever seen one of his bears... the pawpads wind up very rounded and then he shades around them.  Another idea would be to do sculpted pawpads out of polymer clay or resin.  My mother once did a bear with polmer sculpted pawpads covered with leather.  Very interesting effect.

Good topic!  Looking forward to seeing all the answers 
Kelly

Very interesting info from Laura, Shelli thank you for posting it!  You should talk to her about writing a little article on that subject for TBR... I think people would love to read a special 'Behind the Scenes at the Golden Teddy Awards!' article that, as you said, de-mystifies the judging process.

While I think that there are already quite a few contests out there, and I don't think another half dozen really need to exist... but I really would love to see a contest where we could enter and receive actual feedback on our work.  How about an Excellence in Design award?  Or I'd also love to see an award where the bears were judged IN PERSON.  It seems to me that the judging in such a case would be best done at a major bear show, though it would be nice if people not attending the show could ship their bears in for the process.  It would also seem to me that for the extra effort involved, the entry fee would wind up higher (though on the plus side, that would also narrow down the field of competitors).  The prestige of winning an award where the judges were actually allowed to poke and prod at all of the entrants, twisting the limbs and picking at the eyes and studying the seams... people that won something like that would be known as REALLY meticulous artists.  I love the integrity and quality of both the TOBY and Golden Teddy awards, but let's face it... part of how well you do really is on whether you could submit a good photo or not, and that really doesn't have anything to do with how gorgeous your bear is.

On another note, I've always wished that the TOBY or Golden Teddy awards would release the vote count on the top one, two or three bears in each category.  I think it says a lot if they could say "this bear won with 75% of the vote!", or "this bear received 45% of the vote, and this runner-up bear received 43% of the vote".  It would show how tight the numbers were... whether the winner was a landslide or just barely squeeked out over the number two bear.  Know what I mean?  I'd love to see that.

Ho hum... dreamin' this morning... 
Kelly

Love the name, though 'guild society' sounds a little redundant.  Would making it a club instead of a guild, society, or association give the impression that it is a little more informal / open?  If so, how about TLC... the Teddy Lovers Club.  I can see the t-shirts now... "Everybody needs a little TLC" or "Put some TLC in your hug".  OK, I'll stop now.  I like the TBAGS name, too.

Kelly

Hehehe, I see both sides of the argument on this one.  There are awards, and then there are AWARDS... but which ones are most important will depend on who you ask.  So I don't have a problem with anyone saying they are award-winning if they have, in fact, won something... though I would prefer to know what the award was so I can make my own decision as to how important it is to me.  Your 8th-grade swimming medal may mean a lot less to me than your ten TOBY awards.

In the fine artist world, there are artists who make a point to say they are LISTED artists.  This sounds so very impressive.  What it means in many cases is that they submitted their information to some sort of list somewhere themselves, or submitted their information with a chunk of money attached to be included in some published list of artists' names.  There's not even anything stopping someone from starting their own list so they can be listed.  Not exactly impressive when you find out the details.

I know I mentioned this on another thread, but a bear artist calling themselves published when they have bought ad space in a magazine is... well... a wee bit misleading, in my opinion.

People are funny folks 
Kelly

Nancy, I think that is a really lovely idea.  What about sending two cards with each purchased bear?  One card featuring their newly purchased bear (for them to keep if they want), and one card featuring something else, that they could use in trades.  That wouldn't be against any rules that I'm aware of.

Hugs,
Kelly

Lynette, good luck with your email!  I think if I were to approach such a sensitive subject, I would mention that I greatly admire her work and would not want to see her hurt.  But that you have recently been made aware that Disney embroidery designs may be allowed only for personal use, you were concerned and wanted to make sure she knew.  Or something like that.

Hugs!
Kelly

Wow, that is really odd!  Never heard of it, thanks for sharing!  Funny thing how the laws can differ so much.

I think just about any artist I've ever known would foam at the mouth at the thought 

I think down here in the states we have become VERY proactive and agressive about copyrights, particularly in the last few decades.  But I'm so used to the way it is dealt with here, it seems odd to hear that just over the border the law can be 'nah, go ahead and download that music file if you want it!'.  And over here, we're suing little old ladies because their grandson's cousin's best friend's dog downloaded a song on her computer.   

Hugs,
Kelly

Should probably also add this, as trademarks were brought up.  Here are some copyrights vs. trademarks differences.  Copyrights in the US are automatic... basically, if you create something, it's yours.  In our case, the bears we make our ours (presuming it was an original pattern and all that).  It's easier to protect and defend your copyright if you have filed with the US Copyright Office, but that's not a necessity... you still hold the copyright.  It is possible to transfer a copyright ONLY through paperwork at the US Copyright Office, just the sale of an item neither relinquishes nor transfers the copyright of that item to the buyer. 

A trademark, which could be the name or symbol associated with a company, needs to physically be filed for, I think through the US Patent & Trademark Office.  A trademark is not automatic, just because it is something you associate with your business or brand does NOT mean you are protected with a trademark.  It also expires sooner, which means that it needs to be renewed every so often. 

I should also mention that while I try to keep up to date on such topics, I am not an expert.  Someone that is an expert is more than welcome to prove me wrong on any of this.

Cheers,
Kelly

This is really an issue of copyright, as opposed to trademarks (different creature altogether).  As for someone buying a book with an artist's work in it and being able to sell prints off it... either this is something that is VERY different in the U.S. vs. Canada, or that's a myth in both countries.  'Course the laws may differ a little if the artist is 300 years dead or something.

Copyright here in the U.S. in non-transferrable in that whether you buy a painting or a bear, you do NOT get the rights to reproduction or likeness.  You buy that one item, not the entire licensing agreement to it.  Artists would be shooting themselves in the foot to sell any original painting, if any dope with a scanner and printer could sell a limitless number of prints off that painting the second they get their hands on it.  Bear art is no different.  If I bought an artist's bear, and then decided to tear it apart to steal the pattern, then made bears to sell off that pattern OR licensed that pattern to a manufacturer, that is a blatant copyright violation.  I bought the bear and the bear only, NOT the rights to the bear.  By that same token, if I bought an artist's bear and then had my mother paint a pretty picture of that exact bear, and then we decided to sell merchandise with the likeness or make prints off her painting to sell, this is also copyright violation.  This is the kind of thing that gets traditional artists hopping up and down mad... and I know it is a problem as more advanced scanners and printers are in the hands of people in their homes.  People manufacturing homemade prints off artists' work is a very real problem in the art world, and one I hope to never see transferred over to the bear world.

<sigh>  Wouldn't it be easier if the entire world was just... well... honest?   
Kelly

I just did a quick search online, and I am coming up with the Brother embroidery design cards (featuring Disney) with attached warnings.  Here is one from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00070 … e&n=284507

For those who don't want to bother with the link, the warning specifies:
"Disney Designs are for personal use only and cannot be used for re-sale, business, commercial or industrial purposes"

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Oh, pretty picture!  We haven't exactly had a white winter in NY state (first time I can ever recall, and I've lived in the area for almost 20 years!).  Please pack up your little brown & white friend in the one photograph and send him over to me, won't you? 

Sorry to hear you have not been well, hope you start feeling better soon!
:hug:

Kelly

My understanding is that you could license the use of the images from Disney (of course, for a hefty price, I would imagine).  Usually this is in the realm of manufacturers, and my understanding is that (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) the licenses tend to be exclusive for an item.  For example, one company could be licensed for that time period to make Mickey and Minnie dolls, however another company at that same time could make Mickey and Minnie coffee cups... that kind of thing.  As for just using the Disney characters on an artists' work whenever that artist feels like it, uh, no.  She will be lucky if Disney doesn't find out about her, if she is in fact doing that without any sort of licensing agreement.  Disney is known for being particularly nasty about defending its copyrights... I've even heard stories about them threatening daycare centers for little children, who painted a Disney character on the playroom wall for the children to look at.

The sewing machine companies probably have an agreement with Disney and the other copyright holders of the stitched characters images they offer.  One would hope.  I would also hope that somewhere in the fine print when you, as a sewing machine user, receive those character images, would tell you exactly whether your rights to the images were 'recreational use', 'personal use', etc.  If you've ever looked at the edge of a bolt of fabric at the fabric store, generally the fabric with copyrighted characters (such as Disney) will have such a warning written on them, specifying that the fabric is not to be used commercially.  I once bought some Daisy Kingdom brand fabric at the store, only to get home and realize that they had a message on the side specifiying non-commercial use.  Wound up donating the fabric to a woman who makes quilts for charity cases, as we couldn't have used it for our 'for sale' bears.

Anyway, just my $0.02 
Kelly

I think Jenny's and Nancy's submissions were for the TOBYs as opposed to the Golden Teddies.  They may get to sit on pins & needles for a few more weeks (month? how much longer until the TOBYs are determined, anyway?).

Cheers,
Kelly

The funny thing is, the only great disappointment that I had in this entire experience was the initial trauma of picking up my photos and finding out that 98% of them were LOUSY!  Then having to weed through the bad photos, eliminating other bears that I'd wanted to submit... all I had left were some photos of my horse, I was not completely pleased with them but did submit the best that I could find in the set.  So it makes a little more sense to say that I am actually relieved that my horse got passed over for this... now nobody has to see those photos!  Hindsight being what it is, I shouldn't have submitted anything at all when everything seemed to be working against me at the time. 

On the plus side, I did get to retake photos for the TOBYs, as we had an extra few weeks in between the two deadlines!  The photo I posted here of my horse was the TOBY-submitted photograph, not the earlier one.  Think we can convince TBR to push the 2007 Golden Teddy deadline back into January?  I found it hard to make the December deadline past the holiday crush, the January deadline for the TOBYs was much easier.  A girl can always dream, can't she? 

And so it goes 
Kelly

Oh, I initially thought the bear in your new avatar must have been your nominee.   

See the problems you give us, you make so many gorgeous bears that I, for one, can't keep them all straight!  Beezley gets a '10' on my pick-me-up scale, he is an absolute peach.  You shouldn't let him read all these compliments though, he might get a big head about it.  Uh, bigger, head.

Bear hugs,
Kelly