Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Judi, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.  We get so close to our pets, losing them is hard on the entire family.  My thoughts are with you and yours at this difficult time!  Remember to hug the kids and hug your bears as needed  :hug:

Kelly

You've gotten good advice above, I agree with what has been said!  I think if you look at the bunny from the side, their profile should be fairly evenly rounded or slanted... as has been mentioned, their noses are not pronounced.  So where a bear nose will take off at a different angle from the bear's forehead, I think a bunny keeps a smoother profile.  I adore bunnies and can't ever have them due to life-threatening allergies in the family, so I'll have to just keep making them!  Here are two profile shots of some of my bunnies so you can see what I mean about the slant of the head. 

Hope this helps!
Kelly

Hi Sophie,

I'll swap links with you!  Mine is:
http://www.cannabearpaint.com/

Hugs,
Kelly

I seem to recall reading in one of her auctions that Michelle's fairy wings are resin.  So either she's dabbling in making her own resin wings (which is possible), or she's getting them from an artisan somewhere.  Fairy wings are fun though, aren't they?  I've included a few examples of ours below. 

The mini golden fairy bear riding on the bunny has wings made from fusible fibers, much like those described above.  I think I bought them at JoAnns, they are sold in separate colors and you can mix and match as you please before ironing them.  Delicate, but very pretty.  The little silver mink bear and the brown mink bear with the white face both have wings made from brocade fabric.  A little tricky to work with, but also a neat effect. The roly poly fairy bear is a newer little fellow of ours and our first 'Poinsettia Fairy', his wings came from a glittery silk flower and (hard to see in this photo) directly in the middle of his wings is a single perfect poinsettia.  Fun stuff, indeed!

Hugs,
Kelly

I ladder stitch all the way around as well.  It seems to really bond the ear to the head in the most invisible and secure way I've found yet.

Cheers,
Kelly

Do we get a say in which option our donated issues are used for?  I found my favorite 

Hugs,
Kelly

Fantastic, Judi!  Your creations were absolutely gorgeous and the final value much deserved!  You know, I think the Golden Teddy tableaux allows just animal pairs (no teddy necessary, though unfortunately the deadline has passed for them).   I think it's just the TOBYs that require a bear to be included.   I ran into the same problem with the TOBY requirements, I had a pair of animals I really wanted to create for them until I read the rules a little closer.  Oh well!  Congratulations again on the spectacular sale!

Hugs,
Kelly

Well, here's my $0.02.  Several years ago (pre- bear days) I was really into gardening and did quite a lot of seed and plant exchanges.  The host of these swap boards, GardenWeb, had set rules about the exchanges.  I've included a link to the rules for the seed exchange:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/exseed/#exin

USUALLY things went quite well, and 99% of the time I was active there I had an absolutely splendid time swapping goods with people from around the world (before the board became US-only).  But there were always a few problems around, and I think I should mention a few just so people that haven't dealt with trade boards know what can happen.  For example... the word spread to other web sites that people were giving away things for 'free', so people would run in and post extensive 'I want this and this and this and this for FREE! gimmie gimmie gimmie'.  Uh, no.  Sometimes people would arrange trades, receive their traders' goods and NEVER send their goods in exchange.  All it took was one person to burn a group of people.  Occasionally there would be verbal attacks that so-and-so had taken expensive items from people and sent them garbage items.  There was sometimes talk of 'black lists'... people would say 'why can't I circulate a list of people whose trades I didn't like?', which the board strictly (and from a legal standpoint, wisely) did not allow.

So I guess my opinion is that if carefully done, a bear supplies swap board might be really nice to have.  I certainly could find some things I wouldn't mind swapping along, like duplicate issues of bear magazines.  I would be much more wary of bear swaps.  I'm just remembering Jenn's post in the last few days, about the nasty stuff she experienced in a swap on another board.  I think bears are a more 'personal' thing to swap, and items that are personal to people are more likely to cause intense feelings.  It's also not like trading a magazine for a magazine (nearly equal value), or a 1/2 a yard of mohair for two fat quarters or something.  It's harder to judge the fairness of a trade when you're dealing with bears, which can also leave room for people to get angry.

Anyway, hope this helps!
Kelly

OK, made a trip to my favorite Barnes & Noble today and got you the last of what they had, 2 copies.  Both look like they're in excellent condition.  Shelli, email me directly with your address and I'll get these mailed out to you!  Now you only need, what, 8 more?  2 is a start!

Hugs,
Kelly

Shelli,

If Melanie's mother-in-law can't help, I just the other day saw several copies in a bookstore in my neck of the woods.  There is actually one Barnes & Noble here that stocks both British mags in addition to TB&F and TBR (lucky me!).  Let me know if you still need help, I'll be on that side of town tomorrow.

Cheers,
Kelly

My workload either allows 0 bears a week in the busiest times or up to 2 a week when things are quiet.  Between my mother and I both working on bears last year, we probably finished 80-90 in 2005.  By far, most were not mine.  I think the people that do the most bears per week probably are doing bears as a full-time job (or have sewing assistants, though I don't think that's the case with anyone here).

Interesting question!
Kelly

P.S. I think machine sewing versus hand sewing must make quite a difference in time as well!

Well, you can't make a worse mistake than I did.

* Tale of woe to follow *
To get photos of a couple of critters that we were considering for the Golden Teddies and TOBYs, I thought to myself 'I'll use the big old traditional 35mm to get those photos and it will look so professional!'  Well, it really does.  If you use the right film. 

So I went to the photo store to get the right film and got talked out of the kind I wanted... 'no no no, that's not what you want! Try this new film, it will give even better results!'.  Well, I was running pretty late because my one super-complicated submission took until the very last minute to finish.  So I took the photos, got them developed (1-hour because at that point they NEEDED to be mailed!), got to the post office literally 4 minutes before it closed the day they had to be mailed, tore open the prints to choose the best ones to submit... and saw HORRIBLE photos.  So in the end I had been talked out of the right film, and used very much the WRONG film and all the colors were way off.  Out of six potential critters we had wanted to consider, only two had photos close enough to the critter's actual color to submit to the Golden Teddies.  I could have cried.  One bear of my mother's that was so special we had been saving him since March came out looking peach and some other completely unidentifiable color, so couldn't be submitted at all. 
*End of tale of woe *

Anyway.  I have since then gone back to get the RIGHT film (would you believe they tried to talk me into other stuff again?).  So I will take photos of our critters (again!) with the good film and probably also the digital camera, hoping that I will actually have very GOOD photos to choose from for the TOBYs.  Sheesh.  Think the two places will mind if the two critters I submitted to the Golden Teddies will have different photos of them submitted to the TOBYs?  ARGH!  Can you tell I had to get that off my chest?

Back to you, Nancy, sorry for the hijack there.  If you're really stuck finding a good place to print your images, you have enough time to get someone else to print them up for you.  Like I said, I'll be taking in digital shots to be printed to a professional photo place, I just burn them onto a CD first and they run them through a special machine they have to print them.  They don't add any extra garbage to the image unless you tell them to.  So if you're really stuck, talk to me or anybody else that can help, because somebody else could probably get better quality prints made for you and priority mail ship them to you in time for the submission deadline.

Hugs,
Kelly

Beautiful!  Thank you Shelli and Quy, everything is clear as a bell now

Hugs,
Kelly

Very nice, but... I'd like to respectfully request that the default color scheme not be something with grey text on a grey background.  I have good 20-something eyes but the new default scheme is giving me eyestrain.  I share this computer with others, so I log out when I am not actively posting something. Can we vote on the default color scheme, for those who are not always logged in?  My vote is for Lithium, Oxygen or Vanilla Latte for a default.  Oxygen would be the safest, isn't that what was being used before?  Any other thoughts on this?  Sorry to be a pain.

Thanks,
Kelly

Are you using genuine suede or ultrasuede?  If you're using real suede, my understanding is that very fine grain sandpaper will remove just about any stains.  If you're using ultrasuede, here are their suggestions for care, although ink stains are not specifically mentioned:

http://www.ultrasuede.com/about/care.html

My mother the artists suggests contacting a professional art store in your area.  Some artists do work with 'pen and ink' media, and they may have a specialized artists' hand soap that would do the trick.  Her other suggestion was to take some extra scraps of that ultrasuede and make your own ink stains on it.  Then do your testing on the spare piece, so you don't have to worry about dealing with the bear until you've found something that works on the scraps.

Good luck!
Kelly

Cashmere and upholstery velvet!  They give a really delightful effect and I am getting absolutely addicted to using the cashmere.

Hugs,
Kelly

Jenn, I'm really sorry to hear you had such a negative experience!  I find that bear artists are generally really, really nice... unfortunately, people are people and there will always be some rotten apples around somewhere.  Hugs to you and hang in there!

:hug:
Kelly

I think this is an idea that, if carefully done, has a great deal of potential.  A simple review of technical aspects, or as Hayley says workmanship ('even eyes' and so forth), would be a great thing for people to participate in.  I think the subjective comments could have a place as well, as long as they are kept separate and everyone understands that they are just personal opinions.  Personally, not only would I like to know if I had technical issues, I would also want to know if, for example, 8 out of 10 fellow artists felt that the bear's color was unappealing, wanted to see bigger paws, or WHATEVER else.  It's all good to know, and the information can be used or ignored as is desired.

I imagine it might be difficult to keep the identity of the artist who is being reviewed hidden, but what if the panel of reviewers was kept anonymous?  Or rather, mention which people were involved in reviewing the bear, but don't link them directly to their comments.  Just a thought.  Anyway, I think peer evaluation can be a wonderful tool.  I would love to recieve reviews and/or help review anyone else's work.  If there's one thing I've learned, it's that there's something you can learn from just about anybody.

Hayley, your comment about very tight joints got me thinking about something.  One of the artists I was sitting near at the last Schaumburg show actually bought one of Michelle Lamb's bears while she was there.  I had the opportunity to hold her new purchase (holding it oh-so-carefully) and you know, I went to move the arms a little bit and they were so tightly jointed that I couldn't do it easily.  Well, I'm sure I could have if I'd really tried, but I didn't want to look like I was manhandling this woman's brand new $800 bear in front of her.  So I think there's probably a a fine line between what is considered 'tight' versus 'too tight', and I bet that line changes with each person's opinion.  Personally, I came out of that opportunity and started tightening my bear's limbs more

Hugs,
Kelly

Lovely, lovely classic style of bear, Lynne!  Isn't it funny how some of them you start to miss right away?  I wouldn't mind if some of my adopted out bears came back to visit from time to time

Hugs,
Kelly

Good question!  I think in June of 2004 I made a kit bear and started one from a pattern of my mother's.  As of July 2004 I decided that if I was going to go to all the trouble to sew a bear and put it together, I might as well work on something of my own.  So July was the creation of my first pattern. 

I moved fast with pattern creation and such, using my mother and all that she knows as my secret weapon.  She started artist bears in, I think, October 2003, but had a lifelong history of fine art, sewing, toy making, and many other talents that she has been able to draw from.

Hugs,
Kelly

P.S. Hayley, thank you again for the lovely new avatar! 
    :clap:

Ooooh, can't share just yet Hayley, top secret stuff you know

No, in all honesty it was a competition submission piece.  Will share it eventually!  I'm just amazed it got finished at all, there were some 'should I toss it or me out the window first?' moments.

Hugs,
Kelly

Personally, I like the idea of a NON-diet diet approach:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fit … eating.ap/

My mother's very first bears sold for whatever she could get, and several just wound up with friends and family (that's 'free', I guess!).  However, there were really very few of those and as soon as she was more confident with her final product, we did go to $10 an inch as a starting point as had been strongly recommended from numerous sources.  When I started making bears under her business name, I started up with the pricing level she had at the time.  We currently have a pricing range that we are content with, the bear's price ticks further up the scale the more details, intricacy, and so on that it has.  I just blew the top off our 'upper' price range with my last creation, but it took 3-4 times the length it normally would have taken to complete a project, and needed to be priced accordingly.

Bonnie, I really liked the second paragraph to your post, it was very well put.  I think I should elaborate on something from my last response.  When I talked about people at shows being sensitive of pricing, I should mention that this was really about individuals who had been, apparently, making bears for years and years with the same lower-than-average pricing throughout.  My understanding is that these few individuals had a history of selling like hotcakes, but never raised their prices despite encouragement from others.  I think these are very isolated cases, I think most people 'get' that if you are consistently selling out, it's time to do yourself and everyone else a favor and raise your prices.  People checking out the price tags on newer artists' work is probably more a level of curiosity than anything else, not a case of ill will.  Besides, what could really happen if your bears were indeed too cheap?  Well, you'd probably sell quite a few more than average, though maybe you'd have a soft plush animal thrown at the back of your head as you walked down a dark hallway later that day.  Kidding, of course.

Hugs,
Kelly

I was really hoping Overstock.com would give eBay a run for its money when it first launched its auction services.  Unfortunately, their site was badly designed and riddled with problems, which drove all of the hopeful people that tried it away again.  If they'd just done their homework ahead of time, who knows what would have been the case!  How frustrating.  EBay is essentially a monopoly and REALLY needs some solid competition.

Cheers,
Kelly

My experience with a Flexi Ruler was similar to Hayley's, I couldn't stand the thing and found it entirely inadequate for the areas that required the most precision.  I just use a simple vinyl flexible measuring tape, like the kind that quilters use.  I can bend it in any shape whatsoever, measure anything and just make a quick mark on the paper where my measurement ends, and keep movin' on. 

I also freehand sketch out the picture of the final product that I want.  Then I cruelly take scissors to it and lop off the head where it joins the body, cut out the legs where I want them, and start making the pattern pieces from the lopped off parts.  Cruel, but effective!

My mother gave me a tip before I got better at measuring out precise foot pads.  She suggested measuring the length of the bottom of the leg piece (you know, where you'll sew the foot pad onto).  Make on oval with 2/3 the length of the amount you just measured.  She had me fold a piece of paper over in two, mark the start and stop of the 2/3 length on the paper, then just cut half an oval shape from the start to the stop line.  When you unfold the paper you have a symmetrical oval foot.  And remarkably enough, it really did work fairly accurately. 

Hope this helps!
Kelly