Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I received a rather exciting email this morning, and after my initial buzz settled, I have got to thinking about what it really means to accept such an invitation.
Here's part of the email...

I came across your link through Lisa Dopking's website and was extremely impressed with your bear designs. I wanted to know whether you may be interested in working with me to showcase an original design of yours in an upcoming edition of the magazine. We pay to publish the instructions for your project and this project would need to be made specifically for the magazine, having not been in pattern format, advertised, taught etc previously.

The magazine is a well know craft magazine, you know the type, they may have a bear pattern, a quilt pattern, a cloth doll etc.
My dilemma is that although I am honoured, and indeed I have never been published before, I don't know whether this is actually going to get me anywhere. Of course if it were a bear mag I would be in, no questions asked, but I'm wondering if the time I would spend designing this bear and making it, would be better spent actually making bears to sell. Do collectors read these type of magazines?
Also, I'm wondering if the rights to this pattern then become exclusively theirs and therefore I can't sell it in the future as a pattern. They'd want to pay a decent amount for that in that case, if you add up what you could make on pattern sales.
My initial reaction was to want to email her a yes straightaway, but then I thought 'Why be so rash when I can ask the girls what they think?" After all, with the wealth of knowledge available here, there's bound to be someone who will point out something I hadn't considered. I just want to know what I want, before I email her back. What do I want? :/
Anyone have any thoughts on this matter?

She's just beautiful Jenn! Love the eyes and the hair in particular!
Shantell..you remind me of Veruca Salt! :doh:

Oh and Heather! If ever you want to come and experience Australia....I'll be happy to put you up for a few days!

Eileen....you must have posted while I was still uploading them! You have to click submit then edit for each pic..takes a while!
Hope you like Rat Attack!
Bravo to you for rescuing that rat. I can NOT for the life of me understand how some people can get joy from watching an animal kill another. It's so cruel that they feed live rats to snakes..if it were kittens or puppies they were feeding them, imagine the public outcry! Same thing in my book.
That noise they make when you are stroking them is called 'Bruxing' and it's the equivalent of purring. My last remaining rat, Ruby, sits on my shoulder when I watch telly and as I scritch her back, she softly bruxes into my ear. Precious moments.

Heather,
I have a few more pics for you...same trip to our local wildlife park. the unlabelled one is a Wallaby with a baby in her pouch. They are a smaller version of the kangaroo. These ones are very tame and will eat from your hand. In the wild, Kangarros will come and take your lunch from you..no questions asked! The big Red Kangaroos can reach six foot high when they stand tall and can be very scary looking. The males are very muscular.
The kangaroo in the pic has a baby too. The emus are scary looking, but they will eat from your hand too. It doesn't hurt...just a bit like the tap someone else mentions earlier in this thread about another bird.
When my kids leave home, I want to become a wildlife rescue carer. Can't yet because if you have babies to feed, you need to be up every two hours in the night to feed them.

Eileen, The Rat Attack pic is for you. I love rats too...these are our girls when they were 7 weeks old. Unfortunately we only have one left...they don't live long enough. They used to love to all dive down your jumper at once and fly around in there like it was their playground. Very sharp claws though, and often a scenario like that with you and your squirrel babies and your nightie!
Deb..I think you'll find Eileen is talking about domestic rats..not the wild type, which are a completely different species. I think that's sad what happened with the white pet rat and her babies. She should not have been available in a pet shop if she was pregnant anyway, but I won't go there.
Matilda It's actually Raymond Island, near Lakes Entrance that is over populated with koalas...but it sounds like it's not a one off. I have heard of the problems at Kangaroo Island too. Wish they would send some more over here.
Heather you are right...Clamydia is an STD, and that's how it spread so fast in the koala population.

Shantell,
I thought a leather nose would be hard to do as well...but they aren't. Jennifer Laing showed me how to do one in a workshop earlier this year.  I'm sure as in most things, there are many ways to do it. We used really soft, thin leather....we bought a leather coat at a thrift shop for about $5.00. I think that's the thing that always put me off trying was that the leather noses looked thick and I couldn't get my head around how you could stitch thru it. So you need soft, thin leather.

Anyway...we cut the shape of the nose we wanted, then glued it on with a bit of Kwik Grip, and just used an applique stitch to attach it. I went around the nose about three times, to make it all look even. You can stitch very close to the edge of the leather without it pulling through. Also, if you want a raised leather nose, you can either attach shapes under the nose template before you start sewing the top layer on...as in start with a small shape, glue on a slightly larger shape, and so on, until it gets to the height you are after. Another method Jennifer told us is to skip the glue bit (takes a bit more patience) and sew around three quarters of the nose....push some stuffing in and then close the opening. Voila!

Heather,
Here on Phillip Island, we used to have a huge colony of koalas. Somehow they ended up with Clamydia and their numbers depleted so much that they have opened a koala sanctuary and repopulated it with disease free koalas. The downside is that you now have to pay to see them. We still have the odd wild koala ut they are becoming a rare site. Just three hours drive from here on another island, the koalas are so overpopulated and healthy that they are talking of culling them. I hate hearing talk like that...surely thay can relocate them.
I really love our Australian wildlife...it is so unique and the animals are  all so cute!
Melissa...I heard that you have no snkaes and no spiders in NZ..is that right? I have heard that you have white tailed spiders..but no big hairy ones? If that's true...I'm moving! :lol:
Heres a koala I photographed a few weeks back..just for you Heather.

At least you have an excuse to keep him Melissa! He is so cute! Really nice fabric too...really suits the size. String jointing seems the least frustrating and surefire way with the real littlies...not that I would know personally...but my friend Rosey is a miniature pro and she string joints all her minis. The joints are very firm but they can still either sit or stand.

Goodness Jane..you HAVE had a rough trot! Shame you didn't have a laptop in hossy...would make it almost a pleasure! Sounds like you are in a bad way physically...here's hoping you're on the mend soon!

We wanna see Karen...you know the 'rules' in here..no teasing! :P
Put thine money where thine mouth is!

That is SOOO cute Susan!!! And congrats on having the 'How to" published!!

Now would that be Bullwinkle???
Mutton bird in the shops..what next! Quy...we need a shocked smiley and a tantrum one too!

Thanks for the offer Fran..but for now I'll just be content to amire yours! I just don't have the time to work on my bears at the moment let alone trying to squeeze gollies in too. But I have made a note of your offer and when I'm ready I'll yell.
Thanks so much!

Our most amazing birds are the Short Tailed Shearwaters..otherwise known as Mutton Birds (they used to pickle them in the old days and apparently they taste a bit like mutton (lamb)). Every April ..they take off from their burrows in the sand dunes along the south coast of Australia and fly non-stop for thousands of kilometres to the Bering Strait areas of Siberia and Alaska.
They return every September to have their chicks and prepare for this amazing migatory flight once again. It's a round trip of around 15,000 kilometres..and only the strongest birds make it.
Don't we live in an amazing world!

Rikki...your bunny and mousie are just too cute!
And that micro bear defies all odds! It takes a special kind of patience to work on something THAT tiny. He really has personality too...and I can just imagine how hard it must be to get a nice face on a bear that small. Did you stitch him from the outside or did you actually turn those pieces thru? Certainly wouldn't take long to stuff!

The needlefelting list I am on has a member who is a dog groomer, and she felts heaps of replicas of peoples dogs from their dogs own fur. She says the only ones she hasn't been able to felt yet are dogs with sleek coats like Jack Russells. She just cleans and dries the fur and felts away!
Neysa..we are truly pleased to have you here!!

Lynne,
You did a fabulous job on that bear! Well done!
And you are right...what a wonderful resource this place is for us all...right from beginners to seasoned bear makers..we are all learning from each other. This place has such a positive vibe and I for one one get withdrawal symptoms if a day or two goes past and I don't get in here. It's such a breath of fresh air from all the yukky stuff that's going on in the world.
I have learned a heap in here too. :clap:

Danni is right...from the time we are babes with no teeth...Vegemite is lightly spread on our teething rusks!! It is very high in vitamins. I love vegemite too...but it is VERY strong. It is best eaten on HOT buttered toast, with a very LIGHT spreading of vegemite. I had a friend who used to spread it on half an inch thick...still makes me gag thinking of that! I think many foreigners who taste Vegemite for the first time don't know HOW to eat it..and possibly try it straight out of the jar...yuk....or spread too thickly. It certainly is an aquired taste though.
Just to add to the subject...there is also Promite...which is Marmites cousin...although most Aussies see Marmite and Promite as cheap imitations...and they definitely do taste different to the real thing.
Re the pronunciation too...we certainly don't pronounce it as VEH-gee- mite. It's definitely Veg-e-mite as in vegetables.

Sarah,
I had a friend from the states post me a heap of Koolaid. She fitted about 30 packets in a standard $5.00 Global envelope. That's $5.00 USD to anywhere in the world. I did note that one of the girls here on TT..Heather maybe?? offered to post some to those of us deprived enough to not have koolaid on our shelves. I think it's just as well..I've heard it's really bad for the teeth! :lol:
You may even find it is still cheaper this way than ordering it from that Aussie website at $1.25 a packet. I had a feeling it's only about 35 US cents in the US...but correct me if I'm wrong girls.
My friend posted me 4 packets of a few different colours to try..just make sure it's the unsweetened one. I made up a jug for my kids..just to try too.
I have wondered about food dyes too...worth a try! I really MUST get some white mohair and get to it!

Kim (I was going to add a B for Basta after your name so you knew which Kim I was addressing...and then realised that's the same too!!!).

I fraycheck all my seams too..and go in deeper again in the areas where I have the openings because I pull very tight when I ladder stitch and it's reassurance that my seams are strong. Re your avatar..I think its lovely too but would be a shame to delete the text because it's too small..can't you just make the whole avatar double the size?? Or is that the size you designed it at?

Kim..your needlefelted bears are really sweet. I really love the colours you have used in the second bear and the great shaping around the muzzle. Way to go! :clap:

Judi,
Your bears all look so gentle,sweet and innocent..the type you'd tell all your secrets to and feel safe. I reckon it's only a matter of time before you are approached by a filmaker who wants to make one into a kids show character.

She's so sweet Kim...you're really going great guns now! And great camera shot BTW!! :clap:

On whatty wires?? Speak blonde woman! :doh:

Congrats Judi! Y'know..I've never even noticed that you WEREN"T an official help advisor. You don't need a title to be what you are a natural at. You are always so helpful regardless of title.  :clap:

Those are VERY cute Gollies Fran! Are they your own design?
I'd love to have a go at a golly sometime.

What's the bet that Matilda is the same star sign as Penny?? Anyone else wondering if they may be twins separated at birth?