Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Paula, I saw these on your blog yesterday and fell in love       They are very definitely all bear - I particularly like the cream fellow (Amos?) he has such a dreamy expression.  I'm sure they've been snapped up already - lucky new owners!

Your tiny kittens are so cute!  I'm sure they'll find new homes lickety split

I wish....it'll have to be one for my "meant to be productive" winter months.  I've been thinking about pandas too lately...they've just started showing the old (and presumably British) kitkat ad with the panda bears on tv here again lately.  Hmmm...a panda on rollerskates perhaps??

I have a tiny collection of tiny bears.  If I go to a show in Aussie, I bring a bear home with me as a souvenir of my trip...not quite in the same price bracket as a fridge magnet but it's exactly as Shane says above - you look at the bear and remember the whole experience of the trip. 

My collection is quite ecclectic - a mix of traditional (Joan Easton, Starick Bears) sassy dressed girl bears (Karen Alderson) and almost as many critters as bears - bunnies by Laura Unrau and Alexis Young, a Rosey Day duck and one of Karen's bluebirds amongst others.  The critters are there because they make me smile each and every time I look at them

I do have a couple of bigger bears in my collection - and when I have a bigger house, I'll add some more.  There's just no room at the moment 

hee hee....I'm not aussie and I know the two middle people rather well....but as they live about 20 minutes from me and we have regular sewing days together, it's cheating for me to give the answer ; ) they're from tt too and both have golden teddy nominations

What a fantastic show Samantha - you did such a great job transforming that empty room.  I do so like your extra little touches - the balloons, the what are artist bears display.  You must be so pleased with how everything turned out.

Shelly - your table looks just fantastic and each and every one of your rabbits is just so cute!  I am especially fond of the forlon little chap holding his hat in the first photo - I'm sure he and his pals found new homes so quickly.

Jane - you always do such a great job of taking photos - thanks once again for allowing me to virtually visit such a far away show.

I was a bit like Ellen on Sunday...mourning my cancelled trip to the UK and the show.  looking forward to next year though!  I think I need to start that separate bear buying fund immediately! Sooooooo many wonderful bears to choose from 

I am so glad it went fantastically for all of you - it sounds like a great day!  Looking forward to experiencing it in person next year!

Mr Tweedles is gorgeous    and I think the pose is all part of his appeal.  It is lovely to see one of your bears again - they always have the most expressive faces.

Paula, you've done it again.  imho Finnegan is an updated version of the gorgeous traditional All Bears that I fell in love with 10 years ago (yikes!  that sounds ages).  That mohair is just gorgeous the perfect bear colour and a wonderful density...almost makes me want to make a big bear  :crackup:  :crackup:  ahem...don't think that's likely to happen!

edited to say...now that darn Michael Finnegan begin again song is firmly lodged in my Head - thanks Paula

oh Lynne - he is super cute.  I love his tiny size....more like this one please!!

Just gorgeous paula.  She's the epitome of femininity without being too frilly and frou frou.  The remake of the head was certainly worth the extra hard work and that nose is stunning.  Her new bear mum is going to just adore her.

Hi Shelli

It was my understanding that if you had something for sale in your etsy store you were not then allowed to offer that same item for sale in any other marketplace (eg your website or ebay).  I did have an etsy store over a year ago now for my paper goods and that clause stopped me from listing many of my bears there because I couldn't have them on my website at the same time.  Perhaps that rule has changed...it would be good if it had, though I can understand the reasonings behind having it.

I love Etsy.  I haven't really tried it for my bears but did have some reasonable success selling my cards on there, but as I said, that was well over a year ago and I think I sold 6 or 7 things in about 3 months.  I would thoroughly advise getting involved in the forums as that's how I made sales I think.  I keep promising myself that I'll list again one day.

I'm like Shelli - every place but here I use Honeythorpe - here it's my boring first name.  Every now and then I think about changing it to Honeythorpe on here but haven't so far.

Honeythorpe is a totally made up word.  When I came to naming my bear business back in the late 90s I soon realised that there was a plethora of Mel, Melanie and Melissa's in the bear making world so it seemed that every which way I combined Mel and bears someone had already used it (and I was getting confused between existing artists as it was so didn't think I should add myself to the mix). 

So, I went to the meaning of Melissa which is Honey or Honey Bee which is kind of appropriate for bears but of course any convulution of bear and honey had been used too.     At the time I was creating big bears and each bear had a back story - my sister and I were tossing around ideas for a location for the bears to come from and came up with "the bears from Honeythorpe Street" - well I quickly realised that was way too much of a mouthful and so it was shortened to Honeythorpe Bears.  I'm inovlved in a couple of non-bear forums and sales places and there I go by "Honeythorpe"

absolutely gorgeous     I can guarantee not a one of them will be returning home with you after the show!

Hi Smantha

I just know that you will have a fabulous show - you've been putting in so much hard work and I am still so disappointed that I had to cancel my trip to the UK and the show    Am sooo looking forward to the report backs and fingers crossed you repeat your success next year and I get to see it in person!

I think Sky is the perfect name for a westie.  I am so jealous - I'f I could have a dog a westie would be my pick.  cute as a button and packed full of personality and intelligence to boot.

This is little Willow - an order bear who has taken far longer to complete than she should have     She is designed to sit in a willow pattern china cup  and is for a customer who had a similar bear in a cup whisked out from under her nose at a show last year.  Unfortunately I couldn't find another cup to photograph her in. I may have to check the antique shop one more time before I post her. Willow measures 2.5" tall and is created from Sassy long pile fabrics.  She has a waxed blue nose and claws and gingham ribbon sash.

I'm with Jenny on this one - I can't bear to pack my bears away until I have to!  I can see them when I'm working and they're something of a motivator to me when I should be sewing...an omg I only have 4 bears sitting there kind of motivator 

I agree with Daphne about doing tags and things as you go - that's what I'm trying to do this year, also with bigger pieces that need special packing, making sure I have the boxes and packing material for that now, rather than half an hour before I'm due to get on the plane.

Very cute Jenny - I love brown and white pandas and he's just gorgeous.

Every year I make a well constructed plan before my shows and every year I fail to stick to one single point on that plan...and get super stressy about 3 days out from the show so this year I'm abandoning plans all together.     

Bear show season for me starts in about six weeks and I have two shows within 3 weeks of each other, which isn't too bad, but there's only so much sewing I can do after work each day.  It's heading to winter here and a super busy time for me at work so often times the last thing I feel like doing when I come home at night is work on bears.  so I'm trying to make it easier on myself by loosely sticking to a a plan to sew Monday to Thursdays, stuff on Fridays and do faces and finishing on the weekends but this weekend I was struck by the mother of all migraines and got not one iota of bear making done.  Best laid plans eh! 

I wish I could make that balance between bears for the show and for my site better - after all, my internet customers are my main customers and most live on the other side of the world so aren't able to come to any shows I may do.  I do so like shows and it gives me an opportunity to make some of the more fragile pieces that are difficult to mail.  i have been trying to do what Lynne does and make one for the website for every two that I make for the show but it's not quite working out. 

I hear you on that one Lynne!!!  I had 21 bears on a table last year and it looked completely empty!!

that IS quite a day!  makes me thankful all over again that I live in a country with no snakes (not even in zoos!!)  it made the national headlines when a sea snake (alive too) washed up on a beach here last week!!

Maria, Ratsputin is divine!!  I love his nose and body structure.  Fingers crossed that one day I'll make it to Europe for a show.  Looking forward to your photos (after your hard earned rest!)

Paula - this gorgeous trio encapsulates all that I love about bears.  I wish I could jump on a plane, walk into the shop and scoop them all up to bring home with me!