Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Kimbee....I will say what I think here because it's important and becauseI know you are down that your bears didn't sell. I would be willing to bet the reason your lovely bears didn't sell had absolutely nothing to do with the bears, and everything to do with the photos. When buying something sight unseen..people need to be able to see the item through your photos almost as well as they would be able to see it if they were holding it. You need to spend som time experimenting with your photos and make sure the pics you are putting up are the best possible quality. In my opinion...if the pics aren't fantastic, you are wasting your advertising time and money.  I would highly recommend getting yourself a reasonable quality digital camera and practise, practise, practice. I believe that even Judi's and Shelli's and Sue Ann's bears would be hard pushed to sell if people couldn't see the wonderful quality and detail of their workmanship thru their great photos.
But most importantly of all...don't give up....just be resolved to improve the quality of your pics...then your bears will sell themselves!:D

Somehow I missed these posts..and I just wanted to say thankyou all for your sweet words..they are very appreciated.;)

Kelly,
Thanks fo taking the time to write that great report! I really enjoyed reading it all.
A huge congratulations to Laure...sounds like all your willpower staying away from TT was worthwhile huh Laure? Hope you'll be back chatting with us all soon!

Claire...when is your show coming up???
Sorry to hear the last two bears have been discouraging...don't give up..just cut out another and plug away. Maybe try something new!

Equal parts of bleach and vinegar overnight.....but it's a VERY potent solution and will sting your eyes so make sure the jar is outside. You still need to varnish over it when it's completely dry though or the rust will come off on your bear. The rusting process continues for a few weeks after removing them and rinsing them, so don't be in a hurry.

Dear me Marie! I have never heard of such a silly thing in my life! It CAN"T be true can it? Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before?  You need to seek independant legal advice...but I really can't see how you can be responsible for such a debt...especially when you didn't even know the person.
Sending big hugs to you. ((((((((((((hug)))))))))))))):(

She has a really lovely shaped head Jane...a very dainty and feminine bear.

Great bear Claire! So will he sit on the chair made from the same fabric??? That would be so cute!

I agree..they do all look great together! Laura, I love the choice of different mohair you've used for the swaeter bears...it really looks like hand knitted sweaters. BUT the BEE BEAR....has my heart..I just LOVE bee bears! There's something about bears dressed up as other animals that tugs my heart strings. What did you use for the wings?
Here is a little bee bear I made back towards the beginning of my bear making years. She is only 6 inches. I still think she's really cute!

Danni,
The smallest template of each style is pretty small yes.  The smallest template in two of the nose shapes would be fine for a six inch bear but the others may be a tad big....then again, you do big noses!!  The smallest shape in the set measures half a centimeter from one side to the other and roughly half that again in depth.

Thanks Heather...much appreciated!

Karen,
They are a set of  9 nose shapes to trace around, each in five different sizes. You use them to trace the nose template before glueing it to the bear for stitching over. It's also good for helping decide what size and shape nose will best suit your bear as you can hold the templates over the nose to 'try them on' for size. I love mine and use them for way more than just tracing noses!

Hi Everyone,

Christine Welsh from The Teddy Patch, started up an auction site purely because people are so sick of ebay. Unfortunately it hasn't been getting quite the support she had hoped for...but she is offering  free listings for August...so it may be worth a try there and give her some support at the same time. I have posted her email from another list below.

For the entire month of August ALL site fees at The Teddy Patch have been
suspended!

So ALL listings are FREE for August 2005!

Yes...that is correct! NO FEES whatsoever, NIX, NOTHING! FREE! No end of
auction fees NOTHING!!!

Do take advantage of this great offer and list your items NOW or sign up if
you haven't done so already....and yes even that is FREE!!

Cheers,
Christine
Admin
The Teddy Patch
http://www.theteddypatch.com

Hi girls..you are all the best! Thanks so much for supporting my new venture, so far it's going really well. I love the template too and I seem to be finding new uses for it all the time too. Just this week, I have used it to cut eye surrounds and also to cut the shapes for those white bits like my avatar bear has behind his eyes.
Could  I just mention here on the forum too, seeing as though most of you are Overseas from me...if you  aren't in Australia and would like to order from The Bear Cupboard, you need to cut and paste your order into an email so I can estimate postage.  The Paypal Shopping Cart only adds  enough postage for people within Austalia.
Anyway...back to my bear...have to get him in the post by Monday for a competition and he still needs ears!

Shelli...have I told you lately that I love you! You are my new best friend...thankyou!!!!:D
Now I just need a whole day free...bummer, have to work tomorrow.:mad:
Seriously, I am forever grateful.;)

OKAY OKAY!!!!! ENOUGH SAID ABOUT POO AND BIDETS AND HOLES IN THE GROUND!!!! I'M SORRY I EVER BOUGHT UP THE SUBJECT OF TP OKAY!!!!:lol::lol::lol::lol:
Shelli get the prize for most disgusting story...it can't be topped so please...no-one try!
Lets get back to talking about nice things...like hmmm...like....oh,ummmm.....oh, somebody think of something nice! My head is still trying to think of a better story than Shellis!!!!!:D

Shelli....hearing you say you would like to keep that bear is wonderful. Do yourself a favour and allow yourself to keep it....completely GUILT FREE!!!!! Like all first bears...this one is special, and you've been through a lot together. Keep him!!!!!
There will be more fur bears to sell, but never another first!

Heather and Shelli,
If you are going to share any secrets about mastering photoshop...I would dearly love to be in on that. I have been playing with it a lot lately trying to soop up some of the pics I'm using for a slideshow presentation for my nan's birthday and it can be so frustrating. I wish I could just hop into both your heads and scoop out all that info! :lol:
Trouble is..even with some ability...I come up zero in the imagination stakes...Shelli, you have such a great imagination and it shows in everything you do.

Sue Ann,
Adding your precious mum to my prayer list too. Hubby's grandma suffered from Alzheimer's for many years and it was so heartbreaking. It's such a strange thing, because at 87, she could remember things from when she was a small girl and yet couldn't remember her husband (who was still living with her and became known as "that strange man!").
We have also had close dealings with Parkinsons too, having lost my Mother-in-law to it just six years ago. Tragic disease.
On a postitive note, we are gearing up for my adorable nanna's 90th birthday this month and our family is in celebration mode. She is such an inspiration to us all and still leads a very active life. She does China Painting, gardening, and is very involved with her Church. I've been putting together a slideshow presentation on my computer to be shown on the night...it's kinda a "This is your life" type of thing and I have really enjoyed getting all the photos together.

Shelli, after seeing that lovely scrapbooked shot of your boys, I'm thinking I'd like to do something similar to some of the photos just to add something a bit different. Do you mind if I ask where you get the overlays from??
Here is a pic of my nan and my mum.

Yes...butt (oh sorry, I couldn't resist!!!!)...how does one DRY ones "patootie" after wash dear Shell??? Do you get a blow dry....ewwwww!!!
Hey Dilu..I see that Lisa has one of them cage thingies.....Lisa...you can turn them upside down to make a baby prison y'know...Dilu told us that!

Shantell,
When placing the marks for the leg joints onto the body..place them in the dead centre (draw a line down thru the centre of your bear body piece). Height-wise..for the legs, the bottom of the disk should sit just a tad above the dart ending and for the arms, you need to allow half the neck joint depth plus about 1/2 an inch (depending on what size bears you make) between the edge of the neck disk and the top of the arm disk. Otherwise as Sue Ann says, your bear will look like it's shrugging. The arm joints always look too low on the  body pattern,...it's just something you have to get used to.
When you make your first pattern, these marking are a good starting point and when you actually joint the bear, you may need to move the joints a little one way or the other to achieve the right look, so do that and then mark the changes on your pattern.

You also need to make sure there is a bit of distance between the arm and leg joint disks otherwise your bears arms will stick out over the thighs, so make sure the length of the body accomodates this. With your first design..things rarely turn out just right...and you usually need to tweak it quite a bit over the following bear or two, but after awhile, it becomes second nature...and the tweaks become smaller and less necessary. It's all a bit daunting at first, but every single artist has to start right where you are...and all have the same trials and frustrations. It takes many hours to design and develop a good pattern...that's why people get so upset when others copy without asking.
Good for you....can't wait to see what you come up with....but just take your time and don't rush it.;)

Well Kirsten..I can understand your disappointment at missing out on the JL class...but it sounds like you did the sensible thing. There will be other classes.
Sorry to hear you are having a battle with the morning sickness...some people certainly seem to get it worse than others. If it's any consolation to you, most women feel totally flat and get the total 'can't be bothereds" in the first tri-mester...and the sensible thing to do is to allow yourself to follow your feelings. Why not allow yourself to pack your bear stuff away for awhile..totally guilt free.
Just because you choose to have a break, doesn't mean you are giving up...and at least by choosing to have a break, if in future you just don't get back to it, that won't be as hard. Also, during the second tri-mester, many women find a total resurgence of energy and enthusiasm and feel totally fabulous...and it may be that during this time, you  feel like dragging the bear stuff out to make one for your child. During the last tri-mester, is when you  generally start to feel tired again, and during that first 3 or four months after your baby arrives, you really won't have time for sewing much (unless you have one of those babies that sleep all day and all night...which I never did!!) It's very hard to juggle being a mummy and trying to create...especially when they are little.
Besides...even if you have a break...you can still get your teddy fix here...and you are so welcome to stay and just join in when you feel like it. We would all love to be able to continue to offer support to you in the coming months, so do pop in from time to time and say Hi okay?
Dpah's right...we can all be cyber aunties!!!
Hugs to you and take care!;)

Hi All..
I was wondering if Kirsten is still out there?
I was hoping she would tell us all the goss on the Jennifer Laing workshop she was doing a few weeks back.
Kirsten..are you doing okay??

Well Daphne..I know where you're coming from and everyone  here cares, so don't feel you are 'dumping'. Unfortunately as we get older, medical ailments will become a large part of some of our lives..whether ourselves, our parents, whoever. My mum is a constant worry to me, and she looks to me for a lot of her extra care. I sometimes feel hard done by that I am the one living close by whilst my two brothers and sister live their lives carefree and away from the day to day reality of a sick parent. But then I feel guilty, because we came so close to losing her, and I would miss her so much if she weren't around. But sometimes it's a heavy burden.  I understand how frustrated and helpless you must feel that the doctors can't find out what is wrong with your dad..I do agree that the internet can be very helpful..but it's also a frustrating black hole of both helpful and useless information. Sometimes Igo net surfing, looking for answers, but more often than not, I just become overwhelmed and frustrated.It's so hard watching someone you love suffer. You are right, mum and dad are lucky to have each other, but dad really struggles at times with their changed relationship too...as he has gone from being husband to husband/carer..and I know it get's him down sometimes. Mum's right arm is useless...and she is righthanded, and although she has learned to write lefthanded, she still struggles with the daily humdrum of trying to hold a potato still and chop it with her left hand all at once, and folding the washing single handedly.

Sue Ann...I am sorry that you suffer from hearing loss...but from a purely selfish point of view, it's nice to know another person who understands how frustrating life is for a deaf person.:/ It is in fact possible that you suffer from the same type of hearing loss as our genetic one. Mum had her Cochlear implant done by Professor Clark himself (the guy who invented the implant) and he has been taking an interest in our family loss for many years now. Our deafness is a nerve deafness too and he tells us that only 3% of deaf people suffer our type of loss. My mothers father was deaf, and all 5 of his brothers and sisters, and yet my mum was the only one of her siblings (4 of them) to end up deaf...and she passed it onto both my brothers and me....we all wear hearing aids and our losses are almost identical. It never starts to show until late teens...and I quite expect that by the time I am 55 or 60, I will need an implant too. I will have to play the waiting game before I'll know if my children will be affected...but we discussed it before we got pregnant with Adrianand decided our kids would rather be alive and deaf that never be born! My mum is the number one advocate for Cochlear implants...she reckons everyone should have one! She was told that some people have trouble getting used to them and need to relearn sounds, but with mum, she could hear instantly, and was thrilled. She was a bit of a guinea pig because they had never placed an implant in a stroke patient beofre and didn't know what her brain would do with it. I do know that you have to be considered profoundly deaf before you can get an implant (and you'd want to be too, because it replaces any residual hearing you have in that ear.)
If you have any questions..please ask. I won't be around tomorrow as I have to work, but will be back in thursday.

Sorry Daphne...what I wrote was all it said..so it's left to our overactive imaginations! It was just in a section for amazing but useless facts...like 'Americans use enough toilet paper every day to go around the world 9 times":lol::lol: