Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I went to an auction the other day for a friend battling with cancer.  On the way out the door I grabbed my latest creation to donate telling my husband that if noone recognised it's worth I would buy it back.  To my absolute amasement it sold for $325.00!  This is one of my first ever sales.  I also got approached at the end of the auction with requests for two more bears.  I finally feel like I am on my way  .  My husband bought me back to earth pointing out that people were generally paying more than the items worth to help this family out but he couldn't stop my sheer rush of joy!

My hubby often has to look for space in the bed to sleep.  The bears are always relocating to a different spot. They just had a good week when he was away and slept in the same spot every night LOL

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oy Oy Oy
Thank you for that!

40 degrees Centigrade here and dry!

Another beauty (but not as nice as Gracie)!!!!

...and she's mine!  All mine!  Don't know how I missed this post!  I have only 5 or 6 artist bears as space is at a premium but I fell in love with Rachels bears on Bearpile and had to have one.

It has all been very frightening and while I am well away from the affected areas - I live in an area that this could so easily happen in.  The awful thing about it is that if we had water to that extent here there is no where that we could be evacuated too except the nearest city which is 15oo km away.

i am very upset about it all and it is not going to be fixed anytime soon although there are many heart warming stories today about 'Salvation Saturday' where bus loads of vounteers are being sent in to help people.  This is true 'Aussie mateship' at it's best.

Hi Sophie all this after I had just done a post saying how much i had missed you on here. Good luck with the year and hope all goes well with your studies.

This is a plea to those of you that I haven't seen on here in a while.  You are all missed.  I would like to name you all but you know who you are.  I particularly miss Sophie but know that you have a new job.  I miss more of you too so please stop by and say hello

You could always try a longer pile fur!

It is Christmas Eve afternoon and a very warm 38 degrees Centigrade.  I have wrapped all the pressies, finished the shopping and am going to kick back and do a jigsaw puzzle.  Tonight my husband and I will go out for dinner then the casino and  then midnight church.  Tomorrow it's off to extended family for brekkie, lunch and dinner.  I have noticed a couple of parcels under the tree for me marked from the bears.  Have a good Christmas everyone.

Look up Lesley Manieri miniature knitting on google. She is Australian and has an ebay shop.  I have knitted stuff for a 1/12 doll from her patterns.

I won't contact an artist if the price isn't listed as I (maybe wrongly) assume if they can't put the price there I can't afford it.

The shoes are great - I wouldn't even know how to begin making them.  i love the black boots especially.

I haev found with plastic joints that it is sometimes possible to squeeze them a little more through the fabric without performing open bear surgery.  You have to be very strong though.

You can get convoluted plastic hosing that pushes in and out - hardware store or auto shop

Many years ago- about 6 - the Australian Cheap Chat Forum had a bear donated to them to raise funds for the moon bears.  This bear was called 'Flinders' and travelled the world from one bear lover to the next.  Each 'host' took photos of him in their city and sent him on to the next person with a souvenir of his visit.  Flinders travelled the world and visited many diverse places and was amassing a wonderful collection of photos, memories and souvenirs.  The idea was that at the end of his travels he was to be auctioned off on ebay and the proceeds went to Beary Cheap (I think) to donate to their moon bear cause.

Alas, nothing has been heard of Flinders for several years now and I have made it my mission to try and track him down and let him complete his journey.

Please, please, please if any of you have any information about Flinders at all could you let me know.  Even if you at some stage hosted him could you give me an approximate date and if you can remember who he was sent on to that information would also be very welcome.

Flinders come home PLEASE

I am having a ball with it especially as Intercal in particular are so much cheaper anyway.

Hi Sandi I have spent the weekend going through my old Bear Creation magazines and also DB&C.  There were lots of artists in there that I have not heard of for ages which I found interesting.  I was a huge fan of Catherine Cardellini for one but have heard nothing of her for many years now.  there were many others listed that I had never heard of - makes you wonder what happened to them.  Economy? Change of life? Lost mojo? Changes in legislation making it too hard?  Would be interesting to hear from some earlier artists to see what has happened.

Have you tried calling Edinburgh to see if they have any ideas?

Tried looking at you photos but they are very large.  Would it be possible to reduce them?

Take a piece of cotton, and thread the pieces of the bear onto it in the order that you need the pieces.  if you sew the legs last then the first piece to go on your thread is the footpad then two opposite leg pieces, then pawpad two opposing leg pieces etc.  This way it is a good check that you have all your pieces, that they all match and there is less likelihood of losing bits.

A lady near me makes chilli chocolate cup cakes.  Divine!

I Love these bears and agree with the other comments.  I would add though that the top bear seems to have one eye which isslightly off centre in that one looks straight at you and the other seems to look out to the side and appears a fraction higner. They are both very sweet bears though and would appeal to any collector.

Perhaps we could set up a swap category.  Not just for bear bits but maybe some people would like to do a bear swap on a small basis or mohair, patterns, tools, countries (HA HA)etc.