Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Hmmph!  After a bad day yesterday, it was very nice to wake up and read your positive comments about my bears.  With the last three of my auctions failing to attract any interest on ebay and a little bit of a negative response from someone, I was feeling very down and disheartened about my bears and was pretty much ready to throw the towel in!!   :redface:

However, a good night's sleep and a stern talking to myself made me realise that I feel I am doing the right thing and heading in the right direction with my bears.  And if I am happy with them, that's what counts isn't it??  So I promise, no more negative and grumpy Melissa!  :lol:

This morning, I have been trying to figure out ways and means to get my bears "out there".  I just put a bunch of my bears on bearpile...and am going to try and get some made to submit to the mags  (though they've ignored every photo I've sent so far).  I would really appreciate if someone could send me the submission guidelines/address bit from the UK mags as they no longer import them into New Zealand and I sold all my old ones a few months ago (d'oh!).  I must start up a sub for one or two of thembut sheesh, converting pounds into NZ$ is scary!!!

I'm sure my mood wasn't helped by the fact that we had a team building day at work on Thursday which involved running around town pretending to be special agents and accosting strangers in the street.

Hi Kim

I would reply to anything that comes through your ebay account.  You can't judge every person in a country by the acts of some - and there is an active artist bear community in Taiwan.  As somebody already said - if your option is to pay through paypal and they do, then you're safe.  It's when they want to pay using proxy money people etc that you start to worry.

Regarding similar names- there are a couple of VERY similar names to mine from China which is very disconcerting to me but there ain't a lot I can do about it.  I have noticed that this seems to happen with everybody so the possibility is, some of those names could be copying him!!

I hope it is a genuine sale...who knows it could be a brand new collector!!   

I always used to thread joint  because I couldn't get cotter pins and discs small enough.  I use the same method Sarah does.  Just make sure before you tighten off your thread that your joints are moving smoothly - nothing worse than tying them all off and finding that one isn't working right.

I haven't made "true" minis in a couple of years - my bears now being between 3.5 and 4.5 inches so fully cotterpin jointed (yay to whoever invented T pins) but recently I made a 1.5 inch bunny and he was 5 way disc jointed.  I don't know how I did it.

Am working on a couple of other projects now and am going to try the home-made disc and jewellry head pin method as used by Debbie Kesling in her book...I will let you know how it goes.  My friend makes her bears this way and they are stunning (and TOBY nominated!!)

Irene

I wish I could say my supplies were that tidy...well I could SAY that, but it sure wouldn't be true!!   :)

I just looked at my fabric and I don't even have one full fat eighth left...it's all scraps.  I need to go shopping!!

Yup, you are right....the Aardman studios burnt down.  Do you remember Morph the cute little brown blob man?  He was one of their very first creations , and they were also responsible for the Creature Comforts series, as well as good old Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.  33 years of history gone.  So sad, but Nick Park said on the news, thought it's sad for them, compared to the devestation being faced by people due to floods, hurricanes etc, it's only things.  Lucky they had W & G with them!

Hey Kim

You inspired me enough to actually start another mini last night.  One of my bears has been sitting waiting for a mini companion for over a month and I've been to chicken to start one, but last night I half sewed the head of a 1.5 inch bunny.  I am a bit dubious as to whether it work so it might only ever be a head!!

I just did the same thing!!!  How hopeless are we!!!

sooooo pretty....cutest face and I love her toesies.   

Woohoo, reading this makes me feel much better about my stash!.  I have one  bin of mohair which is mostly comprised of scraps, and 4 photo boxes of fabric - one of vintage upholstery fabric, one of regular mini fabric, one of ultrasuede, and one with a few bits of miscellaneous fabric.

I need to go shopping!  Thought I was going to be able to buy more but my auction just closed and my bear didn't sell...again.

Oh, but ribbon and lace I have a suitcase full of...and a bowl of wool for mini knitting.  I inherited a  lot of vintage lace and trims.  I've gven away most of it but still have  a ton left!

Mind you, I am not counting any of the stuff for my other crafts!!!

Happy Anniversary 

Lucky you - glad you had a fantastic day

Aren't Wallace and Grommit just the best????  I have been a fan since way back when... years ago I bought my bro a Wallace alarm clock, it was a little diorama of their sitting room and when the alarm went off it would go "time for walkies Gromit" and then if you hit the snooze button it would say " come on Gromit, don't be a lazybones" - why did I ever give that away - a lot more pleasant than my ear splitting alarm that jolts me awake at 5:30 each morning!  I'm hanging out to see the new movie   :lol:

Anway, enjoy your photoshop...once you're all skilled I can ask you questions!!

I have been following this discussion all day...from work where I can't log on to teddy talk but I can sneak in and watch sometimes!!

Anyway....thanks for all the thoughts.  I totally understand the point of private auctions and the fad buying created by a group of bidders really tees me off!!!!  It is very obvious that some of these bidders follow each other to auctions (heck, I check in on them every few months too    ) but it is so crazy. 

When I first started making mini bears and looking at ebay it was around 2001.  There were some very strong mini groups around then and the bear market was a lot stronger too.  I fell in love with the bears of one particular artist who I thought created very charming, well executed minis.  Her work regularly fetched between 200 and 300 dollars (and sometimes more).  Any hoo while I know that tastes change etc, one particular artist drew the focus of a substantial bidder and focus was suddenly shifted  and a whole lotta people jumped on the bandwagon both people imitating the style of bears and more importantly people only buying what this bidder was bidding on. 

It seemed like within a couple of months the whole focus of bear style shifted (and again, I know things go in trends but this was so much more than that).  The artist that I followed had her prices plummet and on several ocassions didn't sell her bears at all. I am so fussy about bears and originality and I still believe that this artist creates some of the most original and yet commercial minis out there.  It was just a prime example of the "so and so's not buying it so it's not worth buying" malarky that seems to be happening at the moment.  I probably haven't illustrated my point that well but I truly believe that there are bidders who can literally make and break artists careers.

So, from that perspective, I totally support the use of private auctions, and it's disappointing that people are using them for subversive purposes

But on the other hand, I feel a bit like that's giving in, and for me, a new artist trying to get established (HA!) I think it's important that people can go back and look at my previous auctions.  While they can read feedback, if it's a private auction, they can't see the photo once the auction's finished, so how do they judge the quality of my work?  While I now have a website, a lot of new artists don't and it makes it so hard for them if they're trying to get started.  So from that perspective, private auctions are not effective.  I triede one, but as I don't have a following anyway, I decided there wasn't much point.  Hmmmm I wonder if my perspective would change if someone started a bidding war for MY bears     I don't think it would though!

Hmm that's my rant for today!!  Sorry if this is all a bit much but I am feeling especially teed off with the whole ebay thing at the moment.

oh you are so lucky...we simply don't have the right kind of uv here...I did find some a few years ago but haven't seen it for ages.

omg Sue Ann - you have exactly the same chocolate tastes as my sister....as for me, I HATE chocolate/peanut butter combination.  My sister flew back through the States this year and bought home lots of Reese's candy...I'm such a wuss that I could only nibble at the corner of a peanut butter m&m and had to throw the rest away and how big are those?????

It's bizarre, becuase I love chocolate and I love peanut butter but I don't like the two combined.  Oddly, I love peanut slabs which are a kiwi chocolate bar - roasted peanuts in whitakers chocolate = it's about an inch think and mmmmmmm.

very cute 
I think my favourites are the bunnies...scrummy!

Hi Jane

I think you're going to be inundated now.... :lol:

If you could add me to both that would be great!

well done Shelli!

she's cute!

Featherweights are the best....my mum has one that was her first sewing machine when she started high school.  It's what I learnt to sew on...couldn't handsw for peanuts until I had to handsew when I started making bears.  When I was machining bears I used the featherweight - now it and I live in different islands!  I have a dream about stumbling across one of the incredibly rare white ones!  The are also perfect for patchwork and so portable and there's something magic about that black case with its special sewing machine smell!

I don't have a sewing machine at the moment  : (   My mum worked for bernina for over 30 years and my dream machine other than a featherweight is a bernina 930 or bernina 1130 - nothing fanch schmancy but second hand berninas are like the proverbial hen's teeth - Scarce!!

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Well, you know my opinion of your bears already 

Ladies, I've been lucky enough to see these in the fur and they're even better than their photos.... but I don't believe I've seen that panda before.  cutey cute cute!

What kind of fabric do you like??  There are a couple of suppliers here in NZ if you know where to look and so you could pay by cheque.  and you can also sometimes pick up fabric on trademe.  I will put in a disclaimer that I sell occassionally on trademe and so I do have a vested interest  but there are several people that sell fabric there as well.  You can get a good buy if you are careful what you bid on.

You need to have a credit card to use Paypal from New Zealand so that isn't an option (unless the rules have changed, they won't accept NZ debit (eft-pos) cards).

Feel freee to email me if you have any questions...I know how daunting it is to order from overseas when you live here - it took me ages to pluck up the courage.

however...if you make mini's don't go by the $10 per inch rule or you'll quickly go broke. 

no way I'm selling my 1.5 inch creations for $15!!!!

People think making minis is cheap and it can be unless you use that flipping vintage mini fabric which goes for prices way beyond what I can afford by the time I convert it to new zealand dollers.

Chrissie

Tim Tams are the best!  You can buy them in the States here  http://www.simplyoz.com/products/aussie_food/candy  There's also an NZ shop in the states that has them but I can't find it.  I assume that price is heinously expensive for biscuits in the States though!! 

of course biscuits being cookies and not scones!

Do try the chewy caramel - my absolute favourite - especially if they've chilled in the fridge for a while.  They haven't got all the flavours we have in New Zealand - I don't know if they have them in aussie - dark chilli chocolate an dark choc with a white choc centre.

If you have tim tams you have to do a tim tam slam....and of course we'll need photos as proof!

They also have cadbury's chocolate on that site which is way different to the US brand of cadburys but again they don't have my favourite as flavours vary between different countries (even aus and nz!)

Paula

He is gorgeous!  He looks like he has a centre seam head - I love that cute parting just above his eyes   :)

Look forward to meeting the rest of the gang!  (Highgrove and Kensington among them??)

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WOW - Judi, I am so in awe of your work.  That is incredible.  you rightly deserve to be proud of yourself!   

hi Clare

I'll add you to mine (and anyone else listed here) in the next day or so...I don't have any fancy banners!

My site is below.

Thanks and best of luck for that show!!