Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Ohhhhhh Maria  I don't think he could get any cuter could he.  I love the little stuffed Knut bears as well what a wonderful idea.   They are fantastic pic's  I want him     ok maybe I'll have to settle for a stuffed toy one .

thanks for posting the link sweetie

big hugs

Shane

I have to agree with Sabine on what she has said and what others have said as well.

As a Seller you should leave feedback as soon as you get payment, the transaction is finished on your end once you have the money.  It doesn't matter if the buyer receives the product and then states they don't like it, that has nothing to do with the transaction.  If they paid promply then a positive feedback is warranted,  if the buyer decides not to leave feedback there really isn't much you can do.  If your hounding them to leave feedback then that doesn't look good either, this is a real dilemma but I personally would not hound someone to leave me a feedback.

Like Sabine said if they leave you a negative feedback it's not going to kill your business, you can write a response to their negative feedback.  I have bought from loads of buyers who have had a negative feedback, but if they have tons of negatives then no.  I always check the history and see what the negative feedback was for, most times it was an isolated incident or just a B****y buyer who would not be satisfied even if you hand delivered the product to them.

When we send out a bear, we include a little note telling the buyer that the feedback system on ebay is an intrical part of the transaction, we advise them that we have left feed back from them and would appreciate if they would do the same once they receive the item.  We also tell them to please email us if there are any problems with the product prior to leaving feedback.

I don't think you should be holding back your feedback just to make sure the buyer leaves you good feedback, even if the buyer leaves you a negative if the transaction between the two of you went smoothly then they deserve a positive feedback.  I know it doesn't seem right but that's the way it should be.

Just my two cents worth    I know everyone has different idea's and this is just how I deal with feedback.

Hugs 

Shane

Jane he's adorable, I'm sure he will sell very quickly I love the long synthetic fur.  I love working with long fur like that but can be a bugger to stuff .

big hugs

Shane

We always use to put steel shot in our bears, but not a lot of it.  A good friend of ours and a huge collector of teddy bears asked us one time if we could take some criticism, well of course we said yes  feeling anything he had to say about our bears would only make them better.  He commented that our bears had no "SOUL" they were to light and needed more weight.  He felt that a bear that was to light didn't have a soul to it and he doesn't buy bears that dont' have a soul. 

Well after that we started weighting our bears a lot more, our bears are usually very heavy and the one you in our avatar weighs at least 6lbs if not a little more (he's roughly 18" in height).  Majority of our bears are heavy, even our mini bears.  Now Samantha I know you talked about string jointing your bears and having a problem with the steel shot rubbing against the thread and breaking it, instead of putting the shot in the body put the shot in the hands and feet of the bears, gives them a nice weight and won't interfere with the string jointing.

I like picking up a bear and being surprised at their weight, someone in Schaumburgh had some small bears maybe around 5" and I was really shocked at how heavy they were and I loved it.  We stuff our bears very firm all over, again our avatar bear his arms were not stuffed so hard as he does have loc line in his arms for possibility.

IT's a preference I think and will vary between artist and collector,  when dealing with a collector over the internet we do advise them that the bears are heavy and firmly stuffed, some collectors don't like that so it's best to tell them ahead of time.

big hugs

Shane

How exciting for you Daphne, and it must have been so much fun.  I am sure you and Laura Lynn had a great time and it doesn't look like you guys got into to much trouble  .  I can't wait to see the movie either , I"m hoping we can go on Monday ( wouldn't it be cool if it was number 1 at the box office)  I've heard nothing but good reviews about the movie.

OH I think I'll have to order a Daphne autographed Mimzy as well  woooohoooo, then I can show it off to everyone and I will be able to Name Drop , oh I know the lady who designed Mimzy (darn now I wish we had our picture taken with you Daphne at Schaumburg last yr  )  I'll have to get one in Nobember when I see you.

I'm really excited for you and so happy , this has to be an amazing experience for sure.

Big hugs

Shane

I hope you have a cotter pin turner, if you don't invest in one cause some of those cotter pins can be pretty tough to turn especially when you get into the larger size ones.  Pliers sometimes just don't do it, (ok it will but it takes a a lot and the number of times I have almost goughed my eye out when they slip  )

Can't wait to see how it turned out.

big hugs

Shane

well I would become suspicious if they are relisting the same item but not stating why.  I mean I understand that sometimes sales fall through, but if your going to relist it then state you are relisting the item because of a non paying bidder or something like that.  I have seen this done before and I would have no problem bidding on the item cause I know stuff like that happens , but I would stay clear of them if I see it happening over and over and there is no explanation as to why the item is being relisted.

Big hugs

Shane

I have to agree with what everyone else is saying, I mist it with water and comb it into place.  Sometimes I blow dry and other times I use scotch tape and hold the mohair in the direction I want it to go and leave the tape on until the mohair has dried.

I also agree with Paula in using a nice dense mohair  as it doesn't seem to have this problem,  my absolute choice is to use a nice long alpaca for an an inset face as it's soooo wonderful to work with .

big hugs

Shane

This is a good question,  when we stitch a nose the first thing we do is cut out the shape of the nose we want with some sticky felt (you can get this in most craft stores).  We cut three pieces, one being large or about the size of the finished nose, the next one is smaller and then the last one is smaller again.  We stack those so that that the largest one is on top when you place it against the gusset.  We start in the middle of the nose and the first stich is pulled fairly tight (it will look like a butt crack  ).  From the middle we go to one side and then over to the other side and then over the entire nose one more time. It doesn't take a lot of time and it will give you a bigger nose (if you like that, the sticky felt just saves you a lot of time and your spending an hour or so trying to build up the nose to a good size. 

Plus I like to wax my noses  but let me tell you NO ONE waxes a nose as well as Sue Ann does  her noses are an artform all unto themselves.

I hope what I wrote made sense.

big hugs

Shane

Hi Therese,

I think as long as you give the deseigner credit for the pattern you are ok,  having never made and sold a bear from someone else's pattern I can't be 100%.  But I don't think you need to use the same name as what the pattern was called, as long as you give credit for the bear pattern to the artist who created it.

big hugs

Shane

Oh it sure is Sandra, I always enjoyed reading the magazine  it's nice to get a chance to see artist work from other parts of the world in a Magazine.  I mean TBF does a fantastic magazine but it's nice to see other mags as well as each one is different from the other. 

I'm glad you posted the link cause I had forgotten where I actually was able to get it.

big hugs

Shane

Sandra I use to get it through Stonehouse all the time, they usually had really good deals on the magazine. I let it lapse awhile ago but will likely renew it as I really enjoyed the magazine

big hugs

Shane

:clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:   way to go Judi, it's easy to see why Narni won it's a beautiful bear and as usual wonderful workmanship.  Big Congrats.

big hugs

Shane

I got mine off of ebay, it's a two part epoxy clay that you knead together.  There are several different ones out there and all are about the same I would say.  Thre is one called Apoxie Sculpt,  if you google Apoxy clay you will get several different different varieties.

I also use to coat my noses but has the same problem as they would get bumped and then the coating would actually peel off, it just got to be a real pain, unsure if I was doing something wrong or not.  ONce the coating started peeling off it look horrible.

Ooops  just noticed that someone else already answered your question Daphne and Gail

big hugs

Shane

Wow  what a beautiful bear Ann,  I haven't had time to start on my fabric from Deb yet ,  hmmmmm hopefull I can soon.  Good work what a cutie .

Big hugs

Shane

Dilu  you are such a lucky person, anyone who knows Karen is very lucky.  We met Karen and Bob in England in 2005 .  Steve went to California in Dec to give a talk to Karen's teddy bear group so Steve got to see her again and Karen was very gracious about picking him up at the airport and putting him up for a few nights.  In the miniature club that we belong to we did a birthday swap last yr and Karen got my name, she made me the cutiest little yellow bear (my favourite colour) I was very lucky to get that and she does make very nice little bears as well.

Big hugs

Shane

Ok I am sooooo jealous that I can't go, would love to be their with you ladies as I'm sure it would be a really fun time.  Laura Lynn make sure you take pics and you to Daphne, how exciting for you girl, wooohoooo   :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

big hugs

Shane

Thanks Mindy, I am usually on top of my subscription duhhhhh  but  I've been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to check on it, I will definitly we renewing for sure (I'm such a doofus sometimes  )

big hugs

Shane

Daphne,  we were using Fimo but we found we weren't liking it very much.  It was difficult to work with, scratched and marked easily.  It was a pain to transport bears as you had to always make sure the noses were so well wrapped up with lots of padding and bubble wrap.  We switched over to an expoxy base clay, it air dries so doesn't need to be baked and it is cheap.  It doesn't mark , won't break and again you can sculpt it right on to the bear and it stays.  You could if you wanted I guess put a wire loop in the back of it and then attach it like an eye once it is dry. You do have a fair amount of work time with it at least an hour or so before it starts to set up. 

big hugs

Shane

That's a great idea Daphne but just remember you won't be able to pull it tight like you would an eye, the polymer will crack and break in two.  I would suggest using a combination of the two , a little glue on the back of the nose just to help hold it in place since you can't really pull that hard.

Gail has the right idea though, when we do clay noses we do the same thing, we come up with the basic nose and then mold it on to the face, this way you can get it to fit perfectly.

big hugs

Shane

Hi Edie,

Well I know our subscription was coming up with TB&F and I thought the face book was our last issue before it expired  and we still haven't received it either , so I may have goofed up and the subcription lapsed.  So I'll try and renew it , I know Mindy said they were hoping to have some at the Schaumburg show, if they do I'll try and pick up a couple of extras just in case.  If you don't get one Brenda I'll try and track one down for you there as well.

big hugs

Yeahhhhh  Krista, way to go  that's why it's so important to get our work out there for all the world to see.

big hugs

Shane

Well as Shelli said sometimes the only way to test something is to put it through a live test,  I guess I wasn't paying attention cause I didn't even notice    .   

big hugs

Shane

Jodi that drink of yours sounds sensational and I bet if you stopped drinking it the pounds would melt away  ,  ok maybe not stop all together but consider it a treat once a month or something like that.  It sounds sooo good but I would hate to think of the calories that are in it  but mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

hugs

Shane

Jodi,  I am struggling with my weight right now and have been advised by my doctor to lose a lot of weight.  She basically told me the same thing everyone else has been saying,  don't diet.  I don't use table salt anymore, it's ok to use sea salt but it can't be ionized salt.  I no longer have pop, chips , or any baked goods (although it doesn't hurt in moderation).  Also use olive oil , and becel margarine if you need to use margarine.  No more white bread that's a no no, eat a multi grain bread.  I have cut down my intake of cheese and other dairy products and only skim mikl or 1%.   When doing your dinner, your meat portion should be about the size of a deck of playing cards, fill up half of your plate with veggies and the other half with a small amount of rice or salad.  Eat lots of fruit for snacks,  basically follow the food guide and the weight will come off , it will come off slower than most diets but you want it to come off slow not fast.

Anyway Dr Shane signing out 

big hugs

Shane