Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

what a little sweetee!

Here is a Birthday cake I made for my God daughter Libby a combination of our favorite things - bears and cake   :P
Also for any of you who followed my face book stress thread, I have gone and done it, bit the FB worry in the **. Not sure what on earth to do with it now but what the hey I guess I will pick it up as I go along. Next task will be Blogger, bring it on!
Michellex

This is Wilf Pudding just listed on bearpile


Wilf is always hungry and looking for food, rooting in shopping bags, or trying to get in the cookie jar for a tasty treat. It's a good job he's only small and can't manage to open the door to the food cupboard or you would be eaten out if house and home. He even keeps a spoon around his neck so he can tuck straight in. You see he may be a greedy bear but he is a good boy and has been taught never to lick the bowl!
michelle

Wow some fantastic bears, too hard to choose just one! Your entry is certainly outstanding, good luck   :thumbsup:
Michelle

What a great little face actually looks like this cub has got the giddy chuckles!  :love:
Michelle

So girly and cute  :love:
I loved your 'wooly mamouth' fury elephant too
Michellex

your style!
Michelle

super cute! 

What a sweet little bunny 

Thankyou Jane and Sheree!
Michelle

Lovely bear  :love:
Michelle

Thank you Kelly, Becky and Peter!
Michelle

Oh well thank you Paula at least I cam stop serching for a copy now. What a shame though I thought it was a great publication.
Peter I have been wondering about German publications for a while now as I quite offen have to spend time in Munich or Frankfurt airport but the news stands seem to have everything except bear magazines. I soppose it is quite a specalist area. I have seen BarReport on ebay and was wondering if it was worth a bid so thank you for your input. Googled Teddys Kreativ and that looks fabulous too (from the pictures - my German is VERY basic!!)
Michelle x

Just found this old thread and really loved it - thought some of the other newbees (like myself) would appreciate a look. Thank you to all who
Michelle x

This is my latest bear Henning Shcnozzle
Henning is a bit of a party animal. He is a surprisingly good  dancer and there’s nothing he likes better than to start off the Conga. Although if you ask me it’s all a ploy to ‘snack’ past the party buffet every five minutes. At the end of the night he always has a queue of people wanting to smooch the last dance with him. Totally platonic of course - you wouldn't want to kiss him after an evening of pickled onions and garlic bread!!

Hi Caroline I was bought Teddy Bear Times as a subscription for Christmas last year and it's been a great present. Before I only use to buy it now and again as only the larger WHS  seem to stock it. Getting a subscription doesn't make it any cheaper unless you buy it over 3 years for £75 but I suppose it it is delivered to your door for free. I have n't tried the iMag version  (having accesss to all the back copies sounds amazing) but I like to cosy up on the sofa with a cuppa to read mine - maybe if I ever afford an ipad   Plus when I'm working on a new bear I like loads of visual images around me from books magazines bits of fur old buttons and the like it helps me develop new ideas.
Yes Becky that is the one I'm talking about but when you click on the 'buy latest copy' it is Autumn/Winter 2012. The Spring/Summer 2012 came out in May 2012 so following that the Spring/Summer 2013 should be available by now??
Michelle

Hi Nancy I think he is a fantastic 1st attempt! For me bears can be extreamly well made but are still 'dead behind the eyes'. Chilli certainly has that certain magic that brings him alive. Your skills will get better as you learn but I gotta warn you - bear making is highly addictive. Once you start you just can't stop !
Michelle x

Hi all was just wondering if The Teddy Bear Annual magazine is still going? Been looking out for the spring/summer 2013 for a while now, so I tried google but all the hits are for last year. Magazines are expensieve but I treat them like books and offen re -read old copies. Reading about other artists and seeing all thier work is a never ending source of inspiration. I have never seen any teddy bear magazines from countries outside the UK despite looking every time I fly anywhere. Which are good ones to look out for?

What a lot of talent! You have the softness of a puppy face spot on. His mouth is wonderful.
Michelle X

Your ladies are always wonderful and must have meny admirers x

What a great little set of friends it's shame they all can't go to the same home. Love the eclectic mix. You must have a great stash of bits and bobs.

   
Dawn is lovely. We're all going Panda mad at the moment I 'm working on one at the moment too! If it turns out 1/4 as good as yours I'll be over the moon.

Boy you bear people are so helpful!
It is a lot for me to take in, but I think I am beginning to understand a little. I think I may have built up some lagely unfounded preconceptions about FB. It has caused a few familly fall outs between people I know. I also didn't seem the point of using it for family and friends as I saw as it a bit of a cop out not to see /speak to them direct BUT then a have a small family and a small circle of close friends - if you have a large extended family and tons of mates then I totally understand why FB be could be a great. I had tried to do a serch on here about social media and found a thread that Jenny (3 o'clock bears) had posted that she was getting tons of unwanted stuff to do with FB but this may have been years old. The last thing I would want to be is somebodies annoying spam. It must be hard for you famous bear artists to deal with us newbe groupies not wanting to discourage but not having all day to baby sit us stuff we have to learn for ourselves. That's why TT is fab  
Err while I'm talking about groupies - Joanne I got a rare chance to see a little bear of yours at TGYTBE that belongs to Katherine Hallam. It was truly stunning in skill and design it is very inspiring and not just to me I can tell you there were several of us crowding round cooing!
Becky that explains a lot I think I may have been mixing up likes and friends and I can't tell you what a relief it is to know that there is a level of control and nobody knows if thery are blocked or not.  I would be gutted if I spent ages setting Fb up only to be rejected left right and centre and ended up as a Billy no mates I clicked on your face book page and with the info made a lot more sense. Eddie is great! I am working on a panda myself at the moment, I also  Gregor.
Kelly I couldn't find your fb page without a link on here but thanks for the encouragement you can't beat doing your patterns!
Teddy bear from Neatherlands I hope your feeling better soon x 
My plan is to sit down together with my cousin and get her to show me around her private page and her business page so I can see how it works sign up and then do some reserch looking at other pages before I take the plunge.
Michelle x

Thankyou for your kind words Carrie and Peter!
You are both right I know the only way I will get to grips with it is by having a go. I am putting it on my 'to do' list for July. I sometimes think I must be the only person left in the world who isn't on FB! Nothing ventued nothing gained will be my new mantra Deep breath and dive in!
Yes Peter I am trying to sell my bears as I need to be self funding plus my house is so tiny that I am running out of space! I love being surrounded by furry friends but my other half is getting a bit taken over Your avatar bears are lovely big boys I am a sucker for a big bear that you can have a proper cuddle with!
Carrie  I had a look at your bears and they are sooo sweet you are fab at girl bears for some reason mine always seem to be boys. How does that work? Even when I start off with a girl in my head somehow she morphs in to a he. I love the way you applied the cute rosy cheeks.
This is Peter Sausage who is a case in point. Despite my good intentions by starting off in pink and a smaller muzzle Peter was definately a boy. He sat for a week with a lovely pink flower over one ear but just kept looking at me with 'hey c'mon what are you doing to me, do I look like a girl! ' and in the end I gave in and knitted him a scarf! This was one of my earlier bears and I found the pile of this mohair difficult when trimmimg as it was so deep. Like I said lots to learn.

So once again thank you for taking time to reply and I will 'friend' you or what ever it it I have to do when I join FB if I may. All I need to do now is join a gym and I will have conkered all my fears of weird other worlds that I don't get.... Yeah like that's gonna happen!!
What a great place TT is :)
Michellex

Hello Everyone :)
I've been making bears since Nov last year so am very green and have tons to learn. But I am very committed to learning my craft and putting in the hard work to be successful. Well we all have to start somewhere and I have no need to explain to you all the excitement and pleasure of creating bears, the hard work bit for me is the business/marketing side. 
So here's the thing. I'm struggling with an issue that I hoping for some advice on - Facebook and twitter. Is it possible to be a sucessful bear artist without this presence? I'm holding off singing up for now. My main problem is that I am afraid of getting on the 'I like you so you have to like me'  it all seems awfully ingenuious. Facebook as everybody keeps telling me is a tool that should be used to it's full advantage. But facebook IS people isn't it? - wouldn't that follow that I am using people for my own advantage. That's the bit I feel uncomfortuble with. I freely admit that I don't understand/ have tried it and of course may have got this all wrong.  How do you tell the difference between friends that are only out to use you and the ones that are actually interested? How do you avoid some friends without hurting any bodies feelings? Is it a case of normal morals don't apply on these sites? I would hate to upset anyone by my lack of social media savvy. What do you fellow bear makers get out of facebook, is it just an end game of promotion or are there other reasons that I don't know about? Will I have to blog?  I lead a pretty uneventful life not sure what I'd find to talk about!
I do find the whole self promotion a bit cringeworthy but I also understand how important it is. I soppose I am quite shy and am not overly gregarious by nature. Plus it means spending more time chained to the pc rather than doing what I need to do improving my skills and what I love to do making new bears :love:
I tried to load an avatar but all my images seem to be too large so I will put a picture in here.
This is Worried Ralph a bear who worries about everything. Wonder if he worries about facebook!
Michelle Doig x
Padfield bears.