Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Karen, I'm glad you had a good show there as well!  I wanted to stop by and say 'hi' when I saw you were there, but every time I looked across the room, you were surrounded by people.  That's a good thing! 

At one point I wanted to see something in another artist's booth, and couldn't get past the 15 people shoulder-to-shoulder in a 10' space.  I think everybody was very happy about the show this year, so folks... come visit, get a table for yourself, and above all spread the word for next year!

You know, it's funny... I actually attended several small-to-medium bear & doll shows this year in neighboring states, and did sales ranging from good to great at all of them.  Those were unexpected but welcome results!

Best wishes,
Kelly

Bear show!  Bristol, CT and I would highly recommend it to anyone for next year.  Very friendly, inexpensive to attend, great location, well run, quite a nice crowd of serious collectors and enthusiasts, and I think just about everybody made decent sales!  Besides, it's lovely to be in New England in the fall...

And now all I have to worry about is finishing up a ton more bears for Schaumburg in ten days and then Hunt Valley a few days after that.  Yes, that's three shows in a month.  I am currently questioning our intelligence on that decision.

Cheers,
Kelly

I like to think that 100% of people are 100% honest, too... but it's never really the case, is it?

Ah, but all of the things that you mention could be changed in a digital image.  In some cases, extremely easily.  There is a very high-end, professional photography store here in town which I visit occasionally (not being a high-end, professional photographer myself).  They take things very seriously... keep in mind that this is THE store in a town that has Kodak and one of the best photography schools in the world, RIT.  I got on the subject with the employees about photograph-based competitions, all of which they had experience with themselves for professional photography.  They mentioned that cheating is a major problem, and that the acceptance of digital entries into some competitions has forced strict rules.  They said that the serious competitions that allow digital photography ALSO require that the original, unaltered raw file from the camera be submitted along with the "actual" submission.  Part of the judging process is to compare the two files and see what, if anything, was changed.  They expressed dismay at the thought of ANY competition judging ANYTHING that allowed digital photographs and did not have a check in place to ensure that no image adjustments had been performed.  They know exactly what can be manipulated in a digital image, and the truth is that everything can be.  So... yes, I do wish that the photo-based awards had something in place to verify that "what they see is what they get".  Whether this would be a round of competition where the bears were judged "in person", or whether raw files had to be submitted for comparison purposes.  Well, so goes it.

Best wishes,
Kelly

I think it is theobromine that is bad for dogs in chocolate.  I dunno though, I grew up with a lab that got fed everything, including lots of chocolate, and she lived to a ripe old age.  (That is not to say that I would give a dog chocolate now that I know better... why take chances?)

I do understand that the quality of chocolate can have something to do with its toxicity to dogs.  A relative had their Border Collie get into a gift box of very expensive imported chocolate (the individually foil-wrapped kind).  The dog ate everything.  They called the vet and he said "sounds like really good chocolate, he should be fine".  The dog was indeed just fine, other than leaving them foil-wrapped... uh... gifts in the back yard for a few days.

Cheers,
Kelly

Sorry to be the party pooper, but the Daisy story is a hoax 

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/daisy.asp

That's really interesting that Laura's fish club does well on Memorial Day (with everyone but the locals!).  I wonder how many of them use it as an excuse to vacation to Chicago AND do something for a hobby they enjoy!

Well, there's an idea right there.  If you consider a holiday weekend show, why not tie it in with a "family activity" package or just have it in a very interesting area to visit.  You could schedule a tour to see fall foliage in New England, or charter a bus to take family members to a local amusement park for the day while mom hangs out with the bears, or... whatever.

It's a shame the economy in my area is so dead right now, I could name a few interesting places to look into in western NY.  On the other hand, I would have also said that Binghamton would be a very bad place to hold a show, and look how successful TBAI is.  Well, who knows!

Cheers,
Kelly

Ah Daphne, I really hope I can do one of your shows in 2007!  Keep us all informed of dates as soon as you know them, we're already planning next year's show schedule now <hint hint>.

Well, I probably could... but I think that many people, particularly those with school-age children, could not. 

Yup!  Discounts are always appreciated :-)

Valerie of Bright Star had her two back-to-back shows this year (two shows on the same weekend within driving distance of each other, one in Columbus on Saturday and Ann Arbor on Sunday)... she offered a discount if you signed up for both shows in the weekend.  It was a really nice idea, and we did participate in both.  In fact, I LOVED doing back-to-back shows in two areas on the same weekend, so how's that for food for thought...

Cheers,
Kelly

What wonderful news, Sophie!  Congratulations!

Kelly

That is wonderful news that your pup will be OK!  What a horrible scare for all of you, but it seems she was very, very lucky and she sure had a lot of people pulling for her!

:hug:
Kelly

Chrissi, your reaction is exactly what they wanted.  And that stuff appears in any category at any time.  Just report it, it has a great many listing violations and will be removed.  You don't have to click on the auction to get the item number, you can copy the link location and copy the number that appears after "itemZ" in the code.

Kelly

Sounds like Sprite ran into a particulary cranky postal official along his journey, if you have been mailing similar packages and had no previous problems.

The 16-oz rule has been in effect for several years now... I don't remember if it was 9-11 or the postal anthrax scare that caused it, or a combination of the two... but yes, all packages over that limit have had to go through the post office since then.  I suppose postal employees are considered "federal employees" and anyone else is just a civilian contractor, or some such mumbo jumbo.

Well, the important thing is that your bear is home!  I'm sure you, and your buyer, and Sprite, are all equally relieved about that one  :hug:

Best wishes,
Kelly

I'm so sorry, Judi!  Best wishes for the little one and all of you  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:

Kelly

Judi, the person (or persons) who did this undoubtedly has many accounts registered, constantly creates more, and has already moved on.  eBay will suspend their account over this, but it won't matter to them, they'll just use another.

To everyone... never, never, never, never, never click on a link in an email to respond to something like this.  Never.  It is not receiving an email from you that transmits your account information, it is the fact that the link is directing you to a web site that LOOKS like eBay but is not... when they get you to log into it, they have your account ID and password. 

Messages like these are designed to look like they originate from a trusted source that you may have an account with.  They may look like eBay messages, messages from your bank, messages from other online merchants like Amazon.com... the varieties are endless.  Be one step ahead of fraud and never, never, never click on links in emails.  Judi actually got off lucky with this one.  Many such fraudulent emails are designed to get more damaging data, like your bank account, credit card, or social security number.

Judi, I'm sorry this happened to you and hopefully the damage can be repaired to your auction and things set right again.

Best wishes,
Kelly

A truly sad time with three deadly attacks in American schools in one week.  It's horrible enough when a child attacks other children, but what is up with the last two attacks where grown men targeted young girls????  In the shooting last week, the man sexaully assaulted all of the girls in the room before shooting one in the back of the head.  What a disgusting world we live in.  And the level of cowardice in an individual to point a gun at young Amish girls is unbelievable, talk about choosing victims who would never fight back.

My heart goes out to Mindy and everyone affected by these violent attacks.  I can't imagine the horror of waiting to find out if the school shooting is at your own child's school.

Peace and hugs to all,
Kelly

That's a shame about the lost bear, but as others have said, the bear may yet make an appearance!  I almost always use priority mail with delivery confirmation (for bears and a few thousand other things), so here's what I've learned about it, which may or may not apply to you.

If you printed the label and DC online from the USPS web site (and get it for free that way, like I do), double-check this against your actual receipt from when you took it to the post office.  Sometimes the postal receipt adds extra numbers to the DC #.  I've never known that to make a difference, but one never knows.

Look on your receipt from the post office and make sure that they scanned in the DC when you shipped it.  If it was not scanned on departure, and not yet scanned on arrival... it will show up as "not found" in the system.

Try the USPS tracking system again later just in case it's a glitch.  Computers being computers, can go down at any time.

Occasionally DC will say something clever like "delivered" when the item has NOT been received by the buyer.  Every once in a while their post office will be holding onto the box for a personal pick-up... and forget to tell the buyer that they're supposed to be picking it up.   I find this particular trick is more common in rural locations.  In that case, someone will need to contact their post office so they can manually search for the box.   "Delivered" can also mean "we dropped it off with your neighbor and decided not to tell you".

As a last resort, go the USPS web site and click on "find a zip code".  Punch in the buyer's mailing address, without filling in the zip code.  Click to see what USPS-recommended address appears on the screen for the information you provided.  I have been surprised many times by people giving me the WRONG address, zip code, or format for their location.  If you find that something is different (like the zip code), you can making some calls and try try to locate the post office at the zip code you shipped it to... they may have the box sitting somewhere marked as undeliverable.

Oh, one other thing I just thought of.  If this sale was not recent, the delivery confirmation data is ERASED from the USPS system after a certain amount of time, which results in a number being "not found" in the system.  I don't know how much time that is, though.  It is possible that the USPS itself may keep longer records than what they allow you to search online though, so it may be worth a call.

Good luck!
Kelly

We have a standard return policy for bears, and even made sure it was spelled out when we overhauled our web site recently.  It's actually more for my own peace of mind than anything else... nobody has yet to use it to actually return a bear.  It just consoles me if I send a bear off to it's new home and we never hear anything from the new owner... instead of worrying that they may not like it, I can now tell myself "she must have liked it, or she would have sent it back!".  LOL!  I worry too much.

Kelly

Never click on a link in an email. 

You can't trust anything to be what it says, so by never clicking on a link in an email, you will never fall victim to this type of scam.  You, or anyone.  Never, never, never click on a link in an email.  Let's make the world a safer place one less click at a time.  This was a public service announcement.

Thank you very much 
Kelly

Hello, anonymous angry person    I'm not sure what value a lecture on ethics from an anonymous source has, but I'll play along with no ill will directed at anyone.

A few thoughts...

I think the main problem here is that the requirements as posted are rubbing people the wrong way.  You get an exclusive invitation to join this club if an unknown group of people decides that you are original, professional and make an arbitrary amount of money on eBay.  Huh?  I hope that if anything good comes of the chaos on this thread, that the members of this group will realize that their requirements need to be re-thought out.  I imagine nobody's intention was to give a negative impression, and it seems that it has.

The thought that this group is "none of our business" unfortunately is also not the case.  If there is danger that any group may purport itself to be THE group for original, professional and desirable bear artists, then that affects ALL bear artists with the implication that other artists are inferior.  I am NOT saying that this group does this, but because I can't quite figure out what this group does or how it sees itself, I can't rule it out either.

And if this group does not want to make itself look like it is more interested in money than artistry, they should probably make a point of judging admittance on ABILITY and not include MONEY in the requirements.  Other than saying that the work must be original, two of your top requirements are about money.

Cheers,
Kelly

No secret handshakes?  Well, I'm out!   

Honestly, I admit to being extremely confused about the whole thing, and I also acknowledge that we are going on third-party information here, so thank you Jenny for posting (and Shelli, who posted while I was typing this).

But... what is the point of having an elite club where the membership is kept secret?  Do you get a prize if you guess who's in it?

And secondly... why would they have such strict requirements for membership, if they are then NOT sticking to them?

Very, very confused here

Best wishes,
Kelly

Sounds like they are trying to go the way of the groups in the eBay Art categories.  There are many eBay artist groups, very few are useful, some are exclusionary and 'snobbish', some are pointless and most are redundant.  I will say that using art groups as keywords in the Art categories makes some sense, where one painting can get lost in tens of thousands of other paintings over a week's time.  It is a way to find "like-minded" artists or works of a similar nature, by searching for the group's keyword instead of slogging through thousands of paintings randomly.  The artist bear category on eBay is not even remotely comparable and I truly hope the bear world does NOT go in this direction.

As for the income requirements on this particular group, I presume that this is a group solely for eBay purposes, so I imagine they'd just look through your recent auctions to figure out what you're making.  As to how they expect to figure out if you "make your living" by looking at those numbers, it is impossible to prove short of requiring a tax return.

And, in all honesty, if they're going to convince me of how elite and professional they are... they are really going to have to find a better phrase than "monthly bear sells".

The information posted above reminds me of the artist group IBND, or "Imitated But Never Duplicated".  Search for IBND on eBay to find them, it is an group of a select few artists.  They sell themselves as the FIRST to do what they do and the BEST at what they do; this is generally interpreted as saying that "other" artists are just trying to catch up or copy them.  This usually goes over like a lead balloon among other artists.

Best wishes,
Kelly

By the backing, do you mean the lining or the fur itself?  When a fur coat smells, much of the odor will be trapped in the lining.  If you can remove all the lining and keep the fur hanging in a nice, airy place for a while, this should help the odor.  If it's the fur itself that got moldy, I would worry that it may not be salvageable.  Tammy is right, you can try getting it professionally cleaned.  And make sure your fur is completely dry before trying anything with plastic, or I think you may wind up with an even bigger mess.

Good luck!
Kelly

I feel rather embarrassed to say it, but I mostly like fat and fluffy bears... you know, with all their hair    I think if I had to distress one of my bears, *I* would wind up being so distressed I would have to be committed somewhere.

I do remember a story of a bear artist that takes her bears for a ride to distress them.  That is, she ties the bears to her bumper and drags them behind her car while she drives around the neighborhood!  Can't remember which artist it is, but it may be Martha Burch?

Does anyone remember the commercial for the minivan where the mother buys a new teddy and abuses it until it looks like her daughter's lost bear?  She washes the car with it, runs it over, slams the seat down on top of it and pulls out an eye.  One of my all-time favorite commercials!

Best wishes,
Kelly

By all means, charge appropriately for the time you put in, or it may indeed not be worth the effort.  When I occasionally make a handmade ornament to go with one of our bears, we factor in the cost of the ornament materials AND the time it took to make it at a rate per hour.  These are special ornaments, I emphasize that they are just as one of a kind as the bear.  It usually winds up adding another $100-$150 to the cost of the bear these days.  The same holds true when my mother spends a long time adding clothing, something that doesn't happen often but we hope to see more of in the future.  We have a bear here with a handmade cloak with handbeaded accents.  Yup, the cost will be added onto the bear.  A more expensive accessorized bear doesn't always sell as fast as a less-expensive bear, but sometimes it's nice to push into new frontiers a little.

Best wishes,
Kelly

Shantell,

You mentioned that you trusted your vet greatly, and that she was a friend of yours.  If she knows you are concerned, can she recommend other vets for you to get additional input from?  I'm just thinking that it might put your mind more at ease, if multiple professionals all agreed that the chosen path is the correct one.

Best of luck to you and Skippy both!
Kelly

Thank you for taking such good care of Skippy, Shantell!  I'm sure she has no idea what a lucky cat she is to have you looking out for her.

I would say this about her bad leg... if she NEVER uses it as a leg now, she won't miss it.  And if she is persistently injuring it, it needs to be removed.  As you say, open wounds and infections won't do her any good.  Think of it this way... would she appreciate being captured and taken to the vet repeatedly to deal with constant injuries to the bad leg?  I would also think that a completely useless limb on a feral cat would be more of a hindrance than three good legs on an an otherwise healthy and agile cat.

Sandra is correct above, animals tend to compensate very well for limb removal.  Vets will only suggest limb removal as a last alternative when the limb is either (1) nothing but a source of pain and/or (2) functionally useless with no hope of improvement.  I had a family member that welcomed an elderly Golden Retriever into the family, and the dog soon after needed to have a leg amputated due to cancer (I think that's what it was).  The big thing with a Golden Retriever was getting him to SLOW DOWN during the recovery period, as of course the pain was gone and the dog was exuberant about it.  (Getting a cat to slow down will not be an issue, I imagine.)

Big cyber-kitty hugs to Skippy (and you!),
Kelly