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thondra May 29, 2012

hey fellow bear artists.

today i got a question i been thinking about for a week already and cant make up my mind.

its ... competitions.

are they worth it ?

most of them are rather expensive to even join in. some i found wiht 30 euro per entry, some with 70 dollars for the first, the rest is cheaper ... and anything in between.

is it really SO good a advertisement if you win or get nominated ?
and if you dont even get nominated, is it not a very bad advertisement ?

and ... when i make a bear today i think good enough to enter, is it really realistic to hide him from puplic for half a year or a year like some competishions tell you to ?

hope you can help me to make up my mind

desertmountainbear May 29, 2012

I have never hidden a bear from the public that I plan to enter in a competition. I don't advertize which ones will be entered, I just pick the ones that I think will do well from what I have made in the past year.  I guess if you are doing an in person competition you would need to hide the bear till you entered.

The answer to your question is yes, I think they are worth it.  The only one I enter where all the entries are seen is the URSAs.  I have had collectors tell me that they saw my work for the first time in the URSAs, so I continue to compete in that one every year.  To me it is money spent on advertizing.

The other ones I have entered are through the magazines and not all the entries get seen.  It is good to win one of those.  But if you don't get nominated then that money is gone, no one has seen your work.

And one more thing, in my opinion it is not bad to enter and not win.  It does not feel great, you always wonder why.  But I have never thought bad about an artist's work because they were not nominated.

There are many excellent well known bear makers who never enter a competition.  I am not a competitive person, but I do enjoy it.  It keeps things in the bear world exciting for me, and gives me something to work towards.