Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Since I started making miniature teddy bears in 2005, over 100 of them have been adopted by generous collectors all over the world. Starting slow, after two years I got a steady flow of adoptions, motivating me to design and create the next bear each week. In the past two months adoptions dropped fast, whether it was on eBay or on my own website, and I just wonder whether you experience the same, and what you think is the best thing we can do at the moment to make a positive change in a hard time.

As I live in the Netherlands, a country too small to go to local trade shows and sell all my creations, selling online is my only real option, and it worked fine in the past. What would be your best bet if this happened to you?

I am new on Facebook and would not mind to get invited by bear artists and collectors from all over the world...

My URL is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000071034984 and my name is Tessa Altenburg.

I already invited most of you who replied to the original post.

Today I thought: "Why not start a new Artist Teddy Bears group on the photo website Flickr, and ask artists and collectors to join me to post the best images of their creations and collections. We could have fun just watching each others' work, and discussing how to get even better...". And so I did, and here it is:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/artist-teddy-bears/

Send me a mail through Flickr or through my Teddy Talk email, and I will let you in. You can post pictures of your loved ones right away.

For those who want to follow my Bright Bears on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brightbears

This little fellow called Nathaniel loves to play, and his big eyes just beg you to come over and join him. He enjoys his toys and friends for many hours a day, and at the end of each day falls soundly asleep in his warm den.

Nathaniel was carefully made by hand using long pile upholstery velvet (from the Malden Mills company). He is filled with mohair, a lot of joy, and glass and steel granules. The granules give him the ideal weight to sit and stand comfortably.

Nathaniel looks at you through his pair of black glass eyes. I embroidered his nose. His paw pads were made of ultra suede. I created a cotton nightcap with a tiny bell for him. He wears a silk bow around his neck and heart-shaped buttons on his belly.

Thanks to his 5 joints, Nathaniel easily moves his arms, legs and head.

His sizes are 2 2/8" when he is sitting, and 3" while standing.

Nathaniel was born in a non-smoking home, and comes - with his wooden toy cow on wheels - in a nice box, with a card containing some of his characteristics handwritten by me, the artist.

Nathaniel is on auction on eBay until the 26th of July, 2009 (20:00:00 PDT).