Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Amelia,

My 38 yo was just about that size/age when he did the same thing. But Neal also stuck his finger into the cleaning crystals' dispenser and popped it right into his mouth.

It burned his mouth and throat so badly before I could upend him under the faucet that he couldn't nurse for a few days.

Poor chappie - he just screamed... which didn't help his sore throat at all!!!

I'm not sure I could adjust my eBay templates to adapt this new way - and that site is Waaaaay cool!

Most definitely Yes, scheduling an auction in the future has a very little fee and once you've uploaded a few you can sit back for a few weeks and do other things than wait for slow uploads. I've never put up an auction as soon as I finish its listing. I want them to appear & end at an ideal time for all US buyers across our 4 - 6 time zones.

I usually schedule about 3 - 4 days in advance for a minimum - time to check its appearance and any details I forgot or misspelled, and plenty of time to add the auction number that they send you immediately and change out pix. They run sequentially one, every 2 weeks, as that's how liong they take to create. Don't post more than one auction; here're 2 of the very good reasons against it:
1 - why be your own competition?
2 - if they see one at a time you're more likely to get more bids than making a bidder have to choose between two of your offerings posted at the same time.

In fact you can upload the text only - w/no pix, schedule the auction for later in the week, get the number, add it across your pix once and then insert into the auction; no image revisions.

I've never had a needle go dull. And with very judicious caution one can straighten needles that're starting to bend.

Are you using Foster needles? Their barbs are formed rather than cut into the shaft's edges. They are beveled in every angle that is possible to bevel. I've seen reports on how the cut barbs dull: the 'kick-up' (the part that extends above the level of the edge) is impacted with more force than against the formed barbs, knocking off microscopic amounts of metal, until the kick-up is level with the shaft edge but no longer sharp enough to grab fiber - it passes right on by w/o being dragged in. This type of needle also tends to cut weak fiber more than the formed barb style.

The larger mass of fiber slides along the shaft of the formed barbs, pulling in a certain amount with each thrust but not smacking into the heads as happens with the cut barbs. The sliding action along the shaft edges bears the friction of thrust rather than the top of the kick-up cut barbs.

gotcha.....*weighted*.......

So..... what did you do?
Add something afterwards or carefully needle around the *something* from the beginning?
Inquiring minds want to know???!!!!

Did it cut out OK? Or I should say, is it sewing OK? Often the edges (Seam allowances) need to ve overcast to keep them from 'unweaving/fraying.
The woven mohair fabrics I've seen have a somewhat softer weave, that is to say, not as tightly woven as most fabric, to take advantage of the natural hand or drape effect, and to let the 'halo' of the mohair to pouf.

It's most likely for coating or heavier suits. The word for this would be Fulled, with a bit of 'teasing' (from the original tool - the teasel plant/weed seed pod) mechanically to raise the nap.
Felted/felting is what's done to fiber.
Fulling is done to fiber that's been turned into cloth, through weaving, knitting, etc...

What a timely topic, Marion!!

In my de-stashing, just yesterday I found a BBC 1988 booklet for knitting 6 Intarsia Dr Who© designs.

I was going to put it up for auction, but - if anyone here's interested, I'd be happy to post it off.

First come, first served!

Designs for
3 Dr Whos - Sylvester McCoy #7
                  Patrick Troughton - #2
                  Wm Hartnell - #1
Police Box
A *-----* (Forgotten the name for the fire plug looking thingy
"Dr. Who" - grafted for Hand knit & machine knit.

Speaking of jointing minis, I wanted to show these very small cotter pins: description with my invoice says - 1/16th"wide and 1/2" long. The images show them as the true size, in inches and centimeters.

In my contiinual struggle to de-stash and Get Organized, I found some more of these mini cotterpins that I used to retail. I'll be posting them on *that* auction site after I source out the washers to go with them.

I imported these from England and they are extremely difficult to find. They are the smallest I've ever found!

Thx Jane for your suggestion (tho the link didn't work...) I made arrangements for 3 of Wendy's patterns and their on their way. Thx also to all for your help in this.

You've probably been fair to everyone with your revision. I wouldn't change it just to sell it as she suggested, but you've put the watchers on fair warning.

I myself do not put BIN, though to have that designation or to post a Reserve number is the same as viewing a bear's price tag at a show. And if I want it I'll have it no matter what.

I"ve often had to write to a Seller who cautions in an auction that if there's no interest (no bidding) they'll end the auction early. I've told them that I intend to bid but only at the end. Seeing that that practice doesn't generate bidding wars, they could still end it early (How do they know that I DO intend it to come home to me??) but I've gotten every item that I'd always intended to buy.

I'm probably going to have to duck from the onslaught but I use eSnipe: winning 99% of the auctions I bid on. To me it takes the decision-making out of my mind. No second-guessing and continually inching up my bids until they're far over my budget and I suffer Buyer's Regret.

As soon as I see items I like, they go on the Watch list (Thk Goodness eBay upped the # of watches a few years back!). If I intend to buy then I also enter my max bid on eSnipe and don't even think about it until I receive notification that I've won and to please pay.

So - as to 'Watchers don't mean Buyers', often they do, as everything I buy has been on a Watch. And all of my Sales have come from Watchers; savvy ppl who are disciplined, know how much they can afford to spend and wait it out, either in real time, by proxy bid or use one of the last-minute bidding services.

Actually, Paper Mart is quite resonable. They don't require a tax number or have one of those ridiculous minimum orders of $300 or so.
The savings are greater if you do want quantities like that, but many items can be bought in lots of 5, 25 or more. When I surf through their site I get many ideas and 'need' more Stuff, but usually keep to my budget!!

Well, all TTers know the troubles I've had getting a fully functional site online; in the 12 or so years I've had the BeyondBasicBears url, it has never worked - always been a work-in-progress. I'm on my 8th or 9th webbie; I've lost count & untold thousands of $$. This week my latest webbie in OZ gave me the admin passwords to upload my own info. I want Full Control!!

I haven't even gone to the behind the scene pages yet; they arrived at the same time as 2 more exciting offers!! Taiwan and Teddy Bear & Friends!

I'm extremely honored to have had Mindy ask me to design a Needle Felting project for TB&F, due in her office by 23 March (so I'd better get cracking, as I'm doing the photo layout for the 'pattern'). I'll not tip my hand as to the subject so you'll all be surprised!

And ~ I received an invitation to teach Needle Felting to the Taiwan Teddy Bear Club in June! We're still in negotiations on time and price but how sweet is that to be invited to travel??!! That's how we got to Singapore 3 years ago ~ neither of these Asian events were/are associated with a bear show, just teaching. I am/was thrilled to be introducing my refined NFing methods in Asia!

In Munster, Germany, I taught while Don manned the booth; we'd been exhibiting at Teddybar Total for 5 years before that. Across the States & Canada seems tame.....  I think of myself as just a little NFer sitting here in the middle of our country, trying to get a little work produced... until I pinch myself for a reality check that these things have really happened.

Very stressful as it gets to clinch time - I'm SOooooo a HERMIT who won't even answer the phone!! - but get me in front of a class and I'm so excited for them that I just never shut up! And talk Toooooooo fast! You and Steven can attest to that!

Thx for writing. Thx for the memories... I think I'm gonna cry....

Don't use brass fasteners! They're the flat legged ones used to hold a file of paperwork together!
The size hole these create while turning (supposing that you get them in smoothly), will literally tear a large hole in the fabric spot. And there are no washers that fit these!!!

12 years on the show circuit (US & Canada, into Asia and Germany): it was the most difficult dozen years of my life!!!

Now eBay and word-of-mouth. 

Website?? What's that?? !!!  LOL

I LOVE Papermart.com - they've hgot everything!!!

I posted this on the shilling thread as we've wandered away fom the main topic:

Yep, Heather, I, like the rest of you, recycle everything that I can. The only thing that I use totally new outside boxes on is the purchased work: eBay & others sales.
Paying as much as my customers do, I like it to look like a brand-new-just-for-them-present from the moment the mailman hands it to them.
Inside, protected by bubblewrap and/or the newer style of bubbles (the 3" x 5" rectangular bubbles,) is the themed gift box of decorated paper mache/bamboo-covered/whatever the theme is.
Inside that is the bear purchase, and nestled in the tissue packages is a 1" x 2" miniature book and my *Land of Lincoln* items - a shiny new penny and some chocolate 'coins' - foil-wrapped Lincoln pennies about 1.5" across.

I knew these candies existed and looked for a year before finding the manufacturer. I put 5 or 6 of them inside a small zip-lock bag: in case the chocolate should ever melt, it's contained. I get many compliments on the surprises.

Now - - needles, kits, fiber, paperwork... all of those go out in re-used materials, but nice sturdy ones. There's some pretty shoddy cardboard out there so I choose to save only the better type!

Yep, Heather, I, like the rest of you, recycle everything that I can. The only thing that I use totally new outsaide boxes on is the purchased work: eBay & others. Paying as much as my customers do, I like it to look like a brand-new-just-for-them present from the moment the mailman hands it to them. Inside protected by bubblewrap and/or the newer style of bubbles (the 3" x 5" rectangular bubbles) is the themed gift box. Inside that is the bear purchase, and nestled in the tissue packages is a 1" x 2" miniature book and my *Land of Lincoln* items - a shiny new penny and some chocolate 'coins' - foil-wrapped Lincoln pennies about 1.5" across.

I knew these candies existed and looked for a year before finding the manufacturer. I put them inside a small zip-lock bag: in case the chocolate should ever melt, it's contained. I get many compliments on the surprises.

Now - - needles, kits, fiber, paperwork... all of those go out in re-used materials, but nice sturdy ones. There's some pretty shoddy cardboard out there so I choose to save only the better type!

Can you show us pix of the boxes, Daphne?

Turbo Lister is for Windows only :o(
I found this out in my free eBay Uni classes a year or 2 ago

Jodi, do you mean that you're typing you Item Descrition in that box?
That's what I meany a few pages ago when I commented on the new Sell Youtr Item format.  It's pretty much the same (which I can say now that I've completed two) the main difference is that it used to take 3 or 4 pages to input anll of your info, now it's all on one or two. I was just uncomfortable in not being able to find all of the options where I was used to finding them.

The only thing I still haven't figured out was the option to comment on Shipping/Ins. It wouldn't accept my choice of 4 (?) options no matter how many times I tried.

It's been reccommended - and I always do this so as to save my original drafts - to create your text first in Notepad (Windows) or Text Edit (Mac), before you upload your auction - no Time pressure that way and you can think about both features w/o forgetting something imortant. These quick text programs will use a plain font but the template you've created will post in your chosen font.

Here's my procedure, which I realized didn't work all that differently once I finished. It's just the first once or twice. (Believe me - I'm one that gets into a familiar rut & doesn't like change!!)

- Arrange my pix on my Desktop so I can see the order in which I want them to appear.
- Copy my last auction's text (from Text Edit) onto a NEW document. (You could use Word, too, but it'd change some of your sentence breaks, etc..)
- Rename this w/the current auction's title/name.
- Insert the url of each photo into the new text.
- Hit SAVE or Save As!!!

- Copy & paste this into the Description window in Sell Y I.
-Now I hit Preview Auction so I can check that every pic uploaded and see if I like the 'flow'.
-Now slide the size of the eBay page to half the width of my screen and open the Text Edit window in the other half.

- Scrolling through the Preview, I replace the text to describe the current bear.
- After every couple of sections or paragraphs I re-paste the new text into the SYI window and check it in Preview.
- A lot of my info remains the same so it's easy to just change out the story or measurements for each auction.
- When I'm finished I Save again as my final draft on my HD and paste into the finalized text one last time into the Descr. window.

Then all of your attention can go to manuevering through the actual set-up of time, price, etc..

Judi, you're serious, right???

The labels are there for the manufacturer to alert the retailer to not remove, so the consumer knows what (contents) they're getting. Consumers - Remove 'em!

Tongue-in-cheek....

You are Tooo funny, Chrissi .... and don't forget the pillows!!!

I wasn't taking you to task... far from it! Most of the Postie clerks are quiote nice these days, but we have 2 old biddies & whatever the male gender form of that is, that - I swear - can sniff out PO boxes!!

Speaking of which - has this been a Topic?

Do you reuse boxes for a customer or always use fresh new ones?
I'll stick my neck out here - I never send a 'boughten' item out in a reused box.
Orders for materials, Yes, if the size is right.

But someone said earlier here, that receiving your new bear/cuddly is/should be like opening a present. I want to think that the 'present' looks as if it came from Nordstrom's, not the local resale shop.

Ohhh , don't use Fray Check if you can get other products!! It runs beyond the cutting lines, turns VERY stiff and makes it even harder to sew through!!

If you don't care for the standard metal thimbles, check into the many styles of Clover leather thimbles, with the dime-sized dimpled metal disk insert. I use several styles, as the spot I push with is half way between the edge of my nail and the finger pad - just turn it until the disk sits over your favored stitching spot.

Some of my box sizes have the inside marked as a ribbon/banner - printed with USPS Priority Mail running all over the brown/inside.

I do know ppl who get all of their boxes free and delivered to their home/office and use only the sizes that're not marked inside. Similar sized boxes at The Container Store and the Office Max/Depot stores will run between $1 - $3.95 for the smaller sizes. So the PO is getting ripped off.

It may 'seem' expensive to ship, but think what a plane ticket to deliver in person costs, or the fact that we can have anything handed over to anyone in the world in a week or two. Even with the occasional hiccough - and those're the only mailings that receive the attention - to me, shipping is one of the planet's Good Deals!

Thx Heather - One might think you were a 'plant'!!

On my *almost* completed overhauled site, I have posted the first 2 kits I designed for beginners. I'd retailed & wholesaled them for years and now, to encourage people considering giving this a go, present it as encouragement to start.
Anything learned there can certainly be carried over to other projects: they're posted to give some direction for following while you see what happens when wool/fiber meets a needle!

There's a lot of additional info on NFing in them, beyond just the Thrust here, Poke there directions.

Home - http://www.beyondbasicbears.com/
LadyBug & Sheep!!  - http://www.beyondbasicbears.com/free-kit.shtml