Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Thank you for your lovely comments. Purple was inspired by the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, I have always loved that poem but it means more now that I have got to the 'growing old disgracefully' stage. I think the society is mainly in the USA although I did see on our local news the other day that there are a few groups in the UK.

  Dawn
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Thank you Sandra, the one in the red hat is inspired by the poem 'When I am old  will purple........' I wear a lot of purple myself!

Dawn
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Thank you Vicki, I look forward to seeing you there.

Dawn

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It will be lovely to see you there Pauline. I am really excited about the show this year. You may not remember but this time last year I was in a bit of a sorry state with the Bells Palsy. It has been a bit of a tough year but touch wood everything is pretty much back to normal. We really must do lunch sometime. 

It stands for British Bear Artist Awards and they take place at the British Bear Show in Hove on 23rd November. 

Dawn
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Hi
I think I put my pictures in the wrong place so I am putting them here instead. I am delighted to have had four short listings.

Is everyone who has been nominated going? Last year, I took Chloes entry with me and I would be happy to do the same for anyone that cannot go this year.

Anyhow, if I can remember how to upload photos, here are my entries:

Category 3 - Dressed Bear 6 - 15 inches - Purple

Category 4 - Large Undressed Bear - James

Category 5 - Large Dressed Bear - David

Category 8 - Large Group - Playtime with Grandad

Good luck to everyone else who has been nominated - I look forward to meeting you all in Hove.

Dawn
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xx

Well done Julie your entries are totally stunning. Looking forward to seeing you at Hove. Dawn. xx

I remember being in the very first Teddy Bear Guide in 1987 - it makes me feel very old. Back in those days it was much much thinner - a bit like me!

Ouch - I am sure you didn't mean to Paula but the implication here is that the magic has gone from bear shops. My experience is that this is just not true. Silly Bears in Aberdeen celebrated its first birthday party on Saturday. The shop has been a resounding success with a breathtaking selection of artist bears from around the world. Julieann Bruce has worked so hard to make this shop successful. There were loads of collectors that came on Saturday some of whom had travelled a very long way, and bears were flying out of the door when they left. The shop is absolutely beautiful and Julieann only stocks artist and vintage bears no manufactured bears at all. The shop also has a website www.sillybears.co.uk that has been equally successful.

Hi

To some extent, it depends what you are doing with your bears! If you are making them for yourself or just as a hobby then it really does not matter when you call yourself an Artist. However, if you are wanting to sell bears then most buyers or collectors would expect an artist to carry out the complete design of the bear, which means not using other artists' or commercially available patterns no matter how much they are tweaked.

From a personal point of view, I love the term 'Bear Artist' and use it all the time, but I only started using it regularly when I had developed my own patterns and style of bears.

Having said that, there really are no hard and fast rules and it depends what you feel comfortable with.

Dawn

I find that it takes as long to dress  a bear as it does to make the bear - often longer. However, I find that it is not always easy to ask twice the price. When making bears is your full time job and therefore your only income, this has to be taken into account. I am a bit strange in that I really like bare bears, but I love making outfits for them as well. One outfit that I made for a BBAA entry took the best part of a week to make.

Dawn, Hugs Unlimited