Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Well I has coffee as aromatic --------hhhmmmm.  Dad as my twin soul. My husband as someone I'd never forget. Sea as restless and.....well........ my life is that at the moment.. But I had fun

:hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug: no words can say enough sorries

Iagree if children ae involved everyting changes....all gloves are off if kids are involved, especially if they are being verbally abused......do what you have to do as fast as possible....the adult will have to deal with any consequencs the best they can.

Why is theis person angry all the time?  Have they been dealt a rough hand lately....do they have high ideals and feell that life  has let them down?  Not to get to deep but you soundl ike your dealing with the symptoms and not the cause.  Talking to them and telling them to change will notbe effective if deep down they feel they have a reason or a right to be angry. You will only cause them to become moreangry if your "talking at" themcomes across as lacking understanding or empathy. No one is angry all the time without a reason......it may not be a clear reason or a reason you understand but they will have a reason.  No-one andI mean on-one wants to be unhappy or angry all  the time. I think you may need to do more sublte digging. Stop lecturing about the anger and start talking to them.....perhaps changing tack may be helpful. After all your current way of dealing is not helping........OK I;ll be quite now...as despite my lecture I'm no expert  either.

Well I;ve never lost ears by stuffing them into abody but.....once.....after designing them i decided to sewthem on the way to work on the Manly Ferry. Fotthose in the USA this crosses Sydney Harbour from Manly to Sydney about a 45 min trip, Anyway I finished the ears in this time andI know I put temin my bag, but they must have fakken out on disembarking when I got my ticket out. The problem with this......I had had tomake these ears small and from the very last piece I had of this fur........you try explaining to a lost and found office....to two men.....that you are looking for 2 teddy bear ears!!!!

Well they just stared and stared at me as though I had donkey ears growing out of my head.

So I gave up...buti wasn't going to  throw away a totally finished bear for all but ears so I made him a hat and sewed into onto his head......it wouldn't have sat right over ears anyway......well it's true it wouldn't have!! :crackup:

Notice the phobia of men starts with ....arr.... :crackup:

After seeing phthisic in the other thread I was reminded oh gamaphobia .....which was a favourite one of mine a while ago and then a friend told me about...... Pentheraphobia ..... I alsolike some of the following but as a bear artist I don't suffer from koniphobia as mu house is always in that state....and being a bear artist I'll never get to suffer from plutophobia either.

I'm more batty than suffer form batophobic though...... :crackup:

And as mu husband has a beard I can't claim poonophobia.

beards....Pogonophobia
dust....Koniphobia
everything....Panophobia
falling in love....Philophobia
gold.....Aurophobia
heights or tall buildings....Batophobia
marriage....Gamaphobia
men....Arrhenphobia
mother-in-law....Pentheraphobia
opinions....Allodoxaphobia
wealth....Plutophobia
words....Verbophobia

So anyone know of some other good ones........?

It may be the fact that sew all by hand then that makes medoit this way. Sewing on ears is my most hated task and I used to make thiem all rather large for that reason Now Ilike really little ears and I can't seem toget the position right unless I have the bear allbut finished a see the overall effect. AnywayI look at it my "strange" habit seems to be to do it last. 

I've just been told I'm weird. Although I design a whole bear and draw it out,right down to joint placement. I never ever design my ears until I have completed the nose and eyes and all but have the head finished. I then place it in a mug and have it sitting looking at me while I sew the rest of the bear. I then stuff arms and legs and joint them to the body. I then hold the head to the body and deisgn and sew on the ears. Joint the head to the body and stuff and close the body. In short the ears are the last thing I design and the second last thing I do before finishing the bear. Am I wierd or do others leave certain tasks to last.

Some very interesting points and I agree that those that say you still consider yourself a novice because you still have techniques to learn are selling yourself way to short. I suppose this question came up on relation to show competitons. If the show doesn't give a criteria when do you decide to move from novice to open etc?

I am entering a bear into the British Bear Artist Awards in December under the novice category which states you must have been making bears for 18 months or less....I've sort of taken this as my guide line and will consider myself a novice until I have been making them for longer.

This is interesting because someone with lots of time can take in heaps of experience and makes lots of bears in 18 months against someone with less time who may make only 3 or 4.  So I suppose i still come  back to does the number of bears made make a difference or not?

I was asked today as to when can a new bearmaker stop considering themselves a novice? I have always given the answer of the number of bears and/or years you have been making. Someone disagreed and said it was purely on years of making bears. Another in the group said you were a novice until you sold a bear. It seems different competitions set a different criteria.

I considered myself a novice until I made a bear I was reasonably happy with....which really meant the nose was actually OK. 

What is your criteria for a novice. Years of making, number of bears made, ability to sell even if it is anothers pattern. If it is selling is this considered a sale to a family member for cost of materials? All these points were debated in the discussion.

Ok well I throw another spanner in the fir so to speak,,,,,,,,,,what is OOAK in a theme or series,

Is a series where you use the same pattern but different furs and looks. And:

A theme where you do the same "look" ie all bears dressed as say the 7 dwarves in Snow White but they may be different  patterns.........or is that a series, too?

AARRGGGG now I'm getting confused!!

If a painter does the same view at different times of the year that is  " Series of Lake blah blah " or the Seasons series - this equals the same pattern in the bear world- done differently but each being OOAK.

If a painter does different paintings but all totally different but they all feature a sunflower that is a theme - right? So a if a bear artist only made pandasbut all different we'd do OOAK bears all in a theme....

So the bears would be OOAK in a series or theme...I think....

I convinced myself..........anyone else?

Because of my shop in Manly, which had over 100 artists supplying bears I had to define some of these things for my own sanity in selling them. I asked all artists to try and follow this criteria. If they used the pattern once it was OOAK. If they used the same pattern but changed it so all the bears looked different......it was a OOAK in a series, their choice of open or limited. If it was the same pattern, same material and same features etc it was not marked unless it was a limited series of 10 only etc.

Everyone seemed happy with this decision and kept some integrity to the tagging.

If you want to see more of Patsy's profile and read it clearly go to this site,,,,,,,,,

http://www.woodlandspublishing.com.au/abc/index.html

and you can actually subscribe to the magazine from there too.

One of a kind means just that One of a kind. I can remember feeling really ripped off as a collector when I bought a bear from a bear artist (actually it was this incident that made me start making bears) and was told it was OOAK. Next show on her table was "my" bear in a diffent fur and the fur was NOT that different. To me OOAK means totally that..the pattern is not used again. OOAK in a series....means the pattern will be used again but never look the same.

I think all artist should be clear on this point.

I use this stance as a selling point on my bears ....buy now or miss out.

As I hate the pressure of making bears to order I don't take them and just tell collectors to watch ebay, my website and look for my table at shows.

I had to laugh......those handles on the table......you can get them from the Bunnings Hardware store ...about $6 each. My kitchen needs renovating so I went and bought some and put them on my old cupboards. I'd have the only kitchen in Australia with teddy bear door handles...............

But the machine looks fabulous......but I can't use one!!!!...........that's why I hand sew.

I'm in awe.....I'd never walk away I'd just stand and watch.

Hi

I know AUstralia is strict but I also make jewellery and often bring in "rocks" from other countries so I think it depends on the "cleanlines" of the gravel or rock used. I have imported "rough" staight from the mone with no problems at all. So I think it would some back to the artists making a statement about the "gravel" in the bear and also if was encased in something inside the bear as well.

About 6 years ago in Austrlia we did have someone promoting red gravel chips as filling but I think it lost support as a bear got wet and the red golour in the gravel bled colour into the bear. BUt the stuff used in fish tanks sounds interesting.

Customs is hard in Australia but with the right attitude and paperwork nearly everything will get through ......because I have also imported Tagua Nuts and the only problem I had there was someone in America wrote Ivory on it and that caused MAJOR problems....but we resolved that eventually.

Hi Chrissi

I think you should be able to get your fees back if you report them through as a non-paying bidder...you can do so immediatley if you can attach the email you received.......I have done this in Australia with no problems

HI

Here are my two dogs the one on the left is Gorilla a Lhasa Apso and Lani on the right a cross poodle. You will notice both are a bit hairy at the moment. This is because I have not recently had a need to practice a new hair trim for a bear. Much cheaper and easier to pracice on my dogs.........the hair actually grows back if I get it wrong!!!!

Both have with with us 9 years and were rescued dogs. Lani is still not fond of strange men....however if I spend too long sewing she will put her nose under the tray I often have on my lap to hold everything and flip it off.....aarrggg, just to ensure she gets my attention.

I would be lost without them and dread each passing birthday now, both are twelve.

Hi Everyone

This question came up 10 year ago when I opened my shop in Manly Australia, it was finally decided by the many "bear artists" in the shop that this term applied to those who created their own original patterns and "bear maker" applied to those people who didn't design their own patterns but supplied bread and butter to others by buying and making their patterns.

I however had to face people at parties when I said "Oh I own a shop that represents over 100 Australian Bear Artists". ..Next comment "Oh I must visit blah blah has just had a baby and I want to buy a bear for him" .Me "Oh well that's good but not many of my bears will suit you." and then I had to explain why. Usually half way through they'd pat my arm and say "Oh well dear never mind, the shop's only a hobby isn't it, your husband is supporting you." Or some such comment.

So not only was I a poor deluded bear artist but I gone and opened  a shop as well...really the rolled eyes far outweighed the blank gazes.