Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Very nice blog Amy.  I would love to follow you.  Now how to put a "like" badge on it.  I see you already started a fan page, go to that page, on the left under your avatar click edit page.  Next go to marketing, should be the fourth one down, click, now you have choices, the "like button" is there.
If you click it you can customize it.
I just use a page badge.  You can get that there too.

Joanne

We've always been a beary family - I got my first bear the day I was born!  Poor old Elizabearth has been with me all my life, he's (and yes, you read that right, my male bear has a girl's name  ) been all over the world, losing his growl in Nigeria (my parents think he somehow for damp, and as we left there when I was 2 1/2, I don't remember the growl), losing most of his fur on his arms and legs in Philadelphia, due to my thumb-sucking and limb-rubbing habit, and got a retread when we moved back to the UK.  My dad got some cheap 'fur' from a fabric shop and covered his arms and legs.  He managed to keep the leg joints movable, but sewed over the arm joints.  I can still remember being told that Elizabearth would never be able to bend his arms again    Poor thing has had a few wee holes darned by my mum, as well as a few nose thread replacement surgeries, and now languishes in my bed in an old t-shirt, giving hugs as required. 

For the first few years of my life we just had shop bought bears, mostly presents I'd been given, but one or two were mum and dad's, but then we ended up in Telford, which was for years the home of the West Midlands Teddy Bear fair.  I remember going to our first one when I was about 8 or 9, and then we kept going to every one after that, even when they increased to twice a year.  This was a great day for teddy bear artists, and a bad day for the bank managers I think, given the armfuls we would bring home!  Whilst there were a few stalls also selling mohair, I had no idea how one might make a bear, and although my mum had forced me through some painful sewing projects, I didn't enjoy them one little bit!

I've always enjoyed crafts, and making things, and when I went to uni I got into the habit of making the Christmas and birthday presents for my family, partly because it let me indulge in the crafts and effectively save money on the pressies lol  By summer of 2002 I was graduating and saw a sign for a teddy fair in East Kilbride on my way to work one day.  The fair only happened once, and had the grand total of 5 stalls!  They did have a stall by the name of 'Bear Bottoms' who were from Durham, and with my extremely meagre amount of spare cash, I bought a pattern, mohair, eyes, joints, stuffing and thread.  It seemed like it would be a great Christmas project, but it wasn't until 2004 that I actually made up 'Edward Fathingale'.  Surprisingly he looks like a bear.  Unsurprisingly he looks nothing like the photo with the pattern lol  Actually, to this day I can't work out how he could have looked like the pattern, I think it might have been the wrong photo stuck to the pack!  Anyway, since I worked in IT on databases, he was named Oracle.  Having supplies left over, I was able to make another, from the same pattern, for my mum for Christmas.  That was Sequel (and for those of you who know databases and just groaned, well, we have a terrible sense of humour in my family  ).  Over the next few years I sporadically invested in kits from sites in the UK and Australia, but it wasn't until I was working in South Africa that I was actually able to visit a real live shop selling things to make bears! 

I owe a lot of thanks to the lady at Honeydew bears (the owner's mother) who encouraged me to try my own patterns, and I managed to get hold of Teddy Bear Studio by Ted Menten which showed what you could do to get different effects, and how to make up patterns, so armed with the ideas I'd gained from there, and little techniques I'd come across in patterns I'd made from other people, I worked out my first bear.  Well, I worked out my first pattern, and I'd bought all the mohair and things to make him, but I was so afraid of wasting the precious mohair (not just the expense, but the difficulty of getting hold of it!) that it lay to one side.  Honeydew had even sold me some ultra cheap synthetic fur to do a practice bear on, but I was scared to even try that for 2 years!  Eventually last year I had been making accessories for camera flash guns, and a friend suggested I make it into a business, which, sod's law being what it is, conincided with me being unable to get one of the main components any more without a trade bank account.  Still, I also made jewellery, and thought I could sell some of that in the meantime.  I happened to be chatting to a friend on MSN about it, and mentioned that I might also make a bear or two to sell.  'Great,' she said, 'I'll take 4 for my kids for Christmas'.  Err, seriously?!  Oooookay, I'd better get back on that pattern quick smart, and then design some more (this was October last year).  Spike (my avatar bear) was the first off the production line, and I'd always intended to keep him in the family, giving him to my dad for Christmas, but the next 4 all went to Mand, whose kids loved them (thankfully!)  I've been plodding away ever since, making my first 'real' sale in April (that is, one to a complete stranger who found my website, rather than a friend or family member!).  I'm now stockpiling bears for my very first show, The Great Yorkshire Teddy Bear Event, in November.

Oh dear that was a little like war and peace, sorry, maybe it should have a boredom warning flag  :whistle: