Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I'm in jeans this morning ... it's casual Friday at my 'office' ... but I'm still a bit chilly. Knowing now that it's an appropriate outfit coordinate, I'm going to run up and grab my calico wrap so I'm more comfortable. Just one question, Kelly: the cats tend to squirm a bit, making it hard to type. Do you settle them down with sleeping pills in their milk or a bop to the head?

Mindy

PS: Shows are where we do business, just like an office, so I always wear business clothes for shows -- trousers or skirt, blouse, and nice shoes, with an optional jacket for those frigid ballrooms. I like to see artists dress professionally for shows -- to me, it shows respect for themselves and their collectors and helps portray their work as something serious. Right or wrong, people do judge based on clothing and appearances, and a nice outfit can sometimes tip the balance in your favor.

And to second Kelly's thought, nice-looking clothes don't have to be uncomfortable. If they fit well and you choose your shoes carefully, you'll be just as comfortable in trousers as you are in jeans. And look much nicer.

Of course, if having blue hair and wild clothes is part of your artistic persona, you should ignore all of the above, except the part about the calico wrap. Buy four of those, with a matching nose ring.

The bear business has been fighting a perfect storm of web sites, an uneasy economy, travel difficulties, and an increasingly insular, technical society for about eight years. Even TV shows like "Clean Sweep" are working against us! Each individual's decisions make sense, but put together, we have created a climate where it's really hard to keep a business going -- whether it's an artist, manufacturer, show promoter, store, supplier, or magazine. We're all doing what we can, but somehow we don't have the collective strength we had when the community was glued together by shows and magazines rather than the web. I think we've become a strong virtual community, but we're lost in the sea of billions of web sites, blogs, videos, and e-commerce options. Obviously we can't put the genie back in the bottle and the larger economy is beyond our control, but no one knows how to regain that cohesiveness and rebuild the audience for our artwork, so we're losing shows, artists, stores, and other businesses.

So when Amber called me, I cried. I will miss them terribly. And I mourn the passing of another piece of the community that I have loved and tried to nurture for 14 years.

Mindy

Great advice here, everyone! Something I read the other day: Don't shop online with a debit card. Debit cards aren't always protected the way credit cards are, so your bank might not have to refund your money or help you prosecute the identity theft. Also, don't use debit cards at restaurants where they take your card away to scan it. People have had their entire bank accounts emptied in the time it takes a waiter to walk to the back of the restaurant and run the card. I love my debit card and use it all the time, but I'm trying to be more careful about the circumstances.

Mindy

I love to travel! I can't do it very often, given the restraints of family and job, but I try to find something fun or interesting to do wherever I go. I haven't been anywhere in awhile, and I'm getting itchy -- I'm trying to figure out how to swing a trip to London for my 40th birthday this fall. Could someone please talk to the international monetary people and make the exchange rate a little more reasonable?

The person below me gives great back rubs.

Just a reminder that the TOBY deadline is next week. If you have not yet entered, it's not too late! The forms are available on our Web site. They are PDFs, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download) to read them. You can express mail your entries to our Boston office, or send them to me via e-mail.

There has been some confusion about that last bit -- we had hoped to have a comprehensive online entry system, but that didn't work out. However, we ARE taking entries via e-mail. Contact me if you need more details.

Check off that New Year's Resolution now -- enter the contest! As the lotto people say, you can't win unless you enter!

Warm wishes,
Mindy

The clip on the Web was sensationalist journalism and portrayed the women as so weird. I was hoping maybe the rest of the program was more balanced. (I didn't see a way of showing the whole program on the Web.) Guess not. As you said, they picked people who make "good" TV rather than true representatives of the hobby.

I think the artwork is admirable, although I don't care for the dolls themselves.

I have to admit, I've seen that same deer-in-the-headlights look a couple of times when I've explained about collectible teddy bears. Different strokes, right?

Mindy

Just wondering if anyone watched the show, and how they portrayed the dolls and artists. As Shane said, we have reborns at IDEX, so I'm familiar with them and curious how the wider media would present them.

Mindy

Interesting topic, Karen! I've got six shows on my schedule so far. Like everyone else, I have budget issues and personal commitments that are cutting into my show schedule this year. I hope people who are attending shows will consider snapping a few pictures and writing them up for me so we can share them with collectors everywhere!

Which leads me to ask: can artists "cover" shows for each other, too? Offer to take six of someone's bears to your east coast show if they'll take six of yours to their west coast show? I know there would be a lot of trust involved, but I also know that artists tend to be more effective selling other people's work.

Everyone knows I love shows -- I don't think there's any substitute for seeing bears and their people in person. But I'm also looking forward to following some of the online shows this year; hope people will enter the contests (mine and everyone else's); and humbly suggest that you consider advertising with any of the major magazines. All of us offer ads for a couple hundred dollars -- you only need to sell one or two bears to cover the cost, and we offer audiences of thousands of people who are guaranteed to like teddy bears. Just a thought.

23 degrees here today; I'm really wishing I had a trip to Australia on my schedule! Guess I'll have to settle for Orlando at the end of the month -- and maybe Costco before then, to buy a space heater. :)

Mindy

If you still have decorations up, please snap (high res) pictures and send them to me before you put away all your holiday things for the year. I've only received photos from one person... Kinda sad!

Mindy

While you have your homes decorated with teddies for the holidays, please snap a few (high res) photos and send them to me. I want them for the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of TBF, but I'll be working on that in, oh, July, so I have to ask now!

Please include any decorating tips or descriptions of ideas so I can share them with readers next year.

Thanks!
Mindy
mkinsey@madavor.com

I've wanted a 1930s style rectangular watch since high school and never gotten it, either from "Santa" or for myself. Maybe this year...

When I was a kid, I used to tear pages of bedroom furniture out of the Sears catalog and tell my mom I wanted coordinated bedroom furniture. She redecorated my room for me numerous times, but I never did get a "bedroom suite." As an adult, I still have mismatched, hand-me-down bedroom furniture, even though the rest of the house is neatly coordinated. It seems silly to spend so much money on a room the world never sees, but I see it, so one of these days I'll decide what I want and decorate to the nines. In the meantime, I enjoy looking at decorating magazines and dreaming!

Mindy

I once received one of those oversized T-shirts that shows (front and back, life-sized) a curvaceous woman's body wearing a bikini!

Mindy

Oops, sorry. I've been deleting spam from the forum every day, but they seem to creep in at night and post more. I've got the IT guys checking on some sort of filter, but for now I have to remove it myself. My apologies for the nasty surprise!

Mindy

Small commerical message:
Anyone who's been thinking about exhibiting at IDEX, you need to get your contract and deposit in. We've got about two dozen booths, half booths, and retail room tables left. It will sell out. We've sold out the first hotel and are adding rooms to our block at the second hotel. And -- this is cool -- they're advertising it in Antique Doll Collector for November & December, Toy Book in December, Playthings in November & December, and Collectors United in November and December. Plus sending tens of thousands of fliers (really). There are about 30 teddy bear exhibitors so far, and 9 bear events.

Speaking of which, if you're going to be in the neighborhood, you should definitely sign up for the photography workshop. It's free and will teach you tricks to photograph your bears. You provide the bear, we provide the camera. AND, we'll be publishing some of your photos in the magazine after the show -- you just have to show up to snap them! We have quite a few cool events, but this one should be particularly interesting and beneficial.

We'll now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mindy

Last night I found one of my cats curled protectively around a Karen Lyons kitten, purring like a mini lawn mower. The cats wreak havoc on my son's stuffies but have never touched any of my "good" bears/friends, so I don't know what to think of that. It was cute, but I'd be tempted to ... I don't know, dump in a bathtub full of water ... any cat that chewed on one of MY bears.

Mindy

I have to admit, the idea is Missy's, not mine -- she did it on her blog first. I thought it was so cool that I asked her if we could do it for the magazine. She graciously agreed, so here we are. Thanks for voting, everyone -- the more votes, the better!

Another opportunity: I’m talking about sports and sport bears in the Mar/Apr issue, so I want a pattern for a sort of “action” bear. It might have extra joints, armature, a yes/no mechanism – something that would make it more active and poseable than a normal teddy. The deadline is Jan. 2. PM me at mkinsey<at>madavor.com for more info. (Sorry, I'm getting LOTS of spam so have to be careful about posting my e-mail address.)

Mindy

Update 11/15: This one's filled; thanks!

- Looking for sports bears -- either bears doing sports or representing a sports team. Send a photo, caption, contact info by January 2. Please don't violate anybody's trademarks to participate in this!

- Need someone to design a baby bear or animal. Not dressed like a baby, but of realistic baby/toddler proportions (big head and eyes, etc -- but not anime). Doesn't have to be a realistic cub/kitten/puppy/whatever, just have the look of a baby of that species. Deadline Feb 1. Update: This one's filled, thanks!

- Anyone who can tell me about designing a baby animal (challenges, how it's different), please PM me at: mkinsey<at>madavor<dot>com.

- Looking for pix of baby animals and spring animals -- lambs and such -- for a "spring fling" overview. Flowers good, too. Deadline Feb. 1.

- Tribute to Tiny Teddies is back! Send pix, captions, contact info by Feb. 1.

- Take pictures of your holiday decorations NOW and submit them for publication LATER. I want to do a feature about decorating next year. Send any tips about decorating with bears, too.

For photo submissions, if it helps, use the form on our Web site:
http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/foru … owtopic=13

Do you like your bears big or little? Chubby or lanky? Big eyes or small? Opinions wanted! I'm working on a custom bear project. Please take a minute to zip over to the TBF Web site and take a few polls to tell us how you like your teddies. Missy Ballance will make the bear and I'll show the results in the March issue.

http://www.teddybearandfriends.com/foru … howforum=9

Thanks!
Mindy

Today I heard there's a fire in Grass Valley, which is in northern CA rather near Nevada City where the American Victorian Museum hosts the show every April. Does anyone know if Charles, the bears, and the museum are OK? (The news here in PA is so geographically challenged that they talk about San Diego County, Pepperdine University, and Grass Valley as though they are neighbors rather than three distinct and rather distant locations thorughout the state!)

My brother is fine, thanks for your concern.

My brother lives about a mile from the fire closest to Irvine. He says people in his company have lost their homes, offices and freeways are closed, and the air is full of smoke and ash even though they can't actually see flames. He's not actually concerned about his area, though -- apparently it's worse in San Diego, where they have evacuated a million people (and, you'll be glad to know, the animals from the zoo) and are looking at a billion dollars in damage. *sigh* America only needs a plague of locusts to make our disaster trifecta complete!

Mindy

Huge congratulations -- and thanks for sharing the cute story. I have to admit a twinge of unease; I joined the US equivalent of a slimming club about three weeks ago. I shall consider myself warned!

Best of luck with the new "project"!

When you subscribe to a topic, TT will send you an e-mail with a link when someone posts a new response to that topic. That way, you can check back on the conversation if, say, you don't have TT up on your screen all day, every day. (Which all of us do, so it's probably a moot point...)

Great work, everyone -- thanks for sharing! Isn't it neat how everyone interprets the same theme differently? Very cool. We have not been much in the Halloween spirit here -- it's been too warm, the leaves haven't changed, and there's been too much work -- but this definitely helped me get in the mood!

Mindy

I always tell people I'm the editor of Teddy Bear and Friends -- an art magazine for adult teddy bear and soft sculpture collectors. They usually ask questions about the number of artists, how much the bears cost, and do I cover "Steef" bears. Most people seem to understand "art" and are politely interested, but a car salesman recently asked if I carry samples with me, as he'd like to see an art bear -- proving right there that he didn't quite get the concept. (Like I'd carry samples in the car...!)