Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

The teddy bear industry basically up and DIES every year around mid to late summer time, as many of us have noticed -- and commented upon -- for years now.  It's a dry time for sales which stings many an artist.  I think that dry time might therefore be the best time, in terms of absence-of-other-stress, to get "special" pieces made, photographed, and submitted to contests.  The holidays are particularly stressful, for sure, and it's hard to pull everything together as kids are taking finals, vacation days loom, shopping and decorating pressures build, and holiday visitors arrive.  I agree with all that completely.  I'm practically having a stroke even as I type.  Too much to do!!!  Aargh!!

On the other hand -- playing devil's advocate here -- the two US photo contests have had deadlines in December/early January for as long as I've been in this industry, so viewed from a certain perspective, we DO have 365 days from the last contest to prepare!  It's not like they spring the deadlines on us in November, even if deadlines are finalized at that time.

Back on the first point, though -- un-playing devil's advocate    -- if the case is, as it seems, that everyone waits until December to get moving on their entries, then the contest sponsors might be advised to look at the REALITY of the situation, rather than at the fact that we all know in advance when deadlines are looming.

Unfortunately for our stress levels, though, they are bound by the timing of certain shows -- IDEX, etc. -- where they historically announce first the nominations, and then, the winners.  Plus, to my knowledge, both of these contest sponsors align bear events with similar doll contests whose calendars must for practical reasons be like the bear contest calendars. 

Nothing is ever easy, is it?  lol...

I'm not entering any contests again this year, because I took most of last year off and don't have any pieces I think are contest-worthy.  Nothing more or less interesting than that.

Useless, eh?  lol...

I'd love to be your friend, Shantell; on Facebook or anywhere.  I'll go look you up!

Sonya!!!  Merry Christmas to you!!  It's so nice to see you pop in and say hi...      

Well OF COURSE you're so upset!  That is so NOT Christmas-spirit-y.  Nasty buggers.

I'm really sorry about the experience you had, and the damper it's put on your holiday buzz. 

Warm wishes to you, hon.   

A 4.5 earthquake?  Heck, my cats rattle the Richter scale that much when they run down the stairs.  Then again, I AM from California... :)

Actually all earthquakes are kinda scary because the one thing that's supposed to be reliable, no matter what, is that the ground will be fixed beneath your feet!  So I'll bet you were scared!  But it makes a great story to tell, especially since no one was injured.  Usually it's the third world countries, and the antiquated construction they house, that suffer the most when earthquakes hit.

I'm really glad you're all okay!

HehHeh. 

Hi Jenny.     :hug:    :hug: 

That's all.  You're in my thoughts.

Gorgeous daughter!  Love her hair; so cute and fresh and young but also, polished.  Nice job contributing the hair bow, mom!!

FASTEST delivery from US to Canada??  =  Wagon train, or delivery on foot.  I'm only half kidding, too.  I can't believe how long it takes for stuff to cross our northern border sometimes, and I have plenty of Canadian friends who'll back me up in my assertion that Canada Post... isn't terribly efficient.  I think the phrase my art card swapping friends use is actually, "Canada Post sucks."  That's verbatim, by the way.  I guess it has something to do with parcels getting held up at customs. 

Other than my smarty pants reply, my best guess re: quickest delivery would be FedEx.  They're super reliable and you can even choose somethign like 2 or 3 day air instead of overnight.  There are a few options.  Have fun paying for THAT, though.  The cheapest I've even seen FedEx is around $20 and that's for feather-weight, super flat kinds of stuff.

I'm curious to read what serious answers other people might have for you, so I'll check back to see how this goes.  Let us know!  And good luck! And don't forget to address your package using ALL CAPS or, seriously, it might just be returned to you.  I'm a trained teacher and I write like a kindergarten writing instructor, all big and loopy and round and legible, and I've had two enveloped returned to me stamped with something like, "Returned:  Address not written in all caps."  I kid you not.

Opos, sorry... I've been busy with family visiting over the Thanksgiving holiday; didn't get back to this thread 'til now.

I use the electrician type clips from Radio Shack myself. I bought a giant ton of them and they're awesome for slip-free holding of hairy mohair bits.  Mine don't have the little plastic thingies on them (as you can see in my pictures) but they're otherwise the same.

I'm pretty sure Laura Lynn Matthews was the one who turned me on to alligator clips in the first place, but I tend to be kinda a dunderhead about remembering stuff like that.  Just want to TRY to give credit where it's due, thought; it wasn't an original idea of mine, for sure!

When I started making bears I had almost no sewing experience so I listened carefully to the advice of the salesperson at our local sewing shop.  And she suggested I try a walking foot.  So I bought one, hooked it up (after she showed me how to do so) and used it for a year or more with a lot of success -- it feeds the fabric through so nicely and evenly!  No slipping at all.

But then, frustrated with straight pins, I started using alligator clips to hold my pieces together, instead, as a way of combatting the same slipping that a walking foot helps alleviate.  Those clips make the use of anything but a ZIPPER foot impossible.

I know, I know; it's weird to sew bears with a zipper foot, right?!  But it works great!  (Hmmm... I THINK that's a zipper foot, by the way; I've never actually installed a zipper.  lol...)  I just stitch right past the clips, zipper foot basically on the "left" side of my work, without having to remove the clips as I go.  Works a treat, as some of my Brit friends might say.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about -- we have a lot of newer folk here of late -- here's a picture of the alligator clips I use instead of straight pins.  So do many others here.  They're totally slip-proof.  (The pic is something I worked up a while ago to illustrate some point or other; excuse my laziness in not reworking it just now!)

Wow, gorgeous abbey!  And it sounds like a ton of fun; cool people, interesting clothing, lots of art.  Near the coast!  Just one more reason I wish I were in England.  We don't have a lot of coastal abbey towns, here in California.  lol... !

Thansk for the links, Kat.  I'm off to check them out now!

You look great and the outfit is to die for, but what the heck is Whitby?  A renaissance-fair kind of thing, but with a Gothic twist?  Share a link for the event with us!

Wow, beautiful bear, beautiful cover!!!

Ooh, lovely.  Best of luck with your charming new venture, Catherine!     

That bunny has a lot of potential!  I love the fur, but I'm in agreement with what's been said already.  The pupils would look more in proportion -- and less high on cocaine! -- if they were larger.  I'd add upper lids (of course I would, that's my thing!) to reduce any appearance of "bug-eyed-ness" too. 

Last, have you given any thought to trimming down the muzzle along the gusset piece?  I mean, from the top of the nose and up between the eyes, gradually tapering into the full mohair length somewhere about eyebrow level?  I think that would do a lot in the way of better defining this bunbun's head shape.

100% and 95%.  I matched 23 of 24 to the correct section.  I rock!  lol...

Fun!

Wow, she's superb.  Your work is amazing!! 

What a little mop-haired cutiepot.  Great idea!  I'm off to visit your blog...

You're lucky, Brenda; that man's a keeper.  In contrast, last night, my husband "fixed" my computer by "recovering" it, which means he erased my entire hard drive.  If you don't know how fix a computer, don't fix it -- duh!  It cost $120 and an at-home visit today from a tech geek to restore it to primitive functioning, but I've lost every single program -- Photoshop, Word, Acrobat, iTunes, my site design program -- as a result.  It's mostly fixable, but only after hours of work.  If not weeks.  And I lost every one of my thousands of awesome bookmarks.

I would have MUCH preferred a lovely bouquet, like yours, Brenda.

Enjoy the loveliness!  They're truly beautiful, and obviously, so's the guy who presented them. 

Nobody has to tiptoe around religion at TT, so no worries about that, Lisa!  Faith is not an off-limits topic here.  In fact, back when I was still an Advisor here, we intentionally designed an area -- Bearhugs -- especially FOR prayer requests and requests for emotional support.

Bearhugs was initiated at Dilu's own urging and her idea to create this special area was supported by the Advisors and Admin here.  It was purposefully separated from the General Discussion area, so that people who wanted to express their faith could do so safely, without fear that less religious members of TT would be bothered by such expressions.  I mention this because there had been member complaints about faith-based postings interfering with their experience of the General Discussion area; not everyone here is a Christian, of course!  Rather than forbidding religious content, TT created a safe haven for it, so that ALL readers could find comfort on the board.

This is all the more reason why Dilu's comments yesterday and today about feeling censored and judged by her own team here make little sense to so many.  I love Dilu a lot, so I'm really sad about her choices, especially given that she acted without any communication, questions, or discussion, and as far as I know, never expressed to anyone before today that she feels she's had to hide her spiritual self.   Nobody knew.

As for the eyelid topic, I remember it fairly well -- some of the participants, and the controversial material it covered -- and I agree with you completely, Lisa.   I don't think the subject matter that was discussed IN that thread was funny at all.  It was, in fact, very serious stuff, about design rights and the like.  I was bummed to see it go sour, because I thought the discussion itself was educational and valuable and I learned from it.  It was important stuff.

What's IS funny, though, in the big picture -- and to me, it IS funny, in an incredulous way -- is that ANY conversation about flippin' eyelids -- EYELIDS! -- could possibly become so heated that it required closure and/or deletion!!  The point Chrissi was making yesterday when she brought that thread up, was that even a discussion about eyelids has the potential to devolve into ugliness, given the right circumstances... and so why on Earth should we think ourselves capable of discussing politics, a topic infinitely more inflammatory right from the outset.  ?!?

My request today that we not rehash that particular thread point for point, reintroducing it for comment, wasn't about you in any way, Lisa.  Frankly, I didn't remember you even being involved in the thread. 

Rather, my request was an attempt to keep inflammatory comments about an inflammatory thread to a minimum, because other inflammatory things are already happening here that haven't yet healed.  I don't hold any particular power here.  I was speaking as just another TT member, asking other members not to bring up yet ANOTHER difficult topic, for yet ANOTHER go, during a very difficult few days here on the board.   While it disappoints and frustrates me on occasion, I care deeply about this place.  I was caretaking it and its members in my request.  If it seemed otherwise... well, then I just plain feel unseen.

For the record, I agree with you completely as well, that if people don't like the content of a particular thread -- whether it be about eyelids, or politics, or the kind of stuffing someone uses, or God -- they can simply read elsewhere.  Or leave.  I'm not sure why this proves so difficult for some.  Every forum I've ever visited would surely be healthier and happier if every member did just that; exit threads that cause discomfort, rather than posting in ways that spread the discomfort around.

Last, more generally and not about anything posted in this particular thread, or yesterday's...  I'd like to strongly suggest that, if people don't like the policies here or at any forum, they take their concerns to forum management directly.  That's really the only way to effect change, and it certainly avoids the "you shoulds" that get tossed about when members feel greater topic monitoring is warranted. 

Ultimately, if people are posting according to the rules of a particular forum, member comments about what "should' and "should not" be discussed really have no place on the board.  Forum management either allows certain subjects to be discussed, or it does not.  It's easy enough to read the rules to discover what's kosher and what's not; it's really quite black and white.  It's not up to the individual members to decide for the forum what's game for discussion, and what isn't.  That right belongs to the site owner and its chosen management team; not to the readers. 

So if you want your forum to look, feel, and act differently, people, take your concerns to the seat of actual power and change -- the forum management, and not the members you think are making missteps.  You might be right in your belief, but until your concerns become forum policy, functionally, they're nothing more than mere opinion.

Just some food for thought.

Ellen, I don't remember a single specific of what drove you off all those months ago, but I do recall you felt -- and probably were -- really, really unseen.   That hurts, and you did what was necessary to take care of you.  No fault in that.   In fact, bravery must be in the air today, because to say what you just said, in the atmosphere of this particular thread, took enormous bravery on your part.  You're no coward.

I'm really glad to see you posting here, and I, for one, welcome you back with arms flung wide open.

Aleta:       :hug:  :photo:  :cake:  :bday:  :clap: 

This is you:   

Clear enough?

:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

Yes, because I know who you are.  And if you disappoint me, I know how to ask why you did.  Ask you... ask myself.  Because maybe -- just maybe -- the disapointment isn't yours to own.

On a lighter note.... The visual you present here is a real attention grabber.  Anyone care to work this up, in mohair??

:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

We love you too, Marlys.  And would continue to do so, even if one day, you acted like an insensitive horse's ass.

Mwaa!