Valentine's display

Well, I had more or less given up on the idea of a heart-shaped wreath for Valentine's Day. It seems that just about the only place you can get them is funeral parlours. I was making new (and slightly desperate) plans for a heart-shaped chair. However, I came down one morning (late again - although I was working hard the night before) and found that my mother had made the wreath!

It is made (I think) out of vines, with raffea strung in a sort of lattice-pattern across the inside, so the bears can be propped between the strings.

This is Byron, with his new jacket...

Shelley, sadly still stark naked...

Casanova and Valentino...

I linked up on Facebook with another lady who has a unit at the Art & Craft Centre. She sells jewellery - including gorgeous turquoise and silver jewellery from Israel, and some beautiful, colourful beaded pieces which she makes herself. Have a look at her website, here.

She is always fantastic with the marketing ideas, and she suggested that I make some labels with different Valentine's messages that people could choose to go with the bear they buy.

After scouring the Internet for Valentine's messages, I confess I'm feeling slightly sick, so I decided to go with the very simple ones (or perhaps just the uninspired ones).

They're actually a little more involved than they look there - the writing is printed onto a piece of transparent acetate, and then backed by a piece of thick, watercolour paper. It's the red satin ribbon which really makes them though.

And the final display...

With tags in a sweet little gingham basket...

It's a little rough round the edges, but I'm actually really pleased with this display. I have always been put off doing things like this - thinking, if the bears don't sell, I'm going to have to remove all the valentine's trappings. It's not a disaster if they sell after Valentine's Day though - bears and hearts go together quite well at any time of year.

And it's a good thing too, because I am actually getting into the spirit of it a bit now, and I'm working on another heart-themed item. For once, I am actually ahead of myself!

Very limited edition gift tags

Well, I have finally finished the extra five teddy bear gift tags...

... after 13 hours hard sewing!

I was going to price them at £4 - which means I'm working at £1.54 per hour (starvation looms!).

As it is, I have defiantly priced them at £5, bringing me a grand total of £1.92 per hour.

Will anyone pay £5 for a gift tag? Well that is the $3.01 question. I guess you have to look at it as being a little more than a gift tag. It's a gift - albeit an extremely small gift to someone you don't know very well.

I guess, as ever, I'll just have to see how it goes. I won't be making any more of these, unless I can figure out a way of speeding up the process. The arms and legs are made from two pieces of wool felt stitched together, just for stability. I did all that by hand - just because I can't stitch tiny things on the sewing machine. Certainly, if I could do it by machine, it would cut the time it took to make them considerably.

I'm also wondering whether I could make the arms and legs in fimo clay though. It would be quicker - but then more expensive. Hmmm.

Anyway, the up side is that these - along with the mistletoe tags - will start making the craft unit looking Christmassy. It's too early for the full Xmas tree-plastic Santa-taxidermy reindeer thing yet, but I can ease my customers into thinking about buying bears for Christmas.

Gift tags again!

I seem to have been obsessing over gift tags recently - I guess its the only really small cheap thing I can think of to make and sell in the unit. Bear in mind (tee hee!) that I can't stray into any 'genre' covered by another stall holder.

Plus, I have had flu, or some such thing, recently so I have been feeling horrible. One gift tag is about as creative as I get when I'm ill! I have been thinking about how to make a teddy bear gift tag for a while. It has to be as quick as possible to make whilst, at the same time, being intricate enough that people don't just look at it and think 'well I could make that myself - easily".

I'm sure anyone could make this themselves. The question is, would they bother? I am putting him on sale for £4. I have not worked out how long he took to make, but - simple as he is - he did take a while. Would anyone take so long over a gift tag? Should I be taking so long over a gift tag? I shall try making some more tomorrow, and perhaps time myself.

My order of teddy bears joints has not yet arrived, so I still haven't managed to complete my second long-legged bear yet. Hopefully tomorrow. Also, my mother has taken up painting again recently! It is something she is good at but never really has time to do. For some reason she has got the bit between her teeth again - so I now have some new greetings cards, handpainted in acrylics. I won't show the first lot, since they're all sealed up in plastic now, and will be difficult to photograph - but look out for the next ones!

New website now up and running

I have spent so much time worrying about the lingerie website recently, I have been neglecting the bears and the unit at the Craft Centre. I have made a few changes to the unit: last time I was in, I decided to move the central island unit, and to heft it up on top of the counter at the back. It actually looks really good there - sort of cabinet-like - and the shelves in it, which were wasted when it stood on the floor, are now at the perfect height.

It does leave a big empty space in the middle of the floor, but the advantage of this is that it's easier for customers to get in - they don't have to squeeze past the island unit. I'm not keen to put anything else in to replace the island unit, but I might try to build up the shelves at the side a bit - maybe bears-on-chairs on the floor - just to try to diminish the wide expanse of bare floor boards in the middle. Maybe a little fluffy pink rug?

I also had another go at the signage. I decided that my previous sandwich board is really a failure - much as I'm loathe to admit it; it is just too flimsy. Also, the patterned fabric someone makes it look less like a sandwich board - as does the tall, thin shape.

I made another one today - just a small one, in a more regular shape, and just plain white. It is made out of foam board and the edges are taped for neatness. It is also taped together at the top - for the hinge - and then I punched holes near the edges of each piece, and threaded ribbon through them to hold the 'feet' together.

I have used it to advertise the gift tags that I made here. The tags share a rack with the bag hangers I buy in, and I'm not sure anyone's really noticed them yet, so I had to do something to draw people's attention to them.

I have also made a sign to hang from the bottom shelf, stating that the bought-in toys are suitable for children. I forgot to photograph it though.

In the meantime, I have managed to get the new DGBVintage website up and running - finally. All that is left to do is the 'About' page. The new website, for the first time, has a link to this blog. I need to email Easyspace and ask them to put a link on the BigFeetBears website as well.

I have also added some more to the Poppy LaByrnham Collection - the incredibly beautiful, incredibly expensive items that I buy at UK auctions. There is a gorgeous peach satin bed jacket, apparently hand-made, with ruching detail around the cuffs and collar and over the bodice; a bias-cut pink silk nightdress, with a lace bodice; and the most amazing peach net nightdress (see last pic). It is stretchy and fitted, and the bodice is overlain with a second layer of net with sort of woven stripes to it, which is gathered and fitted over the bodice. 1930s? Perhaps 1940s?

I have also added another series of vintage slips - this time in a bust size 36. Do take a look - I will be adding more soon.

Gift tags

As always, I've been trying to think of new things to make for the craft unit - smaller, cheaper things which don't, for all that, compromise on quality.  I thought about making gift tags - just a piece of card, maybe die-cut out of coloured card (maybe sparkly!), with a hole punched through them, and a piece of ribbon attached.  Unfortunately, I was hoping to do hearts, but we don't have any red card.  I am out of money at the moment (can't even stretch to a piece of red, sparkly card), so that will have to wait.  I came up with an alternative plan though.

I bought a necklace recently - a really cheap one - which was like a tiny diet coke can on a chain, with a little string of beads (and something else I think).  It was like a little charm.  I wondered whether I could make tiny little stuffed fabric hearts quickly enough, and then thread them onto a pieces of ribbon with a little string of beads and a card tag, to make posh gift tags.

I tried it and it worked really well.  Furthermore, in the vast stacks of craft stuff that we buy compulsively, and will probably never for the most part use, I found a box of gift tags - different shapes, made in coloured card, with an aluminium edging.  They seemed like the perfect thing to add.  So, this is the result:

What do you think?

Pricing, as always, is a problem.  It is really key at the art & craft centre, and I have come to the conclusion that if I want to sell regularly, I'm going to have to seller cheaper stuff.  As always though, I spend ages making something, and am loathe to price it at 99p.  I compromised in this case.  I have priced them at £1.30.  They are cheaper than my greetings card (at £1.80), but I guess expensive enough that you wouldn't buy lots of them - maybe just one or two if you had special gifts to give.

Also, I guess they are rather ostentatious, as far as gift tags go.  Would you stick that on a gift?  I have absolutely no talent for predicting what will sell and what won't, but I guess you can only try these things.