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.

New to the Art & Craft Centre

Hiya. I haven't posted for a while - partly because the DGBVintage site has been very busy (hooray!) - but also because unfortunately I haven't been feeling much like making bears lately.

It's weird the way it works: when I'm answering emails, doing paperwork, writing for the website, arranging advertising, stuff like that, I get to the end of the day and I can count the number of jobs I've done - I feel like I've worked really hard. With bear-making though, it can take days before I actually finish something - even working flat out - and can sit back and feel pleased with myself. In between those times, I get to the end of the day, look at my partially-made bear, and feel really lazy like I haven't been working hard enough. And every so often, I get a bear whose design goes terribly wrong, and that feels awful!

Despite the lack of anything new at BigFeetBears though, somebody has been busy!

I don't think I've ever mentioned here that I rent shelf space in my unit at the Art & Craft Centre to Valerie Noy - a lovely lady who makes mini bears. Well, I have recently rented another shelf out.

A friend found a very handsome teddy bear at a car boot sale, and rescued him, and passed him on to me. He had the maker's name and location on his 'tush tag', and because she was so local to me, I looked her up and sent her an email, asking her about her bears. Her name is Sue Gibson, and she got back to me, saying that she doesn't make many bears nowadays - more often, she actually makes dolls. We got talking and eventually I offered her some shelf space.

I do love the style of dolls that she makes. I used to be a fan of traditional, pretty-pretty porcelain dolls, and I bought a few at one time. I'm afraid I came to rather dislike them though - they're just too... too pretty in a bland, conventional way. My mother once went in to put something in the Unit, and there were two old ladies discussing the bears. My mother introduced herself, and at some point in the conversation, one of them said to her, "She does like ugly things, doesn't she!"

I understand where she was coming from - even if it wasn't the most tactful thing to say(!) I have always consciously tried to avoid making 'pretty' bears, in favour of more goofy, intelligent-looking, interesting characters.

Anyway, what I was going to say was that the style of doll that Sue makes appeals to me because it's not attractive in the traditional sense. In fact, they can look rather gargoyle-like. They tend to have quite flat faces, and large noses, with big, vivid eyes and mouths. They are almost cartoon-like. The best one I ever saw was at a bears & dolls fair, run by Bobby's bears at a venue near Bolton. It was a little fat thing, wearing a black basque, satin knickers and fishnet stockings - the perfect mascot for DGBVintage!

I was so close to buying it - literally, I had the money in my hand, and I was getting that jittery feeling that always comes when I'm about to spend a lot of money. I picked the doll up to take a closer look, and my interest died a sudden death. I was disenchanted by the fact that it weighed barely anything at all. I have gotten used to the prevailing custom of putting steel shot in collectible teddy bears. I guess they just seem to have more realism if they're heavy. Somehow, this doll was so lightweight, it felt like a child's toy when I picked it up.

Sue accepted my offer of a shelf, and about a month later we met at the Centre to arrange her dolls. I was just a tiny bit taken aback by the naked mermaid, I admit! I do rather like her though, and she causes much smiling and comment from customers, which is always nice to see.

Sue had also made a collection of fridge magnets and keyrings - the idea being I guess, as with me, to have something less expensive that people are more likely to buy on the spur of the moment. They are made from the faces of the dolls. I have posted some pictures below. Love the Tina Turner hair of the first one, and the big, bead earrings of both the first and the second ones. They look very 1980s - but in a good way!

It's a trial run - we'll see how it goes. I have not added them to the BigFeetBears website, but if anyone is interested in any of the items shown, do get in touch.

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.

Welcome to my blog!

As the title says - welcome - and thank you for visiting my new blog! Apologies for the rather stark, all-white look; I haven't got around to decorating yet. I'm still trying to figure out what all the buttons do.

Let me try for some pictures:

Hooray!

The top picture is Rory - a bear I made a couple of years ago. The yellow bear is Clarissa, a more recent creation.

I am a bear-maker from the UK. I have been making them for the past... 4 years (I think), and for the last 3 years, I have been renting a unit at a local art & craft centre.

This blog is for inspiration, for sharing new projects which won't fit on my website, and for discussing the problems of filling and arranging a retail space, and generally trying to sell things I have made myself.

With three years under my belt, you would have thought I would have got the hang of it by now - but no, I still find it incredibly testing.

One of the very difficult things about running the unit is finding, or making, smaller cheaper things which people will buy on the spur of the moment. The bears take ages to make, and are made from beautiful, but very costly, mohair, so they're not things which people buy on a whim.

I have previously bought in manufactured things - commercial teddy bears for children - but that feels like cheating. Also, the art & craft centre obviously has lots of other units, filled with a wide variety of stuff (some hand-made, some not), and it's difficult trying to find something which someone else doesn't already do.

I have always meant to try making a rabbit though, and this month seemed quite a good opportunity - what with spring, and Easter and all that. I went for an unjointed rabbit with a cloth body, so he would be slightly less expensive to make. Here he is...

I made another one with the face cut out of the remainder of the mohair I used for Clarissa (above). It did not turn out quite so well - perhaps because the pile is longer, so I lost definition in the face.

I have not been deterred though: I am currently making a third rabbit - this time all-mohair. He will be a self-standing rabbit, and he will stand on the top shelf, wearing a sandwich board, and imparting important messages to customers.

I will post the results, when he's finished.