Recent design work

I've been a busy little bee, whipping up some designs for myself and other bear artists this week. Some of them are approved and finalized and others I just like but am not yet sure they're the "final" version. I really enjoyed these!

I also added a new page to my website which contains flat rate pricing for my design services. I'm offering a tiered discount to my clients which is tied to the number of designs they order at one time. I think my prices are really reasonable... maybe too reasonable... but advertising budgets for self-representing artists are super-tight, which I know from personal experience. So I hope this makes design products more accessible to the bearmaker hoping to improve presentation and develop solid branding without breaking the bank!

Gettysburg, PA and Washington, DC

I've posted a long thread about my trip back east at the Teddy Talk forum. Rather than repost everything here, I'll just point you there for a look. I hope you'll enjoy the experience as viewed and retold thru my eyes.

Back from Iceland...

... also known as the East Coast this last week!

I had a great trip but I'm totally physically exhausted. The jet lag's not too bad and happily, I got a good night's sleep last night. I'm really invigorated and excited about creative stuff and found so much to be inspired by on my travels. You'll see lots of new bears coming out of my studio in the next month because I've now got to really buckle down and get ready for my mid-April show in Nevada City, California. I hope to have at least eight new pieces to take with me when I go.

I'll post photos of my travels when I get a minute!

More later...

In Support of All Things Bear

I love teddy bears. Really, I do. But why?

Well, to start with, they're just so dang cute. Some have the sweetest, most evocative expressions. I aim for that winsome innocence in my own bears; for a certain plaintive quality that absolutely beseeches you to take another look. I appreciate it in the work of others. When a bear has that "awwwwwwww" factor, something just clicks -- that unmistakable gotta have it thing. Maybe that's because there's a very real, soul-feeding reward to be found in embracing the kind of wide-eyed, earnest enthusiasm that the most evocative of bears both express, and inspire.

I love bears, too, because they're something to wrap my arms around and hug. I think if the world spent more time hugging and less time bickering, we'd cure so much of what ails us. What a great feeling of comfort and safety there is to be found in a hug, isn't there? And who couldn't use a little more comfort and safety in their life?

I love bears because they're nostalgic. Even the most contemporary bear owes its very existance to historical beginnings circa the Theodore Roosevelt era, so it's hard to think of bears without reminiscence and fond remembrances of teddy times past, as well as our own.

I love bears because they allow me to reexperience the simple joys of childhood. Life can be so complicated and sharp at times, can't it? It's such sweet relief to reflect, even just for a moment, on how little it actually takes to find true peace and contentment and bliss in this world. It takes a bear -- and sometimes, that's enough.

I love all kinds of bears. I love antique bears; artsy contemporary bears; and new bears styled to LOOK old, equally. I love that there are gifted artists of vision out there in the world whose efforts at bearmaking create a friendlier, happier, more beautiful world, and I support and applaud their honors and achievements with everything I have, even when I feel a little threatened by or jealous of their successes. I hope it's reciprocated.

I also love both one of a kind artist bears (the kind I make) and mass produced bears. They're so much more alike than they are un-alike, in all the ways I mention above. It's my belief (for what it's worth) that it behooves the entire bear loving community, from individual artist to huge corporate machine, and including the heart of the industry -- the bear lover and collector -- to unite in earnest support of all things bear. And wouldn't that kind of universally supportive community spirit be EXACTLY what you'd expect a teddy bear to propose if it could, anyway?

Just one more reason to love teddy bears, that is. They're full of wisdom!

Flying east today...

... and NOT off to a good start! Writing from Sacramento Airport right now. Hubby and me were supposed to have been on a 6:30 flight to Salt Lake. It's 8:21 so obviously that didn't happen.

First problem:
Apparently the TSA randomly tags passengers for "extra security inspection" as boarding passes are electronically issued at the kiosks. Mine was one of the tagged boarding passes. Typical.

But the people at the security checkpoint missed the tag entirely and cleared me. I passed thru both the metal detectors and the x-ray machines with no problem, so the security folks sent me thru the security checkpoint to the gate.

When I handed my pass to the agent at the gate, however, it was declined. Thence followed a series of concerned phone calls from the gate desk to the security folk.

Long story short, within a short while two separate security people arrived at the gate to "handle" me. Said "handling" included a full body frisk and handheld metal detector pass, and a thorough inspection of my carryon luggage (and I do mean thorough.) As this happened it became apparent that the process of "handling" me was holding up the plane; we were literally the last to board! Kinda... embarrassing.

Second problem:
After I was publicly frisked at the gate (laughing here; I actually handled it with a smile) we boarded the plane and sat for a few minutes before the captian announced a "right engine" test. That lasted five or ten minutes at full-bore, deafening blast. Then the captain came BACK on the PA to announce that there was an oil leak and it was being "investigated by mechanical personnel." Five or ten minutes after that we were told that the situation required further investigation and that it would require deplaning and the relocation of our plane to another gate.

So we disembarked, at which time we realized that we were definitely going to miss our Salt Lake connecting flight to Baltimore/Washington International.

The ticket agents were having to rebook almost an entire plane of folks with connecting flights at this point; I really felt for them. We were nearly first in line but we still waited about 30 minutes to get to the desk because it takes so long to rebook connecting flights. We were told that the ONLY option available to us for arrival today was a 12:55 flight (fully EIGHT HOURS after we arrived at the airport; aargh!) with an east coast arrival time around 11:00 p.m -- fully six hours later than we were originally scheduled to land. We'll still have about 1.5 hours of driving after arrival before we get to the hotel. Can you say, "LONNNNNG DAY"...?

I'm already feeling sooooooooooo "less than fresh" since I've been at the airport since 4:00a.m.; you can imagine the frustration I'm sure. That part is more manageable, however, than the feeling that I am stuck inside an airless, overcrowded tin can (the terminal) with a bunch of very fragrant and impatient others. The guy next to me must have just finished an onion sandwich on onion bread which he seems to have washed down with onion juice.

Help!

We received meal vouchers for food during our layover time and the gate personell were perfectly nice and helpful and all, but it sure is a nuisance to have to spend one entire day sitting in an airport. The far worse outcome, of course, would be a quick and explosive death due to the hydraulic fluid leak that was discovered in the right engine. That plane still sits on the tarmac and the people booked to Salt Lake ONLY are still awaiting news about whether they can board or will have to rebook on other flights.

Please keep fingers crossed for the rest of my itinerary! I'm feeling doomed right now. Doomed, I tell you... and reeking of onion perfume.

MySpace

I've joined the MySpace revolution -- gray hair and all -- and have created a page there in the hopes of drawing attention from the younger crowd to this marvelous thing we call artist bears. These younguns are, after all, our future collectors, and there's a huge art presence at MySpace (although some of it is rather edgier than the soft-focus world we bearlovers are accustomed to.)

The good news is, I like edgy just fine and in fact have some rather edgy edges myself (being a suburban tattooed soccer mom creative type; I'm way hipper than you think!), so I'm hoping to meet some folks there, of any age, soft-focused or entirely pointy, who appreciate fine, handcrafted objects d'art, period.

I don't have any FRIENDS at MySpace yet which makes me look sheerly pathetic, but the truth is I don't personally know anyone at My Space (except my stepson) and I don't have the time to figure out how to meet and invite new people at the moment. A project for late February!

If you wanna read my new MySpace page, please visit www.myspace.com/potbellyarts for a peek. Better yet, read it, and then take a minute to sign in and become one of my FRIENDS there so I don't look like such a complete dork amidst all that youthful, energetic coolness!

Yours edgily,
Shel

High fevers & business deals

I have been absolutely laid out with some horrid sickness thing since midday Tuesday. Thought it was a horrendous allergy attack at first because of how it came on but it morphed into a temp of almost 103 and a truly miserable inability to breathe thru my nose; the main symptom of this particular sickness is that it fills me with GOO. I'm grateful for Sudafed, Mucinex, and Advil. Enough said.

My son Toby came down with something last night, too; he was up at midnight with fever and chills so I've kept him home today. We've actually been hit hard this winter with bugs compared to years past; we usually skate thru winter fairly illness-free. Don't know what's changed but I'd be happy if it changed back to the way things were before!

The teddy-bear bummer in this is that I cut out two bears that I wanted to have finished by Sunday for auction and sale, and I'm now thinking I'm not gonna make that deadline. Will try to work thru the misery if I can.

Switching gears... On the "incredibly awesome news" front, I've got a business deal cooking that I am absolutely BURSTING to share about... but my lips must remain sealed for a while longer, still. It's very, VERY exciting and different and wonderful and hopefully will do good things for the teddy bear industry. Sorry to tease but I had to share something! I'll dole out the details just as soon as I've been given the go-ahead to do so ...

My kids make up words

My boys are so funny and interesting and unique; they make up words. So many, in fact, that I've started to catalog them and their sometimes funny, sometimes irreverent definitions on our whiteboard at home.

Thought I'd share a few, for your amusement.

KRACKALICKAKECKO (crack - uh - lick - uh - kek' - ko)
Utterance. No idea what it means. It's just really fun to SAY, especially in a creaky, old-person kind of voice.

BAGINGER (buh - gin' - ger)
Your "private parts" or "danger zone" as Stuart (of MadTV fame) calls it.

WHOBING (whoa' - bing)
The act of whining in a silly, melodramatic way, about absolutely nothing, incessantly, like my son Toby does at times (for example, when he doesn't feel like doing his homework.) A combination of the words "whining" and "Toby."

YESH (yesh)
"Yes," spoken creatively, with an extra consonent at the end.

FOOSCHNITZEL (foo - schnit' - zel)
An idiot or dodo, spoken gently and with good humor. I have to presume the "schnitzel" part is a genetic legacy, due to the overabundance of Germanic DNA in my sons' genepool.

41 years ... young?

It's my birthday today and I feel as old as dirt.

It's hard, I think, for an American woman tuned in to popular culture, to age gracefully. We're so bombarded with images of 15 year old "women" -- women? -- wearing $4,000 Marc Jacobs coats and $600 Manolo Blahniks -- like nature, in her infinite irony, would ever ALLOW you to look like a 15-year-old, once you can actually afford outfits like that!

You know, I'm as vain and concerned with appearances and impressions as the next person (who can't resist looking at all those fashion magazines at the check-out counter at Safeway, dangit!) So what's a gal like me to do, when the media hold out images of "womanhood" that are unattainable (without Botox and plastic surgery) and can barely qualify as "legal", age-wise, anyway?

I have to admit, though, that despite my struggles to be truly, deeply okay with the wrinkles around my eyes, in my usual try-to-find-a-positive-reframe kind of way, I am really enjoying letting my natural hair color grow in -- gray hair and all. It's the new, mature me... and also, the first time I've been totally au naturel in the tress department since, oh, I dunno... maybe 1983, when I first misted my blonde, high-school-girl locks with drug-store hydrogen peroxide and tanned in the Santa Cruz sun, hoping to be the perfect, cheerleading, teenage California blonde. I managed the cheerleading, teenage California blonde part of that dream; never quite did make it to perfect, though.

It's been almost surreal to realize, after all these many years, that I'm actually pretty darn blonde even without the help of salon professionals, albeit a pretty darn ASHY blonde. And there's enough gray sprouting up, especially at the front hairline, to actually be sorta interesting looking. Maybe I'll get to perfect someday yet! Aging perfectly, maybe? Perfectly okay to be me.

Now, I'm debating whether to cut off the chin-length bob I've been growing out for a year. I've a yen to get something really wild and artsy done with my hair - like cutting one inch "Amelie" bangs into a choppy shag. I'm about ready to need glasses again for the first time since the miracle of LASIK made me lens-free six or seven years ago, so why not just spin out entirely and get funky with the hair and glasses, both, eh?

Interesting, isn't it? I'm 41 today, and feel as old as dirt... but the mundane silliness that occupies my mind in this particular, freeze-frame moment -- hairdos, and style, and whether or not glasses can be cool -- are the very same things that occupied my mind when I WAS that cheerleadering, teenaged California blonde.

Time passes, but things stay the same. Or so it seems. There's some kind of depthful realization buried in that sentiment, most likely, but I'm too hungry for cake and ice cream and other birthday-related self-indulgences to really digest it right now. I'll ponder it later, I think. Maybe when I'm 42.

Happy Birthday to Me!

ACK!

The actual BEAR I posted in "Bear Lust" is the one she received the Golden Teddy nomination for. Man, am I bummed I missed out on that sweetie.

Design work, again

I finished a print ad for Tami Lahey of DOLLS N DREAMS yesterday. She was unusual in that she came to me with lots of logos and colors and design elements and background images already on board as part of her long-standing doll business. She's also a recent TOBY nominee, the logo for which we wanted to include in her ad.

As a designer, this presented me with some obstacles because I wasn't as free to create from the heart as usual; so many bits and pieces to include, in their exact, existing form, can be stumbling blocks.

Tami's color scheme, though, was very mystical, and she wanted to keep a fantasy/magical feeling to her ads to match the branding and colors on her website, and that was certainly inspiring. I think I ended up doing just that, and she reports being really pleased with the outcome, which is always a good thing!

GOLDEN TEDDY results

I just received the official Golden Teddy nominee list from awesome bear artist and TOBY nominee Lora Soling of LoraBears, who thoughtfully sent it to me after receiving it from Sarah Peterson, the Managing Editor of Teddy Bear Review. I posted it right away, at Lora's urging, to Teddy Talk; she knows the forum is widely read and the news will travel quickly from there to many happy nominees worldwide!

Talk about people whose bears slay me; Lora makes the most wonderful primitive/vintage looking bears which somehow also simultaneously have an amazingly contemporary look to them. She's a teddy genius! Her lovely CYBELLE is a part of my own artist bear collection from its earliest days. Can you tell I'm a huge fan?

Anyway, totally digressing here...

I'm absolutely delighted to have it confirmed officially that I am indeed a Golden Teddy nominee for 2007 with MR. SANDMAN. Yay, me, once more!!! I'm especially honored after noting the peers in my category, and in the contest more broadly. It's just so validating, and such a giddy moment of pride, to be included in such a talented and masterful crowd. Wow! Wow, wow, wow!

Lora herself got a TOBY nomination (well deserved, I might add), but did not get a GT nom this year. This reminds me to remind myself -- and others -- that hers is one of many cases of absolutely knock-down, drop-dead gorgeous, technically masterful work that just doesn't make the cut sometimes in these contests, for whatever reason. I take huge consolation in knowing that the likes of Sue Ann Holcomb, Lora Soling, and Michelle Lamb, among numerous other giant and indisputable talents, are "overlooked" every year by these contests in one category or another. It's just another solid reminder that we bearmakers can't let these nominations DEFINE us, but rather, must let them COMPLEMENT us. It's another solid reminder that it's important to keep the big picture in mind and to have some perspective, whether we're disappointed about being left OFF a list... or getting big-headed about being included ON one.

Okay. Off soapbox for today.

:)

Regarding the bear in the photo, below

See! Now Tracy Lee has gone and gotten herself a Golden Teddy nomination. And here I was thinking her darling pieces were being overlooked. Silly me. Now I really have to scramble to "gets me some" of her work! I'm tickled for her, though; really I am. She's a doll.

Bear lust

I like about a bajillion different styles of teddy bears and have a variety of types in my small, selective collection. But I'm jonesing particularly hard of late for a piece by artist Tracy Lee of ThimbleBeary Originals.

Isn't this fuzzy critter, at left, just the silliest, sweetest, sloping-forehead-i-est little cutiekins you've ever seen in your life? I really expect him to open his wee mouth and say, "Awwwwwwww, shucks!" Just too, too, cute, and soooo original.

Tracy's work totally slays me, and I admit, I wants to gets me some now before she has twenty awards in her back pocket, thus forcing her pricing to $1K/bear. Cause, ya know, that's a bit out of my price range...

Technology

Without technology paving the way for my internet bear business, design business, constant learning processes, and global friendships, I'm not sure where I'd be today. Technology has enabled some of the happiest and most fulfilling adult experiences of my life. I even met my husband on the internet. Go figure.

On the other hand, I swear to you, it's all I can do NOT to throw my computer, cell phone, and kids' gaming systems -- handheld or otherwise -- out the FREAKING window at times. And a handful of software to keep that hardware company.

This week my almost brand new, fancy-shmancy pocket PC cell phone has decided that it's going to take, like, five minutes to dial each number. Handy (NOT!) in case of emergency, or while trying to maneuver through traffic in a car. AAAAAAARGHHHHH! That was a couple hundred bucks spent on nuthin' worth havin'!

Here then, for your amusement, I share my absolute FAVORITE cartoon on this subject, representing every single feeling I have about technology -- especially anything powered by a silicon chip -- and then some.

I'd cite the source and artist, but I can't for the life of me remember where I found this hysterical clip. If you know, please add that info in a comment to this post.

Thanks, and Enjoy the gruesome truthiness of it!

Design work this week

Here's one of two graphic bits I put together today for awesome bear artist Louise Carrick & her hubby Garnet who trade as BEARS BY BEESLEY. They just heard yesterday that their bunny got a TOBY nomination. So happy for them!






I've also spent time this week reworking the buttons on the Teddy Talk masthead so that they'll be more eye-catching and readable for our readership. A sampling, here:



Last, I spent some time today whipping up a new Digital Design Challenge for the readers at Teddy Talk, this time centered around a St. Patrick's Day theme. I hope we get a lot of participants. Last time we did this it sparked a lot of conversation about photo editing and software which I think helped a lot of bearmakers to get more familiar with their own program(s) at home. Sometimes we all need a little push! You can view the challenge for yourself at Teddy Talk by clicking here. And here's the little "sample" image I created as an example of what someone might do with the elements and rules provided for the Challenge.

PS I just realized, while proofing after publishing, that I used the word "lot" no less than three times in the last paragraph. Strunk & White are surely aghast (and rolling over in their graves, if they're dead, that is.)

TOBY (and GOLDEN TEDDY?) nomination results

Well, there will be no TOBY nomination for me this year. Bummer.

My immediate internal response (I spoke with Mindy directly by email; she's a great and accessible gal) was a disappointed and sad, "Oh, POOP!" But then I roared back into feisty, won't-let-it-get-me-down form, with an inner roar of "grrrrrr.... well, I'll get one again NEXT year,... yes I will!"

Although I certainly have my own inner, personal experience in these rejection moments -- and we all have them, in one form or another -- it's also excruciatingly, pretzel-twistingly difficult for me to watch other bearmakers question their work and their WORTH when the call about a nomination just doesn't come.

Those of us who enter contests, for whatever reason (personal growth and goal setting; peer group approval and notice; expanded customer base; potential price increase per item; etc.), really MUST, I think, in order to compete healthily, have the attitude that a nomination or win does not DEFINE us as artists or our work as "worthy." Rather, a nomination or win simply draws attention to our work -- work which will be worthy, appealing, and sellable with or without contest nominations and wins under our belts.

Happily for me, there's a silver lining to this disappointing TOBY news. The sting of that ego boo-boo was lessened significantly when friend and artist Karen Lyons (who attended IDEX last weekend) made the very public announcement, on the Teddy Talk forum, that I was nominated for a Golden Teddy award (sponsored by Teddy Bear Review magazine.) Yay, me!

I'm still awaiting official word from the contest sponsors on that news, but Karen is as reliable as reliable gets, and I'm sure she wouldn't have announced that news so publicly if she weren't 100% sure of what she wrote.

So I'm feeling very honored and grateful and happy about that wonderful news-- and, yes, guilty a little too, because again, it's hard to watch others doubt themselves when their pieces don't get the same notice. Maybe someday I'll move past that kind of guilty co-dependence and just dive into personal celebration, but for now I figure that my worry about how others are experiencing things keeps me grounded and kind and approachable, so that can't be so bad, right?

I was SUPREMELY excited to read that so many of my bearmaking friends, lots of them "regulars" at Teddy Talk, got TOBY nominations this year. There's amazing talent on that board -- please check it out if you haven't yet -- and I'm so excited to be in the middle of it and to be able to participate there so meaningfully.

It's been a really energetic and exciting day for many of my bestest beary friends and for me too; I'm really happy for us all!!!

PLEASE add your COMMENTS

I'd like to formally invite you to leave your comments on my blog. It's easy to do. Click the area under each post that includes the word "comment." At this point most posts read "0 comments;" that's what you'd click.

A small, pop-up window will appear, giving you the opportunity to leave your comment anonymously, or using your own blogger.com identity.

Comments to this blog are moderated. I get to review them before they go "live" to my blog. That doesn't mean I'm trying to censor you or exclude you from commenting based on favoritism or control-freak-ness on my part. It just means that I'm trying to keep malicious, nefarious comments that SPAM and advertise for other sites from appearing on my blog, which suggests that I'm associated with them or that I endorse them. "Comment moderation" is the only way to be sure that any comments which get made -- whether positive or negative, anonymous or otherwise -- actually have something to do with my blog.

I welcome your input and can't wait to read what you have to say!

New "branding" -- POTBELLY ARTS

You may have noticed that I've recently changed the "branding" for POTBELLY BEARS to include my other craft ventures: Design, Dolls, and Beads.

I created an umbrella business, POTBELLY ARTS, under which my artistic endeavors of every kind can be listed and categorized, and I changed my logos and advertising and website structure (and color scheme!) to reflect this new paradigm. You can now type in any of my domains -- potbellybears.com; potbellydolls.com; potbellydesign.com; potbellybeads.com; potbellyarts.com -- and land at one, centralized, website.

Some of the reasoning for implementing these changes was philosophical. By using this "ARTS" concept very globally, I can simultaneously highlight all my artistic areas of interest and competency, and all my customer offerings. It's like one-stop shopping. This wouldn't be possible if I continued to define my creative pursuits separately and individually. So this philosophical switch from woman with one finger in each of many pots to woman with ALL her fingers in ONE pot really appeals to me. It's a more streamlined concept to grasp, I think, even from my end of things.

The second big reason I made these changes is that it's just soooooooo much much easier for me, mentally and financially, to handle my business affairs from one central location. As a sole proprietor -- owner & artist for each of these ventures -- I do everything by myself, from being my own legal counsel; marketing rep; advertising developer; and webmaster, to filing taxes with the state and federal government. On a practical level, these things are done so much more efficiently from ONE business (Potbelly Arts) than from a handful (Potbelly Bears, Dolls, Design, Beads, etc.) And this means I can host ONE website, rather than a few; that's a substantial cost savings per year. So it just made sense to make this change.


BRANDING has so many different, squishy explanations that it's hard to pin down precisely what it is and to define it specifically. But generally, I think a good descriptor of "branding" might be: the proprietary visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image associated with a company or a product. I found that definition on a page full of "branding" definitions, here -- just in case you'd like to read more.

I'm still me and my bears will still be offered and distributed and made in the same ways they always have been. Nothing about my approach or my intent or my motivation to create or my person has changed; just the way I represent myself visually, and the ways in which I hope people will come to recognize and remember me, have changed.

I hope it's a change you find attractive and acceptable!

TOBY and Golden Teddy nominations and IDEX, Florida

I'm pretty sure the TOBY and Golden Teddy nominees are being announced today -- Saturday, January 20, 2007 -- at IDEX in Florida. In fact, I know the GT's are being announced today, because the IDEX site lists the time for the GT announcement as Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.

I can't find the TOBY event in the IDEX calendar, but I know it's also happening this weekend because of reports by Mindy Kinsey, the editor of TB&F (the magazine who sponsors the TOBY awards.) Mindy's also in charge of what sounds like a really fun Girl Scout event and is involved in a teddy bear artist panel discussion which I really wish I could attend!!! Karen Lyons, a fantastic bear and cat artist, sits on the panel, alongside some other amazing soft-sculpture talents.

I'd like to feign calm, cool, collectedness and blase' indifference to these announcements -- that sounds so much "cooler", doesn't it?, than anxious does! -- but the truth is, I care a lot about the outcome of these contests. There's a huge potential for ego bruising, insecurity, and neurotic feelings of inadequacy (Is my work no good? Doesn't anybody like me?) when an artist puts his/her handiwork "out there" for scrutiny and judgement by others. And it can really hurt when that work is, for whatever reason, found not-quite-up-to-snuff, as compared to the work of other artists. Especially when it's truly the very best an artist can muster.

Despite the nervousness and trepidation I feel, though, I'm also REALLY excited to see who ends up with the nominations this year, and even more, excited to see the pieces that get nominated! Even when there's no nomination in it for me, I find that disappointment fades quickly in the face of all that beautiful work, and in the presence of my joy for other artists whose work has achieved notice. It's always a spectacular showcase of talent and craftsmanship.

So I'm keeping fingers crossed hard for me... but also wishing great luck to everyone who entered!

Will keep you posted on the outcomes... ;)