Wednesday 17 August 2011

Good News, Bad News

The bad news is that I have had to give up the Sunday shop.   I usually work my day job Friday and Saturday and after two days on my feet walking the shop floor all day I cannot move so well on a Sunday.  This week my back problems kicked in and I decided to call it a day.  To be honest the shop had not picked up as well as I had hoped, with my main sales coming from the knitted bears rather than the mohair ones.

New design with bigger feet

One of the hairy big bears

A little mohair/wool blend bear
 The knitted bears are available in my Folksy shop www.folksy.com/shops/PudBearsandFriends
Prices start from £6.95.

The good news is that I am selling my restored bears.  That means I can buy more of the poor old characters to mend.  It really is a very rewarding pastime, especially when they come with no eyes, very grubby and with arms and ears hanging off.
This is something I have always wanted to do, but never had the confidence until now.
I have more dogs than bears ready at the moment, but keep watching my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/Polly/Kay11 as I have two lovely unusual bears coming up.  One is a Chiltern Mummy and Baby bear with a music box, and the other a really pretty pink bear that I believe to be a Merrythought.


The latest mohair dog I have listed is this Chiltern waggy tail one.  He has the remains of his label which dates him to the 1950's and when you press down on his back his tail wags.  He was in quite good condition, just needed a bit of extra stuffing in his front end so that he could stand better and I gave him a good clean.

Waggy

Falling down
My favourite sale from this week has to be a little Austrian bear that I named Anna.
I didn't know what make she was until I found a piece of orange label in her side seam as I was cleaning her.
I looked on the net and discovered that she was from the Austrian maker Siegried Saf.  Her little triangular nose and mouth shape fitted too.  They made a lot of open mouth bears, although Anna's was closed.  She still had a working squeaker too.  Here she is before her journey to her new home in Japan.

Anna, a Saf bear



That is all for now, I have a Chiltern blind mohair Airedale Terrier who leans to one side to sort out :) .


2 comments:

  1. Love watching you repair all these gorgeous, and at one time loved creatures. Wish I had known you when I had my white cat that eventually fell apart - rip little white cat.

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  2. Sorry to hear you've had to give up your shop, but your health comes 1st. Love seeing your bears come to life. and the restoring your doing is great.

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