Facebook GIVEAWAY

So... we did it! We hit the 1000 liker mark on our Facebook page last week! I was so excited. It is awesome to have such a lovely bunch of people following our work and showing such enthusiasm for new projects. So as a thankyou for everyone, we've got a quick little GIVEAWAY happening over at the page.

The bear is 'Belle', she's all set for an Aussie Christmas at the beach! One of our OOAK creations, complete with her own little removable swimmers, glam earrings, hand painted glass eyes, sculptured lids and dark eyelashes. There's a (very easy) Christmas related quiz question to answer to go in the draw to win this bear... but you will be able to see all the other answers, so it won't prove too hard! lol

Just head on over to our Facebook Page and leave us a comment. No need to share the photo. We will be drawing a random winner in TWO DAYS! So you don't have a lot of time!!!

Bushfire Bears - and the NEW shipment of mohair!

Quite recently Mark and I collected our newest shipment of German mohair. There were over 30 new lines/colours/piles in the new shipment, so we (or more specifically 'I') had a lot of fun sorting through it all!! We made sure we ordered a decent amount of white mohair - as this was what we ran out of first last time - as well as a good cross-section of natural colours, with a few new bright and unusual pieces.

These are just a few of the now available new mohairs. Mark has painstakingly listed them all on our website for me. I got the fun job of photographing them and describing/naming them!

There were a few special pieces that I held back for use on future Emma's Bears creations... once such piece was this stunning batik-dyed mohair in gold, brown and black. We decided to cut out a limited edition of 3 bears from it, and divide up the rest for sale and as kits. 

These were the bear bits as we finished sewing and turning them. Aren't the colours magnificent! 

Progress photos uploaded to our facebook page as these guys were completed. (On a quick side note here, we're only TWO likers away from hitting the 1000 mark on our Facebook Page, and as soon as we do we will be putting up our next giveaway Emma's Bear! If you've been meaning to head on over and check out the page, now might be the perfect time!)

And then there were three gorgeous bears to show for all the work! I LOVE how you get such a different effect depending on where the random dye markings show up on the mohair.

I would love to be able to link you to a listing where you can buy one of these 'Bushfire' Bears, but they've actually all been adopted in the last 24hrs! We nearly sold off all the mohair too - but did manage to keep two pieces back, enough to do a limited edition of TWO KITS for the Bushfire bear. If you'd like to have a go at making one of these guys, and seeing how the markings turn out on your ted, pop on over to our etsy store to view the kit listing.

Bear and Bunny Blue

I've had a 1/2m piece of this stunning dense straight-pile blue mohair in my personal fur stash for quite a while... just waiting for the right time to be turned into something amazing. Seems to be a little bit of a theme this month - finally utilising materials I have been holding onto for way too long!

So I sat down last week and drew up two very different critters. I didn't know if I'd make them together, or individually. But as I was working on them, it became apparent that they did look quite good together - so we made them at the same time to allow us to photograph them together too.

The bunny is called 'Baxter' and is predominantly made from the gorgeous blue mohair - with just a hint of white kid mohair on his cheeks and tail. The same fabric used for his paw pads and inner ears is also featured on his ruffle colar.

Baxter has hand painted glass eyes and is a one of a kind artist bunny. He is available in our etsy store. 

And this big lanky boy is 'Beau'. Made in a mix of the blue mohair and a pretty South African white mohair with sublte blue tips (bit hard to make out in the photo).

We've also given Beau a pair of hand-painted glass eyes and cut him from our lanky 'Kanoa' pattern.

 Beau is also a one of a kind artist bear, and is available via our etsy store. 

An old mohair coat

I've had this old wool and mohair coat hanging in my closet for the last 6-7yrs or so. I can't remember where I got it from, possibly a local second hand store, but I do remember that I had intended originally to make bears out of it.

But I got distracted with life and other projects and totally forgot about my original intentions.

Until last week.

I pulled it down, whipped out some of my patterns and got to work disassembling it. The coat was in such good condition this actually proved to be quite a tricky task! The colar was a strip of real-fur (fur on leather), so we decided to incorporate that into some of the bears so that it didn't go to waste as well. Every last usable piece of mohair was used, and we ended up with 7 bears cut out.

To add a bit of extra interest, I decided to mix up a couple of pots of dye in mint green, soft blue and antique rose. You can see the dyed, sewn, turned and jointed bears below. Minus their heads!

The heads weren't too far away though, and by the next day I had this cute little pile in front of me to work with.

When making batches of bears I definitely think I work better when I give myself a variety of sizes to work with. It just keeps things interesting, keeps me thinking (so I don't slip into automatic mode) and keeps the bears fresh.

As the little faces started to emerge I was getting quite excited!

The next step after the heads had been completed and attached to the bodies was to stuff all 7 bears, and close all 35 stuffing hole seams! This is always the most tedius part! But by that stage you're SO CLOSE to the end, the motivation is high (though the energy is often low!).

A few more hours spend finishing up the shading detail and choosing accessories, and the group of mohair-coat bears were ready for their photo shoot!

I am actually REALLY happy with how they turned out. These are the style of bear I like to collect myself, so it will be a little tricky to say goodbye to them. The four bears above were cut using our old-style 'Jonas' pattern, the two little white bears with the fur-bellies were cut using our 'Osias' pattern and the multi-colour cutie was cut using our 'Booth' pattern. All patterns are available for purchase and instant download.

You can view all the available bears in our etsy store, but please be aware that the gorgeous 'Bean' bear (middle of the photo above) has already found his new home.

Sparkle bears - 'Boots' and 'Sneakers'

We've had a LONG week this week. The kids haven't been well, which has meant their usual days at kindy and preschool haven't gone to plan. Which also means that our usual days for working have been interrupted. Which leads to less-then-ideal productivity!

But - we did still manage to get these two cuties finished. As well as packing up and sending off our regular website orders. So it wasn't a complete loss!

Both bears have been made in our 'Jonas' pattern, which when made out of a short pile mohair gives the bear an olden/antique look. When made out of this gorgeous long pile, bright sparkle faux fur you get a totally different and quite modern look.

Boots is currently still available for adoption.

And this little lady is 'Sneakers'. Both named for their cute matching shoe pendants. Sneakers has already found her new home.

We decided to offer a limited edition of 3 kits for each of these bears as well. We only have ONE left of the 'Boots' kit - the yellow/purple mix. But there are still the three 'Sneakers' kits available. You get a fully inclusive kit containing the fur, eyes, joints, nose thread, ribbon, pendant, cord, paw pad material, pattern and glitter paint to design your own paw pad detail/sparkle nose.