Saturday, January 26, 2013

Australia Day... here come the rains!


It has been SO HOT here in sunny Australia for the last month or so. Ridiculously hot. I know, I know - it's Summer. It's supposed to be hot. But this has been nasty, sticky, sweating-through-your-clothing-at-7am-in-the-morning kind of hot. So to finally see some rain has been a wonderful relief. It kind of came at a bad time in terms of festivities though, as it's Australia Day here today. We spent the day inside watching kids movies and eating cupcakes while listening to the rain on the roof. So not too bad really :)

But what I really wanted to show you guys was our latest work for the last fortnight or so. We decided to use one of our finer/stretchier faux fur pieces (Fluffy Duckling)  in a larger bear design to see how it would turn out. I had a very specific idea in mind for this bear - and I must say (for once) the end result was pretty close!

Meet Samson - all 21" of him! He's a big chunky boy with a head on him as large as my 2yr olds! And HUGE ooak hand painted glass eyes that just set him off.







(Because it's hard to tell size comparisons in photos, I thought I'd take a few photos of Samson with some of our other bears. Above he is holding 'Jonas' - one of our old style 13" bears, and below he's holding onto 'Grace' who is 10" tall).







We also had a custom request for a black and red bear... and this little sweetheart was the result! This is 'Scarlet'. She is made from our 'Licorish' black kid mohair, and our 'Queen of Hearts' red/black tipped mohair.






We also thought we'd try a choc/blue mix bear in the same pattern (Osias), and Angus was the result. He is a mix of 'Pudding' kid mohair and 'Bermuda' two-tone mohair. I wasn't completely sure how they'd work in this match due to the length differences between the kid and regular lines (25mm versus 20mm) - but it is actually pretty cool. I love how full and fluffy Angus's limbs and ears look, and his sweet little face has such a wind-swept look, it makes you want to push his hair out of his eyes and give him a cuddle.




Angus is actually available at the moment in completed form, and as a kit if you'd like to have a go at making your own version.








And lastly, we were asked to make a custom bear in our Arctic Wolf faux fur with some roses by her neck - very much like our original 'Alivea' bear, but without the hand shaving/shading, and a different face. I just love the softness in this bears expression - and her gorgeous lilac eyes tie in perfectly with the colouring of this fur. I would say that Arctic Wolf has to be my favourite of our current lot of faux fur for bear making. It's dense, and soft and lends itself to facial scissor sculpting perfectly. I'm yet to try it in a bear under 18" tall though... so would be curious to see any of your creations out there if you've purchased this fabric for us for a smaller project?!




Friday, January 11, 2013

Showing off some of our first 2013 bears!


We've been busy over the last week or so - three bears to show for our efforts so far this year! This cheeky little guy is 'Benjamin'. He is made in our Osias pattern using our 'Sasquatch' faux fur. I wasn't sure how it would work because it's quite dense, and Benji is only a petite 10" tall - but it's worked beautifully!


Benjamin is now sold, but we do have kits available for making your own bear just like him - he's a nice easy beginners pattern too - so great if you're just starting out!







We also just finished this stunning girl. We've called her Lexi, and she is the painted-eye version of our original pink/black panda Lilly. She is made in our FREE pattern (available through the link on the top left hand corner of this blog), and we also have kits available in our etsy store for her in painted eyes and for the black-eyed version too. The actual bear herself is already sold (sorry!).







And last, but not least - this little bundle of colour is 'Imp'. He is made in our 'Willa and/or Attila bear or bunny' pattern (using the bear version). We made him up in some of our last pieces of rare mohair - a bright orange kid mohair and an orange/blue tipped shorter mohair. His eyes are hand painted in a teal-blue, and actually glow-in-the-dark! And you thought he couldn't get any more intense! lol




Little Imp has been adopted as well, and is well on his way to his new home in the US with a lovely collector who particularly loves orange... so it was a match made in heaven really!

There's a lot going on behind the scenes here at Emma's Bears and Fur Addiction at the moment with the creation of a new, easier to use website for our fabric supplies, AND a new shipment of fur due in somewhere at the end of Jan/early Feb. We're busy preparing for, and finding space to store all of our new rolls (which is fun! lol). So stay tuned - we'll have some exciting posts coming up! ;)