New batch of hand-painted mohair.

We've been busy this weekend! Lots of new, funky and OOAK pieces of hand-painted and hand-dyed mohair have been added to our website. A few have sold already, but there are still some stunning pieces left.

Baby Madeline Mae

I am totally chuffed to be able to introduce you all to 'Baby Madeline Mae' - our very latest, just born 'Baby Bear'. 

These were some of the progree photos I had posted to our facebook page yesterday afternoon as her face slowly came to life. Above is her 'raw' head - all that we've done here is stuffed it, closed the neck joint, trimmed her face roughly and pulled in the eye-sockets.

The photo above shows the first layer of nose embroidery stitches. I don't use templates or draw on nose shapes simply because I'm lazy, and I just never have. This can backfire some times and I'll end up with really crappy, uneven noses. But if I'm in a good frame of mind (and have good light to work in) I'll generally end up with a nose I'm proud of.

My way of working is just to start with a very firm/tightly pulled layer of stitches that kind of mark out the rough shape/size I think will suit the bear's face. I then work over this foundation layer with multiple layers pulling tightly and evenly as I go with each stitch. Eventually I find that I have a bear looking back at me with a cute little 3-dimensional embroidered nose.

And this is the finished bear in all of her entirety...

Name: Madeline Mae 
Born: 23/4/14
Time: 10:29am 
Weight: 5 lb 10oz
Length: 45cm

Madeline is currently available for adoption. She has been made in one of the last pieces of our 'Milk Chocolate' imported German kid-mohair that I squirreled away for myself before it sold out on our supplies website. I'm so glad I did too as the combo between the chocolatey curls and the soft lilac of her pinafore is just divine!

Hugo

We're officially back making bears again now, and it feels good! 

It has been about 3.5wks since Zander's birth and my energy is improving every day. I even managed to take the dogs for a walk yesterday (granted it was only 2.5km around the block and took me nearly half and hour!). 

This is our newest bear. I wanted to try and showcase his amazing mohair by trimming back his face to reveal the backing colour and the lighter pile under the chocolate tips. The mohair is actually a small piece we ordered in as part of our last German imported shipment. We held it back, saving it for a special project - and Hugo was the result! 

I've cut the remaining mohair into useable fat 1/4m pieces (approx 50cm x 70cm) for sale on our furaddiction.com website. We used our 'Lyric' pattern for this bear as well if you wanted to try making your own version of Hugo (a 1/4m piece is perfect for making that pattern). 

Hugo is 16" tall, fully jointed and stuffed with polyfill and steel shot. 

He looks out through a pair of our handpainted glass eyes that we also sculpted some polymer clay eyelids onto. I chose a light coloured faux suede for his paw pads to bright out the lighter coloured mohair pile a bit more, and it has served to help highlight his fluffy cheeks too which is a bonus!

We kept the shading to a minimum and embroidered some good old fashioned classic 'claws'. And finished him off with a simple blue satin bow. 

Hugo is currently available for adoption as well, and would make a lovely addition to a traditional teddy collection, or even as a room decoration for a lucky little boy.

Esther Bunny

Did you know it's nearly Easter!?!? How on earth did that happen. It honestly feels like just the other day that it was Christmas. 

I remembered over the weekend that I'd started work on a duo of bunnies in our very last piece of imported pink kid mohair before my surrogate bub was born. Then promptly forgotten about them! 

But I found them again, added those last finishing touches, and have listed them for adoption in our etsy store. 

They are a limited edition of 2 worldwide and I've called them 'Esther Bunny'!

What's next for Emma's Bears?

After all of the excitement of the last few months as surro-bub's due date got closer and closer, I knew I'd need something to direct my attention onto once the surrogacy process was finished. But I wasn't sure what that would be. Friends suggested I book a family holiday, or organise a big birthday party this year... but I knew I'd need something to keep my mind focused on each day for a few months at least, not just for a little while. Then - I got the email calling on artists for the next Teddies Worldwide Online Bear show... and I decided it might be just the thing!

We're very excited to announce that we have been accepted and will be part of the next Teddies Worldwide Online show in June! Now the fun part begins... imagining-into-being all the exclusive new bears and critters who will feature on our show page!

Do you guys have anything in particular that you'd love to see us whip up? Or any brilliant ideas for the 'vacation' theme! lol