Albie was the result of an evening of getting my hands dirty. Very very dirty!
In fact, the silk-dye didn't wear off for about a week. It looked like I had been digging in the garden with my fingernails and just forgotten to wash my hands.
Sure... I could have used gloves and spared my skin a soaking of (almost) permanent dye... but where would the fun be in that. And it wouldn't have been nearly as easy to blend and smudge! Well, that's my justification anyways!
Albie was created a few weeks ago now as part of the Artist Bears International competition (that has just passed this last weekend). He was entered into the 'Well Loved' category. I am yet to hear the winning entires, but I am still pretty chuffed with this guy regardless of his winning or not.
Albie is made using a piece of our matted German mohair that has been dyed a stunning turquoise green. (This was a custom dye colour I whipped up for a special order, but made way too much of. So I used it for the fur I made the little Turquoise Squirrel from last fortnight, as well as the very cute duo you'll find at the bottom of this page).
He was cut using our 'Alivea' pattern as well - which works wonderfully in long pile fur as well as shorter fur. I decided I wanted to try making him look like he had his old wood-wool stuffing poking through a worn hole in his foot pad, so I cut two foot pads and sewed them together. Then when I made the 'worn' hole in the outer layer, it didn't compromise the construction of the leg as there is still an intact pad underneith the top one (so his real polyfill stuffing cannot escape).
I slipped a small amount of wood-wool in between the pad layers, and let some poke through. It has been secured and aged with more silk-dye.
Something a little new for me, but I do quite like the look.
Albie is currently available for adoption in our etsy store.
And these two were also made using the same dye-batch, just with some slight alterations to tone. They have both found new homes already, which is not surprising because I fell in love with them too.
The were made using our 'Osias' pattern.
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