The pig and the bear

We decided to test our pig design from a week or so ago on a different fabric. Nothing is quite as perfect as the rhubarb mohair - but I was too curious to see the pig in a non-piggy colouring!

So we grabbed a piece of our hand dyed sparkle mohair, and got to work. 'Bluebell' is the result!

She's pretty sweet  (and has already found her new home), but I still think I liked the soft pink of the original pig best. We want to try the design in a few more fabrics, then we'll probably get it ready for sale as a PDF pattern.

~*~

We also got a request for a custom bear in pink and purple - and this was the end result! We ended up calling her 'Jelly Bean' and she's made in 'Perky Pink' and 'Amethyst Sparkle' faux fur lines from our store. This was the first time we've used these fabrics, and put them together - and I'm really impressed with how well they've worked considering they have completely different textures/densities!

(The necklace has now become a favourite with Chelsea (nearly 4yrs) too. She was eyeing off the one I made for Jelly Bean, so I told her I'd make her one just for her. It's just a heap of our tiny coloured bells strung onto a cord, then tied into a ball. Chelsea wore hers all day - I just had to bargain with her to take it away for the night!)

Seven bears

We've been a busy little bees over the last week or so ... but have neglected this blog a bit. Which makes me a little sad and nostalgic... i think back to the early days of this blog when it was a mix of baby-photos and random daily postings and how much simpler life was back then! :)

Now I try to condense a weeks worth of bear-making updates into one post... which makes for a lot of scrolling for you guys! So to counter that - I'll keep my text short and sweet. Pictures are what we're all here for anyways isn't it! ;)

These are the seven bears we've finished in the last seven days or so. A few are already adopted, but where they're still available I'll link them back to their etsy listings for you guys :)

This sweet girl is Willow. I finished her on the weekend, in the dim light of our lounge room. When I got to see her in daylight the next morning I was pleasantly surprised that she was so whimsical and sweet. She has already found a new home.

These little oddities are 'Apple and Crumble'. We got some special help on our facebook page to name them. Crumble has found her new home now as well, but Apple is still available.

Then there was this little fluff-ball. We made him from a piece of our long-pile white mohair (Cloudland) that we dyed a sweet pastel blue (I literally just dipped this mohair in the pot of dye for about 10 seconds, then pulled it and out rinsed it off! - and we got this awesome pastel shade!).

Aoki has also found a new home already.

Then there was this awesome big bear! He was made as a custom order for a collector's grand-baby. He has big hand-painted green safety eyes and a removable double-bow. I love how innocent and huggable he turned out.  It really, honestly surprised me how the bears end up looking sometimes. Even after using my same designs for year - just a slightly different eye placement, nose size/shape or fabric choice can make such a huge difference to the end result. The part of me that likes control struggles with this aspect of the craft a little bit, but the part of me that likes surprises get's a treat every time a bear is finished!

And last but not least we have the fluffy-belly twins 'Taite' and 'Torrin'. Both of these boys are still available (because I forgot to list them on bearpile! lol). They are made in a faux fur I collected a few years ago. I drew up the patterns back then as well, and had even gotten to the stage of cutting and pinning - but had never finished them. So I decided to breath some life into them...

.... but I misplaced their bodies! lol. So I improvised with two complementing sparkle longpile faux fur pieces. I really love the look actually, and I've stuffed the bellies with lots of beads and squishing filling so they sit beautifully on a shelf or in your hands.

I was actually doing my next round of sewing yesterday (another 7 bears!) when I picked up an odd bag of bear-bits. I opened it up and found two sewn and turned bodies - belonging to these two bears! lol. So now I'm thinking I might build two new bears around those two misplaced bodies and see what happens. Stay tuned for more franken-bears to come! ;)

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?!

Orangutan Baby

This week I have been working on a custom Orangutan baby for a friend of mine who is having her baby shower next weekend. The nursery is monkey-themed, and she asked if I could make a 'signature' monkey, like the classic signature bear that people sign at special occasions. We ran with the idea and ended up deciding to do a mostly furry Orangutan baby, with a calico tummy insert that people can write on. It doesn't give a great deal of space, but means that bub will have a nice fluffy toy to play with when he/she is bigger.




This Orangutan baby wears his own animal-print nappy, is fully jointed, looks out through deluxe black safety eyes and is stuffed with eco fillings. He is one of a kind, and approx 28" tall (70cm)!





If you like the look of this funny big boy, then stay tuned for the next Teddy's Worldwide online bear show in July. It focuses mostly on creations other than teddy bears, and I intend to create some more Orangutan's, maybe a gorilla, probably some rabbits, and a lion, maybe a guinea pig or two... It should be so much fun to see what all the artists come up with!!!