New Bear - Priela

This is my newest creation - Priela. She is the result of the black grape dyeing i did here. Chelsea decided she needed a little cuddle this morning. I don't think Priela really enjoyed it though!

A new bear for my collection

I jumped on bearpile this morning and was feeling like a little splurge, when I spotted this super cute bunny by LJ Bears...




Her name is Becky, and she's a little sweetheart in kid mohair. I don't often buy bears for my collection. Maybe 2-3 times a year, so this little lady is a bit special!

Postcrossing

Got this interesting postcard a little while ago - and just found it then under a MASSIVE pile of receipts and general book-keeping that I'd been putting off. But its done now, my desk is looking slightly less cluttered and this postcard was a little bonus!

Custom Bear FINISHED!

Feels like this guy took me twice as long to complete - which probably isn't that much of an exaggeration due to my injured wrist at the start of the week (which incidentally is feeling fine now!).

This big guy will most probably be called 'Monty' by his new mum, and comes in at a whopping 20" tall. He's a mix of a lovely grizzly effect synthetic fur and a touch of mohair.

Give-away drawn in FOUR days!

Hello Everyone! Just a quick reminder that my blog giveaway will be drawn in FOUR days! Not long at all now! And i'm getting excited ;)

A little bit of colour!

My order of long white mohair arrived today. Special requirement for a custom bear that the collector has requested I dye 'iolite blue'. Unfortunately it ended up a little more purple than blue... but we'll see how it turns out when its dry. Also dyed one of Miss Chelsea's white wonder-suits - which did go deep blue! And dip-dyed one of my white shirts. (and my hands are also a lovely shade of purple-blue now too!).

Custom bear and an injured wrist

Just another quick post. The last few days have been a bit of a blur. I hurt my right wrist on saturday moving furniture, and have had to have it in a support for the last few days. It is feeling better now though, so I did a bit of work on my current custom bear. He's going to big a BIG black and brown shaggy synthetic bear with a mid brown face insert (so you can actually see his face amongst all the crazy fur!). All going well tomorrow with my wrist, and if Chelsea cooperates, I'll sew him up and try and get some pics.

Spent the day today browsing through craft stores with a close friend. We purchased so many goodies between us! I think we're single handedly keeping the craft industry in Brisbane afloat :P. I have some gorgeous little fat quarters of quilting cotton to use as bear paw pads for some sweet girly bears. (whenever I get a chance to make them!).


Thought i'd leave you with this photo i took of Chelsea last week. We cut through a vacant field to get to our local shopping centre when we decide to walk there instead of drive, and on this afternoon we stopped to have a play in the grass. (was the same day i took this photo too).

An impromptu getaway and an Elephant!

Some of my regular readers may have noticed that I have been uncharacteristically quiet over the last few days... and this was for a very good reason! One of my best friends, whom I have known since we were both three years old, and who has a bubba almost the exact same age as Miss Chelsea, called me on Wednesday and asked if I wanted to go away with her and her boys for a little overnight getaway!

So with a bit of packing and planning, Chels and I jumped in the car on Thursday morning and drove south of Brisbane to the Gold Coast where my friend had a night in a holiday unit. Her husband was unable to come, so she thought she'd see if i could join her. It was probably one of those opportunities that only come about a few times in a lifetime, and actually go ahead even fewer than that.

It almost didn't happen too. Her older boy (3yr old Zeke shown here giving my guinea pigs a new home) woke up vomiting at 4:30am Thursday morning, so we almost called the whole thing off. But thankfully he perked up after a bit of sleep and was fine for the rest of the trip.

Chelsea LOVED hanging out with the boys. It was so fun to watch her interacting with them.

And about half an hour before Chels and i headed off for our adventure, I listed this gorgeous critter on bearpile. I've called him Grayer (for obvious reasons...:P) and his is my very first elephant! Fully designed and executed by myself. I am just besotted with him too! And plan to make more just as soon as I've gotten through some custom orders...

Guinea Pigs on eBay

Oh - and just a quick note to say that Chilli and Jasper guinea pigs are on ebay at the moment at a nice low starting price. And only three days left :)

Family Resemblance

Chelsea in white. And Sam (my younger brother)in blue and red.

How amazing is this... Yesterday Chelsea and I went to my mum's place (her Nonna) for our fortnightly visit. We were chatting about who Chelsea looks like, when we found this photo of one of my brothers when he was about the same age as Chelsea is at the moment! It is freaky how much she looks like him! But people have always said that he and I look a lot alike too, so there must be something of me in her!

Experimental mohair dying continues

I purchased some more pieces of white mohair to play around with, took Chelsea for a walk down to the supermarket this afternoon and purchased some items I thought might yield some interesting colours. I'd read that celery gave a soft yellow-green colour. So I got some of that. Then I saw some lovely black grapes (popped them in the basket) and while I was on that train of thought, threw some plums in as well.

So, over the last few hours I have tried dying mohair with
* Boiled celery leaves - UNSUCCESSFUL
* Plum skins - UNSUCCESSFUL
* Cocoa powder - UNSUCCESSFUL
* Black grape skins rubbed into fur pile - WORKS! (you get a patchy dull lilac colour after rinsing)
* Boiled black grapes - ALSO WORKS! (you get a dusky grey colour with just a hint of lavender)
* Boiled tea (both regular and peppermint) - WORKS! (this gives a soft caramel-mustard colouring after being washed).

This is the colour of the tea-dyed mohair after it has been rinsed. Quite similar to the brown onion skins I tried earlier - maybe not quite as vibrant though.

This the the grape skins being rubbed into the backing of the mohair.

This is the colour of the mohair after the grape skins had been rubbed in and allowed to sit for 20mins, then rinsed.




This is the boiled grape-dyed piece against the original white of the mohair.

New Bears - Badru and Bandele

These are my latest two bears - Badru and Bandele. They are both made from an awesome faux fur blanket i picked up when out shopping last week. I ended up buying one for us (to keep as a blanket!) and one to cut up into bears. The left over fur is for sale in my esty store if you are interested.

This is Badru - the bigger of the two, coming in at a rather large 23" tall.



Close up of Badru's profile.


This is Badru and Bandele together.


Bandele looking cute on his own.



Chelsea with the two boys - giving some perspective to Badru's size!

New Bear - Magic

Well, after about three days of sporadic bearmaking moments - the latest bear is done. And he is a massive monstrosity of 20"! But how amazing does he look! A little odd i will admit, with his pale, piercing, and unusually coloured eyes, big sculptured nose, rainbow mushroom paw appliqué and silver-speckled fur... but what a presence this big guy has!

His name is Magic (Mushrooms!) and fits perfectly!

Sneak Peek

I'm working on an extra special bear at the moment. His little head is balancing on a roll of sticky tape, staring at me, begging me to finish him as I type this. So I'll keep it quick.

Here's a little teaser... and a strange one at that! lol

New Bear - Ted

This little guy is the product of a bear I drew up years ago at the same time as i was making Alfie, but I kind of forgot about him, and he was left in the bottom of my fabric box... until now! lol.

I've called him simply 'Ted', because he just looks like such a cheeky, classic teddy bear to me. He's 9.5" (24cm) tall, fully jointed, made from a super soft chocolate brown faux fur, firmly stuffed with polyfill and glass beads in his belly, and looks out through super shiny big black deluxe glass eyes. He is a one of a kind, and his adoption fee is AUD$110 (postage inclusive).

New Bear - Cecil the Mini Panda

So this is Cecil. As I think I might have mentioned in one of the last postings, he looks rather sad and a touch grumpy to me. I tried really hard to cheer him up and get him looking a little more 'cuddly', but he is just not happy about something!

But that's ok, he's so tiny that he can't get into too much trouble. Would be a lot worse if he was a massive, imposing 20" bear with an attitude like that.

I've currently got him listed on bearpile with a SUPER SPECIAL DEAL on offer. Purchase ANY other Emma's Bears Bear, and Cecil will travel with them for FREE. No extra adoption fees - he'll just jump in the box and head on over! (Maybe this will cheer him up ;))