I've been busy

I've been busy working away behind the scenes here, and have three new bears and 26 pairs of hand painted eyes to show for myself this week.






The eyes were yesterday's project. I was looking for something to do that got me out of the craft room (which means the kids are out of the craft room too... each time we go in there means just a little more mess, and a lot more destruction!). So I decided to paint eyes on the kitchen counter while the kids played in the lounge/outside.

It sort of worked. Chelsea decided she needed each of her fingers and toes painted a different colour, and Byron spent most of the time trying to reach/steal the eyes from the table top when I wasn't looking! But despite that, I managed to get all 26 pairs done before lunch (and 20 very colorful 2-yr old nails!).

It's a process of painting a colour, scratching back the detail, painting another colour, scratching more detail (trying not to ruin the first layer) and so on. Each of my eyes have about 3-5 layers. Depends on how quickly I was happy with the effect.




I've decided to offer some of these eyes for sale as well, as I really believe that the eyes can make or break your bear/creation - and would love for others to play with colour too! You can find what's left of the 26 pairs on etsy (a few have already been snapped up).





And showing off an earlier pair of my hand painted eyes is the very bright 'Illeana'. She's made from a piece of the hand dyed/tipped mohair that Allison from eTeddies was selling a year or so ago. I haven't got much of it left now, but thought it would look perfect for this girl.





Illeana is currently available on bearpile and/or etsy.










This little bundle of sweetness is the second bunny in my newest bunny design - this time in a short faux fur for extra softness. I stuffed this girl with a mix of corn fibre (used in the head - packs in beautifully!) and the recycled PET stuffing for her belly/feet (it's a lot softer, and you don't need much at all to get a nice feel). Her name is Valentine (yep, she was born on valentine's day!) and she too is available on etsy and bearpile.









And this little lady is a 7" purple bear I've had cut out for a while. I didn't realise quite how long her nose was going to be. I think it might have been a new design I was experimenting with, then forgot to finish! It kind of gives her a bit of an elfin/faery look. I've caller her 'Lora' and she too is on etsy.