Bambina and Max

This little lady-in-pink is 'Bambina'. She was just finished this afternoon! 

I had so much trouble choosing her eyes... I always gravitate towards the blue ones, but they just didn't look as nice as this green pair. I do think pink and green are a classic combo though - very natural. Like fields of spring flowers and lush grass. 

Bambina is currently available on etsy and bearpile. You can also purchase her as a kit to make yourself, or you can purchase her gorgeous pink and white kid mohair in sizes starting from 1/8m pieces. 

And this is Max - our BIG boy! We finished Max on the weekend after the bear show. I had intended to bring him with me to the show to work on, but didn't really get a moment to work on him there anyways! (and if we do a show again, I might plan to bring a somewhat smaller bear to work on! lol)

Max is made in our 'Sasquatch' choc tipped faux fur. It has a lovely dense pile that makes up beautifully into big bears like Max here (who is 21") or would also work well for bears 8-10" tall as well, giving a slightly fluffier look. I just love the way the trimmed face is lighter on bears that have the tipped fur. A really easy way to get a great, natural effect! 

Max also looks out through a pair of our hand painted eyes (which you can purchase for your bears), this time in a starling silver/gold with flecks of aqua blue. 

His pulled toes were a bit of a last minute decision. I wasn't sure if the shapes I'd designed for his hands and feet would mold very well - but with a bit of experimenting they did kind of work. His feet aren't perfect, but I still think this looks better than leaving them flat. And they're just nice to run your hand over! lol 

Max is currently available on etsy and bearpile as well. 

August Giveaway is almost over!

There's only 4 days to go until we draw the winners of the August giveaway. And yes - there will be multiple winners as we've passed the 100 likers mark on our Fur Addiction page! 

So far between the Emma's Bears facebook page and here on the blog we only have 34 different 'wish' bears as entries in the competition, so the odds that your entry will be one of the winners is pretty high! 

If you'd like to enter it's as simple as having a look through our fabrics, previous bears and/or patterns and letting us know what kind of bear you'd choose if you won the custom spot. We will be making up the TWO winning wish bears for the two lucky winners in September. 

(value of the bear is up to $300 - so not a bad prize to win! You've got to be in it to win it!! lol) 

A little local doll and bear show

A few weeks ago Mr Fur Addiction/ Emma's Bears (Mark) stumbled across a local doll and bear show being organised for this weekend in one of the community halls. It was literally a 5min drive away from us which meant that we could do it without needing to book accommodation or find babysitters for the kids! 

So we did a last minute booking and secured a table. Then I went to work trying to get things ready. 

I made a BRIGHT pink sign using our 'Coconut Ice' faux fur. 

I stayed up til midnight most nights last week cutting, rolling and tagging mohair! (but seriously, how pretty do those piles look!) 

And then the day arrived! We did a practice set up at home, but weren't 100% sure on the table width. So we kind of just guessed! Thankfully we got it pretty accurate and all our bits and pieces fit. 

There were LOTS of doll stalls, lots of reborns (and lots of people pushing them around in prams or cradling them as they walked around the hall... I so wish I'd asked to take a photo! One of them was so real it was actually moving while carried!!)

We had an excellent spot on the back wall so we could watch all the comings and goings. This was my view tucked up behind the bears. 

We sold a few items, mostly fur and kits. But I chatted to so many lovely people and made some new friends/contacts with the traders around our table. 

I fell in love with this bear on the Charlie Bears table. I spent all morning watching people pick him up and ooh and ahh over him.... all the while thinking 'NO! He's mine!'. So when we had the lunch time lull in visitors, I slipped over to the table and adopted him! I don't have many Charlie Bears in my collection, preferring one of a kind bears - but there was just something about his cranky little face! 

Right at the end of the day the lady on the table next to us (Threadbears by Georgie Threadgold) and I did a swap - this stunning bunny for some of our mohair pieces. Isn't she just cute as a button. It did kind of defeat the purpose of going to a bear show as a trader... but I just can't get the collector blood out of my system! lol 

Mountains of Mohair have arrived!

After many many emails, (and much waiting) our new mohair shipment has finally arrived from Germany!!! 22 different rolls - matted piles, Tipped piles, Contrasting colours and KID MOHAIR!!! Mark and I have been busily unwrapping, cutting and photographing all weekend.

We ran out of creativity with the naming of the pieces, so had a little competition on our facebook page. We had some really awesome suggestions and all pieces are now named appropriately!


 You can find them all in our etsy store or here on the blog (you might have noticed the new pages in the top bar). We've added 'Buy It Now' buttons to each piece to make ordering as easy as possible.

While we were busy making paypal buttons for the mohair we thought we'd add the new faux fur range on their own page as well.

And then, just because we could, we thought it might be nice to do the same thing with the 'Available Bears' page! So everything is all up to date for your browsing pleasure once again!

Tia (the snow leopard bear)

In all of this week's craziness (more about that in our next post!) around here I forgot to show you guys our latest bear 'Tia'. 

She is made from our Tissavel 'Snow Leopard' fur with some 'Arctic Wolf' faux fur for her cute little white face. I've found that patterned furs really need a flat-colour facial insert to make them look effective. It just gives the eye somewhere to focus - and being the face, that's exactly where you want people focusing! 

We actually dropped Tia off at her new mum's house yesterday. She has gone to live with one of our long-term collectors. This was the first time we'd met in person, and I was blown away to see so many of my bears from over the years displayed so beautifully around her house. 

It left me buzzing for the rest of the day!

:)

As promised... the AUGUST GIVEAWAY is here!

After the CRAZY success of our July giveaway we promised to do another one for August as a little thank you for all of the new followers and likers (facebook). 

This one is a little different. You don't need to share the photo if you don't want to, you don't need to like anything or follow anything. All you need to do is to use your imagination! 

~

It works like this:

* WE offer one of our limited custom-bear placements for September to ONE lucky winner, 

* YOU tell us what bear you'd design if you won the placement. 

That's it!

I've included some photos of our previous bear designs below to give you a little inspiration. You can also browse over 600 of our adopted bears in our archives on bearpile. As for the fabrics (mohair and/or faux fur), just have a peek in any of our bear supply stores on etsy, ebay or direct from our furaddiction.com website and let us know what you'd choose. 

Then just comment with your ultimate bear/fabric mash up! For example, if I was entering, I'd order our 'Eliza the Vampire' bear in our 'Cherry Bomb' red/black faux fur.

Mark and I will choose the most creative design suggestion on the first day of Spring (September 1st), and we will get to work bringing the winning idea to life for the lucky collector! 

**** If we can get to 250 followers on this blog, and/or 500 likers on facebook, we'll double the love, and choose TWO winners! (so, there is a little incentive to share the giveaway with your friends, but definitely not compulsory! ;)) ****

We're really looking forward to seeing your suggestions!

Little Scruffy Bear

Big Bright Bear

Sweet Classic Bear

Baby Bear

Blithely Bear

Sculptured Bear with mohair body

Relaxed Bear

Big-Eyed Bears

Cactus Bear

Eliza the Vampire Bear

Elodie Prim Bear

Little Bright Bear

Blue-eyed Panda

Toasted Marshmallow Bear

Duo of Panda Bears

Sunny Bear

Realistic Bunny Rabbit

Elisha (and her kit)

This gorgeous little lady is 'Elisha', and she has been made in a piece of SUPER soft Tissavel faux fur, and some long pile white mohair. We made her up as a kit bear (as we had a little extra of this fabric remaining). 

But we now only have one kit left! 

Elisha herself is currently available for adoption.

Her last kit can also be purchased in our etsy store, and comes with the bow and butterfly accessories. The choice of bow colour is shown below. I am so excited to see what you guys can do with this stunning fabric! :) 

Some hand-dyed fun!

This week we've been having some fun with hand-dyeing mohair again, and making bears from the results. This cheeky bear is 'Chakra', and he was made from a piece of our rainbow mohair. We were careful to lay out his pattern to keep his face light, but evenly distribute the rest of his colours over his body and limbs. The result is a very bright, very unique little bear.

We had a discussion on our Emma's Bears Facebook page about what colour eyes he should have, if any. I was undecided if he would look better with black eyes or coloured. We ended up going with a sparkling pair in the exact same shade of violet purple as he features on his ear and foot.

He even looks beautiful from behind! 

Chakra is currently available through our etsy store. Once he is sold though, that is it. This big boy is definitely a one of a kind!

Then, these two ladies were finished just today. They are a big sister/little sister duo of bears made in one of our multi-shaded pieces of mohair. We ended up with a piece of fur with patches of deep violet right through to a light pastel lavender. The effect of cutting out two bears from this pieces has meant that the patches of colour are a little more evenly distributed across both of their bodies.

Jacqueline and Janna are also currently available in our etsy store.

These are some of the pieces of hand painted fur that we've decided to put up for sale as well. If you've been inspired to try your own colourful, unique project this might just be the challenge you've been looking for!

We called this piece 'Enchanted Forest'

This is 'Rainbow Dance'

'Rainbow Song'

'Ripe Pumpkin'

'Royal Purple'

'Strawberry'