The last bears for 2012!

This is our latest creation - little 4" 'Mallory'. I dreamed her up after finding this gorgeous mini chair during my christmas shopping expeditions. I pictured Mallory immediately - and she is one of the few bears who have actually finished the way I imagined when I started.

Mallory has since been adopted, but we are making her kit available for purchase (same mohair, eyes, joints and pattern - we just don't supply the mini chair!).

Then, earlier in the week we made these three cheeky bears. These three are made from our soon-to-be released 'Lyric' bear pattern. It will include all the pieces and instructions to make three very different 16" bears from the same basic design - a panda (complete with eye-patch insers and darker fur strip across the chest), a traditional one-colour bear, and a face/belly insert bear. This pattern can be made in mohair, faux fur or a combo of both  - as you can see above. It has been one of my most treasured designs over the years, and it just seemed right to release this one for you guys.

(we hope to have it available for general sale in January. Watch this blog for more information!)

This big fluffy ball is 'Caleb', and he's the face/belly insert example of our new 'Lyric' pattern. He has been made in a mix of faux fur (Golden Peacock) and kid mohair (Polar). These two colours have worked so beautifully together. I'm really happy with Caleb's look. He is currently available for adoption.

This is 'Macaroon', and she's the panda version of the 'Lyric' pattern. We decided to make her in a mix of our pink (Sweetheart) and light brown (Milk Chocolate) kid mohair colours. I don't know why I didn't do this pairing sooner - she is just so yummy I couldn't not give her a food-related name!

Macaroon is adopted, but we will make her kit available once the pattern is released, or you're welcome to purchase her mohair to make your own patterns/designs.

And last (but not least!) - we have 'Marmalade', so called after the mohair of the same name! Marmalade is a stunningly vibrant bear - this mohair looks so much better made up then it does flat off the roll. We gave Marmalade some bright, shimmering hand painted eyes to make her colouring 'pop' even more, and paired the whole look up with a handmade Czech glass necklace and some modern summer clothes.

Check out that funky butt! Love the small details on the Pumpkin Patch clothing - even the smallest pieces get all the embroidery!

This is a close up of the Czech glass necklace we strung just for Marmalade - made to match her gorgeous eyes, and to sit perfectly around her neck. She looks so lovely just sitting 'in the fur' with her necklace on as well (all her clothing and the necklace are fully removable so you can choose a different look for her everyday).

And that's it for our 2012 bears - unless we somehow whip one up tomorrow... but that's not very likely!

End of the world? (why not stock up on fur!?)

Mark and I have decided to approach the CRAZY hype about the supposed end of the world tomorrow with a bit of humour (after being bombarded by it all week through TV, internet, radio... basically every media outlet available. And I'm sure we're not the only one's feeling that way. I think we'll all breathe a sigh of relief when the 22nd comes along - and not because we've survived, but because we can leave all the apocalypse stuff behind us and get on with Christmas!)

So, for approx 24hrs we've got a 40% off sale happening in our eBay Fur Addiction store. We figure if the world really does end tomorrow, we won't need a house full of fur and you won't need that extra bit of cash! And if it doesn't end - then you get some serious bargains to keep you crafting over the Christmas holidays!

my amazing MamAmor birthing and breastfeeding doll

I've recently stumbled across an amazing handmade creation called a 'MamAmor' doll - there is a facebook page and a blog and a store if you wanted to check them out too. Basically, these incredible creations are cloth dolls with very clever detail that allow them to birth and breastfeed their babies in a tastefully blend of stylized realism. Which is just a fluffy way of saying 'I love this doll'!

This is my doll 'Pamela'. I should really correct that and say Chelsea's doll.... but I think i bought her just as much for me as for Chels. Chelsea's only 3yrs old, so the birth questions haven't really begun yet. She knows she grew in my belly and then she 'got out' - but that's about as much detail as we've gone into so far. She was too young when Byron was born to understand (she though everyone had babies in their bellies)... so i figured this could help me answer questions when the time comes.

Plus, I just had to have one. Handcrafter to handcrafter!

(doesn't she have amazing hair!) 

So this is what these gorgeous dolls look like undressed. I love that she looks like a woman - real mumma curves. The genius of this design for me are the press stud nipples - meaning the baby can actually 'latch on' (photo to come).

The photo above shows the mumma with the baby in her belly. There is an extra piece of fabric, kind of like a pocket that the baby can be slotted inside of like a real belly. The baby can also emerge as if being born as well.

I also love the detail of the placenta and umbilical cord - also attached with a snap clip so that it can be removed after birth (the base of the clip then acts as a belly button! So cute!). I think this really appealed to me after my attempt to make a pregnant mumma and baby bear back in 2010 who also had a removable umbilical cord).

Then mumma and baby can get down to the nursing. 

And cuddling. 

The doll was going to be a christmas present for Chels, but I couldn't help myself from showing it to her when it arrived. She had a mixed reaction - all wide eyed with wonder at first - then got distracted by a toy her brother was playing with (that was hers). So I think I might put her away for now with all the chaos of christmas and the many commercial, plastic toys the kids will get over the next week or so... I think Pamela will be overlooked. So she can be my doll for now. Until I hear those curious words 'Mum, when i was a baby, how did i get out of your tummy?'...

New bears for this week

This is our very latest new addition to the Emma's Bears creations. Her name is 'Autumn'. She is made in two of our kid mohairs and using our 'Alivea' pattern - with some slight alterations.

She is currently available to adopt as a one of a kind Emma's Bears creation, or you can purchase her complete kit (including the hand-altered pattern, instructions, 2 x 1/4m pieces of kid mohair, paw pad faux suede, 65mm joint sets, nose thread and your own unique pair of hand-painted glass eyes. The only things we don't include are polymer clay for the eyelids, sewing thread, stuffing and weights - all of which can be added to the kit if required. We can even do matching accessories if you wanted to leave that up to us too! lol)

Then earlier in the week/weekend I had been working on a special custom order - a miniature version of our
Booth and/or Acorn pattern. The bears from the original pattern can be seen at the back of the picture. They stand in at 13" tall. The minis stand in at a petite 6" tall. We achieved this pattern reduction by simply printed out the PDF file 2 pages to an A4 sheet of paper. If you already own this pattern you too can get the mini version simply by doing this. In fact - pretty much all of our patterns can be reduced or enlarged as you require without destroying the proportion (so long as the whole pattern is enlarged or reduced evenly).

We ended up making a panda, a bear and a puppy (more specifically a 'ruby cavalier kind charles' puppy!)

Caitlyn the panda is currently available. 

Clemmie has been adopted. 

And Calum the puppy is also still available. We've missed the cut off for post to arrived before christmas internationally, but Australian collectors can still have their adoption in time if you hurry! 

two more 'Made by YOU' bears!

This gorgeous big girl is made in our 'Berry Mash' faux fur (of which we're very nearly sold out!) and is made from our Alivea pattern. Made by Kirsty. What an amazing job!

And this gorgeously green Christmas bear is made using our Free blog pattern (see the top left hand image for the link). Leisa is the creator of this gorgeous guy.

If YOU have any bears or creations you've made using our fabrics and/or patterns feel free to send us an email at furaddiction@hotmail.com and we can quite happily post them and link them to your own blog/page if you'd like :) 

Made by you

I thought you guys might like to see this gorgeous bear made using our Free Bear Pattern (available through the link/image the top left hand corner of this blog). 

This little guy was made from a blanket! Doesn't he look divine. That little face is just begging to be hugged and loved. Thank you so much Aino for sharing this with me. 

You can view Aino's blog here.