Babies!

I seem to do the same thing every time I'm pregnant. I get to about the 6-7month mark, and then I start looking at reborn dolls on ebay. They're SO realistic, and some of them are just breathtakingly stunning ( and some not so much! lol). But they've always been a little out of my budget - so I just look, and admire. But within a few months I then had a baby of my own - and ALL desire for one of the dolls flies out the window!

This time is much the same with the hormonal urges - but there won't be a baby to distract me at the end. So I decided to re-imagine an old design idea of mine from about 7yrs ago: 'Reborn Baby Bears'.
(I actually have a section for them in my bearpile archives if you're curious to see the previously adopted babies).

So for the last few weeks I've been giving into my love of shopping for kids clothes, and buying quite a few gorgeous, quality designer baby items specifically for the baby bears.

The first bear to be 'born' was gorgeous little 'Eloise Ruby'.

Name: Eloise Ruby 

Born: 26/1/13

Time: 9:23pm 

Weight: 5 lb 1 oz

Length: 45cm

Eloise was made in a STUNNING piece of deluxe white German mohair that arrived in our last FurAddiction import shipment. I was a bit naughty and kept it back from general sale, knowing I'd want to make something very special in it. We paired the white mohair with our previously imported baby-pink kid mohair to create a very special little girl.

She has been designed so that the pink mohair looks like she's wearing a pink-onesie outfit. I've even hand sewn some spotted pink ribbon ruffles around the 'sleeve' line and made her a white lace and pink ribbon elasticated headband to match. Eloise also comes with her brand new 'Pumpkin Patch' branded ruffle jumpsuit, and a very cute 'Ollie and Me' teddy rattle.

I just find myself coming back to this image of her and feeling so proud that I made her! She's still available for adoption at the moment, but is on the more costly side of things due to her deluxe (and expensive) mohair, and her very heavy weight. Posted outside of Australia, with full express insured airmail postage, her new mum is looking at a total adoption fee of $300 AUD. (Australian collectors will pay a little less then this).

~*~

This little treasure is 'Max Thomas', the second of our newest reborn baby bears to be completed last week. He is a slightly different style in that his whole body was made from a gorgeous butter-yellow distressed mohair (also a piece I held back from our latest German import!). The colour is so soft and the fur so lovely that it was just begging to be turned into a little baby boy.

Name: Max Thomas 

Born: 26/1/13

Time: 9:50pm 

Weight: 5 lb 3 oz

Length: 45cm

Max comes with a tiny newborn sized disposable nappy with a little ducky picture on the front, as well as his brand new 'Ollie and Me' puppy rattle and a soft wrap-over 'Pumpkin Patch' aqua blue onesie.

He ended up weighing in at just a little more then Eloise too... we must have been a little more heavy handed with the steel and glass beads! My favourite part about this design is the heavy-heads. We've distributed the weight throughout the bear's entire bodies so that when you hold them, you do need to scoop them all up like a real baby and support the head.

My 4yr old Chelsea was sitting with me while I was closing the seams on the weekend, and promptly declared that they were both HERS after I let her give one a cuddle. She became a girl on a mission to secure the bears for her collection of baby dolls - but I had to keep explaining that these were Mummy's work, and they needed to go for sale. (We ended up buying her a realistic looking baby doll from the shops the next day, so she's been loving hard on him instead!).

Baby Max is also available for adoption, and his overall price including the express insured airmail postage is $290AUD (slightly cheaper as he didn't require quite as much detailing as Eloise).

I have another five of these baby-bears cut and ready to sew. And I hope to finish them before my own due date, but you never know what life is going to bring - and they do take quite a bit of time. So if you do like one of these babies, my advice is to grab them while you can as they really are one of a kind!

NEW release PIG pattern!

The pig pattern is finally ready for download! 

These are some of the example pigs we've made using the design to help inspire you with your own creations. They do seem to work best in a shorter pile mohair, and will really come to life if you can get your hands on some shading mediums (we use dy-na flow silk dye as it gives a controlable permanent marking without changing the texture of the fabric), but copic pens or InkTense water colours would also work well.

Happy creating guys!

Custom spots are now closed

Just wanted to do a little post to let you guys know that our custom-bear spots are now officially closed for the next few months. (The photo explains a little as to why that might be!)

I'm currently 29wks into a surrogate pregnancy for friends of ours. Their little boy is due late March/early April, and previous experience with my own two pregnancies tells me that my motivation/energy levels will continue to get worse as the next few weeks pass by! (Until I no longer fit behind the sewing machine at all!). I started a blog about the surrogacy process for those who are curious:http://aussiesurrogatejourney.blogspot.com.au/

Mark and I will still be making a variety of our 'available for adoption' bears during this time, and the fabric supply business Fur Addiction will be in full swing so you can still order your fur, kits, patterns etc. The only restriction will be on custom orders.

If you have custom requests in mind, you're welcome to still contact us, but there will be a decent delay on them. Just wanted to be open about that 

So, on the topic of custom bears - I thought I'd show off the last 4 custom placements we completed before closing the books. These two were made in our 'Lyric' pattern using our 'Arctic Wolf' and 'Coconut Ice' faux furs. (Just a heads up that we're down to our very last few pieces of Arctic Wolf - it has been our most popular line. If you'd like some before it's sold out I'd suggest getting in asap. It has a gorgeous long, dense pile and looks lovely with the face trimmed back).

The photo above shows the faces in the raw. All we've done here is stuff, close the neck seam and trim back the fur on the face area roughly. I like to do this before I set the eyes so I can get a better idea of where to sink the eye-sockets.

Once I have the eye-placement worked out, its then a matter of choosing the best eyes for the bear. The mum of these guys wanted hand painted eyes for both - sparkly blue/green for the white bear and pinky/purple with sculptured lids for the pink bear. Both pairs of eyes selected were the same size - but the addition of the sculptured lids for the pink bear makes them look so much bigger. She has the cutest cartoon-like expression.

The noses were also embroidered and the cheeks were re-trimmed to neaten them up and make them more symmetrical. The photo below shows the head finally attached to the white bear's body. They're so cute at this stage with their saggy, floppy bodies!

Stuffing can take a little while for bigger bears, and so by the end of the afternoon this was all I'd achieved. But they were ready for seam-closing. (another of the more tedious tasks!).

The next day was all about shading and accessorising. I'd used a matching pink felt for the paws on the pink bear, but discovered that felt doesn't shade very nicely - or at least not this particular piece! So to solve the problem we shaded around the felt, drawing the silk-dye through the pile of the fur on the hands and feet. It really gave quite a nice contrast with the depth behind her eyes.

And then, all of a sudden I had two finished bears looking back at me. We gave the white bear a matching sparkly blue bow and the pink bear got a black/white beaded necklace. Both bears are no on their way to their new mum in the USA.

~*~

The other two custom creations we had lined up to complete were these gorgeous little piggies. They were commissioned as a wedding present for a couple with the last name of 'Ham'. (How perfect is that!). The girly-pig is hand-dyed in a soft multi-tonal lilac/purple shade, while the boy pig is a handsome sky-blue. (We used our new 'Emmett' short pile matted white mohair as the fabric base - it works so beautifully on bears/critters like this, and can be dyed in any colour you can imagine).

The girl pig was given some very flirty eyelashes and rosey cheeks. She is going to be accessorised a bit more once she arrives at her commisioning mum's place. I can't wait to hear how they were received at the wedding!

We're back!

Hope you guys all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year period! We've actually been 'back' (which means posting orders and answering emails) for a little while now, but I've only just started work on some Emma's Bears again. Over the New Year period I decided to pull out a random dozen Collaboration Bears as my work-in-progress projects to do while the kids swam in our new portable pool or watched Christmas movies. These are the EIGHT that I managed to get finished!

Above is a little guy we called 'Charles' - he has a unique design with a single body/head and jointed limbs. His face turned out super cute! He is available in our etsy store.

And this odd little lady is 'Cali'. She was another unique design with an upwards looking face, big cheeks and over-sized feet. Oh - and a joint at her middle (between the top and bottom of her body!). She was a bit of fun to figure out and put together. She has been ADOPTED.

This little crimson ted is 'Faye'. Her bag-of-bits simply said 'Faerie'-  but there were no wings or fairy-like things, just the pieces of mini bear fur. We luckily had the gorgeous glittery butterfly ornament waiting for the right bear, that was a perfect fit to act as her wings. A little extra golden accessorising and she was looking the part! Faye is available in our etsy store.

This little guy was too cute not to make up - with those tiny tiny pieces needed to make his hands and feet... I will admit I was worried I wouldn't be able to sew him neatly enough (I hand-sewed him as he was too petite to fight my machine over) - but he's turned out perfectly. We chose a tiny pair of our hand-painted blue eyes and finished him with a simple blue bow. He is actually one of my favourite Collaboration Bears so far! He too is available in our etsy store.

These two just begged to be finished together. They each had their own bear-bits-bags, but the lighter colouring used on both is the exact same mohair. The girl has been cut using a wispy rich purple for the darker colour, and the boy has a deep navy blue mohair. Both gorgeous little critters. We called the girl 'Pandamonium' and she is still available, but the boy 'Bamboozle' has been ADOPTED.

This was the third Collaboration Panda we finished. He was more of the traditional black/white mohair look. We gave him a lovely pair of imitiation boot-button eyes to complete the look, and asked our FaceBook likers to help choose a name. 'Jax' was suggested, and so that is what we called him. Jax has been ADOPTED.

And last, but by no means least is little 'Snowflake'. She was a delight to make - and yet another totally different design. She has a jointed head but a floppy, laying down body. We gave her rosey cheeks and a sweet little blue gingham bow. She too has been ADOPTED.

We will have some pictures of the newest Emma's Bears bears for 2014 to come shortly.