We have been SO slack with our blogging this year, mostly due to have much attention we've ended up throwing in the direction of facebook instead. Which is a little bit sad, as this blog has served us well for quite a few years now, and has an absolute treasure trove of information and posts. So we won't be disbanding it just yet - but it is good to note that the bears posted here aren't always going to be the most up-to-date!! (If you'd like to be one of the first to see our newest pieces, even while we're still making them, your best bet is to head on over to our Emma's Bears Facebook page).
But, today is a great time for a catch up - so here you'll find some photos of our finished custom bears from the last few weeks.
The very girly little lady below was made as an alternative option for a collector who likes pink. She ended up going with the other option (which we can't show you just yet), so this girl went up for general sale. She didn't last long, and found her new home in less then 30mins.
We called her 'Persia' and she was made using our 16" Lyric design and some of our newest imported faux fur called 'Ballerina Pink'. It's a long pile mongolian style faux fur in the softest, barely-there dusky pink (photo below).
Then - there was this stunning trio! Three custom bears all made at once for the one collector! The two little panda's are made using our Willa/Attila pattern (bear-version rather then bunny version), and some of our long pile alpaca in hand-dyed sky blue and sunny yellow. We were very lucky to get some great colours from that dye batch because it's still technically winter here - which is traditionally our worst time for hand-dying!
The bigger panda was made using our 'Fat Panda' design, but reduced down to 80% to give us an 18" bear instead of the original 22" (as per customer request). I probably wouldn't recommend reducing this pattern much more though, if you're thinking of trying this yourself, as the proportions might start getting a little odd!
This crazy pink and white panda was made using our 'Magenta Haze' and 'Cloud Dancer' faux fur pieces (Magenta Haze can be seen in the photo below). We do still have more of both of these pieces in our store if you'd like to try making a bear like this yourself too. The Magenta Haze probably won't last a lot longer though as we're currently on our last roll.
(If you're looking to make something like this in kit form, we can certainly put it together for you too. This is a pre-made kit listing for the same pattern but slightly different fur to give you an idea of what you'd need)
Some work-in-progress pictures of the three custom bears. I always like to roughly sculpt the cheeks before setting eyes, embroidering noses and attaching ears as it helps me keep my symmetry and choose the best sized features then.
Then, one of our most recently completed custom orders was this sweet elephant. We used a piece of our own personal stash tipped kid mohair and paired it with one of our new quilters cotton print fabrics for the inner ears and paws. This fabric is so cute with the snuggling mumma and baby bears, and our elephant design is especially great for showcasing cute fabric as you get a much larger area then you normally would just on paw pads.
(Photo of the fabric is down below).
