Aurora and Paradise

I am so excited to introduce you to our latest duo of bears - this stunner is 'Aurora'. She is made in our 'Aurora Borealis' faux fur and has eyes painted to match the kaleidoscope of colours!

She was adopted very quickly - but we do have kits available for her. You will get the same fur, same pattern, nose thread, joints, glass lampwork pendant and your own choice of HUGE painted glass eyes. Every pair of eyes will be different making your Aurora bear unique :)

We took quite a few photos of this lady... 

And this is our second newly completed bear - made using our deluxe faux fur fabrics in 'Island Sunset' and 'Arctic Wolf' - both a very similar pile length/density and feel - only different versions of the tipped effect. I wasn't sure how the colours would work together - but I am pleasantly surprised. 

Paradise is the same height as Aurora, but a much chunkier design. This is actually our BRAND NEW design available as a e-pattern. The pattern itself is called 'Lyric', and we used it a few months ago to showcase the three different bears that are able to be made using the adjustments included in the pattern. Paradise is the 'cheek insert' version. You can also make a 'full' one colour bear, and/or a panda version as well.

At the time of writing, Paradise is available for adoption. She is also available in Kit form.

(these are the three examples of the bears you can make with the adjustments included in the 'Lyric' Pattern)

Australia Day... here come the rains!

It has been SO HOT here in sunny Australia for the last month or so. Ridiculously hot. I know, I know - it's Summer. It's supposed to be hot. But this has been nasty, sticky, sweating-through-your-clothing-at-7am-in-the-morning kind of hot. So to finally see some rain has been a wonderful relief. It kind of came at a bad time in terms of festivities though, as it's Australia Day here today. We spent the day inside watching kids movies and eating cupcakes while listening to the rain on the roof. So not too bad really :)

But what I really wanted to show you guys was our latest work for the last fortnight or so. We decided to use one of our finer/stretchier faux fur pieces (Fluffy Duckling)  in a larger bear design to see how it would turn out. I had a very specific idea in mind for this bear - and I must say (for once) the end result was pretty close!

Meet Samson - all 21" of him! He's a big chunky boy with a head on him as large as my 2yr olds! And HUGE ooak hand painted glass eyes that just set him off.

(Because it's hard to tell size comparisons in photos, I thought I'd take a few photos of Samson with some of our other bears. Above he is holding 'Jonas' - one of our old style 13" bears, and below he's holding onto 'Grace' who is 10" tall).

We also had a custom request for a black and red bear... and this little sweetheart was the result! This is 'Scarlet'. She is made from our 'Licorish' black kid mohair, and our 'Queen of Hearts' red/black tipped mohair.

We also thought we'd try a choc/blue mix bear in the same pattern (Osias), and Angus was the result. He is a mix of 'Pudding' kid mohair and 'Bermuda' two-tone mohair. I wasn't completely sure how they'd work in this match due to the length differences between the kid and regular lines (25mm versus 20mm) - but it is actually pretty cool. I love how full and fluffy Angus's limbs and ears look, and his sweet little face has such a wind-swept look, it makes you want to push his hair out of his eyes and give him a cuddle.

Angus is actually available at the moment in completed form, and as a kit if you'd like to have a go at making your own version.

And lastly, we were asked to make a custom bear in our Arctic Wolf faux fur with some roses by her neck - very much like our original 'Alivea' bear, but without the hand shaving/shading, and a different face. I just love the softness in this bears expression - and her gorgeous lilac eyes tie in perfectly with the colouring of this fur. I would say that Arctic Wolf has to be my favourite of our current lot of faux fur for bear making. It's dense, and soft and lends itself to facial scissor sculpting perfectly. I'm yet to try it in a bear under 18" tall though... so would be curious to see any of your creations out there if you've purchased this fabric for us for a smaller project?!