Ribbon and Rose mini tutorial

We stock a LOT of accessories for bears in our supplies store Fur Addiction. Which is bloody awesome for me - cause I have them all at my finger tips!

I haven't used the mini roses for a little while, so I thought I'd do a quick tutorial of photos to show you guys how I work with them. I'm sure everyone has their own way of putting together their bear accessories - but this is how I make a rose-garland/collar:

Step 1 (see top photo) - cut some slits in a length of ribbon at equal intervals (use the size of your particular flower as a guide). Take the green 'cap' off the back of the mini rose and poke the stem through the slit.

Step 2 (see below) - apply a small amount of PVA glue to the stem/around the slit on the ribbon to prevent fraying and help the cap stay on securely.

Step 3 (above) - push the cap back on. You'll need to apply a little bit of pressure to make sure it clips in, but just be careful you don't squish the petal-side of the rose. Let it dry for a few hours.

Step 4 (above) - you now have a ribbon/rose garland. This has many uses! You could tie it around a bear's head, or around the neck and tie it off with a bow (see below).

This is our latest Collaboration Bear 'Hazel' wearing her rose collar. We have 20 colours of mini roses to choose from in our store. We also have 10 colours of spotted ribbon. So many colour-mix possibilities!

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?!

A bear Makers Worst fear...

... yes, I have injured my dominant hand. My right thumb to be exact. (to get this photo, I had to balance the camera in front of me on the desk, hold a paintbrush in my mouth and use it to press down the button to capture the image!)

It was a beautiful day yesterday, so I took Chelsea out to the backyard to have a play. While we were out there I though I might as well do a bit of much needed weeding. After tugging out a particularly stubborn weed, my hand flung into our overgrown rose bush, and a thorn got wedged deep in my thumb. I pulled it out and didn't think anything else of it (apart from the fact that it hurt - a lot!).

3 hours later my thumb was so swollen and sore that I couldn't even bend it. I called the health line for some advice and was told that due to the potential for bacteria and tetanus, and due to the fact that it had swollen so much, I should go to the nearest emergency room asap.

It all seemed so bizarre - all from a stupid rose thorn! So I dragged Chelsea off to our local hospital, explained what had happened (feeling very pathetic showing them my thumb while sick kids and people with more serious injuries were waiting). After about 45mins of waiting I went through, and was given a tetanus booster shot - just in case. They seemed to think it looked ok - but said to keep an eye on it, as it could still get infected, and with the injury being in the joint there was a real possibility of bone infection (woo hoo :P).

Today it's still really puffed up. That hasn't changed. But it doesn't seem as sore. (either that or I've just gotten used to it now!). But it just means that simple things like screwing and unscrewing Chelsea's bottles is nearly impossible. Doing up her buttons is ridiculously hard. Sewing bears is just not even going to happen! Even driving was a bit tricky.

So be warned - rose bushes are dangerous!

Our Garden

One of the positives of having a pet-free back yard is that we can start to fix it up a bit. For the past three years we've kind of let it just do what it wants. The shrubs and bushes have gone crazy and the guinea pigs had little tracks all through the undergrowth. I had a quick weed and 'stocktake' of our current plants this afternoon and thought i'd share this photo of our pink rose bush. My mum gave it to us as a house warming present when we first moved in, and now (thanks to hap-hazard pruning)it's taller than me!