Black, White and Gold

These three little cherubs were under construction earlier this week. Then I got sick.

I don't usually get sick. This was new for me. Everyone else in this house can have temps and coughs, or be vomiting and up all night complaining - but I just don't *usually* seem to succumb.

Until tuesday. I went to bed tuesday night with a slightly sore throat and a bit of a headache, slept really badly and woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. I spent the next few days mostly in my bed dealing with what I'm assuming was just one of the many winter viruses going around brisbane this season, combined with the worst morning sickness I've had in any of my pregnancies. But we all survived (I did ask Mark to put me out of my misery at one stage...  Thankfully he declined! lol).

 He actually stepped up and took on a lot of the things the kids were used to me doing - on top of all the bear fabric order packing and business emails... and we got through! I honestly have never had such an appreciation for my usual good health. I had definitely taken it for granted.

I'm still not better, but I'm bloody well better enough to get back to work. I have some wonderful nausea wafers to help with the morning sickness, and I think the excessive amounts of sleep have just been what my body needed to get on top of the virus.

I managed to get these three cute little cherubs actually finished this afternoon too - just in time to snap some photos before we ran out of light. I've called them 'Sovann' (means 'gold' in Cambodian), 'Sareh' (which means 'pure' in Persian) and 'Sable' which means 'black' in English.


'Sovann': 

All three girls are currently available in our etsy store. If you'd like to adopt all three, this is certainly possible (until one or two get adopted anyway), and postage will be combined.

They've been made in three colours of our kid mohair fabric range. We've sold out of the white, but have a reasonable amount of the gold and black left if you're inspired to make something like these guys yourself. The pink kid mohair would work nicely too.

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'Sable': 

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'Sareh': 

And in the midst of all the illness and craziness of the last week, we had our first ultrasound scan booked to make sure the little surrogate bub was growing like he should, and had implanted in a good spot (and that there was only ONE baby!) - and everything is looking good, nice heartbeat and the perfect size for where he should be. One tiny (1.01cm long) baby at 7wks gestation.

Little Cub - homage to a bear from 4years ago

This sweet little guy is 'Little Cub'. He is made in a dense, cropped mohair we hand dyed jet-black. The original colouring was the soft honey brown - so we kept that for the face, ears and paws.

He may look familar to followers who have been around for a while... he's actually a homage to a big 20" bear we made about 4yrs ago called 'Sabriel.

 The original bear (photo above with the pebbles in the background) was given a splattering of lace detail, and we were able to track down our last scrap pieces of the same lace to use on Little Cub.

 The design was kept the same, just reduced to give us a 10" bear size. Little Cub is currently available in our etsy store. 

The Candy Collection

This was a 'work-in-progress' photo I posted on the Emma's Bears Facebook page a few weeks ago. I had the brilliant idea to do a 'collection' of themed bears, and these guys were the result of the new design. At this stage they still needed stuffing and finishing, but they were looking cute (I also added a 'vanilla' bear to the group after this to make it an even dozen!).

The bears sat finished, but waiting for their accessories for a week or so after the last seams were closed. These gorgeous handmade polymer clay cupcake, donut, marshmallow and lolly pop pendants were coming all the way from the Philippines to us here in Australia. They arrived yesterday - and I got straight into allocating the right pendant to the right bear!

(you seriously NEED to check out this artist's store - 'AroundTheWorld'. She makes the most incredbly detailed little pendants!)

These are the finished 'Candy Collection' bears - all dozen of their sweet, fruity little buts! With names like 'Citrus Twist', 'Vanilla Pudding', 'Cranberry Crush' and 'Melon Mash'... they sound good enough to eat!

We started out making these guys with the intention that they would be small and afforable. So many of our larger bears cost over the $100-$200 mark, which seriously puts them out of reach for most people. I know I second guess myself about spending more then $100 on a bear for my own collection these days... where as once upon a time I wouldn't have blinked at that. If I wanted it - I would have bought it! Finances change though, and I know a lot of people are doing it tough.

These bears are still certainly not 'small change', but at $54 AUD for a one of a kind, handmade (some are even hand-dyed), fully jointed mohair bear (with awesome pendants!) - I think these guys work really well. And a 6" bear is able to slip into even the most well endowed bear collection!

These three are my favourites! I love the look of the 'Lilac Dreams' mohair on this little lady - with the trimmed back pink face and ears. (Plus I just like these girly colours!).

And for the 'last minute' bear, 'Vanilla Pudding' is a real sweet heart too. This was a piece of blonde mohair I had left in my personal stash from some other bears made a while ago - so it was good to be able to bring it to life.

And the little lady below was the result of a bit of Kool Aid mohair dyeing - I love the effect of Kool Aid, with the darker pile and lighter backing. And it's worked nicely here to give her ligher ears and a lighter nose.

If you particularly love any of the Candy Collection bears, it will be best to grab them as soon as you can as they won't be repeated. I may do another 'collection' again later this year though... maybe next time they can be bunnies... 'The Bunny Batch', or the 'Riot of Rabbits'... lol!

Small Pink Bears

A little while ago (think years ago) I designed and crafted a 'pregnant bear with her un-born baby'. I called the set 'New Life'. It was a bit of an undertaking and not something I'll do again. BUT - I recently found the pattern I'd made for the baby bear tucked up inside of the mum's belly, and decided to just make a few sleepy little mini bears.

Avani and Avish were the resulting critters!

Avani (the little pink/purple bear made from our 'Lilac Dreams' mohair) has been adopted. But Avish (made from our 'Latte' mohair) is currently available.

We don't make bears under 6-8" very often - mostly because I find it to be quite a challenge! I really have to be very motivated to get busy with the fiddly little details of mini-bear-making. So, if you do like the look of Avish... it might be worth checking his listing out. Once he's gone he's gone!

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The rest of the bears we've been working on over the weekend were Collaboration Bears. I had pink thread still in my sewing machine from sewing up Avani - so rummaged through the collaboration bear-bits-box to find some pink critters that needed finishing. This meant I ended up working on the very sweet 'Alice Rabbit'...

... as well as 'Calanthe' in a really unusual 3-tone purple mohair... (who has been adopted)

... and last but not least, little 'Strawberry'. Made in a stunning wispy baby-pink mohair. I fell in love with this girl while I was finishing her off. So it wasn't a surprise that she found her new home quite quickly too.

Seven bears

We've been a busy little bees over the last week or so ... but have neglected this blog a bit. Which makes me a little sad and nostalgic... i think back to the early days of this blog when it was a mix of baby-photos and random daily postings and how much simpler life was back then! :)

Now I try to condense a weeks worth of bear-making updates into one post... which makes for a lot of scrolling for you guys! So to counter that - I'll keep my text short and sweet. Pictures are what we're all here for anyways isn't it! ;)

These are the seven bears we've finished in the last seven days or so. A few are already adopted, but where they're still available I'll link them back to their etsy listings for you guys :)

This sweet girl is Willow. I finished her on the weekend, in the dim light of our lounge room. When I got to see her in daylight the next morning I was pleasantly surprised that she was so whimsical and sweet. She has already found a new home.

These little oddities are 'Apple and Crumble'. We got some special help on our facebook page to name them. Crumble has found her new home now as well, but Apple is still available.

Then there was this little fluff-ball. We made him from a piece of our long-pile white mohair (Cloudland) that we dyed a sweet pastel blue (I literally just dipped this mohair in the pot of dye for about 10 seconds, then pulled it and out rinsed it off! - and we got this awesome pastel shade!).

Aoki has also found a new home already.

Then there was this awesome big bear! He was made as a custom order for a collector's grand-baby. He has big hand-painted green safety eyes and a removable double-bow. I love how innocent and huggable he turned out.  It really, honestly surprised me how the bears end up looking sometimes. Even after using my same designs for year - just a slightly different eye placement, nose size/shape or fabric choice can make such a huge difference to the end result. The part of me that likes control struggles with this aspect of the craft a little bit, but the part of me that likes surprises get's a treat every time a bear is finished!

And last but not least we have the fluffy-belly twins 'Taite' and 'Torrin'. Both of these boys are still available (because I forgot to list them on bearpile! lol). They are made in a faux fur I collected a few years ago. I drew up the patterns back then as well, and had even gotten to the stage of cutting and pinning - but had never finished them. So I decided to breath some life into them...

.... but I misplaced their bodies! lol. So I improvised with two complementing sparkle longpile faux fur pieces. I really love the look actually, and I've stuffed the bellies with lots of beads and squishing filling so they sit beautifully on a shelf or in your hands.

I was actually doing my next round of sewing yesterday (another 7 bears!) when I picked up an odd bag of bear-bits. I opened it up and found two sewn and turned bodies - belonging to these two bears! lol. So now I'm thinking I might build two new bears around those two misplaced bodies and see what happens. Stay tuned for more franken-bears to come! ;)