Collaboration Catch up

These are the 'forgotten bears'! lol

We've been working on a number of Collaboration Bears inbetween all of our other projects lately - But I completely forgot to show you guys! This little girl in blue is 'Lola'. And I think she's probably actually one of my all time favourites to come out of the Collaboration Collection so far!

She was just a classic mid-brown mohair bear... but when she was finished she actually looked naked to me. Some bears just need clothing. So I found some of this stunning blue satin and lace ruffle trim that I had in my stash, and started wrapping it around her waist to make a mini skirt. A quick little flick over the shoulders and back down to the curve of her back again (and a number of tiny stitches to hold it all in place) - and we had a very sweet, totally customised blue ruffle dress!

Lola is also (surprisingly for me) still available in our etsy store if you like her as much as I do! (no pressure though... I'm quite happy for her to stay! lol)

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This little sweetheart was finished around the same time as Lola. We called her Paige and she was cut from a very unsually coloured smokey/lilac/grey mohair on a tan backing.

We didn't do a lot with the accessories for this girl - just s simple butterfly pendant and a white leather flower collar (see close up below).

Paige is currently available in our etsy store as well.

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Then we had this little cutie in a bright colour-combo of yellow/pink tipped mohair with teal blue eyes! The photos actually don't do this bear justice. Don't you hate how sometimes, no matter what you do, you just can't capture a bear correctly. (Occasionally the reverse happens! lol - but not enough to even out the odds! :P)

We've called this one 'Quinn', and he too is available in our etsy store. 

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And then... we had 'Leo'. Petite little Leo.

I called him this because he simultaneously reminds me of a mouse and a lion. He's just so sweet. I have no idea what is going on with his design - he has an almost triangle shaped body and big over-sized ears, very long limbs and two different coloured mohairs mixed together - but he just somehow works.

Leo is also available in our esty store. 

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And last but not least - we have 'Bastijn'. He was made from a real fur of an unknown source. My guess was rabbit. But I could be wrong, I haven't had a great deal to do with real fur fabrics and bear making. This one was very VERY soft, dense and silky to the touch. And the darkest black. It really was lovely.

Because it was just pieces in the bag we were able to make some tweaks to the original design and add the lighter fur highlights so his little face would be a bit easier to see.

Bastijn has found his new home already.

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.

Pink Power!

We've whipped up quite a few pink girly faux fur bears this week. The pink/white/purple girl above is 'Candy Corn' and was finished just this afternoon.

She's made in one of our 13" stocky patterns designed about 4-5yrs ago, and never really used again! I've been re-visiting some of my older designs lately - just getting a bit nostalgic!

Her pink fur is our 'Perky Pink' imported faux fur, and her purple fur is our 'Purple Rain' faux fur. The white fur sadly isn't one of ours! (kicking myself that we didn't order a white in this range! hindsight's a pain in the butt!). It was actually a small scrap piece I found at the bottom of our mountain of scraps that we've been accumulating for years now. So I'm not even sure where it came from - but it worked perfectly with these colours.

(If you're interested in some scraps - we have 'scrap pack' listings available on the website as well to try and move some of the pile! If you're local to Brisbane we can even offer BIGGER volumes than those on the website!)

 I went to google the colour combo in an attempt to find a suitable name for this bear when I found an image of pink, purple and white candy corn lollies. I've never seen them in this colour mix before, only the yellow/orange/white version - so I was suitably impressed!

And 'Candy Corn's' name was born! She's actually still available in our etsy store at the moment if you're quick too :)

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Then we had this big girl... she was finished late last week, and has already found her new home.

She was actually made in one of our very newest patterns - a chunky signature bear -style pattern I designed recently for a custom order. We haven't made a signature bear in a long long time, but I knew the pattern would need to be 'fat' enough to allow the bear to look like a cuddly teddy without the assistance of fur. So this cute little guy below is what we came up with.

I then wanted to see what this bear would look like with fur, so we made 'Zefirah'. She's the first bear we've made in our 'Turkish Delight' faux fur (rich pink with a subtle milk-chocolate fleck through the pile). She turned out nice and fat and chunky and was snapped up very quickly.

You can find the mini roses and ribbon we used for her head band in our store if you're curious to make a similar accessory. I have a basic tutorial on how to put it all together here too.

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And lastly we have this stunning little custom bear made in our purple and yellow sparkle faux fur range. I fell in love with this little one as soon as her face was finished! She's actually our 'Lyric' pattern reduced by about 55% (easily done as the pattern is a PDF, so you just select to print it out smaller when in the printer settings). The result is a petite 9" bear that really is the perfect size to slip into a collection.

I'm really happy with the colour combo too - requested by her new mum! I think I might have a go at mixing and matching a few more of our sparkle faux fur fabrics to see what other cool combos we can make!

Aubree

Meet Aubree. She likes chai lattes and lazy sunday afternoon naps. She's looking for her perfect family and has promised not to be too disruptive. At least not for the first 24hrs or so anyways. After she's settled in and taken over the couch, she's not making any promises.

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.