Danger

This is our very latest bear. 

We called him 'Danger'! 

Danger is made using our 'Bubblegum' design (which is available as an instant download PDF), and some of our last deluxe black faux fur. 

(The LAST PIECE is actually for sale in our Fur Addiction store!) 

Mermaid Bear

I've been working on a new idea/design for a few weeks now - a mermaid bear. I've seen 'merbears' around in my travels, but have never attempted one myself. The photo above was my first sneak-peek pic for facebook before we started sewing the tail scale-sequins on one by one! (yep... it took quite a few hours! lol). The photo below is a half-way through progress shot taken last night.

... and then, it felt as if it was 'just like that' - and she was finished!

We took Talulah down to the waterfront this afternoon to try and get some nice photos of her on the sand by the water. But the weather was a little iffy, and the sand a little wet... so we resigned ourselves to the edge of the esplanade instead! (It was also REDICULOUSLY windy, so getting photos where her tail-fin wasn't flapping about like a flag was challenging as well).

I LOVE her tail. I just love it. If I'm 100% honest with you, this project has been my favourite so far this year. It appeals to my inner girl, and takes me back to a time where I would watch 'The Little Mermaid' on video over and over.

We carefully hand-painted Talulah's eyes to matching in with her aqua/salmon colour scheme, and sculpted some feminine lids. She also has inktense eye-shadow and soft eyelashes to complete her look!

Talulah is honestly a one of a kind. I don't think I could ever begin to replicate her even if I wanted to! She is currently available in our etsy store.

'Phyre' - with WIP pics

Late last week I had a big sewing-session, and finished it with this bear. This was his head fresh from the sewing machine, and soo big that my hand fit right up inside of it.

Then it came time to get to work on the detailing. The photo above shows the face stuffed, neck joint in place and cheeks trimmed. I think the eye-sockets have been pulled here as well.

This shows the eyes set and nose/mouth embroidered. I was dreading having to attach the ears as this fur was quite thick! I have ONE large piece of this fur left over if you would like to have a go with it too? It does make up beautifully. (btw - the ears weren't that bad to attach! I always anticipate that things will be worse then they are!).

And then this was our finished bear - 2-foot tall and simple handsome. We called him 'Phyre', which is a little cheesy, but suited him too perfectly not to use as his name! He is a one of a kind artist bear, and something a little different. He is currently available for adoption from our etsy store.

Sweet little Acacia

This is our latest new arrival - little 'Acacia'. She is made from some of our hand-dyed mohair (see the last post), and is a petite 8" tall! She is currently available for adoption too.

New batch of hand-painted mohair.

We've been busy this weekend! Lots of new, funky and OOAK pieces of hand-painted and hand-dyed mohair have been added to our website. A few have sold already, but there are still some stunning pieces left.

Baby Madeline Mae

I am totally chuffed to be able to introduce you all to 'Baby Madeline Mae' - our very latest, just born 'Baby Bear'. 

These were some of the progree photos I had posted to our facebook page yesterday afternoon as her face slowly came to life. Above is her 'raw' head - all that we've done here is stuffed it, closed the neck joint, trimmed her face roughly and pulled in the eye-sockets.

The photo above shows the first layer of nose embroidery stitches. I don't use templates or draw on nose shapes simply because I'm lazy, and I just never have. This can backfire some times and I'll end up with really crappy, uneven noses. But if I'm in a good frame of mind (and have good light to work in) I'll generally end up with a nose I'm proud of.

My way of working is just to start with a very firm/tightly pulled layer of stitches that kind of mark out the rough shape/size I think will suit the bear's face. I then work over this foundation layer with multiple layers pulling tightly and evenly as I go with each stitch. Eventually I find that I have a bear looking back at me with a cute little 3-dimensional embroidered nose.

And this is the finished bear in all of her entirety...

Name: Madeline Mae 
Born: 23/4/14
Time: 10:29am 
Weight: 5 lb 10oz
Length: 45cm

Madeline is currently available for adoption. She has been made in one of the last pieces of our 'Milk Chocolate' imported German kid-mohair that I squirreled away for myself before it sold out on our supplies website. I'm so glad I did too as the combo between the chocolatey curls and the soft lilac of her pinafore is just divine!