Empress

I've been reading a book I found in my drawer a few weeks ago called 'The Empress of Mijak'. I'm not too sure how I came to own this book (I have a fairly extensive collection of random/half-read books around my bedside table), but I am loving the story. 

Anywho... because I am totally immersed in the visuals of this novel, I couldn't help myself but create an empress-inspired bear. 

Meet 'Empress'.

18" tall, very heavy, fully jointed, glass eyes and a free-hand embroidered 'bear' shaped nose. 

And, fittingly cut from a large piece of our 'Queen of Hearts' mohair using our 'Alivia' pattern (with a 1/2m piece of this mohair and a copy of the pattern, you too could have a go at creating this bear yourself in your own Empress style!).  

Trio of Choc-Beary goodness

These three teds are the result of this weeks work in the studio. 

We have two little 13" bendy bears with satin ruffle colars, and one chunky big girly bear. All made in a mix of luxury and kid mohair fur fabrics from my odds and bobs stash. 

This little guy is 'Aimon'. We used a little of our dark chocolate kid mohair (now sold out in our store!), and a little of our 'Golden' kid mohair (there is only ONE piece left!), and a little bit of a wispy blonde mohair to create this funky guy.

He is currently available in our etsy store.

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We also have 'Ambroise'. Made in a mix of a long straight pile choc/chestnut mohair combined with a blonde/chestnut tipped mohair for his belly and ears. I love how innocent this little guy came out looking!

Ambroise is also available in our etsy store.

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And then there was 'Iara'.

I AM IN LOVE with this girl. If this wasn't the job that paid our bills, I'd be holding onto her and not letting go!

But we do have her up for adoption, and she is going to make one lucky collector very happy I think!

Callie

This is little Callie. I've created her using the head design from one of our 20" tall patterns and the body from one of our 12" patterns. The result is this sweet, babyish, cartoony panda.

I love it! I haven't made one like this in quite some time.

Callie is currently available in our esty store. 

(She was made using our gold kid mohair 'Golden', our long pile white mohair 'Eddie' and our dense white mohair 'Noah')

puppies!

I had an idea on saturday. I decided I wanted to make a mohair puppy.

I actually haven't done many puppies in my years of crafting cute fluffy things... strange really. So this was a bit of a new process for me. I had to decide if they should be fully jointed like teddy bears, or if I wanted a more simplified puppy-like look.

I went for more simplified!

I chose a breed (poodle pups looked like they'd make for a promising result), selected some mohair and drew up a prototype. The little guy looking back at you in the top photo was the first pup to emerge.

The simplified standing body and the jointed neck worked really well. We weighted the tips of the feet to help the pup stand well and gave him big, soulful eyes and tiny hand sculpted puppy-noses (they're smaller then my finger nails!).

I caught the bug then though, and decided I NEEDED to make more...

... FIVE more pups later and we have a whole family going on. I had originally planned that they'd all be poodle pups - just different colours - but they took on a life of their own and they all came out looking like different breeds.

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Here we have 'Pascale' the Yorkie pup. A tricky bit of black and gold mohair placement and a touch of shading completed her look. 

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And this is 'Peanut', the original apricot poodle pup. 

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This is 'Pepito'. The mohair is the right colour for a yellow labrador, but he's a little fine featured. I can't quite put my finger on what breed this little guys reminds me of... maybe a lab x terrier?

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This little girl ended up looking a bit more cocker spaniel to my eyes with her long, droopy ears and her silky chocolate curls!

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And 'Pounce' became our mixed-breed mongrel pup! He was originally going to be a 'silver poodle', but thats not what he wanted to be. He reminds me of a little Australian Silkie Terrier x dog we had when I was younger actually... with those high-set ears and that sweet (but naughty) little face.

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And lastly we have 'Powder'. She too was just going to be a cream poodle pup - and she could still be. But I see her more as a maltese pup now. Or even a pomeranian or a shih tzu?

I think the important thing is for the puppy's new owners to feel a connection to them - they will inevitably remind different people of their own pets (both present and past), and I think they can be whatever breed you see them as!

Pinky-tone rainbow bears this time

I was asked to do some rainbow mohair dyeing as a custom job recently, and as always I painted up way too many pieces of mohair. So what didn't sell as part of the order I decided to use for some rainbow bears. The order request was for rainbow fur but in a more pink-based tone like my earlier dye-techniques, rather then the red/orange based rainbow mix I had been using lately. And I must say... I do like the pink!

It feels like it has been a little while now since I've made some of my distinctive rainbow creations... at least from mohair anyways (we do have a lot of rainbow faux fur in stock at present! lol).

This chunky little lady is 'Violetta'. When I started writing this blog post she was actually still available for adoption, but just in the last few minutes someone has snapped her up!

This is the mohair Violetta was cut from. I LOVE doing the crazy patterns and then cutting a bear from it. Due to the shapes and sizes of bear-pattern-pieces you usually don't even recognise that there was any kind of pattern to the original fur fabric!

The shape of Violetta may look familiar too - we cut her out using our chunky and very versatile 'Delight' pattern. 

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Then there was THIS piece of mohair. 

This is actually a piece of our long-pile white 'Eddie' mohair rainbow dyed as well. This was a spare of the moment decision just to use up the last of the dye in the pots (I do hate to waste things!). I quite literally just wet the fabric, squeezed out the excess water, lay it on a black towel and blobbed the dye on in wiggly lines. 

Usually I'd be very careful to evenly place the colours and to blend it well and to make sure both the pile and the backing had good coverage. But this time it was just fast and furious - and I LOVED the result! 

A few hours of sun-time meant the colours were set really well, and even after a spin in the washing machine to remove excess dye, the colour was still nice and vibrant. (I may be going on and on a bit about colour here - but trust me, it isn't as easy as it looks to get colour like this on long pile mohair!!! lol) 

This is little Opal. She has already found her new home as well.

And then this little bear below is 'Prism'. She is actually the last of the trio to still be available for adoption.