Finishing a doggy

The pink puppy is finally finished. He was so much fun to make. I love trying new things, and there were a few new techniques on this big guy.




I decided to give him sculptured polymer clay puppy paw pads, to add a little realism to this pink dog with the blue nose! I think the effect worked really well, and will definitely use this again.





I called this guy 'Boof' and he has just been listed on bear pile if you are interested in him. You can see his vast multitude of photos below... I went a little crazy with the photography! But there are just so many different angles to appreciate him by.





(I especially love his little doggy tail! How sweet!!)

Designing a doggy

I thought you guys might like to see how new designs develop at my place. This is a photo diary of my attempt to design a puppy. I was actually aiming for more of a pug-look, but think maybe I got boxer cross instead!?

For a first blindly stumbling attempt, I'm pretty happy. I'll design this guy a body, then I'll make some (pretty drastic) tweaks to the pattern and see if I can't produce something a little more pug-like! :P

First Birthday Bear

Chelsea and I are going to a first birthday party for a close friend of mine's little girl in a few weeks. The party is 'teddy bear picnic' themed, so I figured a teddy gift would be appropriate!

I sat down a few nights ago and mashed ideas from my one piece bear body design, and my centre-seam magazine bears design and ended up with this lovely lady.

She has safety eyes and no joints, but I did add a few pellets to her body to help her flop, and a bow by her ear. But I think with a bit of supervision, this teddy should be fine for little hands to play with.

My early birthday present

My birthday is (exactly) a month from today. I asked my hubby for shelving for my incredibly disorganised sewing room (aka 'The Emma's Bears Studio'). This is what he built for me! (Thank You IKEA!)

The bears are very roughly positioned at present. I just wanted to get a feel for how much I could spread them out. And we still don't know where to move the big picture stuck behind the shelf at the moment... but it does give you an idea of all the awesome space I have now!


Here is my Reborn monkey 'Ruby' from Judy's Reborn Nursery. She gets a section all to herself!


These are 4 of my bigger collector bears, a Kaygee brown and cream panda bear, a big old-style bear, a gorgeous traditional bear by Jennifer Laing from 1994, and a little Lexie Hamilton brown bear in front.



My two 'Bears of Bath' mini's.



My two rainbow LJ bear and bunny.



My vast collection of bear by Pat Morris!




And lastly, here's a shadowy photo of two of my prized pieces, a Bean Bruins Bunny and a tiny crochet bear.

Ana - 'Elephant' Bear

This is my very last bear in the stunning faux fur I've been using over the last few weeks.



I held back on finishing her, as I was waiting to see how the new painted glass eyes would turn out. I hoped they'd stand out nicely against the multi-tonal fur, and I think they have.



I just love the colour and shimmer on Ana's eyes. I think I could just sit there and paint glass eyes all day. It is so much fun, and such a surprise to see each layer come through and add to the depth and realism of the eye.



'Ana' means elephant in Indian according to a baby-name website I found last night. I thought this worked really beautifully for her, especially after one of the accessories I chose for her was this tiny silver and crystal elephant charm.

(Also, as I mentioned on bearpile, she's just about as fat as an elephant as well, so the name works in multiple ways!)

Painting Eyes

I stumbled across this video on YouTube last week and decided to give eye-painting a go. I purchased two dozen pairs of clear glass eyes, then went down to the shops to search for nail polish in various shades of blue, green, gold and chocolate (interesting colours to source!).



The eyes arrived this morning, so I decided to have a practice run with three of the larger pairs. This is the result I got. I am pretty pleased.




I've gotten a little better as the day has worn on, and some of the pair's I've just finished now are awesome. But you'll have to wait to see them on the finished bears ;)

I really recommend giving eye painting a go if you're like me and have never tried it. It's really quite straight forward, and the results speak for themselves.

Something New: Berta

I am a bear maker. But I am also a collector. Which is really fortunate, because I means I can supplement my collecting costs with the making of my own bears!

I was lamenting the price of some gorgeous specimens recently... (if I could just win the lotto...), when I wondered what it was about a bear that particularly drew me to it. I think it's the face.

I have a great respect for detailed paws and fancy armature - those are bloody tricky techniques! But at the end of the day, the reason I decide to add a new bear to my collection is always because of it's face.

So following this line of reasoning, I thought I'd see what happened if I made a bear with my full attention to it's face, but with a one piece body like that of my flop-about-bears, allowing for a faster process and thus a more affordable product.

Berta is the result!




She has one joint in her neck, which allows for her to be posed with her head facing over her shoulder - one of my particular favourites - or facing forward. She has all the expression and detail to her face that I would give any of my bears, but the rest of her is a simple, floppy body with turned out feet, bell shaped arms and just a slight back hump.



By not having to sew, turn, joint, stuff and close seams on limbs, I've managed to cut about 2hrs off the finishing time. And at the moment time is EVERYTHING to me! :P

I'm really interested to know what you guys think? Would you accept a bear like Berta into your collection, or is she not quite up to standard without a jointed body?