Just a few more Collaboration Bears... (20+ photos to go with them!)

As you're about to see - I've been having fun with the bear-bits-box! It's like Christmas each time I have a rummage through there... what will I find today!?

These are the Collaboration Bears completed over the last week or so.

We have 'Snicklefritz Schnauzer' below. He was a mass of confusing shapes in a bag marked 'dog'. But we wrestled with him and found a gorgeous little Schnauzer puppy under all that fluff.

He has been adopted.

~*~

This little guy just begged to be finished! I picked a piece up out of his bag and my finger tips fell in love. The fur is SO soft! (quite fiddly to work with), but beautiful to hold.

We called him 'Cream Puff' - and he is currently on HOLD.

~*~

This little guy was made as a request to see if there was a blue/green bear in the box that needed to be finished. He is going to be a friend for a special little boy. He was the ONLY blue/green mohair bear in all the hundreds of packets - so I think it is one of those 'meant to be' situations.

~*~

'Norah' ended up a bit crazier than I thought she would. As soon as I set those startling blue eyes I knew she needed a crazy nose to go with them - and this was the result! Her fur is a gorgeous vibrant purple mohair on a pink backing. I KNOW I used some of this many many years ago. ( I can't for the life of me think what that bear's name was though).
[just had a quick look through my bearpile archives - still can't find the bear I'm thinking of! :P Sophia was made in a very similar fabric, just with sparkles]

Norah is available in our esty store at present. 

~*~

THIS stunner was completed yesterday. It was another case of reaching into a bag of bear bits, only to have my finger tips explode with gloriousness... this was no ordinary fur. This is real fur. Like fur on leather real fur.

I have no idea what kind of real fur - only that it's in incredibly good condition, very thick and very soft. The photos have not captured the colours well either. It didn't help that it's quite a dark/rich red tone, and that the collar is a royal purple (my camera HATES purple!), nor that it has been raining here for the last week or so...

but none of that mattered for Merlot's new mum, and she has now been ADOPTED.

~*~

And lastly - to finish this mammoth post - we have gorgeous little 'Hobart'. I have the same feeling of deja vu working with his mohair - I am pretty sure I've used the same fur about 6-7yrs ago on a larger bear (funny I can remember the fabric, but not the finished bears name!).

Nonetheless - it is stunning mohair - long, thick and wavy, and a lovely traditional gold colour.

Hobart was named 'Hattie' on his packet... but he is most definitely a boy bear - so we renamed him.

He is currently available as well.

The pig and the bear

We decided to test our pig design from a week or so ago on a different fabric. Nothing is quite as perfect as the rhubarb mohair - but I was too curious to see the pig in a non-piggy colouring!

So we grabbed a piece of our hand dyed sparkle mohair, and got to work. 'Bluebell' is the result!

She's pretty sweet  (and has already found her new home), but I still think I liked the soft pink of the original pig best. We want to try the design in a few more fabrics, then we'll probably get it ready for sale as a PDF pattern.

~*~

We also got a request for a custom bear in pink and purple - and this was the end result! We ended up calling her 'Jelly Bean' and she's made in 'Perky Pink' and 'Amethyst Sparkle' faux fur lines from our store. This was the first time we've used these fabrics, and put them together - and I'm really impressed with how well they've worked considering they have completely different textures/densities!

(The necklace has now become a favourite with Chelsea (nearly 4yrs) too. She was eyeing off the one I made for Jelly Bean, so I told her I'd make her one just for her. It's just a heap of our tiny coloured bells strung onto a cord, then tied into a ball. Chelsea wore hers all day - I just had to bargain with her to take it away for the night!)

Collaboration Bears (and a massive box of bits!)

You might remember the gorgeous pink bear from a few weeks ago? The one I finished for a daughter who's mum passed away before she was able to complete the bear for her... well, we got chatting and made the decision to take on ALL of the mum's unfinished bears. One Hundred and Sixty, approximately.

We had a few conversations about how this was going to look - ie. 'Emma's Bears' would be purchasing the unfinished bears to hopefully complete them all - but how do we make sure that the original bear maker got her acknowledgement? After all, this humongous box represents a bloody huge amount of time, and effort and love. A lot of the bears are mostly sewn, some are simply cut out, some just drawn onto fabric, some cut and pinned, some even have stuffed heads, just waiting faces...

We decided that the best way was to name the original bear maker (with approval from her family), and to start a whole new line called 'Collaboration Bears'.


(this shows my attempt at storing the massive box in my sewing room... lol. Organised chaos!)

So this is the write up we will put with each of the completed bear's listings:

- a 'Collaboration Bear' ( Initiated by 'The bear lady at Forbes' - Joan Neowhouse, and completed in remembrance by Emma's Bears following her passing). 

This is a whole new range of bears by Emma's Bears. They are an eclectic assortment of bears in all shapes and sizes, and all types of fur, in various states of completion, and cut from patterns and designs that are unknown/unfamiliar to us. We've taken on these initiated teds after their original crafter passed away, and her family were unsure what should happen to all her unfinished work. 

A lot of the packets of bear bits have hand-written notes with details about the pattern/design (ie. puppy/ monkey/horse etc), or that one bear might still need paw pads, or the bear's name.

This gorgeous bear was named 'Toby'.

His fur looked very much like mohair, but as I was finishing his sewing I noticed just how soft and shiny it was - and I second guessed myself. Maybe it was a really nice plush fur? So we did a little trick - a 'burn test'. Man-made fibres like those found in faux fur fabrics will melt when put to a flame. Natural fibres like mohair actually burn, disappearing into nothing but dust.

This is exactly what happened when we burnt a few scraps of fur. So I can say with confidence that this bear is made with a lovely rich, soft, distressed dark chocolate mohair.

~*~

This was actually the 4th bear I made (photos haven't downloaded in order!). She was pre-named 'Pansy', which also seemed perfect so we kept it.

I haven't worked with a wispy mohair like this in many many years, so it was a little bit of a challenge, but I am pretty happy with her end result.

We gave her a pair of our hand painted glass eyes with our sculptured lids, and a HUGE big embroidered nose. I actually made her on Saturday morning while the kids climbed all over me as we watched 'Lassie' on the TV. (I was personally most chuffed about getting her nose so straight embroidering free-hand while dealing with the boisterous kids! lol)

I just loved the choice of paw pad fabric too - and decided to highlight it by stringing together a mini-bell necklace in a cascade of similar colours. (Pansy is my favourite Collaboration Bear so far!)

~*~

I actually just finished this little guy a few hours ago! He too was pre-named 'Pippin', which was perfect. His is made in a lovely traditional gold mohair - and a very tiny 6" design.

Once he had petite black glass eyes and we'd embroidered his little nose, the rest of him just fell into place. He needed no extra accessorizing other than his sweet blue bow. (oh - and some tiny claws! Pippin has a bit of 'small-bear syndrome, so this helps him feel a bit more mighty!)

~*~

'Sophie' was the only bear so far not to have a name in her bag - so we selected one that felt right. She is made in a very pretty soft lilac faux fur with slightly darker tips. Her pattern in unlike anything I've ever worked with before... I think the words 'beachball' might have escaped my mouth at some point as her body is literally rounded like a ball! Her arms and legs are short and chunky and her head is massive!

All in all it gives a unique look to this stocky little lady - and combined with a pair of our hand-painted blue/violet glass eyes and a big heart-print hair bow, she really is a lovely bear.

~ * ~

And last for our post here, but certainly not least, is 'Suki Panda', also pre-named. When I spotted the black/white mohair in her bag I just expected a traditional panda bear - but Miss Suki is certainly not traditional.

We've given her large lemon/lime hand painted glass eyes and tied this splash of colour in with a bright yellow satin hair bow and a lemon/lime button-flower pendant.

Rhubarb the Pig

Remember that Rhubarb dyeing I experimented with on the weekend? (you can see the finished coloured mohair below) .... well, I decided the colour was too perfect for a pig to make anything else.

So I set about designing a pig pattern.

Meet Rhubarb - the pig. I am in LOVE with this little guy. He just worked - and I really do feel very grateful when that happens. It saves so much time messing around making adjustments and alterations. I think it gives me a lot of confidence that I'm finally getting this 3D soft sculpture thing too!

Rhubarb stands in at about 9", and with his over-sized head and cute little nose, is just the kind of critter I'd like to keep for my own collection... but we put him up for adoption and he found a home immediately! lol.

I will probably try working with this pattern again, maybe in a not-so-real piggy colour to see how it comes up? I don't know if I'll be able to better Rhubarb though. There was just something about him!

Experimental mohair dyeing - using Rhubarb

I was chopping rhubarb for a couple of apple-rhubarb crumbles I was making yesterday when it occurred to me that there was a fair amount of colour staining coming from the skin on the stems. I decided to see if the colour from the rhubarb could be used to dye mohair (I've used brown and red onion skins successfully in the past, as well as beetroot and kool aid... so this was just another thing to have a play with!)

The crisp white mohair.

adding the rhubarb.

We also added a dash of vinegar to help set the dye (as it was a plant-based dye. When using berries apparently it's better to use salt)

After about 20mins bubbling away on the stove all the colour had leached out of the rhubarb .

You can see how yellow the rhubarb ended up! The liquid was a murky pinky colour.

The mohair didn't get quite as dark as the liquid, but it did soak up a pretty pastel pink tinge.

(at this point my crumble was ready to cook as well!) 

Even after rinsing it was still a really lovely pink. This is the fur still wet. We hung it to dry outside for 24hrs

This is the dry-result. Only a very pale colour, and not quite as 'clean' a pink as it looked when wet - but I still think this will work quite nicely for an antique looking bear, or even some cute little pigs? Stay tuned to see the final product! 

(and I had fully intended to take a cooked photo of the crumble... but we started eating it before I remembered to!)