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. 

LollyPop

 I didn't actually plan it that way - but the same afternoon as I completed the 'Candy Collection' bears, I also managed to get this sweet girly bear done. She's one of our collaboration bears - and had a little hand written note in her bag of bits with her name 'LollyPop'.

So in keeping with the sugary theme - we kept her name!

She didn't have any paw pads cut out for her, so we designed some that would fit and cut them from a very sweet pink print cotton fabric. There was just enough left to make her a hair-bow at the end as well.

We also gave her one of our 'Lolly Pop' charms - which was also in pink and matched beautifully. This sweet little bear is available in our etsy store currently.

The Candy Collection

This was a 'work-in-progress' photo I posted on the Emma's Bears Facebook page a few weeks ago. I had the brilliant idea to do a 'collection' of themed bears, and these guys were the result of the new design. At this stage they still needed stuffing and finishing, but they were looking cute (I also added a 'vanilla' bear to the group after this to make it an even dozen!).

The bears sat finished, but waiting for their accessories for a week or so after the last seams were closed. These gorgeous handmade polymer clay cupcake, donut, marshmallow and lolly pop pendants were coming all the way from the Philippines to us here in Australia. They arrived yesterday - and I got straight into allocating the right pendant to the right bear!

(you seriously NEED to check out this artist's store - 'AroundTheWorld'. She makes the most incredbly detailed little pendants!)

These are the finished 'Candy Collection' bears - all dozen of their sweet, fruity little buts! With names like 'Citrus Twist', 'Vanilla Pudding', 'Cranberry Crush' and 'Melon Mash'... they sound good enough to eat!

We started out making these guys with the intention that they would be small and afforable. So many of our larger bears cost over the $100-$200 mark, which seriously puts them out of reach for most people. I know I second guess myself about spending more then $100 on a bear for my own collection these days... where as once upon a time I wouldn't have blinked at that. If I wanted it - I would have bought it! Finances change though, and I know a lot of people are doing it tough.

These bears are still certainly not 'small change', but at $54 AUD for a one of a kind, handmade (some are even hand-dyed), fully jointed mohair bear (with awesome pendants!) - I think these guys work really well. And a 6" bear is able to slip into even the most well endowed bear collection!

These three are my favourites! I love the look of the 'Lilac Dreams' mohair on this little lady - with the trimmed back pink face and ears. (Plus I just like these girly colours!).

And for the 'last minute' bear, 'Vanilla Pudding' is a real sweet heart too. This was a piece of blonde mohair I had left in my personal stash from some other bears made a while ago - so it was good to be able to bring it to life.

And the little lady below was the result of a bit of Kool Aid mohair dyeing - I love the effect of Kool Aid, with the darker pile and lighter backing. And it's worked nicely here to give her ligher ears and a lighter nose.

If you particularly love any of the Candy Collection bears, it will be best to grab them as soon as you can as they won't be repeated. I may do another 'collection' again later this year though... maybe next time they can be bunnies... 'The Bunny Batch', or the 'Riot of Rabbits'... lol!

A little more hand-dyeing experimentation

Recently we purchased a small amount of this gorgeous long pile frosted choc mohair for a custom order. I ordered a little more then I actually needed so I could have a play with the left overs.

We dropped the remnant piece into a pot of 'Hermitage' coloured dye, and let it sit for a few hours.

This was the resulting, very rich colour!

This shows the two pink-dyed bears next to the original frosted custom bear. The colouring has made such a huge difference to the fur effect.

The two 10" bears we made from the dyed remnant piece are now listed in our etsy store, and I must say I'm really pleased with the look of the pink on choc. At the moment both Mirielle 1 of 2 and 2 of 2 are available. 

The rest of the rainbow gang

So, because all of these guys have found new homes - I'll just list all of their photos for your viewing pleasure ;)

This is 'Myrrhini':

This is 'Azure':

This girl is yet to be named. Feel free to throw some name suggestions our way if you have any!?

And this big guy (66cm tall) is called 'My Dream'.