Mitzi

This is one of our latest custom bears named 'Mitzi'. She's a chunky big bear made from our now sold out 'Cherry Bomb' faux fur and our nearly sold out 'Ace of Spades' faux fur!

Rainbow Baby

We were recently asked to create a rainbow bear in remembrance of a beautiful little baby who had passed away.

I am sure it is not an easy thing for parents of a lost child to seek out something like this, so I am always blown away by their courage in even starting the process for a special custom bear. I could not imagine how I would be feeling in their situation, but I can see how a physical, tangible 'thing' that can be held and cuddled, could possibly bring a tiny glimmer of comfort. And I am honored beyond words to be entrusted to create this special bear.

For this special little teddy, we used our regular reborn style baby-bear design and a piece of our bright hand-dyed rainbow mohair in a short, velvety pile. We sourced a pair of newborn-sized white feather angel wings from the other side of the world and tried to keep the bear's expression as serene as possible. (Long-term followers of our work will know that our bears do have a tendency to look grumpy, which I didn't feel was appropriate here. So I am grateful that this sweet bear cooperated with me!)

We attached some ivory lace elastic so that the wings can be removed. But they really do look so pretty against the bright rainbow colours of the mohair. This stunning teddy is a very special, and hopefully meaningful, piece of soft sculpture art.

Baby Dragon

I had been meaning to make a new baby dragon soft sculpture piece for quite some time now - but just never had the time.

So I made time. And little Kindralth, Keeper of Spring was the result. He is currently available for adoption. 

Twins!

I lost my bear-making enthusiasm a bit last fortnight. I started a heap of great ideas for different projects, but couldn't get them past the pattern drawing stage before I'd get distracted by something else.

So I stopped, had a rummage around my sewing room and found a bear-bits bag crammed full of body parts waiting to be sewn. I recognized our stunning dark brown kid mohair from our 2013 import (that is now sold out), and was surprised to find that I had drawn up, cut out and pinned together the parts for two of our baby-style bears in that mohair. I honestly can't remember when I did that, so I would say it was probably back in 2013!

With a new burst of energy I decided that these two would be the next project. It was slow going as we had a massive birthday/house warming get-together over the weekend that kept us busy, but we still managed to get these guys finished and ready for their debut last night.

We asked our instagram followers and our facebook likers whether the bears should be both boys, both girls or one of each. After much deliberation we went with the pigeon pair.

Meet 'Baby Hamilton' and 'Baby Hazel'!

Name: Hamilton Luke

Born: 19/07/15 

Time: 5:10pm

Weight: 4lb 10oz

Name: Hazel London

Born: 19/07/15 

Time: 5:23pm

Weight: 4lb

NEW Viscose!!

Our newest shipment of fur has just arrived from Germany - and in that batch we had some stunning white viscose that was just begging to be hand dyed... so we obliged! 

And, despite the fact that it is pretty darn cold here in Queensland at the moment (well, cold for us anyway!), we still managed to get some stunning vibrant colours without the hot summer sun we usually need to achieve these tones! 

 This is the full, beautiful rainbow of viscose we have available. There are only two pieces of each colour available - and a few have already been sold out - but if you're interested, pop on over to our Hand-dyed store section to check out what's left :) 

(We also have the natural white viscose available as well if you'd like to try dyeing it yourself?)

The Handmade Expo

We found out about a local handmade goods market recently, and thought it might be a good opportunity to get 'Fur Addiction' out there a bit more. The location was lovely (indoors) and we had a nice big 3m x 3m space. No tables were provided though, so I had to lug our stupidly heavy trestle tables from the car to our position in the hall before I could begin unloading and setting up. Despite this I still managed to be fully set up in about 45mins. (I was pretty chuffed as this was the first market/show I've done on my own!).  

We decided that we'd bring some of our handmade guinea pig bedding as well, and we got lots of comments on the sweet little guinea pig plushie sitting in the purple bed there - although he was mistaken for a hamster a few times! lol

It was really lovely to actually meet customers in person and talk through aspects of bear collecting and bear making. We've been running Fur Addiction for just over 3 years now, and I hadn't realised how isolating it can be running a mail order business from home. It's been 6 years since I left my job as a youth social worker just before Chelsea was born, so it has been a long time since I've had regular adult conversations that weren't with my poor hubby Mark! I think we'll be doing a few more markets for the last half of 2015 as they are a lot of fun, and the in-person contact with our customers is invaluable.

We dyed up a new batch of hand-dyed mohair for the show as well. It has been picked through pretty well, but there are still some lovely pieces left in our 'Hand Dyed Mohair' store section. We're nearly sold out of our hand painted glass eyes as well - down to the last pair/s for each colour batch, but I do plan to paint up a new lot this week... hopefully (it is school holidays though, so no promises!!). If there was a particular colour you really liked, it might pay to grab it now before I steal all the old stock for future Emma's Bears, and to clear the way for the new colours!

We also have a new batch of German mohair on its way as well! We'll let you know when it arrives!