SUMMER COLLECTION

 

At last I have finished the summer collection of bears I have been working on, I know there are only 5 but I am quite a slow bear maker and like to put lots of finishing touches to them, I have named them all afer flowers, we have Rose (pink girl at the back), Petunia (lilac on the left), Sweet Pea (pink n cream panda, Lupin (blue girl) and finally Marigold at the front. I have really enjoyed working with colour as most of my pieces are neutral colours with just the occasional splash of colour emerging every now and then.  I have popped them all onto my website, do go along and have a look at their pictures and details, there are also some nice little new outfits on the "clothes page" available to choose from.

Well back to the work room where I have some more neutral fabrics waiting to be cut out.  

Pauline xx

A New Piggy

Well still in Piggy mode at the moment, haven't gotten much further with the summer collection of bears I am afraid, I hadn't been back working on the bears very long when this piggy pink mohair was calling me from my fabric stash so once again I had to leave the poor bears and make up my second piggy, she was meant to be a boy one but looked such a delicate little thing she had to be a girl and have this little crochet dress on which just finished her off so nicely I thought. Anyway I must get a bit further with my summer bears now or else summer will be gone and they will be in my work basket until next year, the thing is, it doesnt feel very summery at the moment, the weather is awful and blustery here, so not very inspiring at all.  Hope we get some sunshine very soon.

See you next time

Pauline x

A New Design

I lost my mojo last week with my bear making and although I had a few bears cut out and in various stages of construction I wasn't enjoying them, so when I feel like this I have to have a break from them and do something fresh. Sometimes it might just be that I need a new stash of fabrics  to inspire me but at the moment the amount of fabric I have in my cupboard did not justify a splurge on some more.  So I brought a design that I had floating in my head for about 4 or 5 months to life and my lovely piggy girl was born.  She took quite a while from design to construction but I am so thrilled with how she came out that I want to now create some more piggies, girls and boys, small and tall, this little one is 9" which was an ideal size to start a new design.  

This was just what I needed and I feel very refreshed now, mojo back I can get on and finish those bears that I had put aside before cutting out some more piggies. 

See you next time

Pauline x

Knitting Crazy

Knitting Crazy!

The Leeds Bear Fair a couple of weeks back was a lovely fair, quite a few bears found new homes but still got a few needing homes and have listed them onto thewebsite now. The Easter bunnies found new homes apart from Clover who is still waiting to be adopted. I made a new selection of bear clothes for the fair and almost sold out so this last couple of weeks I have been in knitting mood and replenished my stock a little. I have put some on my website clothes page for sale, do pop over to have a look if you get chance there are some lovely bits and pieces.

I am now working on a summer collection of bears and also a few miniature bears to list on Ebay. Keep hoping to be able to take work out into the garden soon but it seems to have turned back to winter again here, very cold and blustery. See you next time.

Pauline x

EASTER COLLECTION

EASTER COLLECTION

Not sure where my last (St Patrick's) post went, I noticed it had mysteriosly vanished, whether I had hit delete button myself by mistake I do not know but never mind, hopefully won't happen again.

The sun is shining here in Yorkshire and is warming up nicely now, won't be long before we can potter about in the garden and maybe sit out on the patio, makes you feel much better.

With Easter around the corner I have been in bunny mood and here is my Easter bunny collection, at the back we have Meg (with red bows), Mabel with cream bows, Clover the heather coloured girl and last but not least cheeky Rascal with his tam and waistcoat on. Meg has already been adopted but you can find the other ones waiting to be adopted on my website ... Valewood Bears

Next on the Valewood Bears calendar is the Leeds Doll and Teddy fair on the 7th April, hoping to have a few new faces to take there and also a new beary knitwear collection, won't be long now, it's always a nice atmosphere and an interesting fair with both dolls and bears if you care to come and say hello, more details on my website (fairs page).

Pauline

Hello, hope everyone had a nice Valentine day with plenty of romantic treats.

I don't have a lot of news at the moment, very pleased that all but one of my Valentine Bears found new homes in time for the day, I just have Elspeth left with me now which isn't a bad thing as she was my favorite and it will be nice to look at her for a little while longer.

I also have this new miniature bear finished "Fay" and listed her with Ebay this week, she is only 3 inches high standing, one of my anime design bears, and looks so sweet on the palm of your hand, fingers crossed she gets a nice new home to go to.

Well that's all for today, hope you enjoy the pictures of Elspeth and Fay, see you next time.

Pauline

VALENTINE DAY!

Valentine Collection

Doesn't time fly by quickly, it not long since I was busy with the Christmas bears! With Valentine day approaching soon I thought I would show you my new Hearts and Flowers collection of bears and bunnies Elspeth and Romeo are the two traditional teds at the back, the two bunnies at the front are Rose and Jak and little Yara is the anime style in the middle.... I think she feels like the odd one out, just as well she is now on her way to meet her new Mum. I had a lovely time with the outfits as besides the bears, knitting and crochet are my favorite other hobbies and I think it fits right in with the bears. Elspeth (the girl at the back) and Jak (boy bunny) are still available for adoption from my website.

Pauline x

An Old Favorite

An Old Favorite

Been playing around with my mohair stash this week and found a nice piece of smokey blue suitable for miniatures. I dug out my old favorite, an anime pattern I designed a couple of years back and it was perfect size for this cute little brother and sister. I called them Midge and Molly, both are apprx 3.5" high a bit of a challenge for my fingers and especially the tiny little collar and flower decorations. Very pleased with them and they are listed with Ebay this week, fingers crossed they get a nice new home, the starting bid is very reasonable. Next week I am hoping to have a little Valentine collection to show, all hearts and flowers, hope you will bob back to see them, a couple of my traditional teds in this collection and a bunny or two hopefully. See you next time.

Hugs..... Pauline xx

Happy Days!

Happy Days!

Well it's a few weeks now since the decision to cut out the afternoon job and after a scary "what have I done" mood for a while I have settled into a nice routine and am much happier, I have yet to find out if it's the right choice financially and I may find I have to make slight cut backs in certain things I spend on for now, but I do have a lot more time on my hands to achieve the things I want to do.

Besides more time for bear making I have started back at sewing group in the village where I live, a nice get together treat with like minded people just one day a week and going to start Zumba one evening a week soon to make up for the lack of exersise I am now getting without my daily walks to the bus stop and back, it all adds up doesn't it. Also more time for cooking nice evening dinners instead of grabbing takeaways etc and so am sure we will be a much healthier household than before. Looking forward to the time I can get out into the garden to work a little when the weather gets better so more exersise and perhaps a little sit down in the sunshine with the bear making, will see!

I will leave you with a picture of my first bear of 2012, Lydia, as I now have more time I was able to give her lots of added detail such as an inset muzzle, white eye accents, little eyebrows and a cute little outfit, really enjoyed this one. She is listed with Ebay this week, fingers crossed she gets a nice new family.

See you next time
Pauline xx

Happy New Year!

New Year!

Happy new year! Hope it's a good 2012 for everyone, peaceful, healthy and prosperous.

Well, it is a brand new start for me, moving into the new year as a full-time Bear Artist, I finally gave up my afternoon job which I did alongside of the bears for 4 years just before Christmas. It was only afternoons but I had to make time to get ready for work, travel to work, travel back from work etc amounted to a lot more hours than I liked. Feels a bit funny at the moment but hopefully I will have more time to concentrate on bears. Getting myself motivated into a working routine will be hard at first as I will still feel like I am on holiday for a while. I am sure it will be better and I will have more time to release all the ideas that I have in my head, as the time issue before gave me a lot of frustration.

On the bear front, I have started the year with a January sale on my website of bears and some bear clothes and also I have listed this little miniature elephant Sasha on Ebay. Hope you like her.

Pauline