Good morning, I hope you had a good weekend and managed to keep warm! We spent the weekend working on more new bears and are delighted to introduce them to you. Last night I added the gorgeous Twill to the Website Shop, he is 8" tall and is another bear in our new Fabric Featured Collection. He is made of really soft, dense, black German alpaca combined with very striking patterned fabric in shades of beige, brown and terracotta. We have used the fabric for his tummy, pads, paws and the inside of his ears. I love the way the textures contrast and the alpaca sort of wraps itself around the fabric. In style Twill has long bent legs, long curved arms and a rounded tummy. He is quite heavy with steel shot in his feet and paws whilst the rest of him is firmly stuffed with polyester filling. As you can see he is a very happy bear with a lovely smiling face. I hope you like him.

As well as new styles and patterns of bears, we are of course continuing to make our usual styles which are so popular with collectors. This morning I have added the bright, colourful Xavier Braces to the New Bears Page of the Shop. He is a 3 1/2" Braces Boy, the first of the New Year and he is made in gorgeous colours, sure to cheer any dull January day! His upper body is made of very short, dense, soft German alpaca in a pretty shade of deep lilac. We have combined this with fantastic mohair for his trousers, turquoise backed the fur is really soft, straight and tipped in deep cerise pink. It makes great trousers and looks good with the short lilac fur. We have used the two types of fur to make his ears, the short fur at the front and the long mohair at the back so it gives him wonderfully fluffy ears which look great because the fur is tipped in the bright pink so it shows up. We have used toning turquoise ultrasuede for his pads and deep pink ultrasuede for his paws. His braces are made of narrow purple ribbon decorated with jewel coloured spots, he has a pale turquoise stitched nose, a turquoise belly button and shiny black English glass eyes. Xavier Braces is filled with steel shot and so has a good weight for his small size. I love him, I love his cheerful bright colours and his sweet little face. I hope you like him too.

Steve is currently working on a 6" Patchwork bear which is going to look really striking when he is finished. This bear is a different pattern than our usual Patchwork bears and there are more pieces to the pattern so it means he will be made from 19 different types of fur - that's definately patchwork! He will have him stitched soon so hopefully I will be able to finish him later today. Come back soon to meet him. I am working on another of our new Pieces of Eight Collection. He is 4" tall and made of a deep cream mohair with a white head. His body is made of eight pieces (hence the name) in two different colours stitched in the Harlequin style but this bear will be even more colourful because the two different furs used are two-tone themselves, blue backed with a purple pile and orange backed with a red pile. He is, I hope, going to look brilliant, and I may be able to add him to the Website Shop later today so do come back and meet him. All our Pieces of Eight bears are called after a Pirate and I have a long list to choose from so there will be lots more of these bears to follow including a 5 1/2" one which is cut out waiting to be stitched. I have also got another of our Fubsy Collection cut out and waiting to be stitched. This is the same style as Stumpy who you may have read about on earlier Blogs. Well that's all for now, I had better go and get on otherwise none of these bears will get finished! I hope you have a good week, I'll write again soon. Don't forget you can add comments to this Blog post so if you would like to get in touch, please do, we would love to hear from you.

Hello to you all, we have had a busy few days as the response to Stumpy who we showed you last week, was really good, and several of you asked for a similar bear, so I have been busy working on them for the last few days. I am showing a photo here of Bud, the latest of these bears to be made. He is made of the same short, creamy gold Hembold mohair as Stumpy but his head is made of longer, sparse, straight wheat gold mohair which has been hand dyed with a pale green wash. He has very pale green cashmere pads and paws and as you can see, he is adorable! We have decided to call this collection the Fubsy Collection. After spending some time online on various Dictionaries, I found that this word is an archaic word meaning stumpy, so it seems a perfect name! Bud is still available at the moment and will probably be added to the Website Shop New Bears page later so if anyone is interested in him, let me know. He costs £46 plus postage.

I am also showing a photo here of the adorable Chambray, an 8" bear who has just been added to the New Bears Page of the Website Shop. He is the second bear in our new Fabric Featured Collection and as you can see he is a perfect antidote to the dark, cold January days! He is wonderfully colourful and has such a happy smiling face. I hope you like him, he costs £65 plus postage. I am busy working on another of these bears with more subtle colouring but who I think is going to look equally lovely. I will let you see photo's once he is finished.

Steve is busy working on a new Patchwork bear in a slightly different style and I will hopefully be able to add him to the Website tomorrow, so do come back soon and meet him. He is very colourful and I think will look really spectacular when he is finished.

So as you can see, we are still working hard and have lots of ideas for new bears. I will be making more of our Pieces of Eight Collection soon too which I am looking forward to. The first of these bears had black arms, legs and head with different colours for the eight piece body but the next ones I make will be in paler colours I think. Maybe cream limbs and head with brighter colours for the body. I will have a look through our fur stock and see what I can find. If you have not seen these bears, visit the page for 3 1/2"/4" bears and you will see what I mean.

I hope you have a good week and manage to keep warm in this very cold winter weather. I will write again soon. Don't forget, this new Blog format allows for you to leave comments, so if you would like to get in touch or would like to let us know what you think about any of our new bears, please do.