Ellen Borggreve Design

Panda Beaubeau

This is Beaubeau....A delightful 31,5 cm tall panda made of alpaca in caramel and white. He has needle-sculpted felt paws and an embroidered nose in a coordinating colour. His eyes are top quality black glass eyes and he has lower and upper eyerims to give him his soulful expression.

He is available now at Euro 345 ex shipping

Beaubeau has been adopted, thank you

To adopt this delightful chubby chap, please send me an email

This will be the last time you will find new available work on this blog. I am building a new website at the moment and just need some technical stuff to fall into place, after which all available work can be found in that place.

I want to keep business and my blog a bit more separated, so this blog is what it is supposed to be....A way to connect with you, a place where you can meet me, where you can read what's up in my life and where you can hopefully find inspiration or perhaps meet a kindred soul. I have underestimated my own wish to connect when I started to blog. We live and learn.....

 

Girls, girls, girls

Most of you know I have a thing for ball jointed dolls, especially those made by Bambicrony. The dolls and my bears sit quietly side by side in my cabinets and are such a joy to look at. When my latest doll arrived this week, I decided a family picture was due. This was not easy, the girls kept bumping into one another and it was a nightmare to get them all reasonably sharp, but it worked out. 

Prepare to be completely Bambicrony-fied (well, there is one Leekeworld doll in this picture, she is the one standing). 

I get such joy from looking at my displays with old children's books, toys , bears and dolls. Sometimes when I am away on holiday and have just very little stuff around me, I think I should become a minimalist. Then I come home and know I probably would feel really organized without all that stuff around, but I would also miss the visual stimuli that I seem to need in order to be creative. It's like I need to be enchanted every day and to be reminded that life can be truly sweet if you choose to look at it that way.

So, I just cherish my collection. It puts a smile on my face and creative ideas in my mind.....What more could I wish for?

Have a great weekend :)

 

Time goes by....so quickly

Oh my, I have been out of touch for quite a long time, haven't I? You will not believe this, but my otherwise so blank calendar (haaaa, bliss) looked a lot like a grocery list, meaning that every single line in my appointment book was filled with appointments, visits, birthdays, parties and things like that.  Today I woke up and felt a huge "phew" coming up. 

Anywayyyyy, this means I have not had much time to sew, even though I am delighted to tell you that I have two pandas who just needs their stuffings seams closed and a raccoon that is finally taking shape.

Kayla has been alone quite a few times lately, even though we always try to take her with us. I feel so imcomplete when her happy face is not within a few meters from me. 

She always behaves well when we are not around, but she can be such a puppy when we are around to serve as her audience. In the picture above she just spotted a cat on the wall surrounding our garden. I don't get how she senses that sort of stuff when she is asleep, but she does. Just a few seconds earlier I took this picture

She is a huge fan of cats. She loves everything about them and unfortunately picks up on some of their less wonderful habits too. On a recent visit to a relative's home she saw a cat on the coffee table. I could see it in her eyes....uh oh. I told her : "don't get any ideas little lady!". Thirty minutes after we came through our own front door, she jumped from the couch onto the coffee table....I knew it....

Look who is back!

Gomas spent some time in the spa (aka my studio) to get a make-over. His eyebrows were removed, his paws were needlesculpted, he got a little eye surgery and he also stated we wanted a ruff. He got his way and so this completely cutified bear is now ready for his big re-appearance. (why does my spell-check say "cutified" is not a word???I think this is a perfectly acceptable word, I do a lot of cutifying....)

Gomas has been adopted, thank you ♡

Keep scrolling for more pictures...

Gomas' cute face. I really like the pale coloured nose

New paws!

He would love to steal you heart and keep it safe

He was made of alpaca and felt. He was stuffed with a mixture of fiberfill and glass beads for a weighty feel. 

Happy New Panda

First of all I want to wish you a wonderful, blissful New Year. May there be magic in every single day...

I have been hard at work already, which might take you by surprise....I have already finished a panda and a black & tan bear! Yayyy!

This is.....Bichou! He is a panda in chocolate and white alpaca. I adore this panda, what is it with pandas that make me want to create more and more?

He is 31,5 cm tall 

 Lucky Bichou has been adopted

He is much sweeter in person, than in the picture. The light has been so bad lately....if there was any daylight at all. Gosh, the amounts of rain that have been falling from the skies lately.... 

He is a super sweet panda with a nice heavy feel. 

(in case you're wondering what happened to the little black and tan bear.....he went off to "the spa" to get a beauty treatment. All of a sudden I realized this bear needed something extra, he'll make a re-appearance on Monday)

He is available on a first come, first served base, but it might take a few hours for me to get back to you, because I am hosting a New Year's party tonight and I am baking cakes and pies like there's no tomorrow :)

Have a wonderful weekend ....

And so....this is Christmas

The past year went by so fast, I can hardly believe there are just 7 days left. I wanted to pop in here to thank you all for having stuck with me through 2011. Thank you for making me see the purpose in my life, for making me feel loved and for teaching me things I needed to learn.

Merry Christmas to all of you

May there be angels to watch over you and lead you the way in 2012!

Vienna's New Look

Vienna's new wonderful mum suggested different coloured ears and so Vienna went to the spa this afternoon (a nice way of saying she needed plastic ear surgery) and I have to agree with my collector, she looks stunning with ears in the same colour as her body....That is exactly why I like to work with collectors, you can learn a lot from listening to requests :)

Oh Vienna.....again :)

Ain't she lovely?

I still have not put up my Christmas tree, but it is hard to shut the studio door behind me. It is cosy here, with the radio playing just Christmas songs surrounded by my beloved supplies...Can one really love one's supplies??? Well, maybe the chocolate I ate makes me love my supplies or I am in a silly happy mood....I don't know. I love to go through my fabrics and run them through my fingers :)

Wishing you lots of love and happiness this Christmas 

Oh Vienna

I was thinking of coffee Wiener Melange when I made this bear and that's where the name Vienna comes from. I know....I should not be thinking of coffee so much. The times I have called bears after a type of coffee......

I had some serious doubts as to whether I should let this bear go or not, but what it boils down to is that the best part of my job is the people, who invite my bears into their lives and who later tell me they enjoy them so much. That is so much more powerful than keeping a bear.

Vienna was made of Schulte alpaca and felt and was stuffed with fiberfill, rubber beads and glass beads making this quite a heavy bear. 

Vienna has needle-sculpted paws which were airbrushed for added depth. The paws are not yellowish at all, the flash units made it look a bit yellowish. I needed flash units, because the skies stayed very clouded all day long. It really did not clear up for one minute....Ah well

Vienna has an endearing face with a nose embroidered in many layers in a coordinating colour.

Vienna has found a new home, thank you :)

A Flower in French

Let me introduce you to the latest newborn from my studio. This is Fleur (French for flower) and she is...well....pink! I love pink, but I always find it hard to find mohair that suits my taste. This mohair was not very fluffy to start with, but after I had thoroughly soaked it in a bath with wool detergent and then dried it with a hairdryer, it looked much better....

Fleur is 10 inches tall (25 cm for all of those , like me, who can't think in inches...). She is a very substantial bear for her size, as I think she might be prone to eating cookies or scones. She has cute short limbs and a soulful face with wonderful very dark brown eyes, just like you would see in puppies...

The lovely little lady has felt paws with nice toes and she is very heavily stuffed. Fleur has a wonderful new home waiting for her already....

I have some more projects on my desk, but let's see how much time I will have to finish them. One other bear (which will be available) has been finished and the raccoon will be finished before the end of the year as well. I have not even put up a tree yet, can you believe it? After the end of next week, I'll take a week off though....I have great hopes for next year....If I have been doing so much better for the last 3 months of this year, imagine what happens if I feel like this year after year :) There is a thought that makes me happy.

Getting In The Mood For Christmas

The wonderful Christmas show I went to see earlier this week provided me with so many wonderful picture opportunities, that I could not leave it at the 6 pictures I showed here yesterday....

Those flowers have my absolute favourite colour.....I am going to paint my living room that colour. Yes, yes...how brave of this grey-living-room-girl :)

I spotted loads of birds and butterflies in Christmas trees, lanterns and vases....I liked the cute face of this one

Oh, great doggy! I loved this one, but managed to restrain myself

I had to touch these glass balls to believe they were not leather....Aren't they magnificent?

Even though I really love bright and breezy houses and soft pastels, I really liked this display. There is a theme in my pictures, I seem to have photographed lots of animal decorations....Surprise, surprise....When I got my first camera at a very early age, I did little else than taking pictures of cows and sheep :)

I love, love, love the Venetian Carnival. It is one of my biggest passions. Soooo, I did not manage to leave this Christmas show without buying several of these masks. The one on the left is now mine and is proudly displayed with two others in my lantern. I will have to show you what it looks like later :)

Enjoy your weekend!

P.S. There will be a bear coming up really soon....