Qi Zai, The World’s Only Brown Panda

We came across an interesting article of the world's only brown panda on Facebook today! Qi Zai the brown panda is really cute!

Image Credit: Bored Panda

Image Credit: Bored Panda

Click this link to read more about him:

We would also like to share a brown panda made by us in 2010!
Our imagination really came true!

Hope to visit Qi Zai in China, Panda Valley one day!

April by Wayneston Bears

Hugs, Wayne

Baby Panda, Xiao Mi now available for adoption!

Good day everyone! We are pleased to share another creation today for adoption!
 

This cute little panda is named Xiao Mi. He is approximately 7.5 inches tall.

Made from soft black and white alpaca, he is filled with polyfill and crush garnets, giving him a squishy feel whenever you squeeze him!

 

The crushed garnets also gives him a hefty weight.

His face is needle sculpted, shaded and trimmed, giving him the signature Wayneston Bears look and feel.

The paws and footpads are needle sculpted as well, while colour shadings were done to create a realistic feel to the overall appearance.

Xiao Mi wears a handmade necklace made by me. His nose is embroidered, waxed and then polished to give a shiny look.

 

Xiao Mi is now available for adoption on:

Bear Pile:

http://www.bearpile.com/item/87697

Artist Bears International:

http://artistbearsinternational.com/en/home/600-xiao-mi.html

We hope you like our new creation today! Have a great weekend :)

Make a Panda Workshop - Part 2, 27 July 2014

On a very fine Sunday, 27th July, 4 baby pandas were born!

L-R: Panda made by Chio, Evelyn, Paula, Wayne and Su Ling.

Paula, Evelyn, Su Ling and Chio looked very excited as they carefully gave their pandas the final touches. 

Chio's panda laying down lazily

Wayne shared his special technique to create intricate needle sculpted paw & foot pads, making them look more realistic.

Paula's first attempt to create a needle sculpted feet.

Without much procrastination, the students picked up their needles and started to do it themselves! It was a very good attempt for their first try!

Enjoying the process of bear making

After the paws and feet were done, they proceeded to joint and stuff their pandas. With their past experience in Bear Making, they were able to close the seams effortlessly. After attaching the ears and a cute little tail to their pandas. They used a sharp pair of scissors to trim the fur on the face.

Serious learners

Feeling happy to see them coming alive!

For the grand finale, everyone had to wax and polish their panda’s nose and TATA! They have finally completed their pandas! With a bell attached around the neck as an accessory, their pandas were all finished and ready to be shown to the world!

Trimming fur around the nose area.

Adding colours to enhance the footpads

We would like to thank Paula, Evelyn, Su Ling and Chio for the wonderful time spent together during the workshop. It was fun and we enjoyed sharing the process of bear making with all of you.

Chio's Panda.

Evelyn's Panda.

Paula's Panda.

Su Ling's Panda

Our graduation photo shoot!

Mission accomplished!

All the best in your bear making and we look forward to seeing you again in our next workshop!

On a side note, Philip was unable to attend the 2^nd session of the workshop due to work commitments. We will share with you once he has completed his panda.

Hugs, Wayne

Make a Panda Workshop - Part 1, 20 July 2014

The long waited Make a Panda Workshop has finally commenced!

This time, we have a big group of five joining our class namely, Evelyn, Su Ling, Philip, Chio and Paula.

L-R: Su Ling, Paula, Philip, Evelyn and Chio.

If you find some of the faces familiar, you are right! They have all previously appeared on my blog as they attended one of my previous bear making workshop. Now, they have come back for more!

To improve and learn new techniques, Wayneston Bears introduced this brand new Make a Panda Workshop. This is an advance class for students who have made more than 1 bear previously.

Now, students have to even work on 2 different coloured furs instead of one!

Sewing a piece of black fur is not very easy and you will need strong lighting to be able to sew well. One of the many challenges the students faced was to stitch the black eye patches onto the panda's face. With much determination and motivation however, they have managed to overcome all obstacles and they are almost there! Their bears are halfway done!

It was a fun and interactive group of students. With their previous experience in bear making, they were able to sew much neater and faster this time round.

Being one of the fastest students, Su Ling got the opportunity to first learn how to create needle sculpted paws and foot pads. Her Panda was the first one to have fingers and toes!

After half a day full of fun, we had to stop for dinner and continue the following weekend. The students are all looking forward to the next lesson with much anticipation and excitement as they can finally complete their Panda!

Hugs, Wayne

Logo for the Singapore Teddy Bear Lovers

The Singapore Teddy Bear Lovers have been around for 2 years. Over these 2 years, I felt that there is a need to have at least a banner or logo for the identity of the group. It was only after some time when Tai Shan (a Panda made for a special friend Margaret Burke) was born that I realised I have found the right logo for the group.

A Panda is the perfect bear to represent us as it is an internationally recognised mascot used in a general context to represent Asia (Singapore), where we live in.

To create the logo, I first took a side profile picture of Tai Shan. Then, I laid his image on Adobe Illustrator to create curves and strokes of his facial outlines using the pen tool. In the beginning, straight lines were used. However I still felt that something was amiss after a few rounds of revisions. It was the oriental feel which I was looking for that was lacking.

A picture of Tai Shan

Hence, I decided to replace the straight lines to Chinese calligraphy strokes and immediately I was astounded by the results!

The brush strokes had actually softened the feel of the logo, giving the panda a furry and cuddly warmth feel.

This is how the logo looks like.....

Even though I am happy with the logo right now, I know there is still much I can do to improve it further.

I would love to hear some feedbacks from you, what do you think of this logo?

Hugs, Wayne

New Panda ~ Reserved

Earlier this year, I have been in the process of making a new panda. Finally, he is now ready to meet and greet all of you!

His name is Tai Shan, a special bear made for my special friend, Margaret Burke (Nikkel Bears).

2 year ago, both of us agreed to have a swap and the time has finally come for us to do it!

Tai Shan will be flying together with me to the Brisbane Winter Wonderland Show on June later this year.

Margaret and I will meet up face to face to have the bears swapped, and have a picture taken to remember the occasion as well.

I hope you will like my new panda, Tai Shan, which was named by Margaret herself. :)

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs, Wayne

Thompson the Panda

Hi everyone, here is Thompson, a new panda which I have created recently. Cute little Thompson is 7 inch tall, made from soft Japanese white alpacca and black mohair.

 

He has my signature needle sculpted paws and foot pads made from ultra-suede. He is now available for adoption on Bear Pile.http://www.bearpile.com/item/77241

We hope you like little Thompson. Have a wonderful day!

Day Dreamer's New Home

Day Dreamer found his new mum and flew to US last week. It's hard for me to part with him as he is the most favorite creation that I have created so far.

Day Dreamer won the People's Choice Award last month at Brisbane Winter Wonderland and has made me really proud. He's is really a very special bear to me and I will always remember him.

Today his new mum wrote me an email expressing how much she loves him. It makes my day and it's feels very special to me. Together with the email is an attachment of Day Dreamer with his new siblings.

I want to thank Nora, for adopting Day Dreamer and the lovely email. =)

Day Dreamer now looks very happy with his big family of panda siblings.

Hugs, Wayne

Happy Lunar New Year!

Dear all,

Wayneston Bears wishing everyone a Happy & Prosperous Year of the Snake!

Thank you for your continuous support and all the encouragement.

恭喜发财!

Hugs & Blessings,
Wayne

First Creation for 2013 ~ Panda Jovial

I have decided to KIV my new website (it's taking too much time...>.<) So... here's my first creation for 2013!!! Yeah!

I took a new challenge this time to create a even smaller Open/Close Mouth Panda named Jovial. He is just 7 inch tall! His mouth has wire armature which allows him to open and close completely, I am very pleased with him.

What's more, I applied a new self-taught technique - leather eye lids on Jovial. It's very time consuming, each individual lid takes me approximately 15-20 mins and in total, I have to spend close to 2 hours to make both upper and lower lids for both eyes. I am very satisfied with the effects, thus I don't really mind spending time to prefect it.

Making Jovial really makes me happy. It's funny how the happy object created from you becomes an object which makes you happy by looking at it.

My sister is giving Jovial a pat on his head

Jovial with his mouth closed

Jovial is now available for adoption on Bear Pile: http://www.bearpile.com/item/64646

The Lunar New Year is just one week away! I am so excited and looking forward to the long holidays!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous Year of the Snake!

Hugs, Wayne