Elephant Steps ..

I have had a soft spot for elephants ever since I was a very little girl.  My uncle made my first elephant many years ago and although his ears and eyes have long since been hugged away, I still have that little pink ellie.  In fact, I borrowed the simple three piece design to create a replica ellie as a gift for my new niece almost four years ago ...

My childhood ellie is on the right and my niece's new ellie, on the left.

The next elephant I made was a funny little chap called 'Abe', back in 2008.  I took the design above a stage further by introducing a moveable, jointed head ...

8" 'Abe'

That was when I decided I wanted to tackle something a little more complex, so I started work afresh, using one of my previous teddy bear designs, as a starting point.

'Peppercorn' was the starting point for my next ellie ...

I had to redesign the head entirely and completely change the shape of the feet and arms - in fact, now I come to think about it, the only part of the pattern that remained the same was the body!

'Delilah', my first jointed elephant created 2008

The following year, I decided to return to my jointed elephant design to see how it would work in alternative fabrics ...

 'Starlight' created in 2009

And I was thrilled when my 2009 ellie 'Starlight' was featured in 'Australian Bear Creations,' as that was the first time I had ever had anything other than a teddy bear published in a magazine!

2010 was a challenging year creatively speaking, as I spent the first two thirds of the year working hard to develop my 'Careworn Collection' of teddy bears and the remaining third of the year simply trying to find motivation to work at all, after saying a sad farewell to my Dad that Autumn.  Sad to say, there were no ellies whatsoever in 2010 ...

'Forget-me-not,' my 2011 ellie

But, as you can see, the ellie bug has bitten me again here in 2011!  This time I've decided to develop my ellie's personality, so  have given him cute low low slung ears and close set eyes, which I think lend his personality a whole new dimension.  I'm pleased with this whimsical blue ellie, he has been fun to make!

And that's it for my elephant steps so far.  As with all things elephant, I think it's fair to say progress has been slow, but steady!