Thursday 30 May 2024

The Mists of Childhood

 84bb10_979f7d662bba452f8904e9b5d770a82f~mv2


The original 'Ellie' wasn't made by me, it was in fact given to me by an uncle in 1963, the year of my birth. Back in those distant days, my little pink ellie had floppy ears and felt eyes, but as is the way of much loved childhood toys, they were worn away with many hugs, over the passage of time.


Ellie was one of a select group of soft toys gifted to me as a baby... Big Ted, my first Chiltern Hugmee teddy bear, given to me on my first birthday by my parents, Scotty, a handmade black dog made by my Nana's boarding house lodger, Sooty, a Chiltern mohair glove puppet given to me by an auntie, a knitted dolly wearing a striped skirt who came from a school jumble sale and my now earless ellie, who somehow managed to survive six long decades and although a little more careworn perhaps, is still much loved today. Which brings me to the other pink ellie in the photograph (left) created by me in 2007, in an attempt to replicate my childhood elephant toy.

I had the ideal piece of pink wool fabric which was tucked away in the bottom of my fabric box. Using memory to help me, I created new ears lined with beige velvet and rather than the felt eyes of my original elephant, I inserted tiny glass eyes, as this little elephant was to be given as a keepsake, rather than a child's toy and I preferred the look of the traditional glass eyes.

To achieve the simplistic style of the original design was a little more tricky than I initially anticipated - we live and learn don't we?! Despite my teddy bear design skills, it took several attempts to figure out the body gusset pattern so that my wee elephant could sit comfortably, maintaining the shape of the 1960's original and embodying all of its naive charm.

When I was a child, it wasn't unusual for special gifts to be handmade, so decades later, I was delighted to be able to continue this tradition for my sister and her new baby (who by the way, is now sixteen years of age!)

The next elephant I made was a funny little chap called 'Abe', created from vintage style mohair in 2008. I developed the original softie elephant pattern a tiny bit, to include a jointed head and a head gusset in what was a simple two piece head, to give the head more definition. I also took a little more artistic licence with his trunk shaping, but other than those minor adjustments, kept little 'Abe' ellie, pretty true to my original 1960's elephant.

After Abe, I wanted to tackle something a little more complex, so began work afresh in 2008, using one of my previous teddy bear designs as a starting point for a 16" jointed elephant, created in sparse vintage pink mohair. I was so thrilled with the result I sent a photograph of 'Delilah' to 'Australian Bear Creations' and they were kind enough to print it in their magazine.

I returned to my jointed elephant design in 2009, curious to see how it would work in alternative fabrics ... a
nd in 2009, my white standing circus elephant 'Starlight', was also featured in 'Australian Bear Creations' 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 elephants in 2010 ...

My Dad would never have wanted me to lose my creativity, he always enjoyed my work and was proud of me; so in 2011, I picked myself up and dusted myself down and set to work. I wanted to develop my elephants' personalities further, so this time, designed two lovely new elephants with cute low slung ears and close set eyes, giving the ellies more character than ever before. 'Ma Cherie' and 'Forget-me-not' elephant worked their magic and soon had me smiling, inspired again, just as Dad would have wanted.

In 2013, I decided to make a Summer themed collection and came up with 'The Picnic Gang', a five piece group of friends including two bears, one rabbit, a clown and ... an elephant. This smaller design bridged the sweet naivety of my very first vintage style ellie design and the more sophisticated styling and personality of my later jointed elephants. 'Butterfly' elephant had a fun downturned trunk and nostalgic look, thanks to the vintage cotton print lining her ears and paws I used, together with her straw hat. I thought she was lovely, so in 2013, decided to take the design and use it to create Bluebell Ellie-Bear, part of my pastel 'Springtime Pals' trio, along with pals Hyacinth Bunny and Buttercup Bear. I knitted this pretty trio of friends sweet little jackets to complement their colouring.

It was ten years before another elephant came to life in my workroom. Last year, I made 'Jellybean' in the style of Ma Cherie and Forget-me-not, with large flappy cheerful downward ears, shaped arms and long, upward pointing trunk. This time, I wanted to introduce a new 'clown' element, by combining both pink and yellow mohair, contrasted with a cheerful Liberty print cotton fabric to line the ears and feet, giving Jellybean a bright, bold and cheerful personality.

In the sixteen years since my Great Niece Erin was born, I have created nine elephants,
 the threads of which are woven through the mists of my childhood and hers, inspired by a small straw-filled pink elephant, with felt eyes and loved away ears.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Polite Request

Copyright: All Bear by Paula Carter 2019



I hope you enjoy sharing my blog and politely request that you do not copy either text or photographs without my permission.



Thank you.