Welcome to the jungle - the felefant

I know it is written elephant not felefant, but there is something I remember from primary school in Germany, a book when I started learning to read. In this book somebody tells someone else that the telephone is ringing, but instead of saying telephone, they say feletone. I remember that I used to say feletone instead of telephone at home for a long time, and still love to do so. To cut a long story short, it's a felefant, not a ... No, that doesn't work. Anyway ...

I’m fascinated with the festive decorated Indian elephants, embellished with vibrant colours, saddle cloth and heavy jewellery. I love the illustrations of elephants carrying the Maharaja on their backs and photos of Indian elephants at festivals in the National Geographic. 

These Indian elephants present a wonderful theme for arts and crafts, especially for soft toy embroidery.

This fabric is an old bed sheet. When I saw it for the first time I was excited about the patterns and the possibilities it presented.

As the pattern reminded me of the embroidered blankets which festive Indian elephants wear - I tried to use this association by using the cut of the fabric to mimic this. I then had the option of embroidering the fabric in a more traditional way. I decided to reference the colours that they are decorated with, by using these sequins.

I love the mixed sequins bag that I found in Poundland. It’s like a lucky dip bag and you never know what you get. I think lucky dip bags are underrated! Why aren't there any lucky dip bags for adults?

For the first picture on top of this post, I used the green leaves picures of my boyfriend office.

For the other pictures I wanted something more crafty, more me. So I decided to use the old curtain fabric for some scenery, cut out some green felt in the shape of leaves and use the temporary fabric adhesive to glue them onto it. Like this, the set up is quick, and I can re-use the materials later.