I made an elephant button for the original Elephant a Day blog, but I was at a meeting today where this activity was being offered, so I figured it was time to try it again.
I began by rolling some sparkly acid yellow into a log shape, thinking I would make a series of buttons from a bunch of discs. Then I decided not.
Instead, I smushed the yellow together again, and shaped it into a vague elephant shape. I then rolled it flat with a piece of PVC pipe, reshaping the edges a bit as I went.
Because this stuff can be stamped with rubber stamps, I found one with a pretty floral pattern and randomly covered the surface of the elephant with overlapping flower imprints.
I then reshaped the edges again and poked an eyehole into it with a toothpick. To give the elephant some delineation, I pressed a couple of lines into the surface. To finish up, I pierced it with a cake tester in two places to give me sewing holes.
This wasn't completely hideous, and I had lots of time left, so I made another elephant in blue.
And a rather garish red.
After this, they needed to be baked in a 230˚F (110˚C) oven for about 20 minutes.
Obviously there's no buttonhole on earth that could accommodate any of these, so they're just decorative. Decorative, highly abstract, and somewhat silly, but I still like them well enough to keep them around.
Elephant Lore of the Day
I was surprised to learn today that the first buttons to be placed in the ears of the famous Steiff teddy bears—and the company's other stuffed toys—featured an elephant. |
| Original Steiff ear button, 1904–1905. Source: http://www.worthpoint.com/blog-entry/identify- early-production-steiff-bears-1892-1929 |
Beginning in 1904, all Steiff bears left the factory in Glengen, Germany with a metal button in their ears. In that first year, as well as in 1905, the small brass button featured a tiny elephant. Similarly, the early cardboard tags worn around the bears' necks also featured an elephant.
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| Early Steiff chest tag. Source: http://www.worthpoint.com/blog-entry/identify-early- production-steiff-bears-1892-1929 |
By 1906, the elephant was gone, and subsequent Steiff buttons were blank, then imprinted with an "S", and finally the word "Steiff".
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| A Steiff teddy bear, ca. 1920. Source: http://www.worthpoint.com/blog-entry/identify-early- production-steiff-bears-1892-1929 |
Why an elephant? Interestingly enough, the company that became famous for its teddy bears was famous first for its toy elephants.
In 1880, Margarete Steiff found a design in a magazine and made elephant pincushions for her friends. Discovering that children were playing with the pincushions, she began producing elephants and other animal toys for children.
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| One of Margarete Steiff's first elephant pincushions, ca. 1880. Source: http://needleprint.blogspot.ca/2013/03/steiff- elephant-pincushions.html |
It wasn't until 1902 that Steiff created its first teddy bear. By 1907, the company was manufacturing nearly a million bears a years—a number that has increased every year since.
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| A modern replica of the first elephant pincushions manufactured by Steiff. Source: http://needleprint.blogspot.ca/2013/03/steiff-elephant-pincushions.html |
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