Elephant No. 101: Name Tag

Just before Christmas, members of my fibre guild decided that we should all have handmade name tags. These aren't really meant for our regular meetings, so much as for the various public events we attend.

We were all supplied with a square of felted wool, and instructions to do whatever we liked. This is a very talented group of fibre artists, with a wide range of skills, so the results were all quite different.

I, of course, decided mine should have an elephant. I began by needlefelting an elephant outline, complete with 3-D ear.

To finish the elephant itself, I added pink toenails, pink in the ear and tip of the trunk, an eye, a tusk, and a tail.

I wanted to add a crown, but I couldn't find the little metal crowns I had, so I added a small rhinestone bow instead.

For my name, I decided that, since I suck at embroidery, I would spell out my name with alphabet beads. And, of course, I didn't want them to be straight. Weirdly, the package of beads didn't come with an E. The most commonly used letter in English was MIA. So I adapted an F.

To finish this up, I took a piece of this lovely silk cord, made by one of our ladies, Jean Ling.

We were also supplied with these really cool safety pins, so I tied a knot in each end of the cord and pinned the cord to the top corners of my name tag.

I'm not sure if it's what anyone had in mind for a proper name tag, but it makes me happy, and isn't that what really counts?

Elephant Lore of the Day

For today's elephant lore, I thought I'd post this fun video sent to me by my friend Eleanor Noble. As Eleanor says, it's the best of both worlds, featuring both a dog and an elephant. My favourite thing about it is how excited Bella is when Bubbles the elephant appears. It's playtime!

For more on this particular friendship, you can read about it in an earlier blog post here.

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India) 
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

Big Life Foundation
The Asian Elephant Foundation