September 2016
The plan is to make this elephant look as though she’s wearing a brightly-coloured saddle-cloth and head-plate, embellished with jewellery. (So although she’s made from African flowers, she’s actually an Indian elephant.) I’ve chosen warm spicy colours for the shapes over her back, on her head and down her forehead, and the rest will be a plain earthy-brown. The coloured shapes will just be joined in as replacements for the plain ones, then I’ll add an edging in surface crochet to make it look as though they form separate pieces. I’ll raid my supply of beads, bells, sequins and broken necklaces to add plenty of sparkle!
Thank you very much to Anne Rutgrink (Annisea) for the marvellous pattern - really clear and easy to follow. I love the realistic shape!
October 14, 2016
Making progress! She’s going to need a lot of stuffing…
October 17, 2016
The closer I get to finishing Saffron, the more I love her. And the real fun is still to come 
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A big THANK YOU to Angela (ViviLion) for inspiring me with her elephant, and also explaining (on her “Hippo for Mary” project page) how to make the motifs smaller to keep the size down.
October 20, 2016
Finished! I knew all those little boxes of glittery bits would come in useful one day. She should really have bells around her ankles but her little legs are too short! I may well add more bling as time goes on but for the moment I’m very happy with her. Difficult to capture the sparkle in photos… she needs to stand in a jeweller’s window display 
A note about my “difficulty” rating: the African flowers are very straighforward and easy to memorise once you’ve done a couple, but putting them together is quite tricky. I used whip stitch, keeping the pieces flat and working on the right side so I could see what I was doing.
November 9, 2016
Saffron now lives on a high shelf, clearly visible but away from the prying fingers of my little granddaughter Isobel (22 months) who calls her “Nana elephant”. 
DESIGN RIGHTS: While I am of course delighted and flattered by imitations of my interpretation of Anne’s pattern, if you make a close copy and display it to the world on Facebook, Instagram etc. please include a direct link to this Ravelry page as well as to Anne’s, and PLEASE do not claim the embellishment ideas as your own! Thanks for your understanding
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