elephants that entertain

Can environmentally friendly clothing be beautiful? Can earth-friendly toy be cute? But of course. And can it be affordable? Absolutely. Maybe not in Poland, but some other places, it can.
I like Entertaining Elephants for the simplicity of the outfits they offer.

Peasant dress is one of their long time hits (I've seen this company about 5 years ago) - large paisley on black background is my favourite, and would LOVE to have such a tunic with puff sleve for myself (I fancied myself riding a bike in this tunic and leggins, with a shawl waving -, no, maybe this shawl isn't great idea for I have no intention to be another Isadora Duncan. But the tunic stays.)

Or dress with decorative hem - maybe it would be great as a tunic too - made of double layer of silk printed in birds. What is the best: this dress is not cute - it's just beutiful dress also a mother would want to have.
Maybe that's the key for my choice for children's clothes - I like only those clothes I wouldn't mind wearing.

And their have an excellent logo - putting it in front of each item, with no woven labels was excellent idea. And it's also environmentally friendly.

Among toys my favourite is this set of tableware - all made of recycled milk jugs!
It seems that the quality of outfits haven't changed but their website have and now it's much more sophisticated than it used to be - from a shabby chic to modern chic, cool.

young lynx girl - Pola

young lynx girl, originally uploaded by lalootka.

As I haven't make too much plushie for two months I can only write about my last realizations: this young lynx girlie. Now I know I should chose differnet background for the photo, but it's done, and toy\d reached her destiny in Canada some time ago.
It was made for The Needle swap - and was meant to reflect somehow the country of origin. In Poland we have few species of very special animals but lynx are one of the most special - they are on the best way to be extinct. And recently there is a WWF campaign to save some wild terrains especially for lynx. My beauty has panda - an icon of wildlife campaigns as a memo. Made of grey polar fleece, has a little beard (she's a girl and usually males have beards but I just wanted her to resemble lynx, not a kitty), ear brushes. Dressed in reversible pinafore.
Her name is after Poland, that's obvious, but also after Pola Negri - famous actress and Rudolf Valentino fiance :) (who - but complete coincidence ;) had Polish origin)
She went to weirdbuglady - and I'm glad she's in such a good company.

busy day

I found again the Paperpod creative and ecologically aware company using cardboard as a material to design toys and furniture. It's brilliant, indeed! I checked the price of this cupboard house and though it's not costless, 30 pounds is not exaggerated price for such an item.
It's fantastic - simple, decorative, beautiful and helps to teach children creativity. I feel like becoming fanatic of this idea.... Hm - poor Ada ;) (My parents are still disbelieving we want to raise her at least untill her 3 years without a constant contact with a tv. Actually we don't have a tv at all)

I'm preparing a gift for the first friend Ada has - Kinga is 9 years old neighbour of ours and likes to play with Ada. Tommorrow is Kinga's birthday as she herself told me, pretending she was just interested in a day of Ada's birthday :) . I'm making a set of finger puppets for Kinga - forest set. She doesn't look acustomed to handmade goods and toys, rather for plastic toys and lots of tv, but I hope she'll like it.

Today I received another custom order - thank Goddess!. Our friend Bartus wants me to make a dog - Alsace type - for his little nephew who loves his pet dog. I have an idea how to make it - propably wolf fingerpuppet will be my inspiration.

It seems I'll have a nice website! SOON! Even very soon. DD Paul designed a nice site for Kazawa Project : bright, with funny sketches and friendly colours and, what's the most interesting for me, with beautiful stripes as a decoration. But Adam doesn't want it - he preferes to keep the old layout. I don't quite understant him, but on the other hand, I can not compain - I love stripes! Especially in such brigh colours, like my favourite folk stripes. And I need a banner (and typography) as soon as possible. To start etsy shop, among the other thing. Poor DD - he doesn't have an easy life with a partner like Adam...

Respect habitats. Knut.

polar bear in the sea
Originally uploaded by lalootka.

Well, it seems I started making polar bear just in time - Dec. 5, 2006 Knut, first polar bear in Berlin zoo, was born. Sad story actually, because, after the death of his twin brother, mother rejected him and poor baby is raised by humans. And zoo workers use his cuteness to promote Berlin zoo, at first, and the idea of environemt and habitats preservation - this very Respect habitats. Knut . Excellent idea, of course. But I haven't been to zoo for ages - I have mixed emotions about it. I'd like Ada to know bio-diversity of earth but I pitty those animals living in cages (though they are not cages).
And I pitty Knut - I know that I anthropomorphise the cub of the polar bear, but - 6 months cub is a tiny baby, isn't it? And he lives without mama. His mama is 3 meters tall predator, but it's a mama!
I accessed Design Can Change programm and made a pledge: to do my best to design with a least effort for nature. Which means using pre-loved materials (I love this word pre-loved, I saw it at Maki Squarepatch site), maybe natural cotton or wool stuffing. That's a challenge. But actually, even dishwashing or morning shower can be a challenge. Or diet!
Life is not easy.
My students are funny - they were writing esseys at the Medical anthropology seminar about various types of alternative medical treatment. And they did it fine - quite fine. But just few of them had real anthropological conclusions and showed me the context of such phenomenons. On the other hand I apprieciate their point of view, way of thinking which is so different than mine. I'm quite satisfied with the seminar programm and result - "quite" means that we should have more time for such project than just one semester.

I envy Tony - on this picture - he can swimm all day long. Today is unBEARable heat and swimming in such a cool blue water like he does would be relief for everyone.
(...Maybe I should make larger bears - polar bears are the largest bears in the world. I'll think about it....)