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Wooden toy · ages 3 to 6

Ellie

A sleeping wooden elephant who dreams in hats. Children click five clay hats onto Ellie’s head while a small flipbook tells the story of each dream.

Role
Research, illustration, making
Materials
Pinewood, clay, magnets
Built
By hand
Ellie wearing the white chef’s hat, on yellow Ellie wearing the olive police cap, on blue Ellie wearing the black wizard’s hat, on lilac Ellie wearing the black top hat with a red band, on coral Ellie wearing the pink spotted party hat, on pink

The hats · try it

Five hats, five dreams.

Tap a hat to put it on Ellie.

Each hat is shaped by hand in clay and clicks on with a magnet. Each one is a page in Ellie’s flipbook.

Ellie from the side with no hat: a pine elephant lying down, trunk curled into a loop, eyes closed

The little things

Up close.

One block of pine, made for small hands. Move over Ellie to look through the loupe.

Process

Pencil to pine.

From three old toys and a sleepy baby elephant to Ellie.

BriefA baby elephant lying on its belly on a stone ledge, trunk in the water

01A baby elephant at restLying on its belly, completely relaxed. This became Ellie’s pose.

PaperA page of pencil sketches of elephants standing, sitting and lying

02Finding the animalPages of small elephants, standing, sitting and lying down.

Pencil sketches of elephants lying down

03Lying downLow and steady, with nothing to snap off.

A shaded pencil study of the elephant lying down

04Shaded studyThe curl of the trunk and the fold of the ear.

A clean pencil outline of the elephant

05One outlineA single shape that can be cut from one block of wood.

ScreenThe elephant outline redrawn digitally in black line

06Line drawingThe outline redrawn digitally.

ColourA light watercolour wash of the elephant

07First washWatercolour, kept light, to find the pine tone.

The final watercolour illustration of Ellie with wood grain and a brown outline, taped to the desk

08Final illustrationWood grain painted in, and the outline that ended up on the toy.

A painted illustration of Ellie from three-quarters, showing the thickness of the wood

09Three-quarter viewEllie as a solid block, before any wood was cut.

MakingMaterials laid flat: a pine board, white clay, a frosted sheet and four magnets

10MaterialsPine for Ellie, clay for the hats, magnets to hold them.

A paper template of Ellie held against a pine board in the workshop

11TemplateThe outline cut from paper and traced onto the pine.

Ellie’s shape cut out of pine, on the workshop saw table

12Cut outEllie’s shape, cut from the board.

One half of Ellie with a rectangular pocket cut into it

13A pocket for the bookCut into both halves. Glued together, they hold the flipbook.

Ellie glued and sanded, in raw pine, on a stone floor

14Glued and sandedEvery edge rounded for small hands.

The five clay hats in a row: chef, police cap, wizard, top hat and party hat

15Five clay hatsShaped by hand, painted, with a magnet in each base.

FinishedThe finished wooden elephant with its painted outline, on a stone floor, unretouched

16Ellie, as madeThe outline painted on. Photographed as it is.

At home

Made for small hands.

For children from 3 to 6, and for the grown-up reading the flipbook with them.

Ellie on a wooden desk in a child’s bedroom, with books, crayons and a soft toy dinosaur
Ellie seen from above, the small flipbook tucked into a slot in the back
From above · the flipbook rides along

Hands

Stacking and swapping

Taking hats on and off builds fine motor skills.

Story

A book to read together

Each page brings a new hat and a new dream, read with a parent.

Memory

Which hat comes next?

Matching hats to pages builds sequencing and memory.