Rustic Elephants

Every Garden (or Porch) Needs a Pachyderm

Elephants are one of my favorite animals.  They are calm, until they're upset about something.  They're maternal, and have a matriarchal society.

rustic-elephants-600x900.jpg

So here's my way of celebrating the mighty pachyderm. 

I found some odd little metal bits when I went on the road trip last July, and I have no idea what they're off. 

Some kind of agricultural machinery, it looks like. 

One of them is a blade, so some sort of cutting implement? Or an assortment of seeding plates?

I don't know, but I do know that as soon as I saw them, I saw elephants.

Do you see the elephant in this old scrap metal?Do you see the elephant in this old scrap metal?

Burning up a bunch of old rotten boards, salvaging what I could to use for some craft or other guided me to saving some pieces of four by four lumber. 

Hubby cut them into varying lengths, under duress. 

Here's a guy who likes to measure and make sure everything is plumb and level, so he resisted my eyeball-and-cut method.

Rustic Elephants in progressRustic Elephants in progress

The pieces are weathered on the sides, but the freshly cut ends need some 'giggle juice' - see more about weathering wood with vinegar and steel wool here. 

To stay consistent with the nice silver grey look of the real thing, I've added some white acrylic craft paint to the vinegar mix to give it a more driftwood type appearance. 

Otherwise, it can go a very dark brown, which is fine too.

Rustic Elephants, posing for their portraits...The finished Rustic Elephants, posing for their portraits...

I found bolts in varying sizes, all nicely rusted for the legs.

I predrilled the holes for the legs, and glued them in with Gorilla glue to make sure they don't come out.

The tail will be a short piece of wire, twisted, and held on with a small fence staple.

The eyes are different sized nuts, washers and other found objects.

This is when the hoarding inclination comes in very handy. Between these and the owls that I make, I use a lot of mismatched bolts, screws and other cast offs.

Does your garden or porch need a rustic elephant?


Learn what it takes to be creative - we all have the gene but how do we develop it? Get the free guide!

Fill in the form below for your copy;

(Don't be disappointed - use an email address that will accept the free download - some .aol email addresses won't. 

If you don't see your download within a few minutes, try again with another email address - sorry for the bother.)

Find out more about the How to be Creative Guide

Free How To Be Creative Guide

Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.
 

Please complete the challenge that you see below.

  



Follow Blue Fox Farm on Pinterest
Follow Blue Fox Farm on Facebook
Follow Xeria on Twitter