a little O and P for your holiday weekend

Hello Beautiful Person!

With a little over one week left on my Kickstarter Elephabet campaign, I am coming down the homestretch, trying to show you as much of the book as possible while pre-sales perks and dibs on the original pieces from the book are still up for grabs!

Today I will introduce you to a few friends from the middle of the alphabet. We will begin with O, which is for Operaphant. I picked a few of the biggest divas in town to interpret pachidermally.

Here's Nessun Dormaphant. She's named for the beautiful aria from Turandot, even though she is styled after the title character. This figure will be $150.

Next up is Madame Butterphant. (ha ha ha--someday I will have to do a yellow version of this for my dad who is a big opera AND butter lover!) In case you don't know the reference, click here. She will be a $100 piece.

Of course I couldn't miss Brünnhildephant, named for Wagner's zäftig heroine of the Ring Cycle. Click here to see one of the greats, Jessye Norman, perform the final aria.

Moving along to P, those of you who have been paying attention might be thinking,"wait a minute...I thought we already made P the P-Funkiphant!" Well, there was a change of plans this week when my other B didn't seem worthy, so last week's P-Funkiphants are now back to their previously scheduled B for Boomshakalakaphant. It has been very challenging to wrap up the last half of this book, looking at the entire publication as a whole has great bearing on the themes I choose for each letter.

I have always been a huge fan of the humble handwritten letter, and still think it's pretty amazing how little we pay in the United States for door-to-door service of our correspondence. In tribute, I offer these three Postalphants:

A simple mailbox, the way I remember them when I was a kid. This one is $100.

This one is modeled after an air mail letter. It will be priced at $100, and the one who purchases it can request a custom recipient's name and address on the front (after the book/animation are done!)

Another variation on the air mail envelope, this one will be $150 and also customizable to the buyer, if you don't mind it being written on or below the wing!

Those of you in the U.S., have a great holiday weekend! And for the rest of you worldwide, cheers!! Thanks for being part of this great journey!

Hilary (aka Bunny with a Toolbelt)

L is for Luchidoriphant and U is for Utiliphant

Hello Beautiful Person!

It's time to introduce two new letters from the Elephabet, fresh off the workbench!

I decided to work with the colorful and über dramatic Mexican wrestlers, known to their über fans as luchadors. I made four Luchadoriphants for my letter L, inspired by four real-life luchadors!

First, we have Huracán Ramírez, a fictitious character invented for the 1952 Mexican Lucha film of the same name. In the film a young Mexican, whose father is a professional wrestler, decides to follow in his father's footsteps by adopting the secret identity of Huracán Ramírez, a masked luchador, and he fights in the ring in spite of his father's wishes to the contrary. This figure will be $100.

Next we have El Solar and Blue Demon. Both of these are homages to real live wrestlers. Solar will be a $150 piece, and Blue Demon is $65.

And finally, we have Rayo Tapatio - at $100.

Moving along, I decided that U should be Utiliphant, in the spirit of Bunny with a Toolbelt, my business name.

He's sporting a full toolbelt and will be priced at $150.

I have two more smaller offerings. These will probably be priced in the $45-65 range.

There's a dozen days left to pre-order your Elephabet book and reserve your spot to own one of these actual pieces! Click here to learn more about Elephabet and be one of the pachyderm contingency that is Bunny with a Toolbelt!

Make my P the P-Funkiphant

Hello again, beautiful people! I'm here with a few more Elephabet characters for your virtual delight!

First we have the letter P, which started out as F and had a brief consideration as B. This is because I felt certain that Elephabet needed some reference to the hardest working band in show business, Parliament Funkadelic. F (funkaphant) lost out to Fromagiphant pretty soon, and I was thiiiiiis close to making it B for Boomshakalakaphant, which was so much fun to say but another B won my heart. (Stay tuned for that in the next week!) See if you can spot the tongue-pleasing inspiration of Boomshakalakaphant in this ditty.) But it was the original stylings of P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins that brought me down to earth. I designed two elephants based on outfits from his fashion repertoire:

both of these pieces will be priced around $100.

And I couldn't resist making a third P-Funkiphant that's a tribute to the freewheeling 70's:

this rather large one, which I will probably call Boomshakalakaphant, will be $150.

I have a second letter to show you as well - R - which is for Radiophant. Radio (mostly public) has always been a huge part of my life, so I had to pay tribute in some manner. I made three versions of Radiophants for the book:

an early model, which will be priced at $150

I wanted to pay tribute to the mid-20th century bakelite models, which was a bit of a challenge, but I like the way this one turned out. I added a little "listen" slogan down at the bottom of the tuning dial rather than a brand name. This one will probably be around $100.

And, last but not least, a full-on boom box elephant. This one will be around $150 as well.

I have a little under three weeks to complete the final 11 letters for the book! Well, that's my goal, at least, to have them all under my belt by the end of the Kickstarter campaign on September 11th. Have you signed on yet?

Y is for......

Hello again Elephabet fans! I'm excited to finally bring you my letter Y. Are you ready for it? Y is for Yippie-ki-Yayiphant. It's what the cowboys say, dontchaknow?

I made two of these little dogies:

blue bandana with spur and ten gallon hat $150

and a red bandana with a cowboy hat also $150.

I have a second letter completed today - J - which is for Jeansiphant. If you know me, you know that I rarely am seen in public without my blue jeans, so I couldn't resist this one. Note that it's not Blue Jeansiphant, using the B, because I have a much better entry for my B, which I'm finishing up this week. Stay tuned!

(The eyes are rivets, just in case you can't see it here!) The smaller one will be $55 and the larger one will be $75.

There's about 25 days, more or less, in my Kickstarter campaign for the Elephabet Book! Still plenty of time to tell all your friends about it. Although I reached my initial goal in record time, I later realized that there were so many more hardback books ordered than I initially anticipated, so I am now trying to double my initial Kickstarter goal in order to get a larger quantity of these books at a better price. This will insure that I can keep the retail price the same later, but you only get free shipping, the set of buttons, early notice of the original artwork going on sale, AND my eternal gratitude if you pre-order now! Thanks, friends, for helping me spread the gospel that is Elephabet.

(Oh, and one last thing before I go. I also decided that for all Portland residents, I will personally deliver your Kickstarter pledges wearing my bunny suit. Yippie-ki-YAY!)

This update brought to you by the letters B and X (and maybe I)

Hello again, beautiful person! In spite of the recent shocking headlines, I am nonetheless here to introduce two new letters to the Elephabet.

First, we have letter D, which was almost H. Let me explain. I'm assuming that most of you dear readers have seen my Kickstarter video explaining the pieces I had made thus far for the Elephabet book. WELL...at that time I had a number of elephants that surrounded the idea of housing and was thusly dubbing them "Habitatiphants." I have recently decided that the most appropriate name should really be "Dwellephants." Much better, huh? Here's the batch of Dwellephants you saw in the video, with estimated prices:

habitatiphant $150

Hi-Risiphant $150

Tipiphant $75

I haven't included this one here, mainly because I'm contemplating giving Iglooiphant its own letter I. Igloo is such a great word......stay tuned for details.

This piece will also be $150.

I also made this LogCabiphant for the D category:

This piece will also be $150.

Last, but not least, I have these two pieces that were part of the initial Dwellephant concept. But, like Iglooiphant, I am not sure they belong in this category. It started with Airstreamaphant

This piece will probably also be $150.

I made this VWBusiphant to tow the Airstreamaphant through the video, but the trunks prove to be a bit of a logistical problem when put together. It just doesn't look right. I still like him though!!

This piece will probably be around $75. I'll decide when I'm in the graphics stage of this process whether they make it into the book, but they'll definitely be available for sale when the rest of this work goes on my Etsy site in November.

Moving on, I decided to go with the classic alphabet book word for X, X-Ray. And that makes X-Rayiphant. I couldn't resist painting the skeletal graphic design I thought of, plus a view into the recently consumed foods by these pachyderms:

This one has eaten a pear, orange, and apple, as evidenced in its stomach cavity.

This one ate a big circus peanut, and is the same on both sides.

Okay...that's it for now. I am finishing up Y right now and will reveal it in a day or two. In the meantime, let's see if you can guess what it will be!

Meet the Foodiephants!

Hello Beautiful Person! I'm thrilled to announce that I met my Kickstarter goal the other day! Thank you to everyone who has pre-purchased their copies or got their foot in the door to own one of the original pieces from the book/animation! If you haven't pledged yet, there's still time to get yours at a slightly reduced price through Kickstarter.

Today, I'm going to present four new letters from the Elephabet book-- and all are food or beverage related words.

We begin with F, which is for Fromagiphant. This comes from fromage, the French word for cheese. I could have gone on and on and on in this category, but limited it to three for now. (Note: the numbers in parentheses after their names is the price I expect to list them at later in the year when they become available.)

Francophant, carrying a nice slice of brie on his back. ($75)

Nacho Cheesiphant ($75)

and Ham& Swissiphant. ($75)


Next up are the two I made for the letter G. These Guacamolephants are inspired by tasty guacamole themes.


This one has the three main ingredients for making guacamole ($75)


And this one has a stone molcajete on its back, ready for action. ($75)


Thirsty? Meet the Quaffiphants! The term quaff means to drink, so I thought I'd honor my favorite beverages.....

We start with Earl Grayiphant ($45)

Moving on to Coffephant ($75) (my little tribute to New York!)

And HotChocliphant ($45)

SixPackiphant $75

Martiniphant, Margaritaphant and Microbrewiphant are all $45 each.

And we have a winner!!!

It's time to announce the winner of the 2011 Bunny with a Toolbelt Limerick Contest! (insert regal trumpeting sound)

We had a lot of great entries to choose from, and the judges determined that this year's winner is Brad, who penned a pretty funny story about the bride and groom gators, but, most importantly, he also followed the rules of limerick metering to a T. Congratulations Brad! You get $100 gift certificate to the Bunny with a Toolbelt Etsy shop!

Here's that limerick again in case you missed it:

Their nuptials were a delight
The reception lasted all night
But as the sun rose
The newlyweds chose
To eat all their guests in one bite

Thanks to everyone who entered! Watch for more contests in the future at your favorite wood animal headquarters, Bunny with a Toolbelt!

A is for Acrobatiphant!

Yippeee! I have another letter to show you from the Elephabet Book, which is inching closer and closer towards realizing its Kickstarter goal! I proclaim that A is for Acrobatiphant, combining the word acrobat with elephant, thinking it would be a good thing to start with a simpler portmanteau to get the ball rolling when one is reading the eventual book from A to Z. Not to mention the fact that I love stacking animals and things on top of animals and things, both in real life and in Bunnywood, where all the Bunny with a Toolbelt creatures live. (Note: it is much easier to do this in Bunnywood!)

Here are my three attempts at Acrobatiphant:
This apple-licious one is the largest, and will probably be priced around $150

This one is only slightly smaller in stature, but more complex, so it will also be around $150.

This one's actually the smallest of the bunch, and will probably be priced around $85.

Before I go, I want to give a big Bunny with a Toolbelt shout out to my niece Alma who affixed over 50 stamps to my Elephabet Kickstarter promo postcards yesterday! I told her about ye olden days when you had to either lick all the stamps, or set up a damp sponge on a plate. The responded as any seven-year-old in their right mind should: Ewwwwwww!

Thanks everyone for your support! I feel so happy that I'm finally realizing this project and, thanks to Kickstarter, it's really fun to be able to do it with a community of well-wishers. I wish you all the best as well!

Not a supporter yet? Click here and join in on the fun!

T is for Topiariphant

Hello Beautiful Person! It's time for more stars from the Elephabet Book! Today we will meet the letter T. I couldn't resist making a "Topiariphant" to honor my lifelong passion for topiary. I haven't ever actually tried my hand at this beyond making my little sculptures, but I did make a pilgrimage a few years ago to the fantastically creative gardens at Zarcero, and I long to witness Pearl Fryar's work the next time I'm in the southern part of these United States after seeing this movie. For now, I will just live vicariously through these four figures.



These pieces are varying sizes, so will range from $45 to $125. If you have your eye on one of these babies, the best way to grab it when it first goes on the market is to support my Kickstarter campaign! Click here for details!

meet Mondrianiphant and Neopoliphant

Let's explore the middle of the alphabet today--our representatives for letter M and N from the Elephabet Book are ready to meet you!

First we have Mondrianiphant, named for Dutch De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian. I made two examples for this letter and these diptychs show how the painter's distinctive style extends around this 3-d object. These figures will be priced around $75 apiece when the book is completed.


The letter N is represented by Neapolitaphant, named for Neapolitan, one of the tastiest ice cream flavors that combines strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. I added a cherry on top and a ice cream cone hat. I made two of these figures, changing around the distribution of flavors. Still deciding on the pricing for these--probably around $100.


Want to be alerted when these babies go on sale in November? Sign up for my Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of my Elephabet Book! Click here to learn more!