About me
Hi - I’m Sarah Turner and I’m the person behind Embellished Elephant. I’m a self-taught multi-disciplinary crafter with over 25 years experience of designing and making hand-crafted items. My first side hustle was making bead loom bracelets to sell to school friends in the early-90s.
I’ve learned a lot about crafting since that time and have since developed my craft practice and I am highly skilled in crafts that embellish the surface of textiles such as embroidery, beadwork and appliqué. But I am also highly proficient in a range of other craft disciplines including knitting, crochet and dressmaking.
My natural curiosity has fuelled my exploration of these crafts and other crafts and as a self-taught crafter I’ve learned from both my successes and my failures. Most of all what I love about hand crafting is that every item is individual, even if you follow a pattern.
The aim of Embellished Elephant is to support you on your crafting journey, whatever your level of skill, to create something beautiful and individual.
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Any questions or just want to say ‘Hi’ - I’d love to hear from you, just head to the contact page and drop me a message.
Sarah
One of my treasured elephant objects that I have in my house - this 5cmx3cm brass carving was made by an expert craftsman and I picked it up in Kandy, Sri Lanka when I visited in 2012
Why the name Embellished Elephant?
When I first started thinking about setting up my own craft business a number of years ago I wanted a name that didn’t pigeon hole me as I was still figuring out exactly what it was that I wanted to focus on. I came up with so many different ideas but this one came to me walking down the street one day and it just seemed right.
‘Embellished’ because I love adding embroidery, beading and appliqué to the surface of textiles and ‘Elephant’ because elephants have been my favourite animal for as long as I can remember (I still have two stuffed toy elephants from my youth in my loft somewhere). I also recently re-read The Elephant’s Child from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling where the elephant is described as full of ‘satiable curiosity’. This really speaks to my values of creativity, curiosity and individuality that I’m aiming to bring to life in everything I do in my business.
Sarah
PS - There was also one practical reason for picking this name for my business as well, I have a relatively common name so couldn’t just use that (common enough that for a period of time there was someone with the same name that worked at the same company as me that caused some confusion in IT & HR!)