How we built an Elephant in 30 days!

How we built an Elephant in 30 days!

It was in the week beginning 15th September 2014 that I received a call from the Indian Hindu Welfare Association in Northampton. They had been successful with their Arts Council application and we were to go ahead and build an elephant for the Northampton Diwali celebrations. We had 30 days to complete the task; from the drawing to the actual event.


Initially, because of the timescale, Clive Doherty and myself had been thinking to use the 4-wheel chassis that was created for our Dinosaur, Hilary. But we quickly decided to make the elephant from scratch and made some sketches, worked out the scale and made a plan.

We decided on a 3-wheeler with a wide wheel base, a single rear drive wheel and rider whose weight would be just behind the front two wheels. 

There was to be a platform for a dance performer and a series of cables and ropes to operate moving parts. Clive was keen to link the movement of the legs with the drive action of the mounted cyclist.This was the first time either of us had attempted to create something like this and we learnt a great deal along the way.

Clive began to work on the chassis which was no mean feat without proper metal working facilities in the free office space that we occupy. We were working on the first floor too so we had to ensure that everything could be taken apart to be loaded into a service lift and would fit through a regular double door to outside. The welding was all done outside in a landscaped office courtyard!

Many of the components were built from scratch using recycled bicycle parts and without guillotines, pipe benders or even a flat surface.

We achieved the curved shapes by part cutting slices through the tubes, bending the gaps together and re welding -a satisfyingly organic finish!

Working from the scale drawing, I began work on the main body and the head which was done with aluminum bar riveted together. At the time we thought that this would reduce the overall weight but in hindsight it was alot of riveting, the shapes were complicated and not as rigid as it could have been in light box steel -my arms became pretty strong though!

I filled in the body shape with hours and hours of spiraling wire work design, onto which I sewed a flexible steel mesh to create an elephant skin. The idea was that we wanted to create a partly transparent finish so that the a mechanical parts would be seen.

I made the eyes out of syrup tin lids and the tusks were the cast-off horns from the Triceratops head that I had carved previously and replaced in wood. At some point she became known as Harminder -an Indian name for both boys and girls, as we weren't sure if she could be a girl elephant with tusks...

Meanwhile Clive tackled the steering and drive to the rear wheel. He also worked out, though a series of arms, chains and pulleys, a way to mechanize the walking movement so that the elephants legs were jointed and lifted as it moved forward and backwards. And a clever articulated trunk design which didn't completely work because of the weight of the materials and lack of time to develop it.

We were working around the clock to get Harminder completed and lots of friends came in to help. I remember nodding off on the job a couple of times and near to the deadline we did a few 'all-nighters'. It was worth it though.


One of the main problems was not having suitable facilities. 
The weather was turning, there was no under cover space for the frame and there was no space for test runs or time to keep taking parts up and down to the ground floor.


Two days before the Diwali event, around 16th October, we took Harminder the elephant in lift-loads to the ground floor and outside, where we rigged her up to test.

This was all uncharted territory that we were treading and once we had managed to push her to some level ground I mounted her, whilst everyone watched to see what was going on. We really didn't anticipate the weight on the rear wheel and within a few moments it buckled. 

This meant we had a great deal of tweaking and fixing to get done and no time to test her again before the event. We worked all night to finish her. Clive re-enforced a new bmx wheel replacing the spokes with steel rods. And we did the best we could and get her ready for her premiere performance!

Miraculously she performed beautifully. But once the deadline was reached, we knew that there were lots of improvements to be made. I think we'll always be messing around with her.