Crafts

Make your own pangolin companion

~ Rachel L Shaw ~ Leave a comment

Like real pangolins, Pipisin Pangolin stands on his hind legs. So I thought I’d try to make a little felt pangolin – this is the result. If you can have a go at making your own pangolin companion, I’ve drawn the pattern and written what I did.

Pangolins belong in the wild. They are sensitive souls and shouldn’t be kept in captivity or as pets. Only the wildlife organisations that rescue pangolins from the illegal wildlife trade and care for them until they can be released back into the wild have the specialist knowledge to be able to look after them. Find out about pangolin conservation by following organisations like Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, Rest Namibia and Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary.

Click on the image below for a printable pdf:

Visit my crafts page page for the original felt pangolin pattern and more pangolin crafts.

Felt pangolin

Book cover of It's Not My Fault
Buy my book: a pocket-sized companion for when you feel like a pangolin and want to roll up into a ball.

Add a pangolin to your Christmas tree

~ Rachel L Shaw ~ 1 Comment

Super easy to make pangolin bauble for your Christmas tree.

Pangolin bauble

Print out the pdf onto paper or card. I printed onto paper, then stuck it onto some card packaging (a fish finger box!). Colour in and cut out the shapes.

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Glue some card spaces onto the back of each shape, then glue the shapes on top of each other.

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Click on the image below to open the pdf for printing:

Pipisin Pangolin bauble 2018

 

Try these other Christmas pangolin crafts.

Pangolin bauble
Pangolin Christmas bauble

 

Pop-up Christmas card
Pop-up pangolin Christmas card

 

Easy pangolin baublesPangolin Christmas baubles

 

 

 

 

Pangolin rescue mini-picture book

~ Rachel L Shaw ~ Leave a comment

With one cut and a few simple folds, create a mini-picture book that tells the story of a pangolin rescued and cared for until it could be released back into the wild.

Originally created for the Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary in Liberia to help explain the work they do to children. Unfortunately, not every child in Liberia goes to school. Not only do they miss out on general education, they never learn about animals or nature conservation.

Click on this image to open the pdf that can be downloaded and printed:
(nb. select ‘actual size’ when printing to help when making the folds)

Libassa mini-story

Follow the steps below to make your mini-picture book:

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Follow the work of Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary on instagram and make a donation to support their vital work.

Click here for more pangolin crafts!

 

 

 

#200Fish

~ Rachel L Shaw ~ Leave a comment

Worm pipefish in a rockpool (collage of painted papers and card) ~ my contribution to the #200Fish project with artists illustrating 200 species of fish from the North Sea.

Collage of worm pipefish in a rock pool
Hiding amongst the seaweed in the rockpools of the North Sea coast, could be this relative of the seahorse.  The worm pipefish (Nerophis lumbriciformis) has a similar upturned snout to a seahorse and exhibits similar behaviour with the parental duties being undertaken by the male.

Females are larger, more colourful and more active than males. After courtship and mating, the female transfers about 150 eggs into a shallow groove on the male’s belly. The male protects the eggs until they hatch as free-swimming baby pipefish and drift away in the current. Here, the males parental responsibilities end.

As breeding is correlated with seawater temperatures below 15.5°C, these fish are likely to be susceptible to changes in ocean temperatures. Extreme site fidelity and homing behaviour has also been documented in worm pipefish so they are perhaps unlikely to respond well to change.

Worm pipefish grow to about 15cm long (illustrated lifesize, artwork size: 21.5cm x 31.5cm).

 

Information from:

The IUCN Red List

MarLIN – The Marine Life Information Network

 

 

#200Fish is a project of Transition Town Louth