Cheburashka!

Here's a new friend: Cheburashka! He's only relatively new because is born in 1966 from the mind of the Russian writer Eduard Uspenskij during the times of Soviet Union. I can not avoid to be surprised by the fact that in this country, frequently considered as austere and dour, it was possible that such a sweetness was created! Concerning the cuteness, I guess that Cheburashka puts at risk the primacy of Helly Kitty; it's sufficient just to hear his song to melt my heart! Moreover, this cartoon is not dull at all and, even though only four episode were made, each character is very well developed and has an authentic "human" being!! But who's this cute little friend?According to the original story, he's a strange little animal with a bear-like body and large round ears, unknown to science but he's probably from the tropical forest: he's arrived in Soviet Union travelling into a crate of oranges in which he's get accidentally and , after having eaten his fill, fallen asleep. Arrived to a greengrocery in Russia, the salesman found him into the crate and took him out sitting him on a table. However, this strange animal could not sit because of his paws were numb after the long time spent a-squat, and he tumbled down from the table onto the chair and than from the chair onto the floor. For this reason the salesman called him "Cheburashka" as "cheburakhnulsya" (чебурахнулся) is a Russian quite archaic colloquialism that means to "tumble" in English. Cheburashka is always accompanied by his friend Gena, a crocodile-looking stern, wise, sometimes sad but never resigned and always hoping for the future despite the thousands of adversity impersonated by a spiteful old woman. Gena always wears a hat and a red coat, walks on his hind legs, works in the city zoo as a crocodile indeed, and he's able to play an accordion with which accompanies Cheburashka playing his poignant lyrics full of meaning.Well, I think I've fallen in love with this tale, so I wanted to recreate its characters in a set of felt brooches and in some cute hand carved rubber stamps with which I've promptly made a letter-set dedicated to Cheburashka...

I hope you like them too!