Evolution of a Bead

The title makes it sound so scientific, doesn't it? Don't worry, it's not. I recently had a customer ask me to make an elephant for her Pandora bracelet. But up until then, I had only made elephants that looked pretty much like this:

Notice the giant ears and short, stumpy trunk that sticks out. These features wouldn't work well on a Pandora bracelet. Plus, my customer specifically wanted a nice, long trunk on her elephant. I knew I had to do some reconfiguring, because that long trunk would have to be attached to the bead. So here is a design I came up with:

I was so happy with how the Pandora-style elephant turned out that I started making my regular elephant beads in the same style:

And then I realized that this taller style of bead would accommodate other animals as well. So I made a cat:

And I'm sure there are other critters I can make in the same way. I'm looking forward to it. :)