Welcome to Elfville!
Rob Stanphill’s playful new series takes us to the merriest village in the North Pole.
“I grew up in Southern California, and my family would visit Disneyland® once a year–best day ever! I loved the way that each ‘land’ had its own theme and everything tried together to create an immersive experience,” Rob says. “That idea struck with me, so I decided to bring in that world-building to create a magical Christmas village populated by enchanting little elves. Welcome to Elfiviille!”
Santa’s favorite holiday helpers are the stars of this new series that will feature full-sized festive shops and miniature shop owners, sized to scale with their shop’s front door. Here’s another fun fact: As a 2024, KOC member, your Elfville collection is already in the works! This year’s Dream Box included three exclusive companions to this new series: Ollie’s Ornament Shoppe, miniature Ollie and miniature Lia, the delivery driver. In 2025, we’ll meet the newest small business owner (pun intended) in town at Candy’s Bakery.
Candy’s Bakery
Welcome to Elfville
1st in the series.
“I started by gathering some inspiration images and sketching some small pencil drawing,” Rob says, “I imagined Candy would design her bakery to reflect all the tools she loves to use and all the things she loves to bake every day, so rolling pans, oven, mitts, cinnamon bread, cookies and more all found a place in the architecture of the shop.”
After creating a rough sketch, Rob says he began fine-tuning the details and created “turnaround” drawings that show front, back and side views. Then he brought the images into his computer and created a 3D sculpt. The final result is a quaint and colorful bakery, complete with Candy in her white chef’s hat holding a delicious dessert–and there’s more sweetness where that came from!
“I’m always looking for ways to spark the imagination of kids and adults to explore the details. I’m excited to see Elfville continue to grow with new residents, interesting buildings and fun little places to visit and explore. I’m asking, ‘Who might live there and what are they creating?‘” Rob says. “There’s so much to choose from because Christmas inspires all kinds of wonderful, magical things.”
“Welcome to Elfville!” For Keeps 24 Winter 2024: 8
Thank You for sharing, This looks like it will be a cute series with Ollie’s in 2024 and now the Candy in 2025, Do you know if they are going to do a repaint of the Ollie as a limited edition? Will the candy be available to everyone or only KOC? Thank You in advance for your help and for all the sneak peeks.