Now here at Hamish & Buster we love all animals and especially dogs and one of our favourite dogs is the ridiculously cute DACHSHUND!
If you’ve ever had anything to do with dachshunds, or just love the look of them, you probably know that ‘dachshund’ is a German breed and dachshund means badger hound in English.
They are immediately recognisable with their short legs and long bodies. They can be smooth, wire, or long-haired, miniature or standard size. Their short legs helped keep them low to the ground to track scents and their narrow bodies allow them to crawl into burrows looking for badgers. (Pretty happy they are no longer used for this purpose!).
But did you know that the official mascot of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games was a colourful Dachshund named Waldi? Cute! That's him in the picture.
My connection with dachshunds has always been through my sister who has owned (or should I say has belonged to) a long line of dachies through her life. She’s had long-haired, short-haired and wire-haired, both miniature and standard. Her current beloved dachshund is Wiggy, a standard wire-haired boy who is quite a character. His favourite activity is chasing squirrels on the Devon farm where they live (he's never actually caught one thank goodness)!
So when one day we were asked at a market, do you have any dachshund designs, Wiggy become the model of the first Hamish & Buster dachshund design based on an original drawing of him by Susan. Over time the design has altered slightly with different colours but it’s essentially based on that original drawing.
Recently we’ve been developing some new dog designs with a new hand drawn style. Susan has been creating some of our favourite dogs and some new ones too and we were very excited to launch our new Dogs design in February! You can check out our new designs here.
I love researching animal illustrations and particularly illustrations of dogs, and recently found this wonderful classic children’s book about a dachshund called: ‘Pretzel’ by German-born American author Margret Rey. The illustrations were by her husband and are delightful. Although originally published in 1947, it’s never been out of print and is still available today. Highly recommended!
So that’s my blog about dachshunds. I wanted to share some of the inspirations behind our designs which we hope you love and that they bring a smile to your face.
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Miranda & Susan