For those of you who haven't been able to visit London to see the Elephant Parade I've posted some pictures of the finale exhibition to give you an idea of how awe inspiring it has been.
Over the last few weeks, London was home to over 250 brightly coloured elephant sculptures. The reason? To raise money for the Asian Elephant. Organised by Elephant Family a charity who raise funds and awareness about the endangered animal, the herd has been brightening up street corners, shops and landmarks all over the city.
Now in it's final weekend, the elephants have been regrouped at Chelsea Hospital where public can come along and inspect just how amazing they are before they are finally auctioned off.
This pearly elephant is one of my favourites, I love how it changes colour dependent on where the light shines on it.
Originally the elephants started off dotted around London landmarks. This one was painted by my illustrator friend Nilesh Mistry and I spotted it in Leiceister Square when I was on my way to a Bollywood premiere recently.
Seeing over 200 elephants lined up in a field was a remarkable sight.
Some of the elephants were painted by famous people (including HRH Princess of Kent and jewellery designer Andrew Logan) and others by artists. This one was designed by Indian fashion designer Manish Arora.
Each elephant was totally unique and made and inspired by all sorts of materials...
... mosaiced with 1p coins
... covered in grass
...patterned in 'elephant dogtooth'
...in disguise as other animals
...crafty themed, I've zoomed in on some patchwork details
... covered in words
...rows of psychadelic elephants
...and of course their bums were just as impressive
...this one was amazing...
Again it's an elephant is disguise but the likeness to a London taxi is so uncanny, on the way home whenever I saw a taxi I thought I was looking at an elephant!
There were also few elephants that couldn't be placed outside as they were so delicate, so were exhibited inside buildings. One was covered completely in Swarovski crystals and with such 'bling factor' it's hopefully going to be sold for lots of money : )
Having this colourful and charismatic herd of elephants dotted around the city has made going out and about so much more fun. It's shame some of them can't be permanent installations but then again I'm sure they will all go to lovely homes.
The good news is that if you've seen an elephant you like and you can't afford to one (tickets to the auction cost £75 so bidding is going to be in the thousands!) you can buy miniature ornamental versions instead; they're about 15cm high. The bad news is that it says delivery takes 2 weeks to 4 months...so you never know when it will turn up -not a good present but a brilliant surprise for someone!
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