Ever since I wrote about Stella McCartney's stunning life size suspended Swarovski horse sculpture, I've hoped to see another animal inspired art work. Now there is and it's for a good cause too. 250+  life- sized fibre glass baby elephants, some adorned with Swarovski crystals, have been created for this year's Elephant Parade in London, England (next year, it will be in Copenhagen) running from May to July.



This is London's largest open air and indoor public exhibition which is being held in several locations. It's to raise awareness and money for the conservation of Asiatic elephants. Artists as well as schoolchildren have decorated these elephants which will be auctioned by Sotheby's later this summer. If you love art, you might like to check out the CNN photos here for some outstanding hand painted designs.

Jewelry designers Johnny Rocket, Sunny Warrington and SHO jewelry created their hand painted Manusana elephant designs shown above. Each had 32,000 Swarovski pearls and took over 500 hours to complete!

If you live in London or can visit, you might like to check out photographer, Herman Poort's exhibition, "The Creation of the Elephant Parade" which will extend to June 14th. It includes detailed photos like the Swarovski pearl one shown here.


It's a very worthy cause because the Asiatic elephant is close to extinction. In the last 100 years, their numbers have dropped to a shocking 10 % of what their population used to be - from 250,000 to about 25,000 according to the BBC video report.

It's an all too often repeated story of animals and humans competing for limited space and resources with the elephants on the losing side. It's quite alarming to realize that future generations may never see a live Asiatic elephant or the polar bear, but that's another story.

Via and via

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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