Swisho posho Elephants ....

After wandering around for about an hour on Friday night, seeking the Royal Exchange, a taxi driver scratched his head and said "I think it's Cornhill."  Then I realised I had been looking in the wrong part of the city! 

Very weirdly, whilst looking for Devonshire Square elephants, I was walking down Liverpool Street and saw a familiar figure emerging from a building.  It was one of my best friends - I didn't have a clue that she worked there, and we just happened to run into each other!  Funny coincidences happen from time to time to me - having the right people in the right place, at the right time.  Life's a funny mix sometimes, isn't it?

There's this marvellous sculpture in Devonshire Square - and what a great story about King Edgar. 

The plaque is equally fascinating and fitting to the piece:-

This beautiful elephant named ELEPHANTASTIC #155 was created by Lily Marneffe.  Artist's Inspiration: "The joy nature gives inspired me to paint an elephant with colourful flowers."

I love the security guard's expression - he's looking at me like I've wondered what I am doing!  I then finally found the Royal Exchange - a lovely, very upmarket centre stuck between two streets in the city. The pic is a bit glarey, but you get the idea. 

Ellie #244 - This beautiful elephant named Jewel-ele was created by Tarun Tahiliani.  Artist's Inspiration: "Elephants are the jewels of the ecology of our subcontinent".  Look at all that beautiful sandstone in the background - such fabulous warm tones, which complements the shimmering gold of Jewel-ele perfectly. 

Here's a close-up - I could see 100 other uses for all the embellishments!  :lol:

And the Cartier elephant, # 107, is just as pretty, if a bit more subdued! 

I shouted myself a coffee in these very salubrious surroundings, before feeling a bit more revived and ready to continue a bit longer.  More Bank and City elephants another day. 

Ellies in the City ...

Friday evening turned out to be warm and sunny - such a welcome contrast to the wet and miserable morning.   I did quite a circuit, around St Paul's Cathedral, Liverpool Street, exiting from Monument tube station that afternoon. 

These two elephants are amongst my favourites so far ... they are so bright and vibrant.  Here's #186 - Around the World.  Vies closely at the top of my list.  I thought it equally could have been named "Day and Night". 

Here's 188 - Mayur Gajendra.  Same artist for both - Nilesh Mistry. 

Here's the left side of both - there's Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, and other iconic world famous images. 

And here's the Southern Hemisphere - these colours just really appeal to me - I think this ellie is so beautiful.  This beautiful elephant named Around the World was created by Nilesh Mistry.  Artist's Inspiration: "Inspired by the winning design in a competition held for the staff of BlackRock, this design reflects iconic buildings in some of those countries where BlackRock has an office, including India, the home of so many Asian elephants."

This next elephant proved elusive - or rather, it's location did!  This next elephant is #83, Midnight Indigo, and is situated at Bow Churchyard accessed via Bow Lane.  It is a tiny lane which opens up to a large space filled with pubs and restaurants.  The statue in the background was presented to the City of London by the "Commonwealth of Virginia" - interesting terminology, I thought. 

Here's the last ellie of the day - #211, Hope.  It stands outside the giant BT building, near St Paul's tube.  My feet were screaming for mercy by this time!  More City Hathi to come ....

Victoria Tower Gardens ellies

On Friday morning on my way to a team meeting, I passed these wet and bedraggled ellies near Westminster.  I was very surprised to learn that this park was called Victoria Tower Gardens - I had no idea!  It's much more Westminster than Victoria in my mind.  I am certainly learning much more about London in this exploration and elephant hunt. 

This is #250 Haecceity.  I didn't even know this was a real word - but here's the definition, according to Wikipedia ...

Haecceity (from the Latin haecceitas, which translates as "thisness") is a term from medieval philosophy first coined by Duns Scotus which denotes the discrete qualities, properties or characteristics of a thing which make it a particular thing. Haecceity is a person or object's "thisness".  So culturally enlightening, as well as visually satisfying! 

The decoration is a pastiche of aerial photographs of people.  You can also see the raindrops - it was raining at the time. 

Here is #192 - bird 2.  The paint is quite thick on this ellie - you can really see the layers.  This elephant was created by Patricia Shrigley.  Artist's Inspiration: "London crows, These are my sanity in concrete landscapes."

Last one in this group is #171 - Jarlo.  Lovely and bright on a horribly dull morning. 

After work, I caught the tube to the city, and walked around in the early evening and also got lost quite a bit!  I saw some very pretty ellies, so more to come soon .....

Westfield Exclusive Ellies ...

I made the effort on Wednesday evening to go to Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherd's Bush to see the four elephants there.  The initial push was to see the elephants, but it is also a positive thing to know how far the centre is from me and what shops are there.  It is a HUGE complex and was well worth going.  There are plush leather seats EVERYWHERE and it does have very luxurious surroundings on a grand scale.

#172 - Luna - Artists M McCann, J Scott & N Colyer - This elephant definitely seems like a boy to me - black and sophisticated, twinkling with loads of different lights all over him.  Very fitting for this particular upmarket surrounding. 

This elephant consists of hundreds of fibre optic lights.  Artists Inspiration: "We wanted to highlight the plight of the Asian elephant in a unique & striking way." Luna was sponsored by 9web.

#56 - love ellie - no doubting the gender of this particular elephant!  Most definitely a girl, unless you can have an elephant in drag! Artist is Andrew Logan.  You should see the bling and the twinkly toenails! 

I was taking photos inside the shopping centre - especially of this amazing ceiling - when a security guard approached me, and asked me very definitely to stop!  Wow - the world's gone mad. 

Very very space age - beautiful, futuristic and quite blancmange like in this photo, I think! 

Back downstairs, and near the children's playcentre, is elephant #97 - Saffron.  Poor thing!  It is very closely encaged - I don't understand why. Children are crawling all over the elephants in the parks around London - but here the barrier is up for reasons unknown.  Artist Ellen Stewart.  The Elephant is the cheese, and there are mice all over Saffron!  So cute, and what a clever design. 

#224 - Eli - Artist Sandra Sashou.  Eli has been decorated with newspaper articles about elephants.  There are also paint streaks, and then it has been varnished over the top.  Eli is sitting at the food court on the first floor gallery.  The scale of this place is quite astonishing. 

I don't know what this shop is, or what it was selling, but I love the artwork ...

Today after work, I shot quite a few ellies in the city.  Will upload over the weekend .... a great, but very tiring way of seeing London!

Break from the Usual Programming....

Anyone getting sick of elephants yet? I'm not but a bit of variety is good and healthy ....

The challenge was to incorporate one predominant colour into the layout, scraplift a favourite, use little or no journalling, and incorporate a number into the title. 

The picture is of my nephews in Australia and when I last visited I got my sister to upload loads of favourites onto a disk.  This photo was taken some years ago, so I don't know any of the detail - which suited the "no journalling" aspect.  A predominant colour is blue - the Crate Paper shaped paper background has a delicate blue grid pattern on it.  I scraplifted a favourite in my UKS gallery by Craftystash - because I loved all the elements in her layout - the colours, the choice of papers, but particularly the design - especially the stitching. 

This layout is too busy for my taste, but I got the main elements in - and I used old stash, too by colouring my chipboard letters in with Promarkers, and then clear embossing them to match the colours in the layout.  Patterned papers are Fancy Pants Delight, We R Memory Keepers White Out and Crate Paper Mia.  Other products in the title are some Making Memories rub-ons, some black plastic letters, and some K & Co paper alphabet letters that I got in a huge kit some years ago. 

Normal service will resume tomorrow!  :)

No More of More London after this ...

Here are the last of the elephants seen on Monday lunchtime at More London ...

#100 - Carry on up the Kyber - landscape.  I didn't really recognise any of the characters on the elephant, but then I have never been a Carry On afficionado ...

Here's a lovely view of London, behind "Simply Gold" - no 9.  Great imagination of the artist Laura Porter in this one, don't you think?  You can see part of the HMS Belfast on the left, and then "The Gherkin", an office block in the City at St Mary Axe which was opened in 2004 and caused a deal of controversy. 

Here's one decorated by actual kids - L Christie & K Woolley, De Beauvoir Primary School.  #141 - titled Kids Co Elephant. 

Here's a close-up:  elephants on an elephant so literal.  :lol:

This one is called "No More Plundering" - #176.  Artist Milo Tchais - sponsor Joanna Lumley.  I wonder if she chose the name - it would seem very appropriate.  I love the colours and the design - very new age.  Artist's Inspiration: "The relations present within nature's elements and beings. Symmetry and balance which one has to relate to consciously, as part of it and not acquisitively."

This elephant was kindly sponsored by Joanna Lumley.

 

Here's a very beautiful elephant - called Cha-Chang.  #28 - Artist Turdsak Piromkraipak.  I think most of these artists must be Sri Lankan - they seem to have the world's longest names, for sure! 

Love the fact that she is wearing a designer elephant logo on her back left leg - like a fancy pair of jeans, really!  Very fashion conscious, darling! #122, Roselephant below, is bright and funky in her psychedelic pink garb. 

#12 - weirdly titled Polka Dot - and #40 - Simply Yellow.  Stating the obvious - no, that's not the name of an elephant ....

#47 - Tea Roses, by Narongrit Asokwatana.  A very pretty, feminine girly ellie. 

Here's Hornbill - #116, by Helen Cowcher. 

And finally - another little vignette from the delightful Cloudia - underneath the shadows of Tower Bridge.  Isn't she lovely? 

Interested to read more from the Worldwide Federation? Go here  After all that, I need to go lie down in a darkened room ...

Elephant and Castle

They really couldn't leave an Elephant on Parade out of Elephant and Castle, could they?  On my way home from work Monday evening, I went one stop to "Sarf London" and got out at Elephant and Castle station.  I had acquired two copies of the big maps when I saw Cloudia, but sometimes the directions aren't that exact, and you have to go and walk about and ask people for some help. 

I went around the roundabout and down a road a bit and no elephant spotting.  I then went back through the shopping centre - and because I didn't read all the bits of the map properly - tut! I didn't see that the elephant was actually in the shopping centre - St Modwens, to be precise.  A kind security guard pointed me in the right direction.  I wasn't leaving until I found it - even though I really wanted to get home!  Sometimes you have to allow yourself a bit more time to reach your goal. 

I felt sorry for this elephant - it is in a very dirty location which is far less salubrious than some of the more fortunate elephants of London.  Still, it is very beautiful, despite the shabby environs.  Forever Birds - isn't that a grand title?  No 6, artist Anchalee Intorn. 

I had to get the Elephant & Castle logo in at the background.  Elephant and Castle shopping centre is just off the huge roundabout - it is a main thoroughfare to get to South London and beyond, so it has a huge amount of traffic flowthrough, and a large amount of buses pull up there through the course of the day.  You can see the grime on everything from close-up - best not to look too closely then! 

There's a fabo patchwork of birdies on this beauty - hope the Castle Tandoori don't get too many ideas - lol!  She does stand out in this grimy patch of urban decay. 

I wonder if her second cousin is jealous and trying to get in on the act?  I couldn't really leave this ellie out - an original, befitting the location. 

                                                    

I am starting to feel like David Bellamy or Davina Attenborough .... I wonder how I look in khaki?