{"product_id":"grey-marble-elephant-with-pale-tusks-180cm","title":"Grey Marble Elephant With Pale Tusks - 180cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eSquare to the front and quite unadorned, an elephant stands with its ears spread wide. The trunk hangs and curls in at the tip, the tusks project forward, and the modelling is naturalistic - the animal carries no cloth and no harness at all. It stands on a pedestal with a band of lotus-petal lobes and a stepped base. A grey marble clouded darker still, its tusks a contrasting pale white-cream. One animal upon its base is what is priced.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTusks in a Different Stone\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe tusks on this elephant are visibly paler than the animal, and that is a deliberate choice with a real cost. A tusk carved from the body stone is the same colour as the head and disappears into it; carved from a paler stone it reads instantly, which is what an elephant's tusks actually do. But it means the tusks are not part of the block. Each is worked separately, and the socket in the head has to be cut to receive it within a fraction, because a tusk that does not seat squarely will sit at the wrong angle and an elephant with a crooked tusk looks damaged rather than characterful. The seating is cut and tested repeatedly before either tusk is finished to length.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis elephant faces square forward with its ears spread wide either side of the head, and that is a frontal composition - the spread ears are the whole silhouette and from the side they fold away to almost nothing. So it belongs where the approach comes straight at it: a gateway, either side of a drive entrance, centred at the end of a walk. At 180cm the spread ears sit at head height, and the front view is the composed one. A grey stone needs a light background rather than a dark one, which is the opposite of everything white in this range - against a yew hedge it disappears.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eComposed to Be Met From the Front\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeventeen to nineteen weeks. Turning the lotus band true round the pedestal opens the work, before any part of the animal exists. The animal is then roughed standing on the finished bed, legs left thick as columns, and the body brought to shape. The ears are spread and thinned late, since they are the widest and most exposed stone on the piece. The head is cut and the tusk sockets opened after the ears are safe, and the two tusks are worked from their own paler block, seated, tested and only then finished to length. The trunk is the last of the animal. The animal carries no pin and no filler, and its base is bedded dry beneath it. About 3,403kg for the one animal and its base, craned down and bedded onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlainer animals stand among \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, while grey stone belongs in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/marble-sculptures\"\u003emarble sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpecification\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable class=\"spec_table\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e180cm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-Carved Natural Marble\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53835195547995,"sku":"MST-ANI-079","price":26985.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-079_1.jpg?v=1787590619","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/grey-marble-elephant-with-pale-tusks-180cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}