{"product_id":"standing-elephant-in-apricot-marble-statue-200cm","title":"Standing Elephant in Apricot Marble Statue - 200cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eSquare to the front and quite plain, an elephant stands with its ears held wide. Its trunk hangs and curls in at the tip and its ears are held clear of the shoulders. Its tusks are cut from a paler stone, set into the head rather than carved from the block. It stands on a thin rectangular slab with a plain bevelled edge. Apricot-terracotta marble - a warm pink stone - with grey-green veining drifting through ears, flank and slab. Two animals stand facing above, and the price covers one of them alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTusks Set In, Not Carved Out\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eA tusk carved from the body block is the same colour as the head and vanishes into it. These are cut from a paler stone and seated into drilled sockets, which is what makes them read at all - and it is a harder job than carving them in place. Each socket has to be bored at exactly the right angle and depth, because a tusk seated a degree out will point wrongly and a tusk seated even a degree out points wrongly, which makes an animal look broken rather than distinctive. The sockets are cut and test-fitted with rough blanks before either tusk is finished, and the tusks themselves are brought to length last of all, once both are seated and they can be judged together.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn apricot-terracotta elephant is the strongest colour statement in this range and it does not need a dark background to separate - it will hold against brick, render, gravel or planting on hue alone. What it will not do is share a space with white marble: put the two together and the eye reads colour first on both and the carving second. Give it a position of its own. At 200cm the animal is close to life size, so it reads as a beast and not a monument. The grey-green veining reads more strongly in flat light than in low sun, which warms the whole stone and flattens the bands.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Coloured Stone at Life Size\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwenty to twenty-two weeks. Reading the block wet decides where the grey-green banding will fall, and that comes before any cutting at all. The slab is then squared and bevelled and the animal roughed standing on it, legs left as thick columns. Body, ears and the hanging trunk follow, the ears thinned late because they are the widest and most exposed stone. The tusk sockets are bored after the head is finished, test-fitted with blanks, and the pale tusks seated and brought to length at the end. Neither animal nor slab carries a pin or a filler; only the tusks are separately set. Near 4,668kg for the single animal, craned across and bedded onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eColoured stone animals recur throughout \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and the marbles themselves within \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\u003e200cm\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":53836583862619,"sku":"MST-ANI-086","price":33583.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-086_1.jpg?v=1787590628","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/standing-elephant-in-apricot-marble-statue-200cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}