Visiting Elmer’s Big Parade Sculpture Trails
It may shock all my regular readers to know that Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk was only my first sculpture trail of 2019. How did I get to summer’s end and only do one trail? There have been so many good ones this year, many of which have just come to an end after their summer adventures. However, with more far flung locations (I’m looking at you Isle of Man and Jersey) unfortunately I just couldn’t logistically fit them into my calendar. I did however manage to make it to Ipswich in Suffolk where 55 individually designed elephants based on the well loved children’s character Elmer the Patchwork Elephant reigned supreme this summer.
What is Elmer’s Big Parade all About?
There are actually 3 Elmer Parades in 2019 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Elmer. Those in Ipswich and Plymouth have just finished but Elmer’s Great North Parade is still going strong in and around Newcastle and Sunderland until 1st November. There’s also one more Elmer Parade planned for summer 2020 based in Maidstone. This will be called Elmer’s Big Heart of Kent Parade, so keep your eyes peeled for that one too. We’re certainly going crazy for Elmer right now!
Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk like all other Wild in Art trails of its kind has been held to raise money for charity. The elephants have been designed by local and national artists and sponsored by local businesses as a means of attracting visitors to the area and boosting the local economy, whilst raising awareness and funds for St Elizabeth Hospice.
However all good things must come to an end and the Suffolk Elmers packed their trunks and left the streets of Ipswich on the 7th September. If you read this in time, you’ll still have one last chance to see the Elmers as all the sculptures will be on display at the Ipswich Corn Exchange and Town Hall this weekend: the 28th and 29th September. The auction will follow on the 3rd October where all funds raised will go to St Elizabeth Hospice. I visited the farewell event for the Manchester ‘Bee in the City’ Trail last year and it was excellent so if you haven’t managed to catch these fabulous heffalumps this summer, I can highly recommend going. It’s so great seeing all the sculptures together in one place.
Normally I would write my trail blogs while you can still visit the sculptures in situ, but unfortunately life got in the way of writing this summer. So instead of my normal format where I tell you about all the great things you’ll discover while following the trail, this time I’ll just show you my favourite designs so you can see what it was all about. Maybe you’ll then fancy grabbing a ticket to Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk farewell event to see them for yourself; or it’ll have you packing your bags for Newcastle or Maidstone to see more superb Elmers there!
My Favourite Patchwork Elmer Designs
I’ve loved how so many artists across all the Elmer Parades have utilised Elmer’s original patchwork design element in such creative ways.
As a huge jigsaw fanatic, I went crazy for Puzzelmer in Ipswich. Such an eye-catching and colourful design and the stitching detail round the edge of each jigsaw piece was fabulous, although I’m sure the artist’s eyes were going squiffy adding such a copious amount of equidistant dashes.
Super cute Tractor Boy featured a patchwork of fields in celebration of Suffolk farming life. What actually made me want to hug this Elmer was how his eyes were painted as the two different sized tractor wheels making him seem just like a cuddly handmade teddy bear with two left-over mismatched buttons stitched on for eyes. So adorable!
Skin Deep replaced the tough leathery grey skin of an elephant with a patchwork of many different animal skins. Many of his fellow wild neighbours could be identified from pandas, giraffes to all the big cats. Peacock feathers, reptile scales and shells all featured too. Skin Deep certainly tested you on how well you know your animals!
Elefont’s design incorporated an alphabet patchwork, illustrated with a maritime theme and features of the Ipswich waterfront and docks. For example, the letter ‘C’ stood for Customs House, ‘I’ for the famous Grade I listed Isaac’s bar and restaurant and ‘O’ for the River Orwell on which Ipswich stands. Like many of the sculptures, Elefont was located perfectly to reflect the theme of the design, so it wasn’t surprising that he could be found overlooking Ipswich Marina.
Also suitably situated along Ipswich’s waterfront was Nauticel. He was probably my favourite of the patchwork Elmers. His sharp checked design of maritime signal flags celebrating Ipswich’s nautical heritage was stunning! Should you get to visit a sculpture trail like this in the future, it’s worth noting that it always pays to read the accompanying information panels as apparently in this case, the flags were carefully arranged to spell out a hidden name. Not being versed in maritime language I didn’t have a clue, but it’s a great method of engaging and educating visitors.
Not a patchwork Elmer, but another that playfully engaged visitors was Welliephant. His design featured lots of colourful wellies, each one of a pair except for one. The challenge posed to the visitor was which one was the odd one out?! Though particularly exciting for children, as part of a visiting group of adults, I have to say we spent probably far more time than we should have examining, discussing and trying to figure it out! And nope – I was still none the wiser…so if anyone has the answer, please let me know!
Elmers that play with Elephant Characteristics
A clever design element that many artists use on animal related sculpture trails is to play with the physical characteristics and personality traits that the animal is well known for. Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk had several designs of this type.
Elmer’s Travel Trunk takes the elephant’s ‘trunk’ to a whole other level and designed a superb travelling trunk (or really for us Brits: a suitcase) for all his travel needs. Sporting stamps from all the places he’s been, he looked a bit like my magnet covered fridge and was definitely an Elmer after my own heart – I’d be stoked to own such a case! His trunk was even bang up to date with an Ipswich stamp to boot and he was ready come rain or shine with sunglasses and umbrella tucked into the straps!
Forget Me Not played on the concept of an elephant’s long term memory and the saying “an elephant never forgets”. Using the colours and floral motif of the Forget Me Not flower, this Elmer created a beautiful patchwork that many (including me) would fail to forget themselves!
Hope was the fostering and adoption Elmer whose design featured an intricate tree, each branch supporting families of all shapes and sizes; a giant family tree with a difference if you like. It was knowledge I had forgotten since my school days, but was reminded that elephants are known for living in large family herds and forming deep social bonds, with a huge capacity for adopting orphaned or abandoned calves. This was a stunning design that celebrated not just the elephant’s big heart, but those of the people out there who change children’s lives for the better with their love and nurture.
Local Architecture Elmer Designs
As one of my favourite things in the world, I always love it when I spot a sculpture that features architecture. As a result, any design that incorporates buildings, attractions and a general depiction of the local area and environment will always get my vote. It is one of my main reasons for travelling – to discover new places. Following these kinds of sculpture trails helps me do that whilst discovering things I’d have never have located without the trail.
Earnest Edmund was therefore right up my street as he offered a whole-hearted celebration of Suffolk life. There was a bit of everything on this Elmer from beautiful countryside and coastline to iconic buildings and landmarks. Having only ever visited a couple of areas in Suffolk, I only recognised a few places depicted, so this design got me raring to go on finding all the others! So, why was he called Earnest Edmund? Well, St Edmund is the patron saint of Suffolk, the 9th century King of East Anglia and the first patron saint of England! So this Elmer was certainly well deserving of his title.
Suffolk Masters primarily celebrated the work of the county’s many famous artists, notably Gainsborough and Constable and more recently Maggi Hambling. The latter is known for her expressive seascapes and the iconic scallop shell sculpture on Aldeburgh Beach. I am yet to see the sculpture but after seeing the painting of it on this Elmer, I know my next trip to Suffolk will centre on visiting it, along with the Dedham Vale of John Constable fame. However, also depicted on Suffolk Masters was the beautiful building of Christchurch Mansion and the Wolsey Art Gallery which is situated in Christchurch Park. As this Elmer was positioned right outside the park entrance, I immediately went to see the building in question. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to go inside. I’ll have to settle for next time….
Ipsephant provided an architecture lovers feast for the eyes, as Ipswich buildings were collaged in amazing and intricate detail! Seemingly floating on legs of water, Ipsephant reflected the town’s coastal position too. Of course, I would have loved to know the location of each building depicted, but I guess that’s half the fun afterwards – seeing if you can stumble across them!
Elmers with a Complex
Not happy with just being an elephant, I love the sculptures that have those little extra appendages that turn our Elmers’ into ‘something’ else. And each sculpture trail I have ever followed has had its fair share!
Petal was definitely my favourite of these in Ipswich. Definitely a ‘she’ in my eyes, Petal clearly wanted to playfully hide from her family of Elmers’ in a field of flowers. With many beautifully painted creatures hiding in the grass too, Petal was such an adorable and endearing Elmer.
Woolmer-I-Am! What can I say? I never expected to stumble across a Woolly Mammoth on this sculpture trail, so Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk played a blinder here. Unfortunately behind glass to avoid damage, it was impossible to get a decent photo and meant you couldn’t touch this incredibly tactile looking creature, but suffice to say, this Elmer was still an exciting addition to the trail.
Not On My Patch, (or as I liked to call him: the Lego Elmer) had absolutely no affiliation to Lego what so ever, but instead was inspired by the need to raise awareness about the issues surrounding single use plastics. Decorated with hundreds of bottle tops and other small plastic items that were collected during local beach cleans, Not On My Patch also addressed the disgusting problems of littering and waste in general.
And for no particular reason or Ipswich connection in the slightest, but clearly just for pure entertainment, came Elphis, complete with his very own astounding quiff! Enough said on that one… Thank you very much! (Sorry, couldn’t resist)
Complete Fantastical Elmer Designs
Last but not least, there’s those entirely fantastical designs, some just a complete work of fantasy and for no other reason than ‘just because’ and the availability of a suitably cheesy elephantastic title pun, (Elphis, you fell into this category too) and others that depict relevant topics of interest often with a local connection.
Elmer Armstrong celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo II moon landing led by Commander Neil Armstong, an event that had us all transfixed earlier this summer as we re-watched the amazing footage and related TV programmes about that amazing day. Elmer’s space suit was modelled on the original 1960’s NASA astronaut uniform, but of course Elmer’s patchwork face shined through lending Armstrong that little extra panache!
Another anniversary celebrated amongst Elmer’s Big Parade was the centenary of the first votes being granted for women in Britain. Constance was an Elmer cleverly camouflaged as an Ipswich bus and was indeed inspired by Ipswich buses who named a bus after leading Ipswich suffragette Constance Andrews in support of the festival: ‘Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes’. Their latest livery of purple and green nicely matches the suffragette colours too.
Nellie’s exotic and imaginative design interprets the lyrics of the popular children’s song Nellie the Elephant and brought back great childhood memories for me; though I have to say, apart from the first refrain, I struggled to remember any of the lyrics. The tune (rather annoyingly) stayed with me the rest of the day though, as I’m sure it will after writing about it again…duh…
Elephantom of the Opera depicted the dark fantasy world of The Phantom of the Opera, in particular Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theatrical stage show version of the story. It’s one of my favourite musicals so I let out a small scream of joy when I approached this Elmer. All the main elements of the musical are there – the candles, ballet shoes, the red rose, the broken mirror, the opera house curtains and the infamous Box 5. Of course Elmer needed his very own phantom mask too and together with some of the best song lyrics, Elephantom of the Opera left me one very contented theatre buff.
Think E=MC² and you picture Einstein’s face, much like is painted on this E=MC² Elmer. But what that wonderful little equation stands for on Elmer’s Big Parade is Elmer = Multi-Coloured Squares! Ahhhh…clever! Many of Einstein’s famous and inspirational quotes relating to the imagination were painted on E=MC², reminding us that imagination and creativity are just as valuable as scientific knowledge. Summed up in the artists own words (mainly as I couldn’t put it any better) “Question everything. Be playful. Think sideways, diagonally, and in spirals, rather than just in straight logical lines, because the components of life do not fit into neat square boxes. A beautiful creative mind can influence the world just as powerfully as a strong gravitational force can warp the dimensions of the universe.”
The Power of Elmer’s Big Parade
That last quote really does sum up the essence of the artwork and purpose of these sculpture trails. The artists do just that – they think laterally and imaginatively and create fun, inspiring and educational artworks, works that engage and inspire smiles and laughter.
The trail as a whole gets us out into the fresh air, exercising without realising you’re doing it because there’s a fun goal at the end of it. They teach us about the place we’re visiting, open our eyes to pertinent issues of the day and provide a fun escape from the stresses and strains of day-to-day life. All this that starts from a few beautiful creative minds is a powerful influence indeed and one I wouldn’t be without.
Get in Touch…
So, on that note, have I convinced you to go and follow an Elmer’s Big Parade? Did you see any of the Ipswich Elmer’s and if so, which were your favourites? Or did you see the Elmers in Newcastle or Maidstone? Let me know in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you.
I can’t wait for my next sculpture trail but which will it be, that is the question!
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Further Reading
Are you a sculpture trail fanatic like me? Then check out the 2022 Ipswich owls, the Nottingham robins, the Worcester giraffes, the Ironbridge ducks, the Norfolk book benches, the Derby rams, the Burton swans, the Welsh Snoopys and the various Snowmen trails.
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6 COMMENTS
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Judith Newman | 30th Sep 19
I expect loads of people have told you by now that the odd wellie is – one of a “pear”.
Brilliant pun and quickly worked out by my eagle eyed grandson!
Tilly Horseman | 7th Oct 19
Aw brill, thanks for that Judith. No, you are the first to fill me in. Love the pun: very creatively done! Thanks again
Kath Ibbotson | 29th Sep 19
Great photography and very informative as always. Having recently seen the frog sculpture trail in Stockport, Greater Manchester, it makes the professionalism of these sculptures stand out. Well done to all artists involved. Sorry to have missed the event!!
Tilly Horseman | 29th Sep 19
Thank you! Yes, there were so many fantastic designs – I’d love to know many combined painting hours there were amongst them all! 🙂
Lois Cordelia | 28th Sep 19
Excellent! And such a pleasure to have met you at last 🙂
Tilly Horseman | 29th Sep 19
Thanks Lois. Was great to have that little mini artists’ meet! xx