Seven Fun Facts about the Elephant Parade You Know and Love
Over the past few years, The Cinnamon Room has become synonymous with the Elephant Parade. It all started when we took over the studio space from a creative director of the Elephant Parade here in Singapore, fell in love with the cause and the hand crafted mini elephant statues and began selling a few elephants along with our home decor range. As word spread and as other retailers dropped out, The Cinnamon Room gradually became THE one stop shop for everything Elephant Parade. It was never our goal to be Singapore’s Elephant Parade online shop, and yet here we are — and we couldn’t be more pleased about it! Sometimes the best business is grown organically.
As the ultimate elephant parade online shop, we feel it’s our duty to share some fun facts our clients might not know about these darling decor items, which so many of you have gifted or received over the years!
1.Elephant Parade is a social enterprise and runs the world’s largest exhibition of decorated elephant statues. This means that 20% of net profits are donated to elephant welfare and conservation projects. The Asian elephants are an endangered species. Human-elephant conflict, loss of natural habitat, poaching and capture are the biggest issues threatening elephants. There are less than 50,000 Asian elephants left. In the last 100 years, their habitat has shrunk by 95% and their population has declined by 90%. Known as the “gardeners of the earth”, many plants and animals depend on elephants for their own lives. If elephants disappeared, many other species would too. Elephant Parade is committed to raising funds to make a difference and to help save elephants. Each elephant we sell in the showroom or in our Elephant Parade online shop brings us such joy as every little bit helps!
2.Mosha is the inspiration and Star of Elephant Parade. Mosha was fitted with the first prosthetic leg for an elephant. Her Story of overcoming adversity is the key message of Elephant Parade and Mosha receives continued structural support from Elephant Parade. As elephant conservation is at the heart of Elephant Parade, 20% of all net profits contribute to projects helping Asian elephants like Mosha in their struggle for survival.
3.It’s been ten years since the original Elephant Parade descended on Singapore. For two months in 2011, a herd of over 100 brightly painted life-size elephants swarmed the streets of Singapore. Created by artists and celebrities, each Elephant Parade statue is a unique art piece. The life-size, baby elephant statues are exhibited in international cities and raise awareness for the need of elephant conservation. When they came to Singapore, it was a joyous and much photographed time to be on the streets. Ever since those fun and festive months, the (much) smaller version of the signature Singapore elephants have been an essential home decor accessory and go-to gift idea. Check out our Elephant Parade online shop for the full assortment.
4.We have a life sized baby elephant in our showroom! The “Don’t Forget” by Glen Goei was designed both as a wink to the saying “Elephants Never Forget,” and as a reminder that we should never forget the elephants. She was left behind by our showroom’s previous tenant and we have loved having her on site! See if you can spot her basking in the sunlight in our Holland Village showroom next time you visit us.
5.The special Singapore editions of the statues were created by artist Diana Francis. Our stand-alone Singapore Elephant Parade elephants celebrate old and new Singapore with charming, artistically rendered maps lovingly designed by artist Diana Francis. The Raffles Landing edition showcases an olden day Singapore map depicting the time of Sir Stamford Raffles landing in Singapore in 1819. Meanwhile, our One Degree North design is a vibrant depiction of a modern-day Singapore map. Both come in a variety of sizes and positions. The Singapore Stories tri-pack contains a mini version of the elephants each with a map from a different time period in Singapore’s history.
6.You can paint your own elephant. Our ArtBox edition is a way for you to design and paint your very own original work of elephant art. It contains everything you need to create a masterpiece of your own: A 15 cm white elephant replica in high quality polyresin; 6 colours of acrylic paint; and 3 paintbrushes. Check them out in our Elephant Parade online shop.
7.They are our most popular gift item making the perfect leaving gift and Christmas Gift. Around June and December every year, our elephant parade online shop works overtime to keep up with demand! The end of the international school year means it’s goodbye season for expats, and what better reminder of happy days in Singapore than a joyous little elephant decorated with a vintage or modern Singapore map? The Christmas season equally makes gifting these gorgeous elephants a special unique gift , giving back to support this wonderful social enterprise.
Visit our Elephant Parade online shop today or pop into the showroom and see these lovelies in person, we promise you will be delighted with the sheer detail and beauty of each hand painted elephant supporting this great cause!
