Herd Elephant dazzles with thousands of rhinestones at Southend Pier

A baby elephant covered in thousands of rhinestones has been dazzling Herd In The City trailgoers in Southend.

Created by Havens Hospices and Wild In Art, the 118 elephants will be in place on the streets of the Southend, Shoebury and Leigh until September 4.

The Echo is a proud media partner for the event and urges people to head out to see the spectacular elephants – including the most sparkly creation.

Located in the window of the entrance to Southend Pier, Twinkle Toes is a dazzling elephant covered in around 150,000 rhinestones and took creator Sarah Nash, Finance Director at Ipeco, over 200 hours to complete.

Dazzling - Sarah Nash and Twinkle Toes (Image: Havens Hospices)

Sarah devised the design for Twinkle Toes after researching pictures of elephants and mandalas and looking for patterns that could work with rhinestones. Once designed, she started to outline the sculpture with a pencil before painstakingly filling it in one rhinestone at a time with specialist glue.

Sarah said: “The whole experience has been fantastic. Watching the elephants leave us blank and seeing them come back brought to life by all the various designs was amazing.”

Sarah has also been supporting the trail by making a tiny rhinestone elephant for a competition prize and jewellery to be sold as merchandise.

The beaded elephant key chains, woven elephant bracelets and elephant earrings she made proved extremely popular with trailgoers and sold out within three weeks at Herd In The City’s Herd HQ, next to Toni&Guy on Southend High Street.

Havens Hospices provides specialist care and support for people of all ages living with incurable conditions and their families.

This care and support includes everyone, extending to partners, family and friends to make sure the right support is there for patients and the people who matter to them, where and when they need it.

The care is provided free of charge and is only made possible thanks to donations and fundraising initiatives such as Herd In The City.

After the trail ends, the large and baby sculptures will join together to say goodbye at the ‘Farewell Weekend’ on September 23 and 24 at Saxon Hall.

This unique opportunity will allow people to see all the large and baby elephant sculptures in one place after their summer showcase across Southend. Find out more and book tickets at www.herdinthe.city/farewell

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