4 million raised!

Well, the latest update from the elephant family is that £4 million has been raised from the London Elephant Parade, that's double what the charity hoped for!
I am still waiting to hear who and where Kubella will be re homed. The charity have written to all the winning bidders to ask their permission to tell the world and the artist whom they are or if they want to stay anonymous...fingers crossed, we will know soon. I promise to keep you posted.
In the meantime, Poppies have been running some wonderful other charity projects, mainly mosaics in Dorset and I will post photos and details later.

Kubella the Star and the final journey..The Grand Auction

Well what a day! Kubella was finally sold at The Grand Auction in a marquee in the grounds of the Chelsea Royal Hospital yesterday for a stunning 20K. The day was perfect. The sun shone, the champers flowed, the live jazz played in the grounds and many celebraties mingled amongst the elephants including Terence Conran, Tommy Hilfiger, Rula Lenska, before the big event. I went to check Kubella looked her best and was surprised to see she was gone!!

Just the stand left with her footprints..slight panic came over me. I looked around and just couldn't see her - the only place left was the marquee..

The marquee was a sea of orange and shocking pink tables with a handful of elephants lining the edges. Kubella was at the entrance to the main room of the marquee looking gorgeous, panic over!

There she was at the entrance to the main room with a big vase of flowers in case she got hungry, placed in front of the air conditioning in case she got hot and in front of the fire hydrants in case she needed to be a hero or had to stop someone at the entrance.

I was very nervous as she was lot 26, after Julien MacDonald's Bertie, so a couple of glasses of champers were consumed and small round sandwiches were served, along with bite sized smoked salmon bagels and shots of cold pea soup... Then her photo appeared on the screen and Harry Dalmaney of Sotheby's started the bidding...within minutes she was sold!

Unfortunately I couldn't see who brought her or if it was telephone bidder..but will hopefully find out where her final home will be this week from the Elephant Family..maybe she will be coming home to Poole, brought by Lush or even Sunseekers or live in someones grounds backing onto the sea with boats in tow..a restaurant in a harbour somewhere...fingers crossed Iwill be able to get a photo to share...

Kubella has taken many many hours, weeks, months of TLC and thanks to everyone who has helped along the way..mum, family and friends, who have helped listened and made tea, Reed Harris for their donated dark blue tiles that look great, Azzura for the discounted tiles for this project, the public for helping to stick and the wonderful crowd at the sadly now closed Kube gallery in Poole for the space, help and constant tea and the wonderful support from everyone!

A day and a half before Kubella is finally sold at auction on Saturday and goes off to her new home. She is currently £5750 on the online auction site, I think she might make more on the day too!
Fingers crossed she goes to a wonderful new home, where she can settle in well. I will keep you updated! The Grand Auction is looking to be a rather grand affair, with live jazz and a champers lunch. I promise to take photos and post them here.