An Elephant a Day: elephant a day

Showing posts with label elephant a day. Show all posts

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Elephant No. 114: Outagraphy

I ran across this technique a couple of months ago while researching Surrealist art, and thought I'd give it a try on a day when I didn't have a lot of time. I'm not sure I truly see the point of it, but it's an interesting idea.

An outagraph is, as the name more or less suggests, a photograph in which the primary subject of the photograph has been cut out. The method is believed to have been invented by American trumpeter, jazz poet and painter, Ted Joans.

There are very few downloadable outagraphs online, and those that do exist either have confusing or limited information on the artists, so I decided to stick only with the ones I created today.

There's not much I can say about the technique except that you take a photograph, excise the subject, then place it on a piece of contrasting paper to highlight what's missing.

For today's elephant, I thought about showing the before photographs, then decided to simply present the outagraphs. It can be interesting to guess what's been cut away in an outagraph, but if you'd like to see the original photograph for each, just click on the highlighted cutline under each.

I tried both black and white backing paper for all six, and found that some looked better with black, and some looked better with white. Generally speaking, the richer the background, the better white looks, and the more pale the background, the better black looks. You could obviously use coloured or patterned paper as well.

Baby African elephant.
Photo: John Macdonald, 2004
Source: http://animaldiscoveryonline.com/elephant-13.html


Man riding decorated elephant, Elephant Festival, Jaipur, India. Photo: Paul Beinssen Source: http://www.art.com/products/p12885396-sa-i2179225


Elephant painting a t-shirt, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo: Bernie Source: http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/elephants-encounters-at-chiang-mai-in-thailand/


African elephant, Serengeti, Tanzania. Photo: Anouk Zijlma Source: http://goafrica.about.com/od/africanwildlife/ss/The-Big-5- Images-Facts-And-Information-About-Africas-Big-Five_2.htm

African elephant baby and mother.
Source: http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/photography/
Elephant%20Album/WWFImgFullitem4397.jpg

Kerala festival elephant.
Source: http://www.birgitsideenundreisen.blogspot.com/

This was an easy and sort of meditative activity. I actually like cutting around fine lines like this, so I enjoyed the technique. Better yet: no engineering, no gluing, no folding, no cooking, no sewing, no getting cold and wet. Gotta like that.

Elephant Lore of the Day
It occurred to me when considering outagraphs that the main purpose would be to highlight something that either no longer exists (as in an outagraph created from a historical photograph), or to highlight something that is in danger of disappearing. Elephants definitely fall into the latter category.

Elephants are currently considered an endangered species. By definition, an endangered species is one that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Elephants are nominally protected by both the African Elephant Conservation Act and the Endangered Species Act. Despite this legal protection, elephants face three major threats: poaching for their ivory, an activity that has risen again in recent years; loss of habitat; and human encroachment, which usually has deadly consequences for both people and elephants.

The statistics are sobering. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were an estimated five to ten million elephants in the world. By the end of the twentieth century, they numbered between 400,000 and 500,000. In the decade between 1980 and 1990 alone, the population of elephants in Africa dropped from 1.3 million to 600,000, due largely to the ivory trade. This precipitous drop resulted in an international ban on ivory, which stemmed but did not stop the poaching of elephants for their tusks.

Although elephant populations are increasing in some areas of eastern and southern Africa, other African nations report that their elephant populations have decreased by as much as two-thirds in recent years, even in protected areas. Chad in central Africa—one of the continent's poorest countries—has a decades-long history of poaching, which has caused their elephant population to drop from more than 300,000 in 1970, to only 10,000 today. And in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo—home to the gorillas made famous by Dian Fossey—the number of elephants in the park's observable area fell from 2,889 in 1951 to only 348 in 2006. Today, the total population of African elephants in the wild is estimated to be somewhere between 470,000 and 690,000.

The situation is similarly dire for Asian elephants. Despite the fact that the larger tusks of African elephants are far more attractive to poachers, habitat loss and human encroachment have been so devastating in Asia that the Asian elephant was placed on the endangered list a full 15 years before the African elephant.

It has been estimated that there were as many as a million elephants in Asia a mere 100 years ago. Today, it is estimated that there are only about 60,000 to 70,000 Asian elephants left. Somewhere between 38,000 and 53,000 are wild elephants; 14,500 to 15,300 are domesticated for use in logging, circuses and festivals; and about 1,000 can be found in zoos around the world.

The situation is particularly unfortunate in Thailand, where a ban on rainforest logging has resulted in a drop in domesticated elephants from 40,000 in 1980 to less than 2,600 today, and a current total population of both wild and domesticated elephants of only 6,000 or 7,000.

Saddest of all, just today the Sumatran elephant was declared critically endangered, having declined by more than 80% over the past 75 years—50% of that within the past 25 years alone. Having lost 69% of its habitat, the Sumatran elephant now faces extinction within the next 30 years.

Although frequently coming under fire from animal rights groups, well-run zoos and nature parks may one day become the last best hope for the world's largest land mammal.

Habitat loss is the most serious threat facing wild Asian elephants. The barred
areas show their previous range. The black areas show their current range.
Source: http://www.eleaid.com/index.php?page=asianelephantdistribution

To Support Elephant Welfare
World Wildlife Fund
World Society for the Protection of Animals
Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information on a number of sanctuaries around the world)
Performing Animal Welfare Society
Zoocheck
Bring the Elephant Home
African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders

Friday, 20 January 2012

Elephant No. 110: Stippling

I didn't feel like assembling anything today, so I thought I'd try something I haven't done in years: stippling.

Stippling is similar to pointillism, in that it uses a series of dots to create an image. Although the terms "stippling" and "pointillism" are sometimes used interchangeably, stippling generally refers to single-colour or black-and-white drawings, while pointillism involves multiple colours.

The principle is simple: place a series of dots on a surface. The more dots, the darker and denser the area; the fewer dots, the lighter the area. This allows you to create effects simulating subtle shades of light and dark.

A stippled masterpiece produced by Adam Todd for the
Koh-i-noor company, using a Rapidograph drafting pen.
Source: http://maramattiaart.blogspot.com/2008/11/
cat-rendered-with-stipple-technique-in.html

Stippling can also be used in printmaking, with dots indented into the printing plate. Stippling, as applied to engraving, is thought to have been invented by Giulio Campagnola sometime around 1510, although the stippled prints he produced also included sold lines.

Today, stippled drawings can also be produced by computer, although these often lack the subtlety of hand-drawn versions.

For today's elephant, I decided to work from a photograph. Because I've never really drawn an elephant's trunk, I chose this photograph by Nick Garbutt as my inspiration:

Close-up of curled tip of the trunk of an Asian elephant, Bandhavgarh National Park, India.
Photograph: Nick Garbutt
Source: http://www.nickgarbutt.com/photo-galleries/india/
highlights-wildlife-and-culture

I used a simple black rollerball-type pen with a very fine 0.3 mm tip, and a 14 x 17.75 cm (5.5 x 7-inch) piece of good-quality bristol board. I could have used one of my many Rapidograph pens, which would have given me uniform dots, but I didn't feel like dragging out my pens and loading them up with ink today.

I started by faintly outlining the trunk with a series of spaced-out dots. It's not quite the same as the photograph, but I think it looks realistic enough.

Next, I began filling in the darkest shadows, modelling the shape a bit as I went.

After this, there's not really much obvious progress I can show. I didn't want to fill everything in, as I rather liked the open areas on the left, so I didn't do much more than add or enhance wrinkles, and add more dots to the darkest areas.

I like the finished piece a lot. It was easy, relatively quick at just over an hour, and I liked that I could use simple dots to create subtle shading. I also found it interesting that even adding a single dot out in the middle of nowhere will draw your eye and create a greater sense of shading than the dot actually merits. In that case, you either have to commit to leaving things alone, or add a lot more dots.

As I often do, I came very close to crossing the line into overworking the drawing, but I forced myself to put the pen down and leave it at this.

Elephant Lore of the Day

In India and China in particular, elephants are seen as lucky. Statues are placed on shelves and near doorways to ensure luck and longevity, and some believe that touching the trunk of a household elephant statue will bring success in business or on a journey.

There are different beliefs about the way the trunk is depicted. In the West, it is thought that a raised trunk is lucky, and that pointing the trunk at a photograph or object bestows good fortune. In many eastern cultures, however, it is generally believed that an elephant with its trunk pointed up "stores" luck, while one with its trunk hanging down "dispenses" luck. What a curled trunk means is anybody's guess.

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Elephant No. 109: Wooden Block Puzzle

When I was little, one of my favourite toys was a wooden block puzzle. Because there was an image on each side of the cubes in the puzzle, it was really six puzzles in one. I haven't seen one of these in years, and my own is mostly scattered to the four winds, so today I thought I'd create a mini-version of a wooden block puzzle.

I couldn't find much information on this kind of puzzle online, and I've already covered jigsaw puzzles in a previous post, so no history lesson today. A search for any kind of wooden cube or wooden block puzzle turns up various trick blocks with weird-shaped pieces. I'm not good at those, so we won't even go there.

I was actually inspired to make this puzzle when I ran across this bag of little wooden blocks in a discount store. I'm not sure what kind of craft they're meant for, but they're perfect for this particular activity.

I decided I would use twelve blocks for my puzzle, giving me a total area of 6 cm (2.4 inches) long by 4.5 cm (1.75 inches) wide.

I briefly considered painting six puzzle images, but decided against it—not only because I couldn't face painting six separate pictures today, but also because I feared the paint might drip down the sides of the blocks, mucking up whatever other images I might already have painted. And besides, my original kiddie puzzle had paper images glued onto wooden blocks, so it felt traditional.

I selected a series of elephant images I liked online, downloaded them, and sized them on my computer to approximately 6 x 4.5 cm. Rather than change the proportions of the images, I simply got them close to the right size, knowing I could cut off any extraneous bits later.

These are the six I chose:

Five the elephant pushing a stalled jeep, England.
Photo: NETSTREAM
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
newstopics/howaboutthat/7636466/
Elephant-provides-breakdown-assistance-to-zoo-keeper.html

Decorated Asian elephant in Jaipur, India.
Photo: Faraz Usmani
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:
Decorated_Indian_elephant.jpg

Asian elephant in India.
Photo: Gerry Ellis/Minden Images
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/03/
elephants-drunken-rampage-india

Elephant polo in Jaipur, India.
Source: http://www.onthegotours.com/India/Tours/Delhi-to-Darjeeling

Close encounter of the wild kind between elephant and
Swiss tourists at HluHluwe Game Reserve, South Africa.
Source: http://www.safari-guide.co.uk/blog/2009/03/
guided-game-drivesafaris-advised/

Asian elephant, Jaipur, India.
Source: http://www.age-net.co.uk/Travel/

To set the first image, I wrapped an elastic band around my block of blocks to hold them together as a group. I then glued on my first image which, as you can see, trails off the edges. I used simple white glue, spread thinly. Because I need to be able to slice along the edges of all of the blocks afterwards, I turned the whole thing over and weighted it down. I left it to dry for about half an hour then blasted it with a hair dryer for about five minutes. Since I have six images to deal with, this was going to be a long evening.

Once the first image was dry and bonded to the wood, I cut off the parts hanging over the edges, and sliced carefully between all blocks with a sharp-bladed craft knife. This is the trickiest part of the whole activity, in my opinion—perhaps because accuracy and fussiness are not my favourite things.

The first couple of puzzles weren't bad to cut, but once there are pictures on more than two sides of each block, things start to get a bit messy. The edges tend to catch and tear a little as they're being cut, and because it was getting late, I got tired of waiting for things to be bone dry. Bone dry is better, however, because the paper will be stronger and more rigid than if it has even the slightest feeling of damp. And I mean slight.

As you can see in the final photos, to clean this up, I'll need to smooth and re-stick some of the edges, and perhaps even touch them up with a bit of paint. Then I'll probably lacquer each block on all sides to seal it and finish it properly. I'll also either look for, or make, a small tray or box to keep all the pieces together.

I love this little puzzle. It's even a bit tricky to re-form the images—if you toss the pieces around, it's surprisingly difficult to figure out what side of the block goes with which image. I had to refer to the original photos to keep from driving myself crazy, while trying to put the two images back together for the final photos.

This was technically easy to make, if a bit fiddly, and in actual working time only took about an hour and a half. The rest of the time was filled with the excitement of watching glue dry.

Elephant Lore of the Day
The first image I used came from a story about an elephant who gave a stalled jeep in England a helping trunk.

The jeep broke down in West Midland Safari Park in April 2010, but before staffer Lawrence Bates managed to call for assistance, an elephant named Five stepped in. The eighteen-year-old elephant got behind the jeep and pushed it out of the way—and out of his enclosure.

He also decided to wash it. After spraying it with water from his trunk, he picked up a sponge and dabbed the windows and paint. Then something even more astonishing happened. According to Bob Lawrence, Director of Wildlife, "The jeep broke down again and, to our astonishment, Five came over and decided to give us a hand. He lifted the bonnet up, got the dipstick and gave it to Lawrence. When we still couldn't get it to start, he went round the back and gave us a push. I've never seen anything like this in my life—it was absolutely incredible."

Five the elephant helps push an ailing jeep out of his enclosure.
Photo: NEWSTEAM
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/
7636466/Elephant-provides-breakdown-assistance-to-zoo-keeper.html

Monday, 16 January 2012

Elephant No. 106: Etch A Sketch

Today I didn't want to do anything that required painting, or glueing, or that might involve bits of stuff flying all over the place, so I decided to try drawing an elephant with an Etch A Sketch®.

Billed as "The World's Favorite Drawing Toy®" with more than 150 million sold, the Etch-a Sketch was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes. Dubbing it L'Ecran Magique ("The Magic Screen"), Cassagnes took it in 1959 to the International Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany. The Ohio Art Company, which now produces the Etch A Sketch, originally passed on the toy, then decided to take a chance on it. They renamed it the Etch A Sketch, and launched it in the United States for the 1960 Christmas season. It quickly became the most popular drawing toy on the market.

The Etch A Sketch is composed of a glass screen enclosed in a red plastic frame. The reverse of the glass screen is coated with a fine aluminum powder. To create a design, you turn the two white dials on the front, This moves an internal stylus, which pushes the powder out of the way. Although the dials move the stylus only horizontally or vertically, by turning the two dials at once you can create diagonal and curved lines.

To erase the picture, you turn the toy upside down and shake it. This causes polystyrene beads inside the case to roll around and re-coat the screen with aluminum powder. The black lines that make up your design are actually reflecting the black background inside the toy, and scraping away large enough areas in a design will allow you to see inside.

It surprised me to learn that there are numerous artists who produce professional lineographic work on the Etch A Sketch. There's even a way to make the work semi-permanent and shake-resistant, by simply removing the aluminum powder. This is done either by taking off the plastic back, or by drilling holes in the bottom of the toy and letting the aluminum powder trickle out. The Etch A Sketch is then resealed.

Etch A Sketch art by George Vlosich III. See more of his astonishing
work at: http://www.gvetchedintime.com/
Source of above image: http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/the-best-
etch-a-sketch-artwork-in-the-world/

The Etch A Sketch was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York in 1998, and in 2003, the Toy Industry Association named it one of the 100 most memorable and creative toys of the twentieth century.

Although various Etch A Sketch products have entered (and sometimes left) the market since 1960, the original Etch A Sketch remains unchanged, and remains popular to this day.

I don't like the Etch A Sketch—at least, I didn't when I encountered it as a child. I remember trying and trying to get it to make drawings I liked, but I could never get the hang of a truly curved line, which was a real drawback to me.

For today's elephant, I had to actually buy an Etch A Sketch, which wasn't as inexpensive as I had hoped. I was also a bit annoyed to find that every last one in the store had numerous faint lines already showing in the screen—no doubt played with by everyone who came upon them. The bold "Try Me" printed on the package doesn't help.

I had to reacquaint myself with the principles of Etch A Sketch art, which is pretty much as I remembered: straight lines easy, curved and diagonal lines not so easy. However, it felt a bit pointless to play with it just for the sake of playing with it, so I decided just to start drawing elephants and record the results.

A note about the photographs: the Etch A Sketch is very hard to photograph, partly because it's a highly reflective surface, but also because the final drawings are very low contrast, and because the previous etched lines are quite visible. I cleaned the photographs up a bit, but I think I'd need a much better set-up to photograph these effectively. And a lot more PhotoShop work than I was willing to do today.

This is my first attempt. Feel free to mock.

With the second one, I was beginning to figure out how to make the lines go where I wanted. Still not great, but an improvement.

By number three, I could see how this might work for me. I still had many moments in which the stylus acted like a highly uncooperative drunk, but I began to actually like the Etch A Sketch. My attempts at shading under the trunk and around the ear are laughable, but it was worth a try.

Number four was one of my favourites. I began to see elephants in the previous etching lines (mine and those of previous store customers), which was rather interesting. This one even seemed to have a bit of personality.

With number five, I played with wrinkles and folds, and realized that this was a lot like the contour maps I remember studying in school.

The final elephant was also one of my favourites. It was fun drawing the flower, and I can see that I might learn to quite like the Etch A Sketch, now that I see that you can draw fairly small, and that you can make things that are actually round, rather than just approximating round.

I started out not liking the Etch A Sketch at all, and ended up enjoying the way I could draw fine lines that slightly overlapped one another. I also liked the contour effect.

It hadn't occurred to me when I started this that it would be another version of continuous line drawing, but without the same amount of control or freedom. That being said, I like a couple of these quite a lot. Too bad they're not permanent.

Elephant Lore of the Day
In 1923, some officers mapping Africa's Gold Coast got bored, following a long hot day in the tropical sun. They had only one hill left to record, but decided to use their imaginations rather than map the actual hill. They drew a contour around a picture from a magazine, giving the hill contours in the shape of an elephant.

For some time, the substitution remained undetected. It can still be seen on some editions of the map, shown below. If you can't quite see the elephant in the image, go to the original website here, which allows you to click on the map to superimpose the elephant.

Map of hill in Gold Coast (today's Ghana), 1923.
Source: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/lieland/m3-3-1.html#

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Elephant No. 105: Gilding

For today's elephant, I thought I'd take something cheap and make it look a bit more expensive by applying gold leaf—not real gold leaf, of course, but something that bills itself as "Imitation 23 karat color". I've never tried gilding this before, although my husband gilded all the wood mouldings in his study—an activity that, strangely, I managed to dodge.

Gilding involves the application of thin gold leaf, flakes or powder to a solid surface, such as stone, plaster or wood. It can even be applied over other metals. In the West, gold leaf is usually applied over silver, resulting in "silver gilt" or "vermeil". In China, gold leaf over bronze is more common, and is called either "gilt bronze" or "ormolu".

In addition to gold, other metals such as silver and copper can be applied in a similar fashion, although this is called "metal leaf" rather than "gilding". Objects that are gilded over only a portion of their surfaces are known as "parcel-gilt".

Gilding dates back to at least the fifth century B.C., when the historian Herodotus writes that the Egyptians gilded both wood and metal. In Ancient Greece and Rome, gilding was an important part of architectural decoration. Originally found only on the ceilings of temples and palaces, gilding later trickled down to the homes of ordinary citizens, where it was used to decorate walls as well. Interestingly, the gold leaf used in antiquity was about ten times thicker than it is today, and the traces of ancient gilding that remain are still solid and bright.

Traditionally, gold leaf was produced by hammering gold into thin sheets—a practice that is thought to date back at least 5,000 years. Today's gold leaf is so thin that it is semi-transparent when held up to the light, and tends to fall to pieces when handled.

There are many gilding processes, including application by hand, glueing, chemical gilding, and electroplating. For an excellent overview of the various processes, see the Wikipedia page on gilding. Today, gilding and other forms of metal leaf are most commonly used on picture frames, woodworking, cabinetry, art, interior decoration, bookbinding, leatherwork, and pottery, glass and porcelain.

A period fauteil frame being burnished.
Source: http://www.gildingstudio.com/gilded_furniture.html

For today's elephant, I bought a kit that contained four plaster animals to paint, including an elephant.

I also went out and bought a gold leaf starter kit, which includes everything I need to leaf this little guy, except for a soft paintbrush. I think that I can probably scare up at least one out of the 93 brushes I seem to have.

The first step is to paint the item with a red-brown basecoat. My husband says that there's a yellow ochre basecoat that he prefers to the red. But my kit comes with red, so red it is. The basecoat does two things: seals a porous surface like plaster, and creates a coloured undertone. I was originally going to gild only the top of this, but I thought it might look weird if the gilding stopped at the lower edge, so I painted the underside as well.

Next, I painted the front with the adhesive. Although the instructions didn't say, I assumed that it should be applied thinly. I also guessed that it might be a good idea to make sure it wasn't too glopped into the crevices.

Once the adhesive had dried to a light tackiness—about 30 minutes or so—I could begin applying the fake metal leaf. I started with a bit on the elephant's hindquarters, detaching a small piece with my fingers, then picking it up with a brush and placing it on the elephant.

Then I read the instructions, which suggested applying a lot at once, so I tried that, too. I was actually able to gently pick up a large piece of foil in my fingers—although it's not necessarily a good idea to go that route, as the leaf is very fragile. The instructions recommend making it stick to a piece of wax paper then upending it on the sticky surface, but that seemed too complicated.

I don't recommend trying to cut it with scissors. The leaf sticks to the scissors, then to itself, then to you, then to anything else with the remotest bit of static charge. It was so annoying that I began to suspect that the leaf was some kind of metallized plastic, rather than actual metal. I'm just glad it didn't get anywhere near my hair.

Once the leaf more or less covered the surface, I gently pushed it into the crevices with the same soft brush I'd used to place it on the elephant. The loose bits will just flake off as you brush, so it obviously doesn't stay this junky-looking. Where you can see bits of red peeking through, I just applied more leaf, then pushed them in with the brush as well.

Following my first application of the leaf, there was still some red showing. This could be due to a number of things: rubbing too hard with the brush; static caused by the brush and lifting the leaf away; not enough adhesive in those spots; or even just bad luck.

I suppose that, if you wanted it to look distressed before it's actually had time to get distressed in real life, you could leave it like this. I don't like that kind of thing, however, so I decided to cover up the red bits. The instructions suggested simply adding more adhesive wherever the base coat was showing through, and plastering on some more leaf.

Once it was as covered as I wanted it to be, I burnished it. With this particular process, all that means is rubbing the entire surface gently with something soft like a cloth or a tissue. This not only gets rid of any extraneous bits, but also smooths and buffs the surface.

When I was happy with the front, I covered the back as well, using all the same steps.

To finish up, you're supposed to seal the whole thing with the clear sealant included in the package. I haven't done that yet. There's also an antiquing solution which I'm assuming will make the crevices darker or something, but I decided not to do that, either.

I like the final result well enough, although it does have a slightly garish upscale-chocolate-bonbon look about it. It's a rather poor imitation of any 23-karat gold I've ever seen, but it has a certain charm, and should make an excellent paperweight. Not bad, I suppose for a plaster elephant magnet worth about fifty cents.

Elephant Lore of the Day
In Ancient Greece and Rome, the words elephántinos (Greek) and ebur (Roman), although technically referring to the animal, were more commonly used to describe ivory: a luxury material even in antiquity. Some ancient writers knew that the tusks that provided ivory were teeth, while others were convinced that they were horns.

The most common use of ivory in the ancient world was for carvings and statuary. Interestingly, some of the most prestigious statues in Ancient Greece were produced in a style called "chryselephantine". The word referred to figures made of gold (chrysós) and ivory (elephántinos). Often monumental in size, chryselephantine statues usually graced temples and palaces, and were comprised of a wooden frame, featuring slabs of carved ivory for the figure's skin, and sheets of gold leaf for everything else. Precious and semi-precious stones were sometimes added.

Reproduction of the Athena Parthenos, as it might have
originally looked in 440 B.C. The skin would have been made of plates
of ivory, with clothing and accessories gilded in thick gold leaf.
The original stood 11.5 metres (38 feet) tall.
Source: http://quizlet.com/7106418/greece-flash-cards/

Due to the value of their materials, most chryselephantine statues had been destroyed by the Middle Ages. By the nineteenth century—particularly during the Art Nouveau period—smaller chryselephantine-type statues were being made. These still featured ivory and ivory-like substances to represent skin, but the gold was now supplemented with bronze, marble, silver, onyx and various stones or glass.

Art Nouveau chryselephantine sculpture.
Collection of the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Déco of Salamanca, Spain.
Source: http://www.museocasalis.org/index.php?pg=pagina&id=5&lg=in#%20#