IVORY AND TURQ EARRINGS

Description

Fossil walrus bones and teeth are mostly found on the Arctic coasts of Alaska and St. Lawrence Island in Eskimo villages such as Sekloaqget, Ievoghiyog, and Miyowagh. The materials are found at ancient hunting sites or obtained from natural wash-ups of skeletons and skulls on shore. Bones excavated from mounds near Gambell on St. Lawrence Island have been dated as being more than 1000 years old, and other fossil bones, teeth and tusks may be several hundred years old. Walrus bone is particularly dense as to support the massive frame of the adult walrus. Mature females weigh in at 2,000 lbs. and males weigh easily half again as much. Although regulated, walrus hunting is still permitted by Native villagers to support their subsistence lifestyle. However, the bone and teeth used in Ivory Jacks carvings and jewelry are fossil. Colors of fossil walrus bone vary greatly depending on the length of time the bone was buried and what types of soil it was buried in. The cracks which you sometimes see in the sculptures are quite natural for materials of this age and add character to each individual work of art

MADE IN ALASKA