Post #611330 by MajikImaje on Sun, Oct 23, 2011 1:20 PM

Thank you so much for your comments Wendy.

Let me post some more photos to show & tell how simple this is to accomplish.

In 2004; I would tease my sons, (for inspiration purposes). They were just beginning to work with ivory for the very first time. They were: 14 years young, 15, & 16 !! Quite young indeed. I only spoke 5 sentences to them. Then they began to work and learn very quickly. Soon they were quite proud that they were making & selling bracelets daily. I said, you are quickly becoming the talk of Kotzebue; and in other villages. Plenty of people make bracelets. But not like we do. Our style is unique and much different. We are the only carvers in Alaska that offer a rock solid - unconditional lifetime guarantee on every thing we create & sell.

So .. I said to these young boys one day... you are quickly advancing - Once you can sell a bracelet for $300.00 then you have just one step left to accomplish. Make 3,000 of them - then you can all RETIRE before you are 25 years old! That was in 2004. Here we are now in 2011. We purchase cases of boxes to keep track of our current total amount since we first began. We are currently working on finishing case #37 !

Yes we have made & sold over 3,760 bracelets. We have perhaps 40 small boxes left in the current case we are using. NO...not every bracelet sold for $300. We started out @ $20.00 each for bracelets that looked like 'rocks' that Wilma Flintstone would wear.Then gradually they got better when they refined the simple steps I originally just spoke to them. IN fact some of their bracelets have sold for as much as 500 or even more. It all depends on what types material are used and how much detail is added. The # of insets etc.

So here's some great samples of bracelets made and sold a few weeks ago. Since april of this year,(over 260 bracelets were sold) we work part time. Just a few hours a day in the morning and the day is over.

All we want... or need(daily)... $300 get us through the day. That has been our magic # for many years. Anything we make over that amount. We find someway / someone to just 'give it away'. There's lots of people out there that are homeless, and such. We get tremendous joy.. in doing the 'unexpected'. Free money, all you want or could ever need.. just by working a few hours a day.

Ivory is so fascinating and location matters not one bit. Just mention that word "ivory" ! People are instantly curious and want to see it!!

Let me find some good teaching step by step images to post here next.!!