Fossil Ivory Bracelets

I live in the upper regions of the Arctic in Alaska. Most of the small Inupiaq Eskimo villages have 80% unemployment; How do large families survive ? Arts & Crafts !

I would like to post samples of our work. We teach many children in many different villages in the Arctic; Point Hope (home) Kotzebue & Barrow.

How do you take fossil ivory that looks like this:

These are the 3 slices of ivory that were used to make this gorgeous stunning fossil bracelet

Want to learn a simple secret about ivory that not too many people know ?

How do you suppose that saturated color change took place? Any ideas ??

It happens overnight; when you .. .. soak the pieces of ivory in 'baby oil' it brings out the faint hues that are present in fossil ivory!!

Anyone can do this; We have been teaching children for many years; Believe it or not; It only takes less than two days to become very proficient at doing this.

If possible I sure would love to teach members how to do this @ home.

I am so far from Alaska, you have no idea. However, i like your work.

Location has nothing to do with Ivory!

You are "down under" Swizzle.

I am @ "The top"! (of the world). Who would ever think, that you & I would ever meet ? But thanks to the new technologies that are present. We get to share!

If you can read these words; then you can purchase ivory and learn how easy it is to make gorgeous fossil ivory bracelets in your spare time.

For those that are not sure: Yes there are laws concerning ivory; Let me make it very simple for you to easily understand and comprehend.

Fossil Ivory; Mastodon Ivory; & Mammoth Ivory have no laws or restrictions of any type.
Anyone may purchase, sell, carve, possess. etc. There are no laws.

Elephant ivory is world wide ban ! pre-1972 estate sales are considered legal.

RAW WHITE WALRUS IVORY: that is against the law for anyone to own, sell, possess, or carve: EXCEPT an Inupiaq or Yupik Eskimo. NOTICE: the key word here is RAW (meaning there is no art work on it).

Anyone may purchase white ivory in two different forms. Beach Washed ivory is ivory that washes up on a beach. If a person finds some. Just bring it to fish & game and they will tag it and it is yours to keep and use and sell and it is all 100% legal.

White(walrus)Ivory that has art work on it; may be purchased by anyone. There are no laws or restrictions of any-type.

You can buy it and cut it up and do what ever you want with it. It is yours!

I taught my 4 Inupiaq (In you pack) sons; how to carve ivory and make bracelets, just by speaking 5 sentences to them. That is all I did (In the beginning) i.e. 2004

1. Slice a piece of ivory 1/4" inch thick using a coping saw or hack saw.

2. Draw shapes on that slice of ivory

3. Cut out the simple shapes you drew and smooth them all out using sandpaper.

4. Drill 1/16" holes in the pieces and string them up using elastic shock cord.

5. Polish to a brilliant shine & pack into a box.

Its that simple, Now let me illustrate and provide some examples.

There are many places you can purchase Ivory on the internet and it is legal. Alaska Fur Exchange is one such place. Invest in a small piece of fossil ivory. Lets say that the piece you purchase costs $75.

The profit margin = 10 ! That piece when sliced up and made into bracelets will yield $750 there about in profit. Quite a nice return on your investment for 7 hours work.

What do you need to begin ? a few supplies - a 6" vise & A dremel tool, a coping saw, sandpaper,superglue, bracelet cord and polishing compound.

When you slice ivory, do not just slice one piece. You will not learn how to cut straight using that method. Instead, make many slices 1/4" thick and learn how to use your eyes to make the pieces exact. We use no rules to measure anything!!

When you purchase a piece of ivory and cut it open and it is all white, do not despair, merely place the pieces overnight in baby oil or mineral oil and you will see a profound difference the next day.

We use clip-boards to mount our sand paper on for a hard surface in which to sand upon thus assuring the piece is flat and all scratches are removed.

Notice: his finger over the end of the piece he is drilling. We cut the drill bits in half so they can only go into the piece half way, then it is turned over and drilled from the other side.

Who would ever think you could make big bucks by making simple shapes out of ivory ? Squares,rectangles, ovals and hearts.

Here is a heart bracelet of consisting of ten hearts. 3 additional heart insets were added to each piece making a total of FORTY hearts in this one bracelet.

Now let me run some simple numbers past you to peak your interest.

It only takes 3 1/2 hours to make a bracelet. With two people working as a 'team' you can make four bracelets per day no problem at all.

By pre-fabricating some of your work, It is easy for two people to make 25 bracelets in a couple/ three days time.

You will not believe this but I PROMISE it is the truth.

4 bracelets per day = 120 bracelets @ the end of the month. Times $200 each = $24,000 in just one month, working @ home!!

We have sold (currently) Exactly 3,540+ bracelets

Now let me show you what 'children' / teenagers did.. .. they learned how to do this in less than a weeks time. Hundreds of families all over the dozens of villages in the arctic do this and many other type native arts & crafts to survive. Gasoline is over $6.00 per gallon in the villages.

Ivory is much sought after all over the world. All you have to do is just show it and people want to buy it at any cost.

Take any piece of material; draw a template shape on it.

We are considered the number one bracelets makers in all of Alaska. Our bracelets are sold all over the Arctic in Anchorage, Fairbanks and beyond.

My purpose here is to TEACH YOU: how to make outrageous money where-ever you live.

Cut them out and smooth them with sandpaper. Guess what? It requires 9, or 10 or more pieces to make one bracelet. In other words, by the time you finish your first bracelet, you are very proficient @ duplicating each piece with no problems at all.

Repeat - repeat - all the same simple steps.

I've really enjoyed reading your thread. When I was young and a tour guide in Yellowstone national park there was a bar we went to in Gardener Montana. Everyone got a free elk antler key chain made by the owner. It was sawed antler, a disk like yours. It was also sanded. Then one day the bar owner was in intensive care in the hospital a result of breathing in the dust from sawing and sanding.

As a ceramicist I always wear a mask when working with dry clay. You need to always wear a mask. The dust accumulates and later on maybe months, maybe years, you could develop all sorts of lung disease.

Your work is beautiful but so are you, protect yourself. Now I hope you write back and say you always wear a mask but not in photos! Cheers, Wendy

Danlovestikis: Thanks for the very important information Dan.

Back up a few photographs where that young boy (Khris) is drilling the piece of black baleen. An extremely powerful 220 volt, dust collection system is sucking all the air away from him down into that chute. Along with any dust.

Ivory dust is cancerous, will cause heart disease (LOL)& emphysema and whole slew of other respiratory problems big time.

Please don't get me wrong, (LOL) I sure appreciate your concern, But (lol)you & others will just never believe this. I am 63 years YOUNG. Younger than anyone on this forum. doctors look at me and just shake their heads. I have a 40 year history of working heavy industrial construction projects in atmospheres' of breathing concrete, asbestos (in closed manholes) and many other toxic substances that everyone is afraid of. I don't trust man, or what man can offer me for protection as such. (in those days it was unheard of).
Who are you ??? many doctors have exclaimed. I have actually survived 15.. .. heart attacks!! surgery 2 times. 3 Strokes, the last one in 2003 left me with very little sight. I had to fly 200 miles to Kotzebue on my own dime. They would not medivac me. So two months later. I was able to fly to the nearest hospital, to get my eyes checked. After two whole long days of eye testing with all sorts of chemicals and other tests. The two doctors stated. Mr. Eves. You have lost 90% of your eyesight in the right eye and more than 70% in your left eye. They went on to say.. "you, will never re-gain your total eyesight back. I laughed in their face and said you two need to go back to school! Really.!! They were shocked as they looked at each other and then back at me and asked. "Is there something you know that we don't know?? I laughed hard and said quite boldly. I sure do.. my Creator can fix anything!! One month later. ALL of my eyesight in both eyes was completely restored.

I haven't had any heart issues in over a year and a half.

DUST COLLECTION SYSTEMS, sucker hoses, downdraft tables are all ESSENTIAL part of Carving with ANY MATERIAL.

This was our very first shop. 2004 - 4 boys sitting on a couch with these shelves in front of them. This is where the boys first learned how to carve. The mud room; just inside our small house in Kotzebue Alaska.

I Lost 2 computers 3 printers to the massive amounts of ivory dust when we first began.

We moved from Kotzebue back to Point Hope - 2006 (we moved around a lot).

We learned a lot in Kotz. Especially what not to do and we adjusted our work habits.

3 boys @home. The Oldest son (Isaiah) is married with children, he also still carves & makes these same type bracelets as we do. This is our style. Remove a shape from a piece of ivory and re-insert a different material of the same (exact) shape with no gaps!! PERFECT ... is close enough for me!!

I am going to take the time to post all this information up here, step by step for each and every detail on how simple this is to accomplish.

Hi, I so glad to see how you all work to protect yourselves. By the way I'm
Wendy-danlovestikis. My husband Dan is wendylovestikis but he doesn't type and never posts notes.

I'm glad you recover so well. I'm enjoying your posts, Wendy

[i]On 2011-07-07 15:41, MajikImaje wrote:[]

Great post! Thank you!
Your work is awesome.
How do you do this?
Is the black ivory as well?
Keep posting!!!

Hello Tikiskip! Thank you very much for your comments.

I shall take the time to show & tell and explain through photos, videos, and detailed text; to teach you how easy this is to accomplish in your spare time.

Black: = 'Baleen' It is a natural, black plastic like substance that is derived from the mouth of a BowHead Whale. It grows to lengths of up to 14' or longer. On each side of the bowheads mouth begining at the lip 350, vertical slats on each side of the mouth sift the plankton through the hairs on these slats, to eat.

Now lets cut it up, using a coping saw or hack saw. This is easy to cut, it is flexible,

Here is an end view showing the thickness

You can scratch the surface with a pin or a nail or anything, to mark or scrimshaw (draw) upon it as shown. It will reach glass like mirrored shine when polished properly.

Now we have some cut up. we take a piece and draw a simple shape on it, as you could see in earlier photos.

Step by step, lets continue;

You do not need baleen or ivory, you can use any material, But anyone can purchase ivory & baleen @ Alaska Fur Exchange in Anchorage.

Ivory bracelet w/baleen lines inset into the ivory.

Draw the shape, (on any material) smooth out the edges to match the template shape, now repeat 10 times.

Bracelets can be made using any amount of pieces begining with 8,9,10. It all depends on the shape & the size of the wrist.

Do you know how long it is going to take you to become an expert? At making simple shapes ??

Once you have the required amount of pieces and the edges are all smooth, now it is time to draw lines on the pieces so that we can drill the holes to string up the bracelet properly.

The next photo in the next post will show you how to wrap the piece of cardboard around the piece to draw lines on each side of the piece of cardboard template.

Once the lines are all drawn we use a dremel tool to draw the lines. But we break or cut the drill bit in half.

Or use a special collet that allows us to shorten the bit so that it only penetrates 1/2 way, then we flip the piece over and drill from the other end. We do it in this manner so we will not accidently drill through our finger which is held over the end of the piece for stability.

Now that seems simple enough. It will only take you one bracelet to learn how to do this!!

But now we are going to make it a little bit more interesting by cutting out a shape and re-inserting a different shape.

Draw the new shape on your bracelet piece and follow along in the next set of images.

There is nothing complicated about drilling, it takes practice, because as we have learned, it is possible to slant that drill bit and go through the top or bottom of the bracelet piece. If that happens, do not dispair, it is easily fixed!! Learning how to drill perfectly straight will be mastered in no time, if you pay attention. If you go through the top or bottom of the piece. stop, back the bit out. Insert a drop of super glue and add some ivory dust or baleen dust. That spot will become invisible as we proceed to sand / polish the bracelet piece.

38 videos on drilling, how to create the insets, shaping & sanding the pieces.

Here is one of the many different videos on drilling pieces properly.

DRILLING

Using burr bits we cut out the new shape by removing that shape from the baleen, cut / hollow it all out.

I am going to show you a series of cutting out photographs that clearly illustrate how this is done in great detail. Also videos of this are available as well. Showing the entire process of making insets.

Lots more of the same. coming soon.

Hey thanks for getting back to me!
Is that you holding the baleen?
You don't look 60.
I find it very cool that you use found items native
to where you live and retool them to make money.
This is what Hawaiians did in the early days of Hawaii
tourist gift shop trade.
They used Coconut shells, Starfish, Palm fronds, And more to make their goods.
Look at the feet on the one lamp, They are STARFISH!
I've seen photos of old shacks on the beach that have many of
the lights and smoke stands I posted here.
Not many tiki nuts collect these don't know why.
Keep posting!!!
Great stuff.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2011-07-13 13:14 ]

Very impressive Tikiskip;

I am ..63 years young; I should be 64, but was kept back, in the fifth grade.

The person holding the baleen is Jesse. He is the 'J' in Majik Imaje

MarkAndrew; Jesse, Isaiah, Khristopher = MAJIK

Isaiah, MarkAndrew, Jesse, Eves = IMAJE

Not everyone has the skills or patience to sit there and slice ivory for hours; Some people prefer a different approach. Can you TRACE with a pencil and some paper ??? Virtually anyone can do that - even a child;

So with that in mind; this next section is meant to inspire you in a different manner; i.e. tracing! or drawing. What do you need ? ONE NAIL ! hows that for a shopping list ??? No; I am not speaking about a 'finger' nail but a nail to put a hammer to - and bang it in. That type of nail. go find one !!

SIMPLE DRAWINGS; OR - tracing !! believe it or not; Big bucks are easy to make working at home. Baleen is easy to get; and it is not very expensive.

I purchased this from Henry Koonuk for $300 bux. We always purchase a lot from Henry a.k.a 'Hanko'. He is one incredible gifted artist in many different areas. He works at home and makes outrageous money (six figures) every year. A lot of carvers - artists in many different villages this is the norm for them.

As I said in the beginning; Hundreds of people (families) are doing this in lots of villages all over the entire state of Alaska. I know natives from Pont Hope that have lived in Anchorage for 30 years. This is all they do - stay @ home - create arts & crafts and then go out and sell them EVERY DAY!! Money flows in - every single day - but you gotta do the work!!

Here is the very first piece I purchased from Hanko in 1981. - $250 bux

A polar bear mounted on a mastodon tooth fragment. It was Hanko who taught me, that all bears.. .. are left handed - they will always strike with the left paw first !! That is something only a hunter would be aware of.

Did you know ?? That if & when a polar bear is killed; Stone cold dead. That bear can easily kill that hunter if he is not extremely careful.. when they skin the bear and open it up. If you get any of that juice on your skin - you are dead!! No two ways about it. No second chance. Too much Vitamin A
It is so concentrated, the liver must be carefully removed. the tubes tied to prevent leakage. The liver is burned so animals or what ever can not attempt to eat it. All gloves and outer clothing that has any juice residue must be burnt also.

It doesn't matter which type material you use. It must be at least 3/16" of an inch thick to follow along with these steps that I am trying to illustrate and explain in a simple manner.

Baleen is easily 'scratched' during the process of making the pieces, Later these same pieces will be polished to a brilliant shine that resembles black glass. "It is the 'shine' that sells"

We use 3 basic shapes when making bracelets;

Short stubby - narrow oval - & hearts. Those are basically the only 3 shapes we work with for bracelets. Use your imagination and explore other shapes.

To begin to cut out an inset from a shape drawn on the material. Tip the burr bit in the center of the shape and begin to dig into the baleen or ivory and let the burr bit do the cutting while you guide it slowly making the hole wider and larger to approach the drawn lines. Cut up to, but do not cut away any of the line.

Now we have a piece of baleen (bracelet piece). We have cut out an oval to insert another oval into this empty hole. We will use fossil ivory here. This orange stuff. Is many thousands of years old.

The same steps are used: draw the (shape) on the piece of ivory and cut it out and smooth it.

Each of these images are self explanatory- just look - carefully and you will see how easy it is to accomplish these steps.

The sheer repetition of these simple steps - daily - weekly - monthly - yearly. GUARANTEE'S your success in mastering this simple procedure.

Money will flow like a river if you keep busy and acquire a large inventory.

I will provide you with many different places that your work can be sold.
I don't care where you live, These place will purchase your bracelets. It doesn't matter who or where you are, these places want this stuff, it is in huge demand all over the world.

Creating the art work (photos or jewelery) is just ONE small STEP.

LEARNING HOW TO MARKET your work - is something altogether different !

Making the sale - is an art form - many books are written on marketing or on any subject you can possibly name; Everyone has different ideas, everyone has different thoughts and what may work for somone in one area may not be true in another area. Thus diversity is the word that comes to mind.

Many tons of books are pubished on how to create photographs. BOOKS !

The process is quite simple: Aim & click = photograph!! YET PEOPLE - write entire books on this simple process. There are literally tens of thousands of authors on this simple process!!

Yes !!! there is a lot more to the process. Everyone thinks different; everyone see's things differently. There is no such thing as a sheet of paper that has only one side. We can share our ideas, thoughts & experiences to influence and guide others. Take what you deem valuable and cultivate it to your style.

Marketing your work is the goal. There are many simple ways to get people to hand you $$ without you saying one word.

Let your work do all the talking - shut up about yourself. You are in front of that person (buyer) for one pupose only - ;get the $$.

I have been doing this for a long long time (4 decades) I have learned a couple of simple basics that I am willing to share with you that apply not only to ivory but to photography as well. TIMES ARE TOUGH and going to get a lot tougher, I am merely providing you a very simple way to make major bucks @ home.

Lets do some simple math so you can get a grasp of what is waiting for you.

A bracelet from start to finish is about 4-6 hours work. (Once you have these steps down). prefab everything - you can reduce that time to two hours or less.

One bracelet a day - for a month is 30 bracelets - lets keep this simple.

30 bracelets @ 300 bux each is 9 THOUSAND dollars per month.

Eye got for sons - that do this from 7 am - 7 pm daily for 7 years !!

We purchase boxes for bracelets and ear-rings. One hundred of them in a case.

We went through 34 cases of bracelet & ear-ring boxes in 7 years in the Arctic.

We have been in Anchorage just about one year now. We are on case #2 and we have taken 10 months off from work.

Husband & wife 'team' working together can reap in 20 K in a month easily !!!

Take The Time To Think

In 3 1/2 months here in Anchorage we have sold 185 bracelets. We make 3 per day every day. They are all sold the very next day.

A small piece of carboard is wrapped around the bracelet piece and lines are drawn as to where to drill the holes for the bracelet cord to be inserted.

Naturally these must be all the same or the bracelet will not LOCK when final assembly takes place.

We do not use rulers or take any measurements during the entire process.

Here is it obvious: The drill bit is too long, it will go right through in one shot - that is the surest way to CAUSE injury!! Only drill half way - then turn the piece over and drill from the other side.

This is perhaps the hardest step in the entire process. learning how to drill straight and follow that line !! This take a lot of practice !

Once that inset is sanded down flush with the top of the bracelet piece, the dust from the inset will mix with the super glue on the gap(s). and blend in perfectly to create a perfect inset with absolutely no visible gaps what so ever.!!!

Clyde Harris was walking along a beach one morning in Kotzebue walking to work.
He spotted a small stub, sticking out of the mud, he went to kick it and all most broke his toe. He bent down and grabbed it and the earth moved ten feet away!

Jumping up and running home, he came back with a shovel, This is what he dug up that morning he was late for work. He was immediately offered $15,000 for this mastodon tusk. Clyde said NO! Right there, that tusk can easily make many tens of thousands, just in ear-rings.

Cutting out an area on the piece to inset another piece of IVORY takes practice. That is the only way you are going to learn this is by repetition.

Everything you are doing in making these pieces. All the different steps - are repeated again and again on every bracelet or set of ear-rings you make.

Begin the cut out by going into the center of the area of your template and create a small circle using your burr cutting bit. As you get this circle down to the proper depth ( 1/2) way into the bracelet piece. You merely widen the circle and direct your burr bit to the edges of the heart drawing you drew on this piece. be careful not to go past the line. It only takes a couple of minutes to carefully cut out this heart shape area for the heart inset to be placed inside.

[ Edited by: MajikImaje 2011-07-22 16:21 ]

Each of these photos is self-explanatory.

There are no shortcuts to practice; put in the time and you will become very proficient doing this.

Love your work!!
On the mastodon tusk does it look different when you
are done with it than Ivory?
Thank you for sharing you stories I never knew of things like
this.

KEEP GOING!!!!!

Thank you for your kind words Tikiskip.

Mastodon Ivory has a unique property that no other ivory has. An embedded pattern of cris cross over lapping circles. It is quite spectacular in that (according to internet postings) the circles tell the age in years and looking inside the crosses reveals the months! (not possible with the naked eye)

Looking closely you can see some of the pattern I have spoken about. When sanded and polised to high shine it is much more pronounced and 3d-ish in its appearance.

These broken pieces of ivory look totally useless - but - the fact is: Women spend lots of money on their 'ears'! Here is one of the pieces(25,000) years old; made into a $50.00 pair of beautiful ear-rings.

Many people walk right past mastodon ivory when it is uncovered on the beaches or on tundra. For all practical purposes it looks just like a piece of old driftwood; that is .. until you pick it up. Wood is light and 'airy'. Mastodon is heavy & dense.

Now, take a string, and wrap it around the small piece and draw lines, now begin to cut those lines out.

When finished it looks just; so very similar to a piece of 'pasta'!!

Mastodon (because of its multi-millenniums of age) is extremely dry and very brittle. Impossible as it may seem. Soaking these pieces in baby oil & mineral oil adds much needed moisture to the ivory. So much so.. that is possible to bend these curved pieces straight!!

STORIES STORIES STORIES - that is the #1 request I receive on the many different forums I post on - "more stories - more photos - more more !!
More Stories

Great photos and stories Majik. Beautiful but harsh landscape. Where I live, high temperatures exceed 100 degrees daily from April through September. Temperatures of 115 - 120 (in the shade) are common. I could not imagine living in the cold!

Your ivory work is amazing. If you were to try a few South Pacific or "Tiki" designs you might attract some buyers, open up a new market.

Thanks for the comments MadDogMike - Once my sons understand 'tiki'; we will try and make some super-kewl tiki designs. But the sad truth is; we can't keep up with the current demand from customers to forge ahead to discover new designs and such.Lets move on and let me show you some more samples & techniques.

Here you can see first hand the circular criss cross lines. It must be seen in person to understand this 3d effect you see when pieces are brilliantly shined & polished

There is no limit to the simple shapes that can easily be made into ear-rings and generate incredible amounts of income.

One distinct property of mastodon is that it is split - cracks from constant expanding contracting during temp extremes and the loss of moisture.

Spiral Ear-rings made from fossilized mastodon ivory- cost $80 bux!! per pair!!

[ Edited by: MajikImaje 2011-08-04 13:15 ]

You still out there?
Christmas is coming show your stuff.
Hope all is well.

Well a big hello Tikiskip; Wow; I'm impressed! Yes I am right here. 18" away from the monitor here in Alaska.

Shure; We still do the same simple steps 'daily'. let me grab a few images and post and "show & tell".



Fossil Ivory is so gorgeous when seen in person; It is the "shine" that sells. It is difficult to portray or show the 'glass-like shine' in any of these photographs!!

This is the easiest type of bracelet to make; Just slice the ivory in 1/4" pieces and use every piece to make a 'tiki-looking' type bracelet ??

Love the Fossil Ivory!!!
How much is the one shown here?
Nice work!!!

On 2011-08-04 13:12, MajikImaje wrote:
Thanks for the comments MadDogMike - Once my sons understand 'tiki'; we will try and make some super-kewl tiki designs. But the sad truth is; we can't keep up with the current demand from customers to forge ahead to discover new designs and such.

That's not sad, that is awesome. You have found a niche that you can market to, that's every artist's dream! Skip is right, that fossil ivory is gorgeous with it's color and translucency

Working with ivory is great fun; It is so easy to do; there is no reason any one of you cannot produce the exact same results with a very short amount of practice; you will amaze yourselves in very short time.

The one thing I am incapable of displaying here is that glass like shine.

To achieve that glass like - mirror shine depends on what you use for polishing compounds and how you apply it. But anyone who has ever been in the military knows; dull black shoe leather is turned into a brilliant shine with mirror like qualities.

Here's a few photos of what we have done; during the month of October of this year.

MajikImaje, thank you for the photos. I really enjoy reading your thread. Wendy

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.!!

We received a request recently from a friend of ours. He wanted a hummingbird pendant.

WoW.. said the customer !! We dare not make that beak, sharp & pointed as it should be. Some one will get stabbed!! it is tooo sharp and too dangerous to we kept the bill dull and quite safe. We have cut ourselves many times from making letter openers too sharp on the edge. Ulu Ear-rings that actually cut through anything. We learned the hard way. do not make sharp edges or points.

YOU... are only limited by ... ... your imagination!!!

It is very easy to generate outrageous income from doing this.. children in the arctic can easily pick up 5 or 6 hundred dollars for a few hours work a few times a week!!

Hey my Alaska friend are you ok?
Got some high winds I hear.
Did your electric go out?
Good luck! hope all is well.

The storm is over; it wasn't all that it was feared to become.

Top wind speed was only gusting to 70 mph!

The news said Category 3 - It never made it to Cat1

T he smaller villages all lost power; that is a weekly occurrence anyway. Lot of families went to the school and waited out the storm there where it was much warmer. Everything is back to normal.

That was good news. The bird is beautiful. Wendy

Merry Christmas my Arctic friend.
Where have you been?
Do you have a web site where one could go and see what you have to sell?