March 12, 2019

Mamooth tusk and camel bone in contemporary jewellery

Jewellery artists use mammoth tusks and camel bones in their work.
1. Mammoths extinct as the climate deteriorated and the ice age ended. The longest mammoths survived in modern Alaska and north-eastern Russia, where they could also be seen 3000 years ago. A broad search for mammoth tusks is taking place in Siberia at the Kolyma River. Searchers go to Siberia in the summer, when the sun never sets. This is the time when the top of the ground unfreezes and the workers have access to the remains of mammoths. Big water pumps are rinsing the ground and looking for bones. It seems that the bones of mammoth tusks literally comes out of the ground. Some tusks reach up to 4 meters in length. Later they are broken up into pieces. At the jewellery artist workshop, the material with this rich history is created, polished and adjusted to the continuation of the story of this bone. Thousands of years old story have got a new turn in it’s way and companions – gold, silver, ebony, precious stones and semi-precious stones.
2. In fact, bone plaques are used for camel carvings. By its very nature, bone carving is a small form of sculpture, subject to the same principles of plastic. The bone used in it is fastened and carved by hand using a tool – shihel.