Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Special Characteristic of Mammoth Ivory Tusk – Nice Fossil Bark


Special Characteristic of Mammoth Ivory Tusk – Nice Fossil Bark

 

One of the easiest ways to distinguish mammoth ivory tusk from elephant tusk is by the color of the tusk surface.

 

Mammoth Ivory is the ivory tusks of the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus Primigenus also known as the Mastodon) which has been extinct for more than 10,000 years. Mammoth Ivory has been found in Europe, North America and Asia since the end of the last ice age. The Woolly Mammoth roamed across the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the ice age when parts of Alaska and the Yukon in Canada were free of ice.

 

Mammoth ivory were buried under the ice for over 10,000 years. It has taken on its beautiful patterns and colors by absorbing minerals from the artic soil. The colors seen include tan, light brown, orange, golden brown, and chocolate brown to even black; occasionally a blue or green color is also seen. The outside bark is sometimes very colorful as it was in direct contact with minerals in the soil and the elements. For the appearance of mammoth ivory tusk, please refer to the links below:

 


 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcr-0ED7ZmI


For modern elephant ivory, they are only in ivory color because they are freshly cut from elephant without any buried. It will not have brownish, blue-green or grey colors. Please find the attached picture for the image of elephant ivory.

 




 

To be a wise consumer, please check and make sure you are buying real mammoth ivory products by checking the color of the tusk surface. In the following paragraphs, I will show you the mammoth ivory products with observable fossil mammoth bark.

 

 

 

Mammoth tusk carving and sculpture via elephant tusk carving and sculpture

 

You are see from the pictures below, the color of the whole elephant tusk carving is in ivory color without any other color.

 

While from the picture of mammoth ivory tusk carving, you can see there are brown fossil bark at the surface of the tusk. In the middle of the tusk, it is also in natural ivory color because only the surface of the mammoth tusk were fossilized by absorbing the mineral from surrounding soil during 10,000 years of burial.

  

Mammoth ivory tusk carving:

 





 

Mammoth ivory sculptures:

 

#37514


#37657

 

Elephant ivory carvings:

 





 

 

Because of the special natural bark color of mammoth ivory, many people would like to use it to make the knife handles. It is impossible for elephant ivory to make such colorful and beatiful knife scales.

 

For details, please find the link below:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vunPVbXeoZk


 

For jewelry and beads, besides ivory color, mammoth ivory can make brown, blue, green , and beige color beads which provide more selection and ideas for designers. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87PyoPVK6Vs

 

 

As the bark color and also the degree of fossilization of each mammoth tusks are different because they are naturally formed by the environment which they were burial. This feature makes the products looks unique and special by the colors and pattern of the cracks. You can see this from the few samples of mammoth ivory bark pendants.

 

 

Mammoth ivory bark pendants:
 
 

Ac0036-001, Ac0036-002, ac0036-003

Ac0059b, ac0059c, ac0059d

 

 

Elephant ivory jewelry:

For elephant jewelry and bead, you can see there is only one color – Ivory.

 



 

Based on the above information, I believe you can be a professional in distinguishing mammoth ivory between elephant ivory.

 

 

 

Story of Large Mammoth Tusk Carving

Story of Large Mammoth Tusk Carving

Although nobody know how many woolly mammoths were extinct in ten thousand years ago, large tusk weight over 50 kg are still rare in today market. Large mammoth ivory tusks with state of art carving are valuable in the market. Different kinds of design and carving theme can be find with the big mammoth tusks.

The two big themes of large mammoth tusk is animal and people. For animal tusks, the most popular theme are Chinese 12 zodiac animal, animal in forest, dragon tusk, Ocean Aquarium tusk etc. 

For people tusks, the ideas usually come from Chinese myths such as “Eight Immortals Cross the Sea”, “18 Lohan”, “Chinese Buddha and Kwun Yin” etc. Sometimes, the artisans capture the of daily life of Chinese people from the “Tong” to “Ching” period, the content reveals the lifestyle of all stratum of the society (from rich to poor) as well as different economic activities in rural area and the city.

For carving one large tusk, usually needs 6 – 9 months to finish. First of all, the artisan have to make a simple wood stand to hold the large tusk for him to carve. Then the artisan have to sand and clean up the surface of the tusk before carving.

Then the artisan has to design what theme to be carved on the tusk. The idea usually based on the shape and the size of the tusk. Sometimes, the artisan may need to read some books and pictures to get some new idea for their tusk carving project. After several brainstorming, the preliminary idea is developed. The artisan would use the pencil to sketch out the full pictures of the tusk. If everything is already, he will start carving by using the handcrafted machine. Normally, it will takes 2 - 3 months to finish the first carving the whole tusks.

The following links are the videos showing the the steps of carving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-BgB7ClKo0



After the first carving, you can only see what content are carved in the tusk but no detail. At that time, the artisan has to carve the detail of each content on the tusks. If the tusk is people scenery theme tusk, the artisan has to carve the face, the hair and also the clothes of each people. While the house, village, bridge as well as the trees are also need to be engraved in detail at this stage. For one large tusk, there are over 60 people carved inside. Therefore, this step normally needs 1 – 2 months to finish. 

Some parts such as the hair, the clothes and trees etc are need to be colored after carving step is finished. Our painting artisans will use suitable paint to make the tusk look more beautiful. After painting, the whole tusk needs to be polished.

The artisan who is responsible for wood stand making will design and measure the size of the tusk in order to make a fit wood stand for this tusk. The design of the wood stand is based on the theme of the tusk. For example, the artisan would make a cloudy sky theme wood stand for matching the dragon tusk. It looks like the dragon is flying on the sky. Therefore, wood stands also play an important role in each large tusk carving. Normally, one nice and detail wood stand needs about about 1 – 2 months to finish a nice wood stand.

After finish the wood stand as well as finish polishing the tusk large, the chief artisan will check each part of the tusk carefully to make sure every content is well done without any mistake. If everything is already, this large tusk is finished and ready to ship to our showroom in Hong Kong.

This tusk #37544 is one of the master piece in our collection. http://www.tide-mammoth.com/product.php?id_product=3309

The size of this tusk is rare large, size: 111" x 63"x 5.75" (278cm x 158cm x 14.5cm). In this tusk, there are many Chinese Fairies, 8 Immortals, kids, Chinese beauty carved in the tusk. They are doing different things, some of them are talking with some others, some are playing and some are playing music etc. You can see the carving of this tusk is very detail and wonderful workmanship.

Mammoth Ivory Handcrafted Rose Flower Ring C0002 - tide-mammoth

Mammoth Ivory Handcrafted Rose Flower Ring C0002 - tide-mammoth

http://www.tide-mammoth.com/ring/313-mammoth-ivory-handcrafted-rose-flower-ring-c0002.html


 
 
 
 
 
# ITEM NO. C0002

 

Item Name:
Mammoth Ivory Netsuke Rose Flower Ring
 
Condition:
Brand New Item
 
Metal:
Rhodium plated 925 Sterling Silver
 
Material:
100% Genuine Mammoth ivory handcrafted Rose Flower ring, flower size: 20mm x 20mm. The colour of this pendant is natural ivory white. The carving is very detail.
 
Ring Size:
We have Size 6,7 & 8 (Please inform us the ring size after buying this ring)
 
Remarks:
All mammoth ivory parts are carved by our artisan. This item is 100% handmade. All materials we used are in natural colour. The colors from ivory white to deep brown are all natural colours, as the material has absorbed minerals from the surrounding soil over 10,000 years of burial.
 
Packing:
It comes with a delicate gift box. It is good idea as a gift for yourself and someone special.
 
Shipping Cost: Free of Charge