Mountain Gems, Burnaby, BC has lots of fossilized ivory, in many
different sizes (including some fabulous rounds of tusk about 24
inches long and 4 inches around - as well as lots of cab size pieces).
Their toll free number is 1-888-593-1888.
Barrie
Windermere Designs
www.itsmystore.com/windermere
Thanks Beth, I’m so pleased that so many of our friends are thaking
this to heart. when I was a child my mother collected elephant
statues and she let me play with some of them. I found even then I
couldn’t “hunt” these wonderful aminials, but pu them in family groups
and heaven help me dressed then in my doll cloths to go to teaparties,
and on picnics. I know I’m rambling, but so many replies reminded me
of the fun I had as a child. Perhaps it would be good for all of us to
remmber that innocent time in our lives, and so of the “bad” would go
away Yours Lady Gem
Orchid Readers, This posting just appeared in the latest issue of the
Lapidary Digest. Interestingly it shows up at the same time as some of
the ivory dialog. Bill in Vista
The following info comes from a sheet passed on to me titled “Nature’s
Bounty” New and Unusual Materials for 2000. This may have been
intended to be a dealer’s stock list but since no prices are
indicated, I am not sure. Most of the info on it seems to be fairly
accurate but I can see a number of items I would question .
In any event, maybe this will help. “Ivoryite: Creamy-white, smooth
texture and satin luster. Excellent ivory substitute. It is a
chemically precipitated sedimentary rock composed of magnesium
(magnesite), calcium, silica and oxygen. H: 5-5=. Cut with oil or
water. Arizona.”
Ed Elam
EdElam@mindspring.com
Norma, I heartily agree with you. However you are wrong about no
ivory being legal! In Canada maybe, but in the U.S. if you can
document the ivory as petrified or old ivory you can sell it. There is
a lot of Alaska Petrified Ivory and bone that works up through the
sands and tundra that the Eskimos and Indains work up into excellent
jewelry. You can also get Ivory from them to work yourself. It is
freely sold on the open market. Putting any kind of restrictions on
them would seriously handicap these people from making a meager
living!!! That said, let me say that to keep the poachers and others
that are indiscrimatingly killing the ivory bearing animals of the
world, the only way to discourage the sale of Ivory anywhere in the
world is to prohibit the sale of Ivory period! But in my meager time
on this planet (70+years), I’ve never seen a LAW that worked for
everybody unless everyone was behind it. There are too many people
that are just too ready to profit from illegal activities! (including
some “honest people”!)
Dear friends, New ivory is illegal and here’s why: to get ivory, you
have to kill an elephant. There is no other way to get it. The
ivory is the only part of the elephant that is taken. Poachers shoot
elephants, often with AK-47s, then hack out the ivory tusks, and
leave the carcasses to rot. I have seen elephants like this in Kenya
and it’s an awful sight.
I don’t think there is a way to feel better about using ivory.
Although I don’t think we can apply our own, 21st century morality to
practices from the past, we cannot justify using that old ivory
simply because people had different ideas about ivory in the past.
When I was working at JC-K, as far back as the early 1970s, before it
became illegal to import ivory, I refused to show jewelry that used
ivory because I knew it was immoral to use it. You don’t have to
wait for a law when you know something is wrong. I tried to educate
one particular jeweler at that time who used ivory extensively. Her
designs were wonderful but I exercised my own right not to use them
in the magazine.
There are many other materials to use in the jewelry world. Why
encourage anyone to wear ivory?
Ettagale Blauer