When I was studying at Bowman Tech one of my fellow students brought
in an antique billiard ball that was ivory, which they found in a
yard sale. Several of us created pieces from that one billiard ball
as I recall.
Personally I think the best thing you can do with potatoes is to fry
them in duck fat.
Personally I think the best thing you can do with potatoes is to fry them in duck fat.
Not so good for either your coronary arteries, or the duck…
Too bad, too, as the potato, when not ruined by gobs of fat, starts
out as a surprisingly nutritious food, especially when you leave the
skin on. Boiled, steamed, roasted, baked, without all that fat and
oil, added to other greens and onions and spices, etc, you start out
with pretty healthy food. Fried in dead duck juice? Not so much…
Peter
Peter said…
But beyond that, they are every bit as amazing life forms as any animal. More self sufficient, Sometimes hardier... able to communicate, to a degree, chemically between fellow members of their species (and sometimes among a variety of species),... And aspen groves may look like individual trees, but as they propagate by sending out runners, a whole grove may share a single root system, making the whole grove of trees one organism....
That is really great stuff Peter. It reminds me of a book I enjoyed,
Hidden Empire by Kevin J Anderson, it’s science fiction, the first of
a series. An integral part of the story is that the beings
communicate between worlds using trees. They have Green Priests who
propagate forests of trees that allow communication across the
universe, all they need to communicate is to have the trees and a
Green Priest on either end of the line. From what you say it’s not so
far fetched! Mark
Oddly enough, there is a bacterium that lives on the rhizomes of
plant roots that allow the plants to take up the nutrients from the
soil. Without these bacteria the plants would never prosper (and you
certainly couldnt transplant them or take cuttings) I read that the
total mass of these bacteria in the world is something like 20kg. So,
the entire land ecosystem relies on 20kg of biomass!.
Nick Royall
Too bad, too, as the potato, when not ruined by gobs of fat, starts out as a surprisingly nutritious food, especially when you leave the skin on. Boiled, steamed, roasted, baked, without all that fat and oil, added to other greens and onions and spices, etc, you start ou with pretty healthy food. Fried in dead duck juice? Not so much...
Red garnet yams baked in the oven are so much tastier and much better
nutritiously, lots of vit A. Potato, vit A 2 (IU), yam 138 (IU),
Beta-caratine, potato 1(mcg) yam 38(mcg). Some people do not do well
with nightshade, potato is, yam not.
Richard Hart G.G.
Denver, Co.
From what you say it's not so far fetched!
i don’t think what I said quite implied intergalactic
communications… But it does sound like a good story. Perhaps I’ll
see if I can find a copy next time I’m looking for something new to
read in fiction…
Peter
Hello Peter,
I feared something like this might pop up. Of course, you are correct
in your concern for our arteries, and for the welfare of ducks as
well, but there are so many things in our lives that don’t bear
close scrutiny. I’d hazard a guess that most of what goes into the
mining and manufacturing of jewelry and many other fripperies and
decorations in our world are at least as deleterious as frying
potatoes in dead duck grease. One might say, “yes, but jewelry is
beautiful (and doesn’t involve murdering ducks.)” True enough -
except that I wonder, is beauty for the eyes considered a higher and
more valuable expression than beauty for the taste buds? Both are
sensual experiences, but they just enter our bodies through
different organs. And I suspect more people have been murdered over
jewelry than in disputes over the rights of ducks. Well then, one
might say “jewelry is permanent but food is transitory.” OK, music
is transitory, so is it therefore a higher or more beautiful art
than food? As a person who has lived by making music, jewelry, and
food and many other things, I try to do as little harm as I can but
i also accept that the harm i do is what it is - harmful. Harmful to
ducks, to Mother Earth, and often to myself. I expect to die. For
the record - the last time I fried potatoes in duck fat remains
clear in my memory. It was in the winter of 1970 in New
Denver, British Columbia. It was a peak gastronomic experience and
it caused me to think (somewhat whimsically) that God’s plan in
providing ducks on earth was to make this bliss possible. Or maybe
potatoes were provided to elevate duck fat from artery-clogging
nuisance to a serious giver of pleasure. A sort of chicken-and-egg
dilemma. In any case, I remember the meal very fondly and yet have
felt no necessity to repeat it.
But back to potatoes and their possible use as a replacement or
substitute for ivory. Why in the world would someone want a
replacement for ivory? One might say - "because real ivory is hard to
get, illegal, and morally indefensible because it harms elephants."
One might even say that ivory is “beautiful” and if we can’t get the
real thing legally and harmlessly then we should find something as
beautiful. Whoa! What is the beauty of ivory? The question ramifies,
bleeds out, so to speak into other closely related areas. Beauty is a
value. Value itself is also a value which, in some minds, is
conflated with beauty. Ivory is valuable because it is difficult and
dangerous to obtain - requires confrontation with large beasts. And
large, powerful beasts have a sort of totemic significance to us so
that things like sharks’ teeth, bears’ claws, eagle feathers et al
carry some weight in our hearts over and above their mere
appearance. How to parse the sense of beauty into its components; the
monetary value, utility, totemic significance, identification with
the power of the beast or the prowess of the hunter? If ivory were
found in the excreta of some kind of loathsome, carrion-eating,
slimy amphibian would it have the same value to us? If i had a
discretionary potato in hand and had to choose between converting it
into faux ivory or frying it in duck fat - that’d involve some
serious thinking. Personally, I’d rather eat it, even baked without
benefit of duck fat, than to boil it in acid to end up with a
clever item that would fool nobody.
But I’ve had dinner already tonight. No ducks were harmed in the
process.
Cheers,
Marty in Victoria where ducks and potatoes abound.
If you’re intent on using a natural material beige in colour, why not
use bone? It’s a well-understood carving material - think of ivory.
The techniques for selecting and preparing beef bone are fairly
straightforward; the material itself is a renewable resource (and can
even be organic); it can be inlaid; carved (rotary tools need a dust
mask, of course) and it’s suprisingly durable and beautiful.
This site is good for rigorous cleaning methods (although I find
heating in water below boiling point preferable):
This is for jewellers:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1z6
And this one (big file!) is totally inspiring if you can see the
possibilities:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1z7
Dominic
One of my friends was showing me whales teeth (very old teeth, so
okay to use), it’s a lovely material, it carves, polishes and it has
a lovely luster.
However some of my clients like the look of ivory, but would never
dream of me using the real deal, so I have been investigating
alternatives.
I have another friend (geez that’s two), and he work for National
Parks and Wildlife. I’ve got him on whale watch, basically deceased
whales wash up on the beach all the time, and he’s trying to get a
dispensation for me so I can grab the teeth. If it comes through, I
see this as no harm no foul, as the animals died of natural causes.
Asking vegetarians and vegans on the list, would that be okay?
Regards Charles A.
Not a current vegan but was once. (and not because of harm to animals
at 12 knowing industrial practices couldn’t eat meat from
slaughterhouses) but No harm no foul and using the animals remains is
a positive resource use in the eyes of first nations so I would say
good luck hope it comes through and thank you friend for doing their
job as it is hard dangerous and appreciated!
Teri
Asking vegetarians and vegans on the list, would that be okay?
While you’re not harming the animals, and could be seen as recycling
something that might otherwise go to waste (though in nature, hardly
anything ever goes to waste), the question to ask is whether that
use of material that is now “harmless” might somehow create enough of
a market for the material that someone, somewhere, might start
obtaining the material without waiting for the animals to die
naturally…
Peter
Ask 10 different vegetarians/vegans and you’ll get answers that run
the spectrum.
I won’t eat anything that requires the animal to die but I wear
leather. I tend to avoid bone and absolutely stay away from ivory.
Anything that the animal naturally sheds (for example antlers) I
don’t have a problem with as long as they were collected after the
animal shed them.
But even if the whale died of natural causes, I think I personally
would avoid anything made with whale teeth. I can’t give a rational
explanation as to why because I don’t have one.
Cheree
While you're not harming the animals, and could be seen as recycling something that might otherwise go to waste (though in nature, hardly anything ever goes to waste), the question to ask is whether that use of material that is now "harmless" might somehow create enough of a market for the material that someone, somewhere, might start obtaining the material without waiting for the animals to die naturally...
That was one of the points I was concerned with.
I’ll see what they say about it, as it’s still up in the air.
Regards Charles A.
Dead anything is fair game in my opinion. I am not now a vegetarian,
although I have been for some years at a time. Even when in that
state i would have though the same. Everything dies. Nothing should
be wasted. 20
Maybe you’ve heard of a potter named Alan Moe? He travelled about in
the West and stopped here and there, wherever he found interesting
local clay, built a kiln on the spot, out of empty oil drums usually,
if I remember correctlly. He made pots which he then often ornamented
with all sorts of dead animal bits; - road-killed deer or other
animals would provide skin which he’d sew around his pottery vessels,
or their ribs would be fit to surround the graceful curves, fixed in
place with sinew or dental floss - He was a great improviser. One of
my favourite pieces was a pot covered with small dead fish. He’d
found a tidal inlet in which thousands of small flounder had been
stranded when the tide went out and they had been left dead in the
sand. Each was about 1 1/2" to 2 " in length. Their flat bodies were
so thin as to be almost transparent. He laid them on the surface of
the vessel in a very neat array, overlapping like shingles or, more
fittingly, like fish scales. I;m not certain what he used for
adhesive but I’m almost sure he cooked up his own fish glue - not
hard to do. Their transparent bodies were beautiful with the
delicate, regular structure of bones and muscles visible through the
skin against the black glazed clay surface. Other pots we have are
covered with skins of larger fish, also beautiful.
Beauty is where you find it. You need not kill to find it. Natural
grown structure is a wonder, whether bone, ivory, skin or whatever.
I suppose even a potato has some kind of deep beauty but admittedly
it is harder to see than what we can see in ivory. A potato is more
amorphous and not formed to cope with dynamic loading and stresses
the way flesh and bone are made. I suppose the only danger I can see
in using body parts of dead animals is, if in so doing, your work
inflames the lust of other craftspeople, or the public in general, so
that they lose patience with the specimens which can be found dead
and they go forth to directly or indirectly encourage the untimely
death of other animals, sacrificing their lives for profit. That does
not feel good to me. Even Vegans and their ilk should have no problem
with use of “found” dead animals as it does no harm whatsoever.
Nevertheless I imagine some might object and I would ask them to
consider that they might be unreasonably unsettled by the thought of
death, any death from any cause. Since death is a universal fact for
each living thing I think their holding it at such arms length is a
bit neurotic, a form of denial of reality, and may make it very
difficult for them to accept much natural behaviour in this world and
also hard to reconcile with their own eventual fate. I think a potato
would mke dmned poor substitute for a whale’s tooth.
Marty - who still has all his own teeth but you all can have 'em
when I’m done with 'em.
I agree with Peter. So many animals are killed for their various
parts, simply to supply a market - ivory/whale teeth being one
example. Turtle shell, rhino horn, bear gall… the list goes on.
The provenance testifying the source (natural death) is lost once it
is taken from the creature. Would you believe that a rhino horn was
broken off of a museum display, to be sold for folk medicine!!
Don’t do it.
Judy in Kansas, where we enjoy watching a mother fox and her 5 kits.
The provenance testifying the source (natural death) is lost once it is taken from the creature. Would you believe that a rhino horn was broken off of a museum display, to be sold for folk medicine!!
The thing is I’d be picking the teeth out myself, so at least I’d
know where the material came from.
I’m still mulling it over. Of course it could come to nothing if I
don’t get the go-ahead.
Regards Charles A.
There is quite a lot of nice fossil material available. Many
knifemakers use fossil mammoth or mastodon ivory for grips. And
neither are on the endangered species list.
Here’s one dealer.
Elliot
Elliot Nesterman
If we were free to farm these now “protected” animals, as we do with
trees and cows, they’d prosper as renewable resources if the demand
warranted. This won’t make the vegans happy though.
What humans can do to wild creatures I find repugnant. Anyway back
to potatoes. I have used them to protect stones in rings, cut a slice
off the bottom of the potato so it stands up, cut it in half carve
out a depression to take say a ring head and pack it with the gouged
out potato fragments, you can then solder the shank and the moisture
in the potato protects the head. Also if you want to join wires
accurately together stick the ends in the potato, they are held
firmly whilst you solder the other ends. Workshop smells like a fish
and chip shop mind you!
Regards
Hamish