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My friend is an artist

GrantMeThePower

GrantMeThePower

Platinum Member
This guy is one of my best friends. He's been carving mammoth ivory for years. He does all sorts of jewlery. For most of the time he's sold it through friends (he works his real job as special effects in the movie industry so he's sold them to Jessica Biel, Jackie Chan, Ben Harper, etc other people he meets in his job), and through art galleries.

Since the economic slowdown has almost stopped movie production in L.A. he hasn't been working in months. The two galleries he used to show at have closed up shop. He has been struggling trying to find where to sell.

Do you all know of the website etsy?

He listed a piece here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listi..._2&listing_id=22119107

Do you think this is a good way to sell right now? I'm not so sure. It was hard as heck for me to find without doing a search for his piece and i knew what he called it.

Anyone have any ideas I could shoot him? He doesn't like ebay because he feels it devalues the piece.

He also does fully custom stuff, where any design he'll make. Any ideas are welcome.
 
Etsy is legit. I know a few people that sell things through them and they've never had a problem.
 
Originally posted by: Newbian
How exactly does one get their hands on mammoth ivory?

Break into a museum and steal the tusks?
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, it should be in a museum instead of being butchered by some hippie "artist".
 
Ebay has issues with ivory also. That's more hassle than it's worth. Your friend does nice work. I particularly like his his clasp mechanism. As was said, Etsy's legit, but I don't know what kind of traffic it generates. I had never heard of it until a buddy of mine started selling crafts on there.

Maybe he could have his own website, and sell from there. He could make cheaper copies of his work in wood for sale on Ebay, then have his site mentioned in the listing where people could see his ivory work.
 
Originally posted by: barfo
Originally posted by: Newbian
How exactly does one get their hands on mammoth ivory?

Break into a museum and steal the tusks?
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, it should be in a museum instead of being butchered by some hippie "artist".
Click to expand...

I don't think mammoth ivory's particularly rare. For the scale this guy's working in, 1 tusk goes a long way.
 
Etsy is awesome - it's appealing to both the craft-addict or the geek. For instance, a few weeks ago, someone was selling knit lightsabers. So awesome.
 
He could just as easily do his own website...if he wants to set something up, have him email me/pm me 🙂

I'd be more then willing to help him out.
 
Ok, first, thank you all for the helpful replies!

Second- Mammoth ivory isn't that rare. it isn't like elephant ivory that you poach an animal for, and the tusk is never taken from a complete animal. There are many legit dealers of mammoth ivory (usually from alaska) that have permits to sell. He gets about a two foot section at a time, and it does go a long way. He has worked with both more common and less expensive materials (wood, bone) and much more expensive and difficult materials (narwhal, jade).

He already has a website but it sort of sucks and his friend helped him with it and then sort of bailed on him before it was all said and done. He hopes to one day get it finished, but he doesn't know anything about web authoring: http://www.timeless-creation.com/ He also doesn't know how to get it "out" there.
 
Originally posted by: barfo
Originally posted by: Newbian
How exactly does one get their hands on mammoth ivory?

Break into a museum and steal the tusks?
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, it should be in a museum instead of being butchered by some hippie "artist".
Click to expand...

as per his description:
The woolly mammoths and their predecessors roamed the prehistoric tundras of Alaska, Canada and Siberia between 10 and 40 thousand years ago. Their massive tusks are now found emerging from glaciers and buried deep in the earth. As mammoths have been extinct for thousands of years, there are no legal restrictions in the United States on owning, altering, or purchasing this material.
Click to expand...

think of this as "ivory deposits," analogous to diamond or gold deposits. Of course, diamond veins take many many more millions of years to form than mammoth ivory...

and in terms of human existence on a geologic scale, the diamond that we have now is no more "renewable" than the ivory obtained from mammoth tusks.
 
I understood the legal restrictions but didn't know they were that common so I guess it's time to buy some and make my own mammoth graveyard in front of my lawn. 😀
 
Originally posted by: Newbian
I understood the legal restrictions but didn't know they were that common so I guess it's time to buy some and make my own mammoth graveyard in front of my lawn. 😀
Click to expand...

yeah, I was wondering the same thing initially. but after thinking about it a little more, it's really no different than any type of precious stone.

as far as museums go, tusks aren't really any more interesting to science than something to look at. A couple of statues on display, real tusks here and there should be enough to satisfy the world's museums.

what would be more relevant to science, of course, would be bone and any other type of soft tissue that could be recovered.
 
If your buddy foresees a lot of free time, he could get into the Celtic festival circuit. It's hard work, as you're traveling every weekend, and you have to buy your spot, but a lot of people walk by for exposure. He may not get immediate sales due to the cost, but with some nice business cards and fliers(and a better website), he might hook up with sales once the people get home. Celtic art would be a good challenge, and carved ivory's a good medium for it imo.
 
Originally posted by: GrantMeThePower
Ok, first, thank you all for the helpful replies!

Second- Mammoth ivory isn't that rare. it isn't like elephant ivory that you poach an animal for, and the tusk is never taken from a complete animal. There are many legit dealers of mammoth ivory (usually from alaska) that have permits to sell. He gets about a two foot section at a time, and it does go a long way. He has worked with both more common and less expensive materials (wood, bone) and much more expensive and difficult materials (narwhal, jade).

He already has a website but it sort of sucks and his friend helped him with it and then sort of bailed on him before it was all said and done. He hopes to one day get it finished, but he doesn't know anything about web authoring: http://www.timeless-creation.com/ He also doesn't know how to get it "out" there.
Click to expand...

Lordy, that website DOES kind of suck. If you want to have him email me, I might be able to help him out.
 
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