How to and explaining
Laminated ivory use
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In general...I mean what I say, "A way of life, a way of thinking." I spent 25 years alone in the wilds doing it 'my way' coming up with innovative ideas and solutions as well as artistic ideas. I do not do much the way everyone else does, so my products may not be what you are used to or expect. I want customers to be happy so it's good if we are on the same page. What I do and offer is art, not science. Art is less about instructions and the ability to replicate by following directions, more about one of a kind. Less consistency than science. Art can be far out awesome, or a disaster! If you want another one it will not be the same! Hopefully it is even better! But yes, it could be a let down!
Likewise- keep in mind I am usually at the source of the raw materials. The good news is, provenance, knowledge, no middle people,, lower price, lots of selection. A flip side is 'out remote, not totally civilized. No cell phone, check emails every couple few days or I may be out on a dig for a week! Lack some fine tuned social skills. I'm a one man show, no helpers. Good news is, good prices, lots of knowledge |
laminated fossil layersI sometimes laminate thin mammoth ivory bark to a stable strong background of exotic wood. A first reaction is often "Yulko! I want the full meal deal, genuine 100% natural all the way!" I may not change your mind on how you feel. My reply would be, "I also have that available at twice the price, all natural,"
I'm not trying to be known as cheap or a supplier of inferior product! My thinking is based on conservation. It is sad that only 1 % of the fossil ivory found is desired. The rest traditionally is 'garbage' sold dirt cheap, or tossed out. It's genuine 50 thousand year old Pleistocene material that could be used and cherished. It's a tad thin a tad weak? So fix it up, show off it's beauty! |
Natural fossil layeringLook at the picture above and the one to the left. Is the difference worth twice the price?
A variety of situations occur with ancient materials, that can require 'fixing.' Often the inner material is soft cracked weak on a thin nice looking outer bark. Sometimes the back can be stabilized with glue or resin. Other times filled with ivory dust and glue. Lamination if this option is chosen, can be other ivory, colored micarta, something inventive. Not everyone knows how, has the materials or the time to fool with it! Yet does not have the money to "Put another zero on the price," for material you do not have to fool with! This is one solution I offer: Let me fool with it.
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Knife handle made from the laminate
These are pictures of a finished knife I made from this material. The knife sold for $450. I do not suggest this laminate used on $1,000 and up truly high end finished product, but makes a fine product on a working knife. Or collector on budget
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Natural, Authentic, Real, value and cost.
Customer often use words like 'natural, 'Authentic.' 'Real,' 'unaltered.' Then want to pay me with plastic.. My hand is out for gold, assuming you understand and agree we are dealing 'real to real.' I smile. Women used to tell me they were for real, and in to 'nature'. They cut and dyed their hair shaved armpits, cut and altered their nails, used make up to look better, Wore clothes, and 'enhancers' of various kinds. Because it is what people expect? So ok, let's get real then. I want to discuss reality with you.
I want you to be satisfied, know what you are getting, yet I live in a different world then some. For example:
I used to sell raw wolf claws, Living in the wilds, 'raw,' to me was fresh off the live animal, bloody, still twitching, at a very affordable price. Many customers felt 'raw,' was, cleaned, graded, dried , hull glued, polished, with a bail screwed in it. I of coarse sold them these as well, and you paid for that add on value. Today I can sell you a raw Alaska rock, covered in dried mud right out of the river, 'cheap.' Or I can work it, find out what it is, slice and polish it. I understand better this is what most people call, 'raw!' Amazing! I suppose I need to say "More raw than raw!" I assume there are people like me, who want quality materials, inexpensive because I pay just for the finding and offering, realizing I can grade, clean, cut, and polish myself! As artists, that's what we do, right? For people that do not wish to pay $50 an hour for work done, 'raw,' is a great option. It's how I got into the raw materials business myself. I could not afford cut high end gem stones, finished knife scales, polished cabbed top of the line stones etc. When I could not find it and had to buy it, I began to buy ten pounds. Another reason! What I wanted was not for sale at any price! 'I'd cut it different if it were me cutting!" The truly very best for you is going to be material you had a hand in, saw the design, cut it out, fine tuned it to your exact needs and expectations.
90% of the time raw natural needs 'work,' of some kind. Just like most women wash and brush their hair, and shave their armpits. Most raw wood will crack and warp if you do not dry it slow or seal it. Many rocks are to soft to polish, so need impregnating, like most turquoise, as well as dying. Gorgeous natural raw turquoise I'm told is not mined anymore, does not exist except as old material repurposed. If you buy most material truly raw, you know, or would learn, 90% of it needs help. The raw that doesn't is 'primo' at a primo price tag. If you cant afford primo, where cost is no object, you're needing to settle for 'enhanced,' Just a fact of life. It is frustrating for me as a supplier to have so many customers want 'blue fossil ivory.' When that describes 1,000th of a percent of the fossil ivory in the world. The customer does not care what I do with the 'other 500 pounds?' In the big picture your cost has a lot to do with 'working together,' I'm going to sell the other 499 pounds for less money. I cant sell the natural perfect blue at rock bottom knock your socks off prices. I sell dyed stabilized treated. I say so. Again, if it offends you, let me put it away and get out the tray with another zero after the price. I personally use stabilized dyed and treated in my own work. The final end retail buyer loves it. Thus I am puzzled at so few who are happy working with it. Likewise I dislike waste, the responsible thing to do is utilize resources once extracted from the environment, it is 'our' responsibility. It all came from nature, it's all beautiful, if you look at it the right way, treat it with care . I understand not everyone shares this belief, so I accommodate as best I can. But understanding how I feel, should help you do business with me. If you are a purist, be sure you tell me.
On Ebay, silver and gold are colors, not materials. Glass beds go under 'gems.' Legally, art only has to be ten percent altered to be called yours. 'Native American' can be 90% from China. 75% is. Turquoise on the market is 95% rock dust and glue. A great many stones are dyed, even created in the lab. Most wood we accept stained sealed laminated mixed with glue, certainly not 'right off the tree.'
I'm at the source of most of what I sell raw. Fossils, rocks, wood. I find fossils wet, muddy unidentifiable. I call that 'raw.' If you know how to get the dirt off, dry it so it does not crack, identify it, grade it, I can sometimes sell it for a few dollars a pound. Alaska rocks can be the same! Muddy, wet , a 5 gallon bucket full of "I'm not sure what, just pretty right now," untill I take the time to clean and grade them. Very 'el-cheapo.' Wood can be fresh off the tree, with ants still living in it. If you know what to do with it 'raw,' it can be ten cents on the dollar compared to graded sorted cut cleaned. It's what I do myself at the Tucson rock show, where rocks are shown by the 55 gallon drum full. I buy 100 pounds for the same price as one perfect half ounce stone.
What level do you wish to come in on? For example I may buy 100 pounds of 'nice stone' like Lapis for $1 a pound. I can re-sell it site unseen for $2 a pound. I can wash, grade, cut , polish for $10 a pound. I can high-grade and fine tune the best pound out of 100 pounds and sell cabs for $10 an ounce. It's the same exact material I paid 100th of this price for and so can you. I can sell mammoth ivory as low as $10 a pound. You have to buy 50 pounds. It's somewhat graded.' (I took out all the blue. alligator etc I easily see.) I am grading hundred to thousands of pounds. I miss some good stuff. In that 50 pounds will probably be at least a pound of primo that will pay for all the rest. That's how it works. The other 49 pounds needs help. Fill in a crack, stabilize the soft, etc. Or as I say, pay me to do that. But it's not what I like to do ha! I would rather be creating art, for way more $ per hour. I'm much happier selling the 50 pounds.
Business 101.
I want you to be satisfied, know what you are getting, yet I live in a different world then some. For example:
I used to sell raw wolf claws, Living in the wilds, 'raw,' to me was fresh off the live animal, bloody, still twitching, at a very affordable price. Many customers felt 'raw,' was, cleaned, graded, dried , hull glued, polished, with a bail screwed in it. I of coarse sold them these as well, and you paid for that add on value. Today I can sell you a raw Alaska rock, covered in dried mud right out of the river, 'cheap.' Or I can work it, find out what it is, slice and polish it. I understand better this is what most people call, 'raw!' Amazing! I suppose I need to say "More raw than raw!" I assume there are people like me, who want quality materials, inexpensive because I pay just for the finding and offering, realizing I can grade, clean, cut, and polish myself! As artists, that's what we do, right? For people that do not wish to pay $50 an hour for work done, 'raw,' is a great option. It's how I got into the raw materials business myself. I could not afford cut high end gem stones, finished knife scales, polished cabbed top of the line stones etc. When I could not find it and had to buy it, I began to buy ten pounds. Another reason! What I wanted was not for sale at any price! 'I'd cut it different if it were me cutting!" The truly very best for you is going to be material you had a hand in, saw the design, cut it out, fine tuned it to your exact needs and expectations.
90% of the time raw natural needs 'work,' of some kind. Just like most women wash and brush their hair, and shave their armpits. Most raw wood will crack and warp if you do not dry it slow or seal it. Many rocks are to soft to polish, so need impregnating, like most turquoise, as well as dying. Gorgeous natural raw turquoise I'm told is not mined anymore, does not exist except as old material repurposed. If you buy most material truly raw, you know, or would learn, 90% of it needs help. The raw that doesn't is 'primo' at a primo price tag. If you cant afford primo, where cost is no object, you're needing to settle for 'enhanced,' Just a fact of life. It is frustrating for me as a supplier to have so many customers want 'blue fossil ivory.' When that describes 1,000th of a percent of the fossil ivory in the world. The customer does not care what I do with the 'other 500 pounds?' In the big picture your cost has a lot to do with 'working together,' I'm going to sell the other 499 pounds for less money. I cant sell the natural perfect blue at rock bottom knock your socks off prices. I sell dyed stabilized treated. I say so. Again, if it offends you, let me put it away and get out the tray with another zero after the price. I personally use stabilized dyed and treated in my own work. The final end retail buyer loves it. Thus I am puzzled at so few who are happy working with it. Likewise I dislike waste, the responsible thing to do is utilize resources once extracted from the environment, it is 'our' responsibility. It all came from nature, it's all beautiful, if you look at it the right way, treat it with care . I understand not everyone shares this belief, so I accommodate as best I can. But understanding how I feel, should help you do business with me. If you are a purist, be sure you tell me.
On Ebay, silver and gold are colors, not materials. Glass beds go under 'gems.' Legally, art only has to be ten percent altered to be called yours. 'Native American' can be 90% from China. 75% is. Turquoise on the market is 95% rock dust and glue. A great many stones are dyed, even created in the lab. Most wood we accept stained sealed laminated mixed with glue, certainly not 'right off the tree.'
I'm at the source of most of what I sell raw. Fossils, rocks, wood. I find fossils wet, muddy unidentifiable. I call that 'raw.' If you know how to get the dirt off, dry it so it does not crack, identify it, grade it, I can sometimes sell it for a few dollars a pound. Alaska rocks can be the same! Muddy, wet , a 5 gallon bucket full of "I'm not sure what, just pretty right now," untill I take the time to clean and grade them. Very 'el-cheapo.' Wood can be fresh off the tree, with ants still living in it. If you know what to do with it 'raw,' it can be ten cents on the dollar compared to graded sorted cut cleaned. It's what I do myself at the Tucson rock show, where rocks are shown by the 55 gallon drum full. I buy 100 pounds for the same price as one perfect half ounce stone.
What level do you wish to come in on? For example I may buy 100 pounds of 'nice stone' like Lapis for $1 a pound. I can re-sell it site unseen for $2 a pound. I can wash, grade, cut , polish for $10 a pound. I can high-grade and fine tune the best pound out of 100 pounds and sell cabs for $10 an ounce. It's the same exact material I paid 100th of this price for and so can you. I can sell mammoth ivory as low as $10 a pound. You have to buy 50 pounds. It's somewhat graded.' (I took out all the blue. alligator etc I easily see.) I am grading hundred to thousands of pounds. I miss some good stuff. In that 50 pounds will probably be at least a pound of primo that will pay for all the rest. That's how it works. The other 49 pounds needs help. Fill in a crack, stabilize the soft, etc. Or as I say, pay me to do that. But it's not what I like to do ha! I would rather be creating art, for way more $ per hour. I'm much happier selling the 50 pounds.
Business 101.