HOW IT'S MADE ?
It is over the years that the artisan AMD has developed and refined his own technique for working fossilized mammoth ivory to make exceptional jewelry. Even if this material has certain similarities with bone or deer plumes, it nevertheless has particular characteristics that must be combined. Particular attention is paid to preserve and highlight the texture, colors and unique characteristics of fossilized mammoth ivory. All manufacturing stages are carried out by hand by the artisan in his small workshop in Quebec, using various tools such as rotary tools, sandblasters, files, gouges and chisels.
HANDMADE JEWELRY
Here are some of the main steps in the manufacturing of our jewelry. Obviously, the process involves many more steps and manipulations, but even so, this should give you a good idea of the manufacturing process as well as the amount of work required to make a unique piece of jewelry.
1 - Select
The craftsman begins his work with pieces of mammoth ivory that he has previously “stabilized” under vacuum to solidify them and to fill the cracks present in the ivory which is more than 11,000 years old. Many pieces are unusable due to their poor condition but they could possibly be used for other types of jewelry such as earrings.
2 - Cut out
The craftsman sorts and selects each piece of ivory and traces the shape of the future piece of jewelry based on the dimensions and thickness of the piece of mammoth ivory. Subsequently, the outline of the jewel is delicately cut with a small jeweler's saw.
3 - Trim
Using different ribbon sandblasters or drum sandblasters, the craftsman roughens and then adjusts the contours until the final shape of the jewel is obtained.
4 – Shape
The craftsman uses several types of rotating tools to adjust and refine the curves. It softens edges to create fluid, rounded surfaces.
5 – Fine tune
To finish shaping and sculpting the jewelry, the craftsman uses a multitude of tools such as rasps, files, scissors or gouges to give the final shape and to fine-tune the details.
6 - Finishing
The last step consists of removing all traces of the previously used tools in order to obtain the smoothest possible surface. The craftsman sands each piece by hand with increasingly finer abrasives, then finishes with polishing with a cotton wheel. The glossy finish is achieved naturally, without any varnish or finishing product.