| Mammoth ivory is a very unique artistic material due to | | | | rarest find are the baby mammoth tusks. |
| the fact that the animal, Woolly Mammoth is extinct | | | | There are many artistic mediums for painting on |
| now. Each piece carries with it, a mysterious story of | | | | mammoth ivory and tusks pieces are commercially |
| artistic artwork created on a material that is more than | | | | bought all around the world. The original mammoth |
| 20,000 years old. The last of the Woolly mammoths | | | | tusks have a brownish tint and finely cut into thin |
| have been estimated to have now been extinct for | | | | sheets, for artists to paint upon. Artists that have |
| approximately 10,000 years, but between undisturbed | | | | perfected the art of painting on mammoth ivory have |
| and icy preservations of the animal, people even today | | | | over time found that the best paints to use are |
| are able to enjoy the exquisite rarity and beauty of this | | | | watercolors. This is due to the fact that watercolors |
| limited source of ivory. | | | | enhance the natural translucence of the ivory, when |
| It is throughout the summer months of travel in the | | | | combined with the paints. |
| remote areas of Siberia and Alaska, that the Ivory is | | | | Even before the painting process begins, there is extra |
| harvested. It is during these very extensive and | | | | care to be taken of the various sizes of thin sheets. |
| expensive expeditions that approximately 1 to 2 tons | | | | The material is kept lightly covered by a soft material |
| of Mammoth Ivory is brought up deep from down | | | | in a dark room of consistent temperature and humidity. |
| below the permafrost each year. There are many | | | | The thin sheets can be of either rectangular or oval |
| pieces of the Mammoth Ivory tusks to be found, but | | | | shaped and vary in the prices of the sheet sizes and |
| there is too completely whole tusks occasionally being | | | | shapes. Of course some of the prices are higher |
| brought up from their original extinct spots from | | | | because of bigger sizes, but other reason is because |
| centuries ago. There have been Mammoth Ivory tusks | | | | money is lost on wastage, when ivory is originally being |
| reaching as far as 16 feet long, but these are the | | | | cut. The paintings are exquisitely hand-crafted and rare |
| largest of the male tusks found so far. While male | | | | while the work is of the highest quality, only done by |
| tusks are denser and longer than female tusks, the | | | | the finest artists from around the world. |