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ROFLMAO - YOU might want to have new glasses or get your monitor calibrated for the correct color(s).
I think your hanging too close to floyd - your begining to make things up that are not close to the truth.
I only wish I had that much weed on hand !!
And.. for what it is worth - for those that are totally clueless - smoking weed is not against the law - buying weed is not against the law!! Selling weed IS AGAINST THE LAW!
It seems as though we are getting a lot of brownish - orangish type ivory lately from Alaska Fur Exchange. Ivory dust has a very distinctive smell - burnt smoke. It is strong pungent and penetrating. Last night I opened the door to the room where Jesse is working and upon entering; I asked; what they heck are you sanding ?? He held up a piece of orangish type brown ivory. This is it ! Well the smell was absolutely delicious!! Hmm what is that smell ? There was only one way to describe it perfectly. - Orange cheese popcorn!!
You never know, what is going to happen when you slice open a piece of fossil ivory. Perfume ? Oh yeah said Mark. That happens a lot - but only on fossil ivory. Well that is the first time I have ever smelled dust that wasn't strong and offensive.
Sanding the piece smooth - you can notice the curvature of the core; This must be flat & smooth to draw the template shapes on the piece very carefully.
I have seen many times - the boys will lick the white template, before they place it on the piece of ivory. This helps it from sliding they said.
With the addition of some new tools; Steps which required many hours now only require a few minutes. We started 30 days ago with nothing cept a coping saw - vise & a dremel tool. IN the next month and a half I will bring that 3D drawing to life!! Just by playing in the shop at home making the same simple pieces over and over all day long each and every day. We have met quite a few new people that have said the 'majik words'. .. .. "Bring us everything you make" Once you hear those words; the price (of everyrthing) just went up . The two places that said those words to the boys last week were in places totally unexpected.
Mark was @ Pete's tobacco (we have been smoking RYO for a year).
That finally eneded last week; Now for the first time in a year we can afford to pay the outrageous prices for manufactured cigarettes.
$50 bux a day is what it cost in Barrow and now that is basically the same price here in Anchorage.
Mark came out of Pete's tobacco and went into the Polar Bar and showed his ear-rings and bracelets - to his surprise the female bartender bought all the ear-rings (5 pair) and one bracelet. Bring us everything you got she said. the crowd in here @ night buys everything that artists bring by. You might have to sit here for a while; but this crowd in here buys a lot of art - same with the Carrosel lounge ? Who knew ? But as you go about to market your crafts. YOU WILL pick up bits & pieces of very valuable linformation. Learn how to capitalize on it.
The laser guide makes it a snap to achieve perfect straight cuts so easily.
The price of this nifty saw @ Alaska Industrial Hardware was only 200 bux.
It is conviently located right across the street from Alaska Fur Exchange. We have been visiting each of these places three times this past week.
YOU are only as good, (as the tools you use). Let your customers pay for everything in your shop! Watch & Learn .. .. you got an expert bunch of young men to teach you their skills! There is nothing hard about this - it is just .. .. 'time consuming'! and extremely lucrative.
Cutting or separateing the 8 different hearts lengthwise into two groups of 4 each.
This is just the greatest way to spend the day; working @ home instead of working for someone else.
Four hearts are turned into a group of two and then we have to go back to the vise and coping saw to make the final cut.
All that work; usually done in the vise with coping saw would take about 1/2 an hour. Now that amount of time has been reduced to less than two minutes.
Our number #1 selling braclet shape of all time. We make lots of these.. One of our best looking heart bracelets ever had 48 hearts in one bracelet. Each of the 12 main pieces had 4 hearts !
We ran out of super-glue this morning, Anchorage House of Hobby is just a stone's throw - they ran out of Fabuluster and we had to settle with Zam ? some greenish type stuff. Same container type as Fabuluster. A tube filled with hard polishing compound.
To use it.. just dip a running dremel polishing wheel into the tube to pick up some compound. Then apply it to the surface of the piece and rub back and forth and watch what happens. Then repeat the same procedure untill all polish is gone. Your objective is to obtain the most 'brilliant' shine possible. Use water. after you think you have achieved a good shine and then watch the difference. Use many coats of polish with water buffing in between. FILL ALL THE PORES OF THE IVORY. Just like that same procedure that is done on military shoes to obtain that glass like shine.
The first thing I want you to notice is that you do not need a lot of room to do this. Any corner (of a room) will suffice.
Do you have any old tooth brushes ? Do not throw them out. Save them the are very valuable in many different ways for 'cleaning'.
NOTICE: the small brown end of a tusk on the right side of the table. I want to show you a close up of that small piece, the end of it. It is only about 1 1/4th of an inch long, yet that small piece can generate 150 - 200 bux. It is perfect size to just slice up as it is as ear-rings.
Very small tiny insets (circles) are being prepared to use with this piece of Ivory for insets in ear-rings. You can easily see how tiny these pieces are. We use it all up. Every scrap we can used. The rest is saved for many other purposes I shall cover later. You are only limited.. .. to what you can 'imagine'.
Your imagination will never become STRONGER until you begin to learn how to excercise it 'hard'. Hard thought - figuring out difficult things / problems are great ways to excercise your imagination. DO YOU THINK YOU KNOW HOW TO READ SIMPLE SENTENCES ? (chuckle) I can prove you wrong in a heart beat !! Go get a simple puzzle book and try to accomplish one LOGIC PROBLEM; 5 simple sentences that provide all the information you need to solve the puzzle of who, what when & where.
I will teach you.. .. .. 'how to think'. IN ways you never thought of or heard of.
,
Now finally we are making much better progress in achieveing our goal of 3 finished bracelets each and every day.
3 bracelets per day for a month = 90 bracelets @ 200 each = $18,000
Now I am sure most of you will easily agree - that is one heck of a months pay !!
During our first month back to work (April) with minimal tools we couldn't even approach that figure.
We did however sell about 25 bracelets and as many ear-rings.
The goal here for YOU is to be able to consistently produce 3 per day by prefabbing in advance.
NOTICE: Each piece is shaped up to, but not including the original line of the template shape. Jesse produces the most perfect looking bracelets of all of the brothers. He truely is a perfectionist in his work methods.
NOTICE: The 'intricate' design Jesse is contemplating (left side)- using 5 different insets inside the area smaller than a 'penny' !! We have no magnifiers yet to work with. When we replace those this week. He is going to attempt to create this most unusal design.
Setting a schedule and sticking to it is the hardest part of this whole procedure. I like to get started early in the morning as in 7 am begins the work day. By 9 or 10 the boys are finished and out the door to hustle for a couple or a few hours - Then back to the shop to pre-fab so they can get done early. This has been our working schedule since we first began.
Making money by making circles - rectangles - and hearts - DO YOU REALIZE how ridiculous that statement sounds ?? If I used that sentence to begin this thread I seriously doubt many would have followed it.
No one would believe it for sure. BUT enough PROOF has been supplied!
Today we went into the North Slope Borough building here in Anchorage; They told us of a new policy that began last week. If we want to sell arts & crafts here in Anchorage; We have to call NSB in Barrow to see if Anchorage wants to purchase ! (???).
Today we also went to Nana Corp. Everyone was busy in meetings; We were politely told - to return Wednesday. Mark headed back over to the Native Hospital but didn't arrive in time for the gift shop which purchases arts & crafts from 10 -2 M-W-F. So meantime he is checking out the nurses & doctors. Tonight it is Tudor Bingo & Polar Bar. We finished four bracelets today. The hardest part of this whole business - is without any doubt - marketing or selling the material. And ... .. believe it or not... you first have to FAIL - before you can begin to succeed. That is true of almost everything in life. No one can teach a baby how to walk. That baby has to learn by failing many times. It is otherwise called 'practice'!
Marking the lines on the bracelet for drilling the holes for the bracelet cord is perhaps one of the most important steps. If you do not do this accurately, the bracelet will not lock into the circular shape evenly.
Polishing a bracelet is something you have to develop a feel for. It takes practice to learn and there is no right way to do this. What ever works for you - go for it. There are other methods of achieveing a brilliant shine. I will leave those for you to discover - but I will say this. There are much faster methods but that involves other types of tools (later).
All in all - not a bad days work. All four sold last night @ Tudor Bingo for full price. 3 Nurses from the Native Hospital purchased them.
Man, I was gonna say, that is some nasty-looking brown pot if that's what it actually was. That's totally some Bugler though.
So, this is an honest question, and I don't mean any offense by it at all. Is this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by SityData
Jesse was in the school district in Kotzebue; A teacher said to him. Jesse - you have to go back to school and get your diploma! Jesse smiled and asked. You have been to college? She said YES! I have been a teacher now for 12 years. Jesse asked or rather stated; and you make between 35 & 50k per year ??? She said yes, right in that area. Jesse said - no offense ma'am. But this is my first year in businss for ivory and in less than six months I have already made over 80k. she got mad and just walked away. STOPPED. . .. turned around and walked up to Jesse and said.. "I just gotta have that bracelet" and handed him $250!
not considered rude as hell by Kotzebue standards, or other native villages? I mean, if I said something like that to one of my teachers or any of my elders, not only would they tell me off, but I would have some ANGRY parents on my case. Is it just a different standard of etiquette or what?
Jesse wasn't being rude at all - quite the opposite - he was simply being truthful and polite.
Many times in Barrow and other places; people (natives) will ask my sons where are you boys from? ; As soon as they say Point hope. - NO! YOUR NOT !! are the words quickly hurled at them. We know the people of Point Hope and you boys do not act or talk at all like them. You boys are too polite and too well mannered.
One of the boys will always say - Just give me the first name of any person in Point Hope and I will tell you who they are married to and how many children they have. The boys always get tested and they always pass.
If a teacher ever said those words to a person from Pt. Hope (you have to go get your diploma) I won't type the two words a 'hoper' would say to anyone in any type of authority. Point Hope has a very bad reputation as being the meanest cruelest village of all the villages of the NSB.
Wainwright is without any doubt the friendlest of them all.
When natives from Barrow or other villages visit Pt. Hope they are treated just awful !! Point Hate is a name that is much more descriptive. Too many people have been moving out of the village in droves. Because of all the hate between the families. It has gotten really bad there.
So as not to 'twist' my words; let me make it very plain & clear. I love Pt. Hope. I love the people - I do not like what is or has been going on. This is the MAIN REASON - I have spent major time on the CB radio & VHF radio speaking to everyone in the village - reading & teaching the words of the Bible. That is the one thing - that pierces their 'hearts'and bring them BACK to REALITY.
CARBIDE BITS or DIAMOND BITS for cutting and shaping ??
Which is better ?
Without any doubt - diamond bits are much smoother for cutting into ivory. Burr bits tend to 'chip' the ivory at times. Although carbide bits are much more noticeably cheaper, they must be replaced every few months.
Please don't misunderstand me; carbide bits work perfectly for all things for us for years before we LEARNED about other options.
Catalogs are a must to collect and browse through for ideas and for learning new 'techniques' / 'tools'.
FORCE THE COLORS TO DARKEN: Believe it or not; Ivory that has very little color in it can be darkened merely by soaking the pieces in baby oil or mineral oil. Each provides two different benefits by soaking the pieces for hours / days or weeks depending on the strength of the colors you are trying to force to darken. MOISTURE; is the #1 benefit of soaking your pieces. This soaking process may be done at any time during the construction process of the actuall bracelet.
Having a small container or tupperware available for this is perfect. Mastodon & mammoth ivory(s) are tens of thousands of years older than walrus ivory. M&M ivory sits mostly in dirt thus the brittle like tendencies to fall apart when cut. The ever constant expanding & contracting of the layers during the heat and cold periods, drying out of the ivory and the seperation of the layers is all too common in all pieces you might find or purchase.
NOTICE: the bright red piece of cardboard on the left side. Once you 'make' one of these to use to wrap around the piece of ivory to draw your lines; It retains that shape; that small piece can be used to mark quite a few pieces before a new one needs to be made!
This is just the greatest way to spend the day .. .. .. working! No one to answer to. You get paid 'daily'. Sometimes; twice a day. We treat this JOB very seriously and work work work as much as possible.
NOITICE THE BUBBLES ?? = circles of dust out of focus of the camera lens. It is floating all over this room. He should be wearing a mask or a handkerchief around the nose mouth. Khris is using the barrel attachment bit to shape the pieces using the angle attachment device. Our next new tool will be the 12" sander. They have gone up in price by $50 bux. Used to be 250. It cost us that much just to ship them to Point Hope & Barrow. They are much to heavy to ship so $300 for a new unit with no shipping fees is a bargin. We do not have room (here) for 3 of them as we had in Barrow & In Point Hope. We won't be at this location for very much longer.
BRAND NEW dust collection systems are on the way. Different ones than we have used in the past. These new ones do not require 220 volts to work properly and powerfully. These new systems can be found HERE
They are extremely quiet quite powerful and some of them are even portable. Yes they are very expensive. But.. as I have said in the past many times. Just let your customers pay for everything new that you want/need. IN A SHORT TIME you will have a very professional shop with all new professional type tools and supplies to the max.
Time to clean up a bit and then make some ear-rings. Notice the different type pieces far left of table.
Ivory dust can build up so quickly. It is a must to keep your area clean and free from dust. CLEAN UP THAT MESS NOW !!
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