Local Juneau artist Johnny Ellis makes unique jewelry and sculptures out of fossil ivory and other precious materials. He uses fossil ivory that is hundreds to thousands of years old and is sourced from Alaska Native-owned lands, mostly on St. Lawrence Island, where people have the right to gather and sell it. Most of it is walrus ivory from old village sites, where it was used as tools. Now repurposed for jewelry and art objects, the variety and color of this ancient material depends on which minerals it has been close to as it ages.

This piece is handmade and one of a kind.

Details:

Made out of fossil ivory
Size: approx. 0.75" x 2"
One of a kind
Handmade in Juneau, Alaska

About the Artist: Johnny Ellis
Creating wearable art from found materials has been a life-long passion for Juneau artist Johnny Ellis. Fossil Ivory Designs, his line of elegantly simple jewelry crafted from wooly mammoth and fossil walrus tusks, has been for sale to the public since 1985. He has refined and perfected his craft over the years, always focusing on revealing and enhancing natural beauty.

Born in 1947, Johnny grew up in Juneau and attended Juneau public schools, where his favorite class was always art. From an early age, he enjoyed working with his hands, whether crafting meticulously detailed model airplanes or preparing cars for painting in his dad’s auto body shop. After high school, Johnny spent four years in the navy, mostly at a naval air station in the Mojave Desert. He then returned to Juneau and worked at a variety of jobs, eventually joining the laborer’s union and working on the construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. In 1991 he and his wife launched the Raven’s Journey Gallery, which they operated together for nearly 20 years.

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