When we see one of the hand carved woolly mammoth tusk sculptures created by Chinese artisans, one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the intricateness of the design and the incredible beauty of the sculpture. This same feeling would also apply when viewing any of the other amazingly intricate types of sculpture created by Chinese artisans. Such varying materials as soapstone, gold, and jade also come to mind when considering fine Chinese sculpture.
But many would agree that there are few sculptures as breathtaking and difficult to create as those made from woolly mammoth tusks. To begin with, an artisan is working with a piece of material that is already fragile by nature, ivory. Add to that the fact that the tusk is at least tens of thousands of years old being made from the tusk of an extinct creature, and it is clear that this is truly a difficult, painstaking, and ancient for of art. Ivory also has certain types of lines in it that were created when it was formed in the animal's mouth. These lines make it even more difficult to carve the material without causing breakage.
There are many sources for very beautiful ivory tusk carvings. Several pieces can be found on d- vers.com, where one can enter the search term "woolly mammoth," or simply click here to be directed to that page.
Ivoryandart.com also has a lovely collection of woolly mammoth tusk carving that are more contemporary, and tide-mammoth.com has a large collection of netsuke carvings as well as jewelry and small figurines.
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