Wild Rice and Gifts obtains its Eskimo Crafts and Carvings directly from the

Seward Peninsula in Alaska.

 

The artists include Roy Henry, Fred Nayokpuk, Karen Olana, Delbert Setut,

Lenora Olana and Rose Etuck.

 

Jewelry carvings include broaches, pins, necklaces, bolo ties, hair pins & earrings.

 

Crafts include Yupak Ceremonial Drums, Tinglet Indian Drums, sealskin slippers,

ear muffs, hats and headbands.

 

We also have musk ox, arctic fox, wolverine and moose hides to make any type of clothing or craft you’d like.

 

The carvings consist of mastodon elephant tusk, walrus tusk, soap stone, and baleen bone from whales.

 

For more info please call 1-888-666-3102.

Eskimo Ivory Shop Online Here!

1-888-666-3102

Wild Rice and Gifts has plenty of ulus in stock.  In addition to all the uses below, it makes a great pizza cutter!

The ulu, a traditional tool used by the Inuit, is made with a handle of bone, wood or antler, and a blade of iron, copper or ground slate.

The ulu is a crescent-shaped knife which is used with either a slicing or a rocking motion, and is the primary tool in cutting out clothing, boots and mittens. it is used for preparing skins, for expressing oil, and it serves as a culinary implement.  This general purpose cutting tool, which continues  in daily use, has become the chief symbol associated with Inuit women.

The harsh Arctic environment demanded a specialized wardrobe, leather and tool technology for the Inuit. Clothing and food were essential for survival, and Inuit women were skilled seamstresses who prepared caribou hides and sewed them into warm clothing for their families. The sewing kit was comprised of the ulu, bone needle case, copper needles, sinew threads and thimbles. A Copper Inuit woman's sewing kit could be kept in a woven willow twig of grass basket. The needle case was a decorated bird bone tube, and needles were stuck into a strip of leather that ran through the tube. Using the half-moon shaped copper and antler ulu knife, an Inuit woman could cut caribou hides into clothing patterns, cut and eat meat, split sinews into threads and scrape the hair from a hide.

Today, the Gold Ulu is awarded to achieving athletes in Nunavut, and it signifies skilled accomplishments and excellence at the Arctic Winter Games for categories like the one-foot high kick, Alaskan high kick, two-foot high kick and the Russian triple jump.

Modified from:

Source: David Morrison and Georges-Hébert Germain, Inuit Glimpses of an Arctic Past. Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1995; pages 16-19; Aurora College, N.W.T.; Alan D. McMillan. Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada: An Anthropological Overview. Douglas and McIntyre: Vancouver and Toronto, 1995. Page 265.
Image Source: Lakehead University Archives