Cape Dorset (Apr 25/05) - The West Baffin Eskimo Co-op in Cape Dorset ran out of soapstone last week.

Co-op manager Jimmy Manning said the Co-op is getting "bits and pieces" as people travel by snowmachine to the quarry located between Cape Dorset and Kimmirut.

Pitseolak Niviaqsi, behind his house in Cape Dorset, carves a bird he later sold to the West Baffin Eskimo Co-op last year. A soapstone shortage has artists who make their living off carvings worried about making ends meet.

"The next couple of weeks we will have some, but not a lot," said Manning.

The West Baffin Eskimo Co-op is famous around the world for the Inuit art produced there.

The Co-op buys about 50,000 pounds of stone a year at about $1.25 per pound, and sells it to Cape Dorset carvers at reasonable prices, Manning said.

Carver Taqialuk Nuna, 46, said he has been supporting his family solely by selling his carvings for the last 16 years.

He buys his stone from the Co-op most of the time, but he has travelled out to get his own stone in the past when he can.

He has been carving for 40 years (he started as a little boy, learning from his father who was a carver) and has used serpentine (some people call that soapstone), marble and granite to make polar bears, walruses and Inuit figures.

Nuna said it always worries him when the Co-op runs out of stone and he can't make as many carvings as he wants.

"It's my only source of income. Of course it makes me nervous," said Nuna in a phone interview. "At this time of year, we are usually short of stone, actually, but somehow we manage."

Manning is hopeful the situation is going to change soon and the carvers will be able to keep up with the demand for their creations come peak tourist season in July and August.

"The prediction right now is that we'll have a bit of stone come in this week," said Manning. "We understand there are a few more people going down the coast getting the stone.