SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Martin Goodliffe will make his 16th visit to the Great Northern Arts Festival this week.

The jewelry-maker, sculptor and carver melds precious metals and diverse natural materials to make one-of-a-kind Northern art. He has accumulated a wide collection of work to bring to Inuvik.

Jeweller Martin Goodliffe displays some conversation pieces that represent his artwork. He says most of his time at the festival is occupied by talking to visitors about his work. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

His materials include a fascinating array of fossilized coral, ancient bone, baleen, antler, horn and diamond tops.

He will build textured rings throughout much of the festival, he said.

"When people see an artist building stuff that's when sales come," he said. "Most of the time at the festival is spent explaining to people what you do."

Goodliffe's jewelry speaks for itself. The detail and symbolism in his work share stories.

One of his theme pieces is a sturdy and elegant pendant that depicts a diving loon in silver chasing overlaid onto a triangular slice of muskox horn. On either side fish overlaid on more muskox horn flee the diving loon.

Goodliffe's artistic expression transforms natural materials into a three-dimensional narrative, such as a feather carved from brown mammoth ivory found at Ya Ya Lakes near Inuvik. Goodliffe added a vein of colourful kimberlite to the ivory feather.

His largest sculpture making an appearance at the festival is an ornamental bowl titled Emerging North. It incorporates muskox horn, mammoth ivory, moose antler and various metals. He plans to work on a relief carving along the sides of the antler this week.

"I like using organics because they're kind of cool," he said. "When you make artwork, being different makes a difference."

Goodliffe graduated as an honours student from the jewelry metalwork program in Inuvik through Aurora College in the late 1990s.