Jewelry a tough business
Artists show passion for their work as part of arts week
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, October 6, 2016
INUVIK
The arts can be a tough industry to make a living in but Ingamo Hall was filled with artists selling their wares on Sept. 30.
Don Gruben displays one of his pieces of jewelry. Gruben hopes to get more of his material in stores. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photos
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Don Gruben was showing off his jewelry made from mammoth ivory, opal and muskox. He also works with baleen and caribou, or whatever materials he can procure through barter or buying from local vendors.
"I was just amazed by watching my older brother," said Gruben about how he got into making jewelry some 25 years ago.
"I used to go visit him and he was already doing jewelry. Just to see him create something from nothing and it would only take him maybe 40 minutes to create a pair of earrings, it inspired me. I was always artistic growing up. I tried out many mediums, working with calligraphy to working with soapstone. From soapstone I moved to jewelry and now I've stuck with jewelry since."
He uses a jeweller's saw and a rotary Dremmel tool to make his pieces. His hands show wear from years of working with such fine material.
Gruben has struggled to make it a sustainable career, and he wishes he had more backing from the Inuvialuit Development Corporation.
"It's pretty hard when you're not backed by your people," he said.
"Every time I will try and sell it, there's always some kind of holdback... they don't purchase my jewelry.
"It's frustrating because I'm able to produce it but I'm not always able to sell. It is a frustrating medium to be in because your self-esteem level goes up and down."
He wishes he could get his products into more outlets, either buying his work outright or taking it on consignment.
That's why he's taken to arts and crafts shows now to try to move his product.
Mammoth ivory is his most popular material with buyers, he said, and earrings are always popular with women.
In front of another stand was an impressive sculpture made with several different materials. It was a bowhead whale bone carved in the shape of a hunter, with polished stones from Paulatuk and muskox horn emphasizing the details.
Stanley Herbert Ruben had made it, and his wife, Debbie Gordon-Ruben, was displaying it for him while he was in Paulatuk.
"He's the type of person that is very detailed," she said, adding that the sculpture took her husband four months to complete.
"He won't sell it until he feels like it is perfect to him. Especially for the carvings he does, he often has a story in his mind and he looks at whatever work piece that he's going to do and he implements the story into the sculpture."
In between working on larger pieces, Ruben also creates muskox roses and smaller pieces of jewelry.
The full Ingamo Hall was packed with unique vendors, as well as a steady stream of interested onlookers.
The event was hosted by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment as part of arts week
celebrations.
