Joe Scores Again!

One of the advantages of working with the Coast Guard is when I'm up in Iqaluit is that I work with a fellow tech up here that knows some of the local soap stone carvers. So after buying a few off of the carvers up here I now know a few of them personally.

So when I arrived in Iqaluit this year I ran into Kalingo Sataa. I have a few of his pieces already and he had this gem for me today! As you can see the scale with the toonie next to it that it is a big carving! This carving will easily go for close to a thousand in some stores down south and this guy has become very well known as a good carver up here.


Here are some more of his work for the carving that I picked up last year!


This one I love, because of it's very unique. It is a dancing bear with an Arctic Char in its mouth and standing on a Narwhal.It stands about 8-9 inches tall and come all apart.

This is the third one that has been made in this style. I saw the first one when I arrived last July a Radio operator had just bought the first one and contacted Kanlingo and asked him to make me two more. I kept one and the other was for my aunt.
Narwhal with an Arctic Char swimming over the back. Sits about 4 inches high without the tusk. The tusk and the Arctic Char can be removed.

This one I didn't even want because the previous year I had already picked up a great carving of a Narwhal and wanted the above carving badly. The Kalingo explained that he needed to sell this carving to get the stone to carve the ones that I wanted. So I go him down to $90 and bought it.



So this year I swore that I wouldn't buy any carvings as I spent a lot last year on carvings and other things. It looks like I'll be getting a drum dancer soon! Argh!