Soapstone Polar Bears

I made all these little soapstone bears for The Rooms.  They are included in education kits sent to classrooms around the Province.

This is the original artifact that they are all based on.  Its  a Dorset Palaeoeskimo artifact  from northern Labrador. You can see it on display in the Connections Gallery in The Rooms in St. John's.

The 20 little bears were just the right size to be delivered in an egg carton.

All of the soapstone that I used for the bears came from highway roadcuts on Newfoundland's Baie Verte Peninsula.

Did they all catch the sent of something? I would not want to be downwind of this many curious bears.

I don't think I realized it when I carved them, but with his nose lifted and his mouth open, the posture of the little Dorset bear looks like a bear sniffing the air.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast