Jonathan Elias

Elias is an Inuvialuit carver and jeweler based in Tuktoyaktuk,NT.  Elias learned from his father Wayne Thrasher where he learned and watched of his father’s skills.  Elias makes earrings out of soap stone and organic materials of mostly animals Elias hunts.  Such as ulus, snow knives, and ice chisels.  He enjoys the process of each carving using only hand tools and claims that it is a way of preserving the old time way from the teachings from his father Wayne Thrasher. 

One of Elias sculptures uses the caribou bone caring an owl stretching its wings out the hip bones of a caribou.  In the spring time, the people from Tuktoyaktuk, NT and Inuvik region of the Inuvialuit people travel to Husky lakes to fish and hunt geese.  Elias created a carving out of soap stone of a man catching a fish and seal in husky lakes.  The man has an ice chisel, sled and igloo is pulling up his catch with a small fishing hook made out of wood.  It is an important aspect and way of living for him and it is a way of showing his Inuvialuit traditions that have been passed taught to him.

 Elias small details don’t go unnoticed to the small etchings of each piece of jewelry such as earrings.  Each earring range from small igloos, ice chisels, snow knives, and the Arctic animals are delicately shaped.  He enjoys using the organic materials in most of his wok such as caribou and whale bone incorporated in his jewelry pieces.  Elias continues to make jewelry and carvings with the raw materials around him that he hunts and harvests.