Yes, as most of the readers guessed, the remains of dinosaurs (bones and meteorites), are now being used to make jewellery and several other fashion accessories.
William Henry, a Portland-based design company, is proving that, these rare finds can add a surprisingly beautiful embellishment to a bracelet, necklace and attract celebrity clientele.
Two decades ago, this company, which specializes in men's accessories, entered the luxury sector, turning prehistoric materials into hand-crafted pocket knives.
Starting from such pocket knives, now they are able to make necklaces, bracelets, cufflinks and pens.
Matt Conable, the company’s CEO, has found the look and feel of prehistoric materials unique, and experimented, carving and crafting on it.
“Dinosaur bone has been solidified over millions of years, it can't be confused with any other bone, and there's nothing else that looks like it,” he says, when describing a deep-red rock. “Woolly mammoth teeth also have such a specific look and feel that nothing else in the world looks like them.”
Also read: Dinosaurs not extinct, here is the proof
A petrified dinosaur egg was the rarest material, William Henry brand used, with which, they could make a gold pen.
Source of dinosaur remains
“There is no one shop or retailer that you can just walk into and purchase these rocks. There is a lot of hard work that goes into finding them. You're shifting through deserts, you're looking on seafloors.”
A sudden spike in interest from the market, however, could change everything.
"If the 'big boys' decide to step in and start working with dinosaur bone and other fossils, the supply would dry up almost immediately."
A few of William Henry’s favorite materials already witnessed these issues.
“In the past we would work with meteorite a lot, but now it's only used as a limited edition material. It's become increasingly popular, and therefore, become increasingly expensive.”
Digging out the materials is not the final game, turning those into jewellery and other fashion accessories, would take another 6 months time.
Taking mammoth tooth as an example, Conable says, “The crazy thing about this is that sometimes you find this 'cool' new material, and it works wonderfully. Other times it fails completely and you're back at square one.”
“It's been underwater for thousands of years, and when it's found, it has to be dried for two whole years before you can even start to make anything with it. Sometimes, if you're lucky, it works out. Sometimes, you touch it and it all falls apart.”
Even though, the dinosaur bones are petrified to solid rock, they are very sensitive to craft, Conable says.
“You can have a bone and expect to make 200 beads from it, but when you carve it, it's full of cracks and fissures, and you end up with a small handful.”
This unique concept and initiation made William Brand earn a huge celebrity following. Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Harrison Ford and several others are the customers of this brand.
Reportedly, William Henry's most intricately crafted pocket knives costs $35,000. So obviously, one can speculate that, William Henry is a rich man’s den.
By Phani Ch
