Handmade Portraits: The Bone Carver

The latest entry in Etsy’s Handmade Portraits series profiles Sylvester Ayek, an Iñupiat hunter and carver who grew up on King Island, 40 miles off of the Alaskan coast. There, he learned the traditional Iñupiat ways of subsistence hunting and carving ivory and wood. Today, he continues to sell his artwork to (sylvesterayek.etsy.com) to supplement his subsistence lifestyle, struggling to maintain Iñupiat traditions that are threatened by modernization and climate change.

Directed and edited by Tara Young, with music from Matt Abeysekera.