Tusk Force

Some of the elephants in my collection are missing tusks and/or toenails, but I accepted this as normal and wasn't fussed about it. 
But while oiling one of the camels (it had been part of the nativity set, in the sunroom which becomes very hot) I must have damaged one of its eyes - OK, I've lost it, it's now a half-blind camel which a Wise Man From The East would certainly not be taking on such an arduous journey. The eye is very like that on this elephants, a short cylindrical shape with central black dot.

So I was pleased to discover that one supermarket outwith our area actually sells marrow bones, for what purpose I cannot tell - maybe for soup, maybe for dogs - but in my case it's to be carved up for replacement parts.

The bone (which on exposure has a most interesting internal structure) did require some preparation, the technique followed was on a website for carving Maori jewellery, so any leftover bone might just end up as a pendant!