Did you know Arctic means "bear" and Antarctic means "no bear". This is not because only polar bears live in the Arctic but because to get to the Arctic navigating by the stars, you follow the bear constellations, the Big and Little Dipper.

The Arctic is such a hostile environment and yet some animals and the Inuit have managed to make the place home. Shown here are some amazing arctic animal inspired jewelry designs and tutorials. 

First up is the stunning laser cut acrylic arctic fox necklace shown above by the talented UK designer Ruth More of RockthePanda

Canadian artisan Leila Cools of leilacools rocks with her kiln fired glass polar bear pendants


This beautiful polymer clay pendant shows a polar bear and cub under the Big Dipper. The designer is Canadian Katalin of WoodsmokeAndWillow


Florida based, Nataliia of CraftPatternsShop has an elaborate beaded Arctic fox necklace tutorial design


This female walrus acrylic earrings is based on the artwork of Angivv'aq Rocha of thearcticartisan. She currently lives in Colorado and says her design is itself based on traditional Inuit tattoos.


This tiny sterling silver polar bear pendant necklace below is one of many adorable designs from StickManAtelier. The designers are Virginia and Edward who are based in Montreal, Canada. 
I have featured their work before when their shop was called StickManJewelry.


This beautiful starry night narwhal enamel pin was designed by Khanh Mai of Florida for her shop, alumandink.  Narwhals are such fascinating creatures with their usually single tusk. Their tusks were once thought to be unicorn horns!  See my past post, 5 Narwhal Inspired Jewelry Designs | Mysterious Unicorns of the Sea.


UK designer, Sian Nolan is one of my favorite beadwork artisans. The ornament tutorial design below are polar hangry bears in brick or peyote stitch


Churchill : The Polar Bear Capital of the World
Polar bears are the largest carnivorous mammal on land. 

Picture Source

Polar bears evolved to hunt on ice. They stalk and ambush their prey - usually seals- which come up through holes in the ice to breath.  Summers are pretty tough for them. They generally stick close to the water but their prey is now much more difficult to catch in the open water.  Some hungry bears resort to eating vegetation or hunting eggs from nesting birds. 

But by October and November, they start moving towards the rapidly forming ice over water. One small, remote Canadian Arctic port, Churchill, Manitoba, lies in the path of polar bears as they make their way to Hudson Bay to wait for it to freeze over.


Watch this old tv video of Canadian comedian and broadcaster, Rick Mercer, as he delighted in his trip to Churchill. The town has to tranquilise and remove polar bears (primarily adolescents) who persistently wander into town. The locals generally leave their cars unlocked so children and others outside can get inside if a polar bear appears. Churchill has a burgeoning eco-tourism economy. You can indeed go on a polar bear tundra buggy ride


With global warming, polar bears are now increasingly at risk of extinction as the winter ice dramatically shrinks. The effects of climate change is 4 x greater at the poles than elsewhere. Some polar bear populations are now declining because of the longer fasting periods they must endure. 

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM