You’ve got a girlfriend you love. Christmas is coming. You’ve got to surprise her with the perfect unique gift. It can’t be made in China or purchased at a big box retailer. You want to go the whole “buy local” thing, or better yet, “made local.”

Well, your girlfriend recently bagged her first elk. She shot it up around Youngs River. Why not commemorate that special event? Why not make a memento from the elk, some jewelry using the elk’s two, and only two, prized ivory teeth, also known as the whistlers? What outdoor woman wouldn’t cherish an Oregon bauble like that? Along with the walrus, elk have the only ivory in their teeth of any North American animal, a throwback to its ancient evolutionary origins and migration to this continent.

The holiday scenario above is exactly what happened last Christmas for an Astoria man named Reyhan Higgins, and Holly McHone Jewelers in Astoria set him up right with a pendant crafted from the whistlers.

“It was a cow and didn’t have any antlers, which is usually the trophy,” said Higgins. “So I used the ivory teeth to make a different kind of trophy to remember the hunt by. She loved it.”

Higgins said he first learned about the idea of jewelry made from elk when as a kid growing up in Montana he saw an old man wearing an elk tooth ring. “That’s always stayed with me,” he said.

Holly McHone established her shop on Commercial Street a decade ago, and since then, along with fellow jewelsmith Angela Whitlock, has custom made approximately 25 pieces of elk teeth-related jewelry. “Where there are elk, there is jewelry,” said McHone, “and we’re happy to help the customer out. We’ve never advertised this specialty, the word just got out.”

Whitlock has become the in-house expert on the trade and wasn’t surprised at all by the request. “We’ve pretty much seen everything in the jewelry business,” she said.

Customers typically bring the two ivory whistlers in after elk season concludes in the fall, and it takes Whitlock a couple of weeks to complete the piece. The most popular item is the pendant, but customers have also ordered bracelets and dangle earrings. (The earrings pictured in the article are from a recent customer.)

Women comprise the vast majority of customer base for the pieces, but a few local men sport the jewelry as well. Prices vary with materials, but each setting for a piece of elk teeth jewelry is handmade so the prices tend to be higher. The aforementioned pendant cost $308, but of course, the customer had to supply the stone, so to speak.

Higgins himself doesn’t own any piece of elk teeth jewelry. “I don’t wear any jewelry, but I do like to admire the ivory every now and then,” he said. “And it’s fun having something beautiful made with them for someone you care about.”