Life through Mammoet spectacles Amsterdam - Kees Wennekendonk has been designing and constructing spectacle frames for the last six years. To make these frames, he tries to use woods and horns. Through a German museum he came by a small amount of mammoth ivory. After testing and reading up on ivory work, he made his first frame, which is now part of an exhibition of his spectacle frames in Amsterdam. Thereafter, contact with Mammoet Transport, with headquarters in Amsterdam, was quickly made. "Glasses disclose the character of the people who wear them. The frames donned by the Germans, for instance, are totally different from those of the Belgians. From their choice you can deduce that they wish to be considered reliable and businesslike people. Straight lines; a German does not allow for frilly gimmicks. Belgians are much more relaxed in their choice and also more expressive. There you can see people walking around with a stripe across their face with two little glasses attached. It shows their character; where they are very dutiful on the one hand, they show their individualism on the other. The Dutch usually wear a similar model as their neighbour. The form must be relative to something. In this aspect the Dutchman is rather similar to the German. Both show that they can adapt, which is also apparent in their economies. Italians are very conspicuous in their choice of spectacles, lots of style, very beautiful and sensual. Japanese wear clearly focussed glasses and show that they are hard workers. Their glasses are severe and often black-rimmed. Whereas the Americans have a completely different way altogether. They still wear large and wide specs. That gives a wide outlook, from which you can deduce that they live in a vast and wide land. Therefore, you can find the culture of a country in a pair of spectacles and spectacles-behaviour." Kees Wennekendonk makes frames on request for private people, artists and a growing number of companies also use his services. He tries to go against the flow of things by designing something very special. "I don't only look at the physical side of things, but I also look at someone's character and how he/she associates. I ask my clients to picture their glasses in their mind, even if they do not yet exist, and ask: 'Suppose it were a predator, what does spring to mind.' Or, 'suppose it were a car, what make would it be,' or a transport company or a magazine. They supply me with a whole list of names which I later use when designing the glasses. I draw on a life-size photograph of a face, and then I use the list as an aid to choose shapes. At that stage I'm forever fiddling with details. Later on, when the designs are presented - I make three from which the client can choose - the list can be used again to explain certain details like a kind of story-board." Through contacts in Germany, Mr Wennekendonk buys natural materials for his frames such as horn. "Through this supplier I received a brochure some four years ago about someone making spectacle frames from mammoth ivory. I immediately called to see if he could let me have some of that ivory, but he rather preferred to keep it to himself." On the screen in one of the magnificent little churches in Norfolk, England, the image can be seen of St. Matthew wearing his reading glasses. The screen was made in about 1500.   Later on it turned out that these frames did not sell in Germany as the people thought the colour of the material too conspicuous. Personally, I did not think the designs very special either and they were made with black plastic arms. At that time I was experimenting with different layers of wood and horn and I wanted to include other materials such as leather. So I thought I would try again to get some of that mammoth ivory. When I phoned the company, it turned out that some was still available. At about the same time, a Rotterdam artist who looked through my portfolio, suggested that I use mammoth tooth, and shortly thereafter the first order for mammoth glasses came in." According to Wennekendonk the ivory that went into the permafrost turns out to be well preserved. "Mammoths were ambushed by the last ice-age and in a matter of only a few days they were totally frozen, almost while walking. That is why so many mammoths were found in very good condition. All the finds are initially sent to museums. A small part of what is left over is then brought on the market for jewellery for instance. No really large objects are made of the material. Compared to other materials the tooth structure lengthwise is extraordinarily large. The ivory is built up from the middle, so that the material in the centre is the youngest. That is because the tooth grew from the inside. This makes for a build-up of layers. When the animal had eaten regularly throughout the year, the tooth would build-up very regular. The ivory would be cohesive and without too many cracks. It is very useable and pliable material. Horn has the same usage as a tusk. They were both meant to protect the animal, to scare, but also to be used during the mating season to fight the necessary masculine fights. Therefore, it is an elastic material with incredible sturdiness, and surprisingly, it can be processed very easily. At first I feared that fossilised ivory would give off a terrible smell and issue blue fumes, but nothing of the kind happened. The saw went through it very smoothly, even if mammoth ivory's specific weight is one and a half times that of ordinary elephant ivory." Spectacles were invented some 700 hundred years ago, presumably in Northern Italy. The oldest complete specimens date from sometime around 1350 and were found in the excavation of a nunnery near Celle in Germany. The first glasses were made out of beryl, a semi-precious stone, from which glasses obtained their name in Germanic languages, where they are called bril or Brille. by: Aad van Leeuwen; Mammoet-mail, March 2000