Artwork by Linda Matusich
Polar Bear Lokta Card
$5.00 – $8.00
- Our images are set in a frame on this beautiful, handmade paper from the Nepalese Lokta shrub.
- This tree-free paper is both environmentally friendly and sustainably harvested.
- Each card comes with an envelope and is packaged individually in 100% biodegradable cellophane sleeve.
- Cards are blank on the inside for your message.
- Back of card has educational story, shown below in description.
Back of Card DESCRIPTION
At ease with the brutal arctic cold, the unending winter darkness, and the crushing ice pack, the polar bear rules in dignity. A creature of myth and mystery to the Eskimos these bears were shamans in touch with the spirit world. Golden hued in the slanting light of the polar sun, who would seem more sovereign than the Ice Bear? Possessed of power and prowess and mammal warmth, resembling us humans, wrapped in rich robes, and commanding our respect like ancestors, these bears populate many an arctic tale. Gentlest of all the bears, they were a companion of kings, and lived as mascots in palaces from the days of Pharaohs and on through the Middle Ages.
Polar bears often weigh a half ton or more and approach 5 feet high at the shoulders. Their paws are a foot wide, enabling them to snowshoe across the arctic or paddle frigid waters. Polar bears are good swimmers and can go nonstop for hundreds of miles. Bold and beautiful, they have large flowing muscles and are ready for instant action. They can leap across great fissures and can scale walls of ice that tower above them. Their food of choice is seal, which they hunt by waiting at the seals breathing holes in the ice. Polar bears probably taught the Eskimos how to hunt seal.
But for all their dignity, polar bears are fond of a good time; mischief seems to be a part of their makeup. They are rarely hurried, they appear to pause and consider.
artwork by Linda Matusich © 1994
text by Peter Fortunato
