Solitary struggle.

• Position: Alaska Jade and Ivory Works - Celebrating Small Business - Company profile

IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1985, AS recession chilled the 49th state's economy, Al Allen searched for work. Laid off from his sales job in August and still desperate for employment in December, the Soldotna resident reasoned he'd better create his own paying position.

With his wife, Sharon Allen, who previously had sold handicraft items, he set to work making jewelry from a friend's five-pound piece of mammoth tusk. Using an unsophisticated drill and accessories, the couple labored through the first five months of 1986 to manufacture ivory beads-slicing slabs, cutting squares and drilling each hole individually.

Al Allen tapped his 1970s experience of making hishi beads in Arizona, having helped to start a factory to manufacture the small beads from turquoise. Sharon Allen proved to have an artistic flair for creating designs.

On the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Al Allen again donned his salesman's cap. Selling jewelry to Portage Glacier Lodge in Portage and the Alaskan Ivory Exchange in Anchorage, he came home from his road trip with $1,000 in hard-earned income.

By the end of 1986, the enterprise-Alaska Jade and Ivory Works-had grossed $10,633. Through hard work and reinvestment in new equipment and raw materials, the business' revenues have increased every year: to $27,700 in 1987, $47,500 in 1988 and $60,600 in 1989.

Demand for the company's jewelry now made from walrus and mammoth ivory, baleen (from whales), gems and metals - has outstripped the small business' ability to produce. Jade was originally intended as a medium, but Allen found it required more expensive tools to make and hasn't been able to afford the investment.

Although the numbers may indicate success, the Allens see perils surrounding their venture's progress. Among the challenges most threatening to survival: competition, dwindling and increasingly expensive raw materials, the ability to find and retain employees and the peak-and-valley cash flow created by the seasonal nature of the tourist market.

Ivory products are popular souvenirs. But Alaska jade's jewelry is considerably higher priced than most wearable ivory. Carried in ivory stores, art galleries, gift shops and fur salons, the firm's best-selling item last year was a baleen and walrus ivory necklace for $695; $795 in mammoth ivory.

Stephan Fine Arts Gallery outlets in Anchorage sell the Allens' distinctive jewelry. Gabe Stephan, son of owner Pat Stephan, describes the line as higher quality than most ivory...