Scrimshaw on eco-friendly materials. Choose from a variety of accessories, create your own scrimshaw with our easy to use templates, or browse our store for inspiration! Custom orders available. Links below bring you to our Etsy store.
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I thought about this years ago and it’s popped into my head every so often since. I finally tracked down the original art after a few hours of searching. One benefit of being unemployed is more time, if used wisely. I eschewed FB and sought creative inspirations for the last couple of months. After purchasing the image, I found it just didn’t work, so I based this on the artwork instead. Happy to have given some money to the artist (who is on iStock).
I started with the outlines of the leaves readjusted to fit on a full (the high C or low A on the piano keyboard) piano key. Once they were scrimshawed, I carefully scrimmed over the top and (mostly) within the lines using a special tattoo needle that creates extremely fine lines. In case you’re interested in experimenting, it’s a cluster of needles used mainly for shading (see https://amzn.to/3ioq308) I was able to fit the needlecluster from the cartridge into a pen tip that will retract most of the time, so I have avoided unintentional micro-tattoos. Since I’m using a slightly softer material than ivory, it was a good time saver: I’m working full time again and don’t have the hours to spend as I used to, just one or two a night. That being said it still took me several days to scribe the cross-hatching and fill all the leaves with India ink pigment.
Overall I like the way it came out. I may experiment with some smaller piano key “heads” and “tails”, but I think there will be fewer leaves: making them smaller would turn my scrimshaw into “screamshaw”. I guess that would be appropriate for October.
A little fun on a Saturday evening. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) is one of my favorite artists. His woodcut prints are beautiful and iconic (such as the praying hands). His crafts included painting, engraving and woodcuts and are worth marveling over on Wikipedia at least (link). Heavily influenced by the Italian styles during his “gap years”, he incorporated what he found into all of his works.
Just posted two new “reverse scrimshaw” pieces on Etsy – a lion and two leopards on water buffalo horn. Reverse scrimshaw can be a daunting task even with modern technology. Was able to keep things in perspective by starting with an image that I inverted the colors on and following the “Whaleman’s Way” – piercing through the paper to create an outline, then filling in carefully, referring to the original picture. The leopards are all stipple-dots, while the lion I experimented with scribed lines to see how it came out. Both types of scrimshaw work, though I’m leaning toward the stipple technique.
It can take a long time to get the levels right – had to go over several areas to brighten or darken the whites by creating smaller dots closer together or larger dots deeper into the horn. Clicking on the pictures will bring them up to full size.
Finished these a few weeks ago but never got them onto Etsy until today, VD sometimes gets in the way (that’s Valentine’s Day!). Engraved and hand scrimmed after cutting them out, they’re on an ivory alternative. Recently purchased some real piano key ivory from an 1800 vintage piano, but I’m holding that for some special projects that won’t be going interstate. These were fun to make, but I really want to get back to the antler buttons. Now that it’s warming up, I may be able to cut them and create some interesting jewelry.
Available on Etsy
