My daughter wanted a Pokemon scrimshaw necklace. Figuring she would be wearing it onto the water, taking it off and leaving it someplace by accident, etc., I made it on a piece of white acrylic. This material has its challenges when it comes to coloring. Being a plastic, inks other than black tend to wash away very easily and don’t adhere in the scribed lines. So how do you make the pigment stay? My first solution was to let the ink dry completely then rub off the ink on the polished surface, which left very little ink on the body (the transparent yellow ink does not work well on acrylic, but works great on ivory, bone and tagau nut). The second solution worked, though: using a high quality artist’s colored pencil, I filled in the scribed lines again and wiped away the excess. The color stayed quite well, though just for safe measure I have since given it three coats of clear gloss spray varnish.
Since it’s acrylic, acrylic paint may work as well. Since she’d like another one, complete with each of it’s evolved variations (what have I gotten myself into?!), we’ll try some acrylic paint on the next one to see how that holds up. Oh yes… her friend’s birthday is coming up too…
Scrimshaw on Film
An interesting film on the art of scrimshaw. Only 11 minutes long, it’s professionally shot featuring Brian Kiracofe from Newport, Rhode Island. He tells the history of scrimshaw as he works on a miniature piece of scrimshaw. He mentions his concern about the ivory ban well into it as well.
Identifying Ivory
I was set to create a long post about identifying ivory (there are many different types – just ask the tooth fairy) when I found this excellent pdf by CITES.org: http://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/resources/pub/E-Ivory-guide.pdf.
The pdf is in black and white. Here are a couple of full color examples of pre-embargo elephant ivory, mammoth ivory and a “vegetable ivory” cross-cuts showing the Schreger lines in the ivories and the lack of them in the plant alternative (clicking on the image brings it up to full size):
Scrimspirations – Illustrations to Scrimshaw and Other News
We’ve been busier at home than on the site throughout the winter which has finally left us. We’ve been busy creating illustrations, testing out alternative materials and doing too little scrimshawing.
Scrimspirations – Book 1 is a collection of photos with accompanying illustrations created especially for scrimshaw artists. Each photo comes with hand lined templates from 0.5″ up to 3.0″ so you can easily transfer the image to your material of choice.
Some of the materials we’ve worked on include acrylic – an easy to use plastic that comes in many colors, “alternative ivory” – a molded polyester with a grain pattern, paper micarta, used most often as knife handles, casein – which is a plastic made from milk (we were able to get some from England where they stopped making it in the late ’70’s) and other materials. We’ll be showing our findings here over the next several weeks.
There are laws they are attempting to pass that could impact the use and sale of ivory which are alarming not only to scrimshaw artists, but musicians as well. In short, the previous laws passed to protect the whales was well thought out and measured. The laws they are currently debating, if passed, would make it very difficult if not impossible to re-enter the country with musical instruments which have ivory as their parts (such as guitars, violin bows, pianos, bagpipes and more) without being confiscated. read more here.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum will host the 26th annual Scrimshaw Weekend May 16-18. This internationally renowned event is the world’s only regular forum where collectors, dealers, curators, folk art and whaling history buffs share their interests in the indigenous art of whalers. see more at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
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Transferring an Image to Ivory – Graphite Paper
Graphite paper is similar to the old “carbon paper” they used to use back in the day. A few sheets can go a long way, especially if you are doing small jewelry cabochons.
- Simply cut out a piece and place it beneath the image you want to scribe, tape them both securely to the cab or other material.
- Using a mechanical pencil or ball point pen, trace over the images major lines firmly.
- Carefully remove the tape and the paper from the piece – the image should have appeared on your piece. Using this method you don’t have to print out a reverse image since it will transfer the way you see it on the paper, unlike placing your image face down and trying to transfer it chemically.
You can find graphite paper at most big box office supply stores or at Amazon.com
Below you’ll see two different types – one is a sampler with four different colors and one is plain black. I prefer the color since I can tell the difference easier if i do a scrim, fill repeat. The yellow also works on dark ivory or horn.
Clicking on the image will bring you to the product on Amazon.com
