scrimshaw.com - An Ancient Art on Eco-Friendly Materials

Mystery Artist 51 – via Sarah – SOLVED in one day!

Posted on July 13, 2020October 3, 2020 by Andrew Perkins

Framed scrimshaw oval – Mystery Artist 51

From Sarah: ” I recently acquired 2 scrimshaw pieces and I was hoping you could help me ID the artist. Also, I’m not sure what material it is either.”

The oval is 3″x2″ (76.2mmx50.4mm) She also attempted the hot pin test with no definite results. Aquired in New Jersey, it’s a nice looking piece with a lot of detail and the initials of the artist – something you don’t usually find on mass produced items. Sadly it’s difficult to make out the exact initials.

The typical reproductions are larger ovals and often in portrait mode, usually measuring approximately 4″x5″ (101.6mmx126.4mm) and often have the name of the ship on a banner, many times mounted in an oval frame. It looks like there is a small amount of color as well, though this may be an affect of the camera.

Even on a close-up, the initials are barely discernable. The images came in at 640x480px, so magnifying hasn’t helped.

Does anyone recognize this artist? Please add your comments below!

Solved! Thanks to “The Scrimshaw Collector’s Guild“, especially Bill Feeney and Jonathan Laubin. Now that I look at it, I can see “SB” more clearly. In case anyone is interested, as of 7/15/2020 there is another one for sale on Etsy.

Hiss! A New Scrimshaw by Rod Lacey

Posted on July 5, 2020June 22, 2020 by Andrew Perkins

Rod Lacey has shared his latest scrimshaw on a fascinating letter opener that he could only obtain as a gift.

“I have chosen this picture because I have a small letter opener that I have had for many years, it has an ivory handle, and the size and shape should fit.
The ivory is Dugong Ivory from Thursday Island at the northern tip of Eastern Australia. A local made it and gifted it to me. The handle is fashioned from Dugong Ivory, and blade is from Pearl Oyster Shell. I embellished it with 925 wires that I have rhodium plated.
Length 17.5cm x 2.5 (6.89″ x 0.98″) wide, weight all up 78 grams (2.75 oz).
[Dugong are also known as “sea cows” among other names, and are scattered throughout the world in warmer waters. As an endangered species they cannot be hunted. Rod writes: “The only legal way to acquire a piece is to have it gifted to you by an Aboriginal/Torris Strait Islander.”

Stage 1 -14/6/20
This picture shows the Letter Opener ready to be scrimshawed.

**Stage 2- 14/6/20**
This picture shows the ivory with the snake picture attached and ready to have the basic outline cut out.

**Stage 3- 14/6/20**
This picture shows the outline cut out and with black oil paint applied. I will now do the background.

**Stage 4- 17/6/20**
This picture shows the background finished. Next, I will do the snake in the grass.

**Stage 5- 18/6/20**
This picture shows the finished scrimshaw. I will do the base next.

Scrimshawed letter opener on cradled on it's handmade base with the title scrimshawed on a piece of mammoth ivory embellished with mother of pearl — Stage 6- 20/6/20
This picture shows the base with the Paper Opener sitting in its cradle. Not sure what the wood is but it has a fantastic grain. I have fitted a mammoth ivory nameplate with Mother of Pearl embellishments, I borrowed this idea from a David Adams scrimshaw.

Rod Lacey Knife Scrimshaw – The Wild Beast

Posted on June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 by Andrew Perkins

Rod Lacey is a busy and productive artist. This is from February of 2020, on a knife he’d made some years back. My comments and edits will appear in italics from an email he’d recently sent.

“[This] scrimshaw will be on a “Fighter Knife” that I made years ago. The knife blade is 440c stainless steel with Snake Wood, Sterling Silver spacers, and a Whale tooth handle.
The overall length of the knife is 320 mm, with a weight of 441 grams.”

Stage 1- 4/2/2020
The knife with an ivory handle

Stage 2- 5/2/2020
This picture shows the knife handle with the picture attached ready to cut out. (at this point the picture is just adhered to the handle, no scrimshaw has occured. If you look closely you can see where Rod has cut the paper so it will lay properly)

Stage 3 -8/2/2020
This picture shows the Tiger cut out and black paint applied. I have masked the remainder of the knife with masking tape so as not to mark the knife as I work.
A problem had arisen, when I added the black paint; the ivory is quite porous and has soaked up the paint and left a cloudy effect on the ivory, I may have overheated the ivory when I polished it.
I think I will be able to overcome this problem, “here’s hoping.” (“here’s hoping” is a well-known saying of the world-famous “Hacker,” Gareth Herring.)

Stage 4 – 20/2/2020
This picture shows the areas with black finished; now the fun starts, the color.

Stage 5- 21/2020
The background is now complete; next, I will do the Tiger. Because of the curvature of the Ivory, the picture looks out of proportion.

Stage 6- 21/2/2020
The colour is now applied, I have now finished the scrimshaw, its time for the base.

Stage 7- 22/2/2020
Not sure what wood this is, I found it in the offcuts bin at the local timber yard, I made the nameplate from Mammoth ivory.

The finished piece.

To see more of Ron’s stunning work, head over to https://scrimshawaddiction.com.

Contemporary Scrimshaw by Eva Halat

Posted on May 30, 2020May 30, 2020 by Andrew Perkins

Book cover of Eva Halat's "Contemporary Scrimshaw"

I’d forgotten about this book, which is chock full of beautiful photos of scrimshaw by contemporary artists from the US, Europe, Africa and Russia. Very good instruction for those interested in learning more about the art. For an immediate visual treat, you should see Eva’s site at http://www.evahalat-scrimshaw.com/. It’s in German, but Google does a very good job of translating. You’ll find Eva’s scrimshaws on ivory as well as bone, on display pieces, knives, pool cues and an interesting one created on a hawk skull. Eva’s style is almost photographic with an incredible attention to detail. Eva’s book “Contemporary Scrimshaw” is available via Amazon.com.

The Leap – Scrimshaw by Rod Lacey

Posted on May 24, 2020June 22, 2020 by Andrew Perkins

Rod Lacey is a scrimshaw artist from Australia who enjoys a challenge. When I first saw the piece I thought he’d branched out to buffalo horn until I glanced at the tip, then I was even more intrigued. Stippling a piece this large would have taken months by hand, and scribing almost as long. He was kind enough to break down his steps as you’ll see below, along with his description of his work.

Rod chose a dramatic picture of a tiger leaping in the water. The subject and the movement would be a challenge just on a flat piece of paper, let alone a curved surface. “This picture shows the next scrimshaw I will attempt; the ivory is quite stained with a brown color because of being buried in the ground for thousands of years, this discoloration will mainly affect the white areas as the white paint doesn’t cover easily.”

“The Mammoth Ivory weighs 805grams (1 pound and 12.396 ounces) and measures 26cm x 14cm (10.24″ x 5.5″) wide around the curve at the base. The black background will take many many hours of stippling, that’s scrimshaw, you don’t do scrimshaw if you’re in a hurry. Stage 1- 27/3/2020
This picture shows the raw ivory; let’s see what it will become.”

(“The Whaleman’s Way” is an age-old technique of getting the map of the image you want onto the ivory. Stippling through the paper into the ivory below, you can then fill in the stipples with ink and see the outline of the image.)
“Stage 2- 27/3/2020
This picture shows the ivory with the tiger picture attached ready to cut the outline”

Image on paper, attached to the ivory.

(I was curious as to the technique Rod used to fill in the black. Using a scribe, Rod first stippled lines top to bottom, then he went side to side, extremely closely. A bit over one month of precise stippling, at about 30 hours). “Stage 3- 5/4/2020 This picture shows the black areas filled in, next I will do the water, dang this will take some time, the solid black took enough time, but it will seem like a breeze compared to the water.”

Stage 4- 29/4/2020
This picture shows the water finished, this was very time expensive, but that’s scrimshaw. Next is the Tiger; this should be the easiest section.

Stage 5- 5/5/2020 Finished at last, contamination of the colours was a real issue with this one. (Contamination can be extremely frustrating, Each color is added individually, and whether you use ink or oil paint, it easily wicks into adjacent areas despite another color already in the scribed areas. One solution can be to mask the areas, though when you’re working in such small areas it could drive you mad. Another way is to coat the piece each time with archival ink, but this can work against you making the areas you scribe next reject the ink since the wax can seep into the ivory. This may make you need to incise deeper, causing the lines to appear rougher. One possible solution would be to use bees wax instead of archival wax which has solvents in it, then a hand polishing with a soft cloth to leave the bees wax in the incisions, but not allow it to seep into the ivory. I haven’t tried this yet, but I may soon do an a/b test to verify my hypothesis).

To see more of Rod’s work, head over to https://scrimshawaddiction.com for a great education and some stunning work, both in scrimshaw and woodworking.