Jason R. Webb - Ship # 6 Sequence of Progress

Jason has been kind enough to send us pictures of his ship #6, scrimshawed on a piano key. This page is in progress, but we couldn’t wait to share it with you. Check back for added information on the photos. Clicking on any of the pictures will bring it up to full detail, which is astounding.

” I use sandpaper ranging from 250, 400, 600, then 1500. Once I’m finished sanding it, I use Fabulustre (white bar in photo) applied with one of 2 small buffing wheels. When I’m done buffing with the Fabulustre, I apply beeswax with the small cloth buffing wheel.”

Jason's pencil and sharpening stone. Jason uses a mechanical pencil and sharpens the graphite of a 0.3mm lead for precision — Also in these photos you will see a sharpening stone, I sharpen my 0.3mm mechanical pencil and regular pencils with this for pinpoint precision when sketching on the ivory, I use 2H and HB leads. Now to be able to draw on the ivory with lead/graphite, I spray a very light workable fixative on to the ivory’s surface. After sketching, but before removing the fixative, I will incise a few lines to get the very basic idea onto the surface, it’s too difficult to do much with the fixative on the surface because it blocks some of the light’s reflection. I rely on the light’s reflection off of the ivory to see what I am doing. So after a few line incisions, I dip a Q-tip into 100% pure acetone, this removes the graphite and fixative from the ivory instantly. From here I continue scrimming until it’s finished.

Blue DAP adhesive putty on left, glass pane with two dabs of DAP in the center of the picture, reflection of his light in the upper left corner of the glass pane. — I use the glass for a couple things. I popped it out of a small photo frame, and use DAP Blue Stik to adhere the ivory to the glass. This way I can position the piece or slide it around however I want, plus it leaves no residue unlike modeling clay.

Antique ivory piano key centered on blue DAP adhesive, sitting on pane of glass. Reflection of light on both glass and ivory — Another cool thing is that I can flip it over to sign it and the DAP Blue Stik won’t remove any ink from my work!

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #1 20130215_075915 — “Just some basic lines here, now I can start detailing. Usually I just finish the entire ship before adding any details or shading, but in this case I just skipped around a little.”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #2 20130215_080023 — “Adding some shading to the sails.”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #3 20130215_080201 — “I start to add some stitching to top sails, more shading + some rigging.”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #4 20130215_080457 — ” More work on sails, started and finished planking on hull, also started some fine lines for water.”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #5 20130215_080620 — ” In this photo I’ve added a lot more water lines (hard to see), and a tiny lighthouse + foliage far in the distance. There are more sails in the background and I added a little more stitching to the front sails. Now it is ready for inking…”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #6 20130215_080725 — “. After shaking up my ink and applying it the ivory, I let dry for a minute.”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #7 20130215_080829 — ” I never add any ink until I am 100% done scrimming all of my lines, it’s just how I do it. Now I wipe the dried excess ink off of my ivory with nothing more than a piece of notebook paper, I create just enough friction to have the ink come off without any issues. Tip: Always make sure to have your ivory properly sealed and polished before you incise a single line, because at this stage it will be very obvious if you missed a spot!”

Jason R. Webb scrimshaw artist - Ship #6 on antique ivory photo #8 20130214_123414 — ” Now that the excess ink is gone, I check my work very closely for tiny mistakes, if I find one, I just use my scribe to remove it. Snapped the photo, done.”

Notes: (from Scrimshaw.com) Many people (myself included) will scribe then ink, scribe, then ink. Jason’s ability to do most if not all of the work without repeatedly rubbing off the ink preserves a lot of his fine lines (see image # 7 and caption). Repeated rubbings will also make you lose the luster of the polish and some of the sealing. Too much pressure can also add cracks to the ivory. Using oil paint allows you to ink then scribe without losing the polish, but some people find it messy, and it takes a long time (up to several weeks depending on temperature and humidity) for it to dry, and if the ivory is not well sealed, the oil paint can in some instances cloud the surrounding ivory since the oil can wick beyond the lines.

You can usually find the DAP blue adhesive putty and the Fabulustre white diamond rouge at local hardware stores, especially if you have ones like our “Foster-Farrar” – an old time hardware store with bins of every fastener imaginable. You can also find them at Amazon – the links above take you right to them. Scrimshaw.com gets a small percentage of the sale at no cost to the end user (end clicker?), and helps us keep our site going. If you have any questions for us or for Jason, please feel free to contact us at questions[at]scrimshaw.com.

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Jason R. Webb – Ship # 6 Sequence of Progress

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