Rod Lacey continues to amaze me. He sent me the timeline and pictures of his latest work, which I’m grateful to share here. I appreciate the fact that he documents not only the piece in progress, but the time it takes between the shots as well. (I’ve added imperial measurements and my comments in parentheses and italics.) His site is aptly named “ScrimshawAddiction.com“:
Well, guess what’s next, yes, another Tiger; a Tiger is prowling the night, the tiger is coming out of the dark, this one has got it all, orange, green and black.
The piece of ivory I have chosen is a beautiful chunk of Fossil Walrus tusk; it weighs 530 grams (1.168pounds) and is 16.5 cm long x 7.5 cm deep (6.5″x3″).
Step 1- 5/5/2020
This picture shows the piece of Fossil Walrus ivory I have chosen, it’s a tad brownish but will be OK.
Step 2- 5/5/2020
This picture shows the piece of Fossil Walrus ivory with the picture attached ready to have the outline cut out; I will do this with a scalpel and the stippling machine. (see the earlier posts regarding his stippling machine. I attempted to make one several years back using a tattooing machine, but the results were less than marginal).
Step 3- 8/5/2020
This picture shows the ivory with the outline cut out and filled with black oil paint. Next, I will fill in the black areas.
Step 4- 16/5/2020
The black background is complete; I will now do the background detail, mostly browns, and a little green.
Step 5- 21/5/20
The background is complete, wow what a job, but it looks quite nice.
Next, I’ll do the foreground.
Step 6- 24/5/20
I have finished the foreground; I am looking forward to starting on the Tiger.
I love working on this Fossil walrus; it cuts so well. (I like the detail of the leaf litter and the tree trunk with the green leaves in the foreground – it adds a nice depth)
Step 7- 25/5/20
The stripes on the tiger are now complete; next, the brown, this part is simply filling in the color with a little shading and, of course, the eyes and nose.
It’s about now; I start to think about the base. Hmm…
Step 8- 27/5/20
Three weeks later, finished, now the base.
Step 9- 30/5/20
I will make the base out of Curly Jarrah; it is a very hard timber that carves excellently, this took two days to complete, I bought it from Djarilmari Timber Products, WA, many years ago, a truly outstanding piece of wood.
This shows the shaping of the base.
The next picture shows the finished base with a Mammoth ivory nameplate set with diamonds in yellow gold.
(Rod sent a couple more pics, this one is a close-up of the tiger under a bright light, which shows depth of the stippling, especially behind the shoulder.)
(An extremly nice touch shown here is the gold and diamond setting.)