Learn to Scrimshaw, Even if You Cannot Draw!

If you make your own scrimshaw tool or use one made of steel or the butt of a small drill, you'll need to sharpen it often. An uneven point will make your tool wander as you're trying to scribe a straight line on ivory or any other material. In this lecture I show you two ways to keep the point sharp and even.  

With a little guided practice, you can create a beautiful and timeless stylized rosebud, even if you can't draw. The shape is simple and elegant. With just a little practice you can create one yourself!  Added bonus: Rosebud template from CC photo by Matzuyuki.

You can practice the art of scrimshaw on many different materials, both natural and man-made.  I go over many of those materials here as well as some of the drawbacks of each. There's also a pdf of some of many places you can find these.  I didn't include paper micarta or ostrich eggs because I wasn't impressed with the former and have not worked on the latter, but they are two more materials you can scrim.

This is a l-o-n-g video and involves many steps. Pause it frequently and let me know how I can make it simpler in the feedback. Within our freehand tutorials, this is the most complex.  Taking it step at a time, though - you should be able to create a ship in full sail. Bonus: The Auxillary Yacht Intrepid Template - Ship with it's sails down as a PDF Template

The whale men used to polish the whale teeth so the pigments they used would not stick, except in the grooves or stipples.  Instead of using shark skin and ashes, we have many abrasives and polishes available.  Some materials such as acrylic you don't even need to polish.

There are three basic types of shading in scrimshaw: stippling, scribing grooves or lines into the material, or a combination of the two.  In this lecture I have you practice the first two types on paper so you can see the differences.

Using bees wax to seal your material is an excellent way to create a "resist layer" so the ink doesn't stain your work.  This is especially helpful on porous materials when you scrimshaw bone, antler or tagua nut.  Aside from beeswax, there are also hard commercial polishes available.  I tend to use "HUT PPP" wax on galalith, and have had the bar for over ten years now. The bar of beeswax is even older than that.

Having a piece of bone, piano key or other material with stipples and scribe lines for reference can come in handy.  It's also helpful to experiment with different techniques on scrap pieces.  In the first video, I go over the stippling technique and show how the angle of your light will affect what you see on your scrimshaw before you add ink or pigment.

In this video I go over scribing or line scrimshaw, and a couple of examples for creating textures.

This is the first scrimshaw project in the series on your material of choice.  Here, I scribe "Moby Dick" - or more truthfully, Moby Dick's tail.  Included in this section is the template I used for the light switch.  Lightswitch plates are great as practice material, and they can make great gifts as well.

I use a "Creative Commons" photo by Jesse Wagstaff (on flickr.com) as the basis for Moby Dick.  You can use the template to add a whale's tale into your own scrimshaw, too - with a ship in the distance or with Captain Ahab harpooning, etc.

In this lesson, you can either draw a ship freehand or use the whaleman's technique for transferring an image to your material. There are two pdf's attached to choose from: a ship in full sail or one with its sails down.

Color scrimshaw is created progressively by adding colors from dark to light. Follow along by scribing a stylized rosebud, then stipple the bud, color it, scribe the leaves and add more color. 

What to scrimshaw on? Good question!  We give a partial list in the video and a bullet list of these plus more