newbie scrimshander

[KatherinePlumer]

Hi everyone. I have posted some work on knifenetwork and it was suggested I introduce myself here as well. So, "hi!"

I started doing scrimshaw a couple months ago (September I think?) when Brian Hochstrat said the fateful words "you should try scrimshaw." Good thing, because now I'm crazy about it.

I started out just practicing on plastic spoons without any magnification, which was less than ideal, but pretty quickly got some old piano keys and then some nice pendants, and somewhere along the line found out that my neighbors have an old microscope in their workshop, woo hoo! It's not a super ideal setup but it works for now.

Anyway, here is what I've done so far, minus the plastic spoons. I'll show you everything else though since there's a lot of improvement! I'm working on a dragon right now, in color.

Wolf pendant, this is the most recent finished one. 18x25mm pre-ban elephant ivory cabochon. Not yet mounted in pendant setting.



Chicken pendant, 18x25mm pre-ban elephant ivory cabochon, set in sterling silver. Sold immediately on completion.



Another chicken pendant in a looser style, tiny piece of piano key tail, done as a birthday gift for someone.



Lion on piano key.



"Vintage" woman on piano key.



Elephant in paino key, made into pendant. This was my first real scrim piece. LOTS of mistakes in this one!



Stay tuned for more!

-Katherine

[Antikythera37]

Newbie??? Thats a hell of a lot better than newbie!
Beautiful work.
Cheers,

Alex Ptak

[jdveritas]

Its amazing what you can do with great tools and passion. Havent tried scrimshaw myself, but look forward to it down the road. I'd sure bet you have a future in the business.

[Rich Hambrook]

If this is a "newbie" than I need to start over as a newbie! Outstanding work! You have unbelievable talent. Thank you for the wonderful pictures including the ones in the future.

Rich Hambrook

[KatherinePlumer]

Thank you Alex, jdveritas (sorry I don't know your name!) and Rich. I appreciate the comments. Lol, I really did just start doing this a few months ago... early September I think it was. Having a background in fine art and printmaking helps a lot. I find I can apply a lot of what I learned when doing intaglio etching.. this is a lot like drypoint etching, and pen-and-ink stippling, combined, sort of.

-Katherine

[Finn La Rue]

very nice work.