First attempts at scrimshaw

[in_spirit]

Bogfrog, any chance you could post a pic of the tooling you use for scrimming, wouldn't mind giving it a go - got any tips?

Edited December 31, 2013 by in_spirit

[bogfrog]

Sure thing, I'll put a wee 'how to' up later today.

If you can draw you can scrim. It's just a matter of getting in the flow.

[in_spirit]

Excellent ))

[bogfrog]

Hey in_spirit! Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to get round to this, I got swept up in all kinds of chaos!

Also, after i finished the last piece I had the voice of Treebeard the ent in my head: "do not be hasty!" he said.. So this has become my scrimshaw motto, the more time and care i put in, the happier I will be with the result.

So here's a basic run-down of the process.

I start with a rough shaped piece of bone which has a nice flat face and minimal discolouration or marks, I saw it down to a useable size using a hacksaw and a vice. Then I take the piece of bone to the diamond wheel, smooth off all the edges, shape it into the desired form and then sand it with increasingly fine grades of sandpaper.

When the surface is as smooth as I can get it, and light bounces off it, I give it a light buff with the rotary tool. Apparently brass-o works fine for this too.

^

This is the time consuming bit, and has required heaps of new learning on my part, but may be a lot simpler and quicker for someone who has more experience with tools and machines.

Things that you need:

- prepared (cut, shaped, sanded, buffed) bone

- something to mount your bone onto, I use this weird aluminium sculpture my dad made and just stick the bone on with a big piece of blue-tac

- a good lamp that you can adjust over your work

- an engraving/scraping tool, (a compass would work fine, or anything that is strong with a sharp tip that wont bend or break) mine looks like this,

it is just an old worn-out drill piece which has been filed down to a tip and set into a piece of wood

- a magnifying glass, I use a tripod to hold mine in place, although you can buy fancy expensive magnifying glasses which come on an adjustable stand.

- oil based paint, although I'm sure other brands would be fine, the scrimshaw artists who I know all insist on the importance of using this brand - Winsor & Newton

- and an image you would like to use!

Here's my set-up:

Once you have the bone ready, you choose the design you want to use and draw it onto the bone with a pencil (mechanical pencils work great for this as the lead is so fine)

Then you take the engraving tool and do the line work, you want the point to move smoothly across the surface of the bone without catching or skidding. You don't need to push extremely hard, but don't do it too lightly either. The harder you push the wider and darker the lines will be.

Remember that every mark you make on the bone is permanent (well - almost, but I'll get to that later) and the line work defines the quality of the piece, so work carefully and breathe deeply!

Lines cut in:

Once you have finished the line work, take a piece of cardboard and wipe a little oil based paint onto it, and then apply that to the bone, completely covering the face:

Then you've gotta wipe off all that excess paint. I do this with the base of my palm, as it seems to work well and I'm not fussed about getting paint on my hands, although there are probably better (and less messy) things to use. Just don't use a fluffy cloth or tissue paper!

And it comes up like so:

Now you move onto the shading, or stippling as it is called. This done by making lots of small dots, in a repetitive motion.. For a long time.

You choose where will be the darker areas, and work your way out from there. I don't use the magnifying glass for the line work, but I definitely recommend it for the stippling, so you can see where every dot is going. The more dots, the darker the shading. Try to ensure you hold the tool as horizontal as possible, becuase if you slope the tool too much you can burr over the other dots and this will affect the way the ink absorbs and can make the finished piece look blotchy. Work slowly, don't rush. Remember to breathe.

It really can be quite time consuming and monotonous, so if like me you sometimes struggle to absorb yourself in a task for a long time, supplements may be required/desired ( / green ginger wine works nicely )

Here's a photo of the scrim after the first set of stippling is complete, you can see where I have worked by the roughed up texture. This stage took me probably atleast an hour.

Then ink it again and wipe off the excess:

Now you see what it's gonna look like.

From here there's only one more layer of shading to do, but I haven't quite finished that so will edit later and add a picture of the final product.

When you do the final shading, same as before, work out from the darker areas.

Balancing darker areas and lighter areas is something I am only just beginning to understand, and I realise now that scrimshaw is a rabbit-hole. The more care you take, the more subtlety and beauty you can uncover. I still see my work as being rather crude, but I am very lucky to have two exceptionally talented scrimshaw artists as friends and mentors, so the bar is set very high in my mind and I am thrilled with the development I can see slowly unfolding as I practice more.

I honestly encourage anyone who is curious to give it a go, I was very surprised how much enjoyment and creative-satisfaction scrimshaw offers, and once you have the technique down, imagination is the only limitation.

And..

Do not be hasty

[in_spirit]

Hey thanks Bog this is a perfect tutorial. I think I will take your above post and make a pdf from it then everyone can download if they like, umm andnif you are ok with that???? I can definitely make the tooling so no hassle there and the lightwill be fine just need some magnification

Thankyou again

[PhoenixSon]

thanks for sharing your knowledge, am about to take the plunge and start makink some pieces, i like your little engraving tool! well done in crafting that.

[bogfrog]

Wonderful! Be sure to upload some pics of your efforts peeps.

The title of the thread is 'first attempts at scrimshaw' so I would be very happy to see others first attempts too!

Hey thanks Bog this is a perfect tutorial. I think I will take your above post and make a pdf from it then everyone can download if they like, umm andnif you are ok with that????

No worries! All I ask is that you remove the symbol as that's just my own cheeky vice and should not be considered part of the process, and of course wait till I get that last pic up showing the final shading!!

Also, this is of course just the way I have been shown and what I have picked up and is by no means the only way! Experiment, be creative, make a few mistakes, you learn a lot doing that!

[teonanacatl]

You're on a roll!! Looking forward to see what else you come up with.

Re how to scrim:

You can also do the scrims with just stippling as well- thats what I do. Or you can use both as per the effects you need.

I use Laskins engraving crayon to make mine black, havent tried the paint bogfrog posted.

I use a print out or a trace of the image I want to scrim, stick it to the piece with sticky tape then do the outlines with stipples. This allows me to draw the image larger, scan it and manipulate it to size- I do this a lot with my carvings also. This also helps when you cannot draw.

As for magnification I use a 6.7-45x microscope, the bigger the magnification the more precise you can be with your dots and the better the piece will look to the eye at no magnification. I polish right up to .5 micron (~60,000 grit).

The key to a good scrim to me is the shading, my advise is to shade more and more to develop the tones. The difference between a good scrim piece and an average scrim piece would be to double the time shading (all other things held equal).

Scrimming is great because of the minimal tools you need! And as for materials to scrim on, there are endless possibilities.

[bogfrog]

Wow, thanks for sharing some of your knowledge Teonanacatl, that shows me just how much more I have to learn yet!

I would have never even thought of just stippling for the entire piece, I bet that would create a much finer finish. I will have to give it a go next time. ...and stippling the outlines through paper clever and would save a fair amount of time.

I totally agree that it's the shading that makes a good piece. I notice now how much I have rushed other work so I look forward to working a bit slower and more carefully in future projects.